World in brief

High court hands major victory to backers of Venezuelan recall

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's Supreme Court gave a major boost Monday to opponents of President Hugo Chavez, ruling that signatures on recall petitions need not be validated.

The court overturned a decision by the National Elections Council to force more than 870,000 citizens to confirm they signed the petitions seeking a vote to recall Chavez. The court ordered the council to accept those signatures as valid unless citizens come forward to say they had not signed a petition.

The ruling, while not guaranteeing a recall, was a big victory for Chavez's opponents, who said the council's decision had made the referendum nearly impossible. If the citizens don't come forward, Chavez opponents would have more than enough signatures.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. - The shadowy trading network headed by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan was paid $100-million for the nuclear components and bomb designs it delivered to Libya over two decades, Bush administration officials said Monday, as they displayed some of the wares for the first time.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham led journalists past wooden crates containing 50,000 pounds of machine parts used for enriching uranium - the "tip of the iceberg" of sensitive technology sold to Libya by Khan and his black-market associates, Abraham said.

The nuclear parts - which Libya voluntarily turned over to the United States this year - were laid out in rows inside an enormous white tent in a parking lot at the Energy Department's Y-12 National Security Complex in eastern Tennessee.

Georgia imposed an economic blockade Monday on the rebellious Black Sea region of Adzharia in an attempt to end a tense armed standoff and make good on Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's pledge to assert full federal control over his fractured nation.

Locked in the most difficult crisis of his presidency, Saakashvili ordered a blockade that his aides said would include the closure of Adzharia's port, airport and land borders, after the president's motorcade was blocked from entering the republic by hundreds of armed Adzhari militiamen.

Georgian leaders have said they are hoping to avoid military conflict, but they also said they were serious in their demands that Adzhari leader Aslan Abashidze open the region to Georgian rule and clear the way for open parliament elections on March 28.

Abashidze declared a state of emergency, and local government officials said troops had been put on "full combat readiness."

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, speaking a day after dual suicide bombings killed 10 workers at a busy Israeli port, threatened Monday to cut off diplomatic contacts with the Palestinians, saying Israel has "no negotiating partner on the Palestinian side."

Although Israeli officials have used similar language in the past, the prime minister's address to the Knesset, or parliament, represented his most direct warning yet that he might abandon the American-backed peace plan known as the road map.

MOSCOW - International election observers on Monday criticized Russia's presidential election for falling short of basic democratic standards, even as President Vladimir Putin accepted congratulatory telephone calls from presidents and prime ministers of the world's leading democracies.

The observers - representing the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe - cited abuses of government resources, bias in the state news media and even instances of ballot stuffing on election day.

Putin swept to an entirely expected victory on Sunday, receiving 72.1 percent of the vote, after a campaign that featured overwhelming support of the incumbent from local governments and the state-controlled news media.

UNITED NATIONS - A bloc of more than 50 Islamic states, backed by the Vatican, sought Monday to halt U.N. efforts to extend spousal benefits to partners of some gay employees.

The initiative came less than two months after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan moved to award benefits to partners of gay employees who come from countries where such benefits are provided, such as Belgium and the Netherlands.

The same group is also preparing to oppose a resolution, sponsored by Brazil and supported by the European Union, at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva that calls for nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, diplomats said.

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