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World in brief

World forum ends with S. Korean message of diplomatic hopes

By Times wire
Published January 31, 2005

DAVOS, Switzerland - More than 2,000 of the world's rich and powerful decamped from this luxurious Swiss ski resort Sunday after five days of talks on how to improve the world, particularly by stamping out poverty, fighting disease and bringing peace to the Middle East and elsewhere.

They left with a message of optimism from South Korean unification minister Chung Dong Young, who said he was hopeful there would be "substantial resolution" in nuclear talks with North Korea.

Festival cancels showing of slain filmmaker's movie

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands - Citing security concerns, organizers of the Rotterdam Film Festival called off Sunday's screening of a short film by slain Dutch moviemaker Theo van Gogh that has outraged some Muslims.

A suspected Islamic extremist is accused of shooting and stabbing van Gogh to death in November shortly after the release of the film, Submission, which is a fierce critique of the treatment of women under Islam written by an anti-immigration member of Parliament.

The decision drew criticism from some directors and artists, who argued that limiting free expression was giving in to terrorists.

MEXICO CITY - U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza is engaged to marry one of Mexico's richest women, an Embassy official said Sunday.

Maria Asuncion Aramburuzabala is vice chairwoman of Grupo Modelo, the maker of Corona and Negra Modelo beers. Aramburuzabala's grandfather, a Spanish immigrant, founded the brewery.

With an estimated fortune of $1.5-billion, Aramburuzabala was ranked 377th among the world's billionaires, Forbes magazine reported last year.

Garza, a second-generation American whose four grandparents were from Mexico, was appointed ambassador in 2002 by President Bush.

LONDON - Britain's first openly gay lawmaker revealed Sunday that he has been HIV positive for 17 years, saying he was inspired by Nelson Mandela to tell the public he had the virus that causes AIDS.

Chris Smith, 53, the governing Labor Party's former culture secretary, said he was responding to the former South African president's call this month for more publicity about AIDS to fight the stigma attached to the disease.

Mandela, the antiapartheid icon who was his nation's first black president, appealed for more openness after disclosing that his eldest son, Makgatho, had died of AIDS-related complications earlier this month.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The U.S. consulate in the Red Sea port city of Jiddah has reopened, seven weeks after an attack on its premises by Islamic militants left nine people dead, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh said Sunday.

Carol Kalin said the consulate reopened Saturday and was providing full services in the western region of Saudi Arabia.

Islamic militants attacked the consulate Dec. 6 and held civilians at gunpoint. Security forces stormed the compound three hours later, and five foreign consulate employees and four attackers were killed.

WASHINGTON - The government of Qatar is pushing forward with plans to privatize Al-Jazeera, the popular and controversial Arab television network that has often drawn the ire of U.S. administration officials, a spokesman said.

Details of the plan are yet to be worked out, and await a feasibility report that should be completed shortly, said Jihad Ballout, a spokesman in Doha. Al-Jazeera is highly popular in the Arab world but has been criticized by the Bush administration about its coverage of the war in Iraq and other hot button issues in the Middle East.

Pressure from American officials has caused the government of Qatar, which bankrolls Al-Jazeera, to accelerate the spinoff, according to a story Sunday in the New York Times, which quoted an unnamed senior Qatari official.

[Last modified February 1, 2005, 18:08:03]