Haitian leader: Aristide organizing violence

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Haiti's interim prime minister accused ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of directing a wave of violence from exile, while 95 Chinese police arrived Sunday to participate in their first U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Western Hemisphere.

The Chinese police joined an overextended peacekeeping force that has struggled to keep order as violence has surged in Port-au-Prince, with at least 55 people killed in clashes since Sept. 30, when supporters of the ousted leader took to the streets to demand his return.

Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue also said the South African government, which is hosting Aristide, was violating international law by letting the former president organize Haiti's ongoing violence while in exile. Aristide has denied any links to violence in Haiti.

Hostage-takers at Russian school are called junkies

MOSCOW - Forensic tests have shown that some of the militants who seized more than 1,000 hostages in a school in the southern Russian town of Beslan on Sept. 1 were drug addicts, a senior prosecutor was quoted as saying Sunday.

Nikolai Shepel, Russia's deputy prosecutor general, said forensic experts found traces of heroin and morphine in the bodies of some of the militants that exceeded normally lethal levels, indicating they were long-term drug addicts, according to a statement carried by Russian news agencies.

Tests also revealed that "some of the terrorists had run out of drugs and were in a state of withdrawal, which usually comes with aggressiveness and inadequate behavior," Shepel said.

Outgoing Indonesian chief snubs her successor

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Outgoing President Megawati Sukarnoputri - criticized by the media for being a sore loser in Indonesia's first direct presidential vote - will skip Thursday's inauguration of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as the country's next head of state, a senior aide said Sunday.

Voters overwhelmingly dumped Megawati in favor of Yudhoyono in the Sept. 20 election.

"There are no regulations requiring her presence at the ceremony," Pramono Anung, a senior official in Megawati's party, said of the inauguration. "She also has no plans to meet him soon."

Anglican panel to deliver report on gay clergy today

LONDON - A keenly awaited report will be delivered Monday aimed at settling a row over gay clergy that has deeply divided the worldwide Anglican Communion.

An emergency panel called the Lambeth Commission will publish its findings on how the 77-million strong communion can resolve the divisions, which have threatened to undermine the long-term future of the movement whose roots lie in the Church of England.

Although the panel will address unity in general within the Anglican Communion, the report is expected to be dominated by the debate over homosexuality, which intensified with the ordination of an openly gay bishop in the United States last November.

Sharon rejects referendum on Gaza pullout plan

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Sunday flatly rejected a demand by Jewish settler leaders that he hold a national referendum on his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, the settlers said.

Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, a senior official with the Yesha Council, the main group representing settlers, called the two-hour meeting with the prime minister "a disgrace."

World and national headlines

© 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