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World in brief

Arubans: new leads on missing U.S. teen

ORANJESTAD, Aruba - Aruban prosecutors said Friday they have new witnesses and leads into the disappearance of a U.S. teen who vanished on a school trip to the Dutch Caribbean island more than five months ago.

Natalee Holloway, then 18, was last seen early on May 30 leaving a bar with Dutch national Joran van der Sloot and Surinamese brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe. They were arrested on June 9 but released after a court ruled there was not enough evidence to hold them.

The Aruban prosecutors office said it was conducting new interviews of witnesses in the disappearance.

"From this review the team has concluded that there are several aspects that need more attention," the prosecutor's office said in a statement. "There are people living in the United States of America who have to be interviewed again."

The report of new interviews came after the missing teen's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, visited Aruba this week and alleged that three law enforcement officials did not take the investigation seriously in the crucial early stages. She demanded the three be removed from the case.

Twitty, who left Aruba on Thursday, told reporters she wanted to meet with prosecutors and police to discuss a taped interview in which Deepak Kalpoe, one of the brothers, allegedly says all three had sex with Holloway, who would have turned 19 last month.

Twitty said she was "disheartened" with the response of police Chief Gerald Dompig, Chief Prosecutor Karin Jansen and Detective Dennis Jacobs to the disappearance of her daughter.

"They have placed barriers to the advancement of the investigation," Twitty said. "They should be replaced."

JERUSALEM - Family and friends lit candles and laid wreaths at Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's grave Friday to begin a week of commemorations marking the 10th anniversary of the former leader's assassination.

The anniversary has reopened old wounds and brought about new soul-searching in a country that remains deeply divided about Rabin's legacy and the prospects for peace with the Palestinians.

Rabin, who negotiated the historic 1993 Oslo peace accords with the Palestinians, was assassinated on Nov. 4, 1995, by Yigal Amir, an ultranationalist Jew who considered Rabin a traitor.

[Last modified November 5, 2005, 01:23:12]