World in brief

U.S. to authorize new agency for Iraq donors

BANGKOK, Thailand - Under pressure from potential donors, the Bush administration will allow a new agency to determine how to spend billions of dollars in reconstruction assistance for Iraq, administration and international aid officials say.

The new agency, to be independent of the U.S. occupation, will be run by the World Bank and the United Nations. They are to announce the change at a donor conference in Madrid this week.

The change effectively establishes some of the international control over Iraq that the United States opposed in the drafting of the U.N. Security Council resolution that passed Thursday. Diplomats said that other countries were unwilling to donate, because they saw the United States as an occupying power controlling Iraq's reconstruction and self-rule. The change, supported by L. Paul Bremer, the chief occupation administrator in Baghdad, is meant to assure them.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - An al-Qaida-style recording that has surfaced on the Internet includes what is described as audio of militants launching a suicide bomb attack in Saudi Arabia in May and four purported attackers delivering last testaments.

Saudi officials blame the May 12 Riyadh attacks on al-Qaida, the terror network accused in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Nine suicide bombers struck Western housing compounds in the Saudi capital, killing 26 people.

The recordings didn't have any statement indicating al-Qaida ordered or planned the May 12 attack, but one speaker dedicates it to al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.

MIAMI - A weakening Tropical Storm Nicholas stalled Sunday in the Atlantic Ocean and was not expected to reach land.

Nicholas had sustained winds of 50 mph, down from 60 mph earlier in the day, and forecasters said it was nearly stationary. At 11 p.m. Eastern, Nicholas was near 17.7 north latitude, 47.5 west longitude, or about 935 miles east of the Leeward Islands.

BLAIR HOSPITALIZED BRIEFLY: British Prime Minister Tony Blair, 50, was hospitalized Sunday with heart palpitations, his office said. Doctors restored Blair's normal heartbeat with electrical stimulation and he was feeling "fine" at home.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times 490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 Contact the Times | Privacy Policy Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright