World in brief

American accused of deserting lands in Japan

TOKYO - Gripping a cane and looking haggard, an American accused of deserting the U.S. Army and defecting to North Korea was hospitalized immediately after he arrived in Japan on Sunday, putting himself within the reach of U.S. authorities for the first time in 39 years.

Charles Jenkins, who vanished from his platoon in 1965 and later played devilish American characters in communist propaganda films, faced possible U.S. military prosecution on desertion and other charges in Japan, although American officials have suggested they will delay taking him into custody.

Jenkins' arrival, broadcast live by Japanese TV networks, drew deep public sympathy over the plight of his Japanese wife, Hitomi Soga, who married him after she was kidnapped in Japan by North Korean agents in 1978 and taken to the communist country. The couple has two daughters, Mika, 21, and Belinda, 18.

Japanese and American officials say Jenkins, 64, needs medical attention after abdominal surgery in North Korea and for other health problems.

Japan, eager to reunite Soga's family, has pushed for U.S. clemency for the North Carolina native and stood by its position that Jenkins' health should take priority over his legal problems.

Japanese officials say the United States had not officially asked to apprehend him.

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Bolivians voted in large numbers Sunday in a referendum expected to allow the government to exert greater control over U.S. and other foreign gas companies and perhaps even nationalize the energy sector.

Official results were not expected before today, but opinion polls ahead of Sunday's energy referendum suggested a majority of Bolivians support President Carlos Mesa's plan to repeal a 1996 hydrocarbons law that opened up Bolivia's vast and virtually untapped natural gas deposits for exploration. The law permitted foreign energy companies to exploit Bolivia's natural-gas reserves.

Opinion polls and voter interviews suggested Mesa would win approval to step back from U.S.-backed economic policies that Bolivia has followed for a decade. Mesa has said he will honor prior contracts reached with U.S. and other foreign gas companies, but now he will have leverage as he seeks "voluntary" renegotiation of gas concessions.

There are not many precedents for Bolivia's expected move against the gas sector, and Mesa insists he will not replicate Mexico's 1938 expropriation of U.S. oil companies or Chile's 1971 takeover of U.S.-owned copper mines.

But many voters Sunday seemed to think they were voting for an immediate seizure of foreign companies, as both political parties are demanding.

KUMBAKONAM, India - The southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu on Sunday ordered all of its 48,000 schools to immediately stop holding classes in any room with a thatched roof. It also gave schools one week to remove the illegal and highly flammable roofs, or face being shut down.

The crackdown followed a private school fire Friday, when a thatched roof caught fire and collapsed, killing 90 children.

K. Gnanadesikan, the state's secretary of education, said officials would immediately begin inspecting all of the state's schools. He said particular attention would be paid to the 6,000 private schools, which sometimes use thatched roofs to save money.

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