World in brief

Powell presses Sudan to act now

KHARTOUM, Sudan - Warning that thousands of people are on the brink of death, Secretary of State Colin Powell on Tuesday pressed Sudanese leaders to disarm militias marauding the country's Darfur region and to provide immediate access to humanitarian workers trying to aid more than 1-million refugees.

"They've got to act now because we are running out of time," Powell said. "We need to see action promptly because people are dying and the death rate is going to go up significantly over the next several months."

An estimated 1.2-million people, mostly from three African ethnic groups, have been driven from their homes in at least 376 villages and towns, which were razed or severely damaged in what the United States considers an ethnic-cleansing campaign.

TORONTO - After squeaking out an election victory, a chastened Prime Minister Paul Martin promised Tuesday to shake up his government to revamp the nation's health care system and promote a new day care program for children.

Martin recognized that his performance since Jean Chretien resigned as prime minister in December had been less than inspiring, and that Canadian voters expressed their anger at recent Liberal Party scandals by voting Monday to end the party's majority control of the House of Commons.

"The message was unmistakable," he said. "Canadians expected and expect more from us. And as a party and as a government we must do better."

Martin said he had no intention of including members of other parties in his Cabinet. But he said he was confident he would be able to find ample votes to increase federal aid to health care and expand a nationwide day care system like the one that is presently administered by the Quebec provincial government.

"I think what we have got is a stable minority government," he said, trying to counter speculation that he might find himself in the position of Pierre Trudeau, the former prime minister, who was forced to negotiate with the New Democratic Party regularly to remain in power in the 1970s.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT CHOSEN: European Union leaders on Tuesday formally named Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Durao Barroso to serve as the next European Commission President, diplomats said. Durao Barroso, 48, is to succeed Italy's Romano Prodi.

SERB LEADER SENTENCED: A U.N. court sentenced Milan Babic, the leader of Croatia's rebellious Serbs, to 13 years in prison Tuesday for inflaming an ethnic cleansing campaign that killed hundreds of Croats and expelled tens of thousands. In January, the court convicted Babic, 48, of one count of persecution for the campaign against non-Serbs in the self-proclaimed Croatian Republic of Krajina.

PAKISTANI PRIME MINISTER CHOSEN: Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the head of Pakistan's ruling party and a loyal ally of the nation's military ruler, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, was elected caretaker prime minister in a rubber-stamp vote in Parliament on Tuesday. Hussain was expected to stay in office only for a matter of weeks, until political maneuvering is completed that will allow respected Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz to assume the premiership.

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