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World in brief

Violence eases in Sao Paulo

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Widespread violence eased Tuesday after five days of attacks on police headquarters, buses and public buildings that paralyzed South America's largest city and left 115 people dead.

The news media here said the violence ceased after the overwhelmed police authorities met Sunday with the leader of the powerful organized crime group that orchestrated the onslaught, who was reported to have ordered a truce by cell phone from his prison cell.

But both sides later denied striking any deal. "The government did not submit to any demands of requests," Marco Antonio Desgualdo, director general of the state's civil police force, said Tuesday. "The police did not negotiate."

Government officials also dismissed local press reports that the police had used the crisis to kill suspects they had previously singled out as gang members. A police crackdown during the battles led to the arrest of more than 100 suspected gang members and the killing of 71.

EU considers giving Iran light-water reactor

VIENNA - European nations on Tuesday weighed adding a light-water reactor to a package of incentives meant to persuade Tehran to give up uranium enrichment - or face the threat of U.N. Security Council sanctions.

Senior diplomats and European Union officials said the plans were being discussed by France, Britain and Germany as part of a proposal to be presented to representatives of the five permanent U.N. Security Council members at a meeting in London.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said a "package" was being prepared for Iran's consideration that would give Tehran a choice between intransigence and a "pathway of cooperation."

McCormack said Tehran would be required to halt its program of enriching and reprocessing uranium on Iranian soil, saying the United States and others "do not want the Iranian regime to have the ability to master those critical pathways to a nuclear weapon."

Lawmaker leaves Netherlands after threat

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - A Somali-born lawmaker and fierce critic of radical Islam tearfully announced Tuesday that she is leaving the Netherlands, reportedly for the United States, after the government threatened to revoke her citizenship for lying on her asylum application.

The threat to strip Ayaan Hirsi Ali of Dutch citizenship unleashed a fierce debate in parliament at a time of heightened anti-immigrant sentiment in the country.

Hirsi Ali, 36, has been under police guard since a short film she wrote criticizing the treatment of women under Islam provoked the murder of its director, Theo van Gogh, by an Islamic radical.

She said she decided Monday night to resign from parliament after Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk told her "she would strip me of my Dutch citizenship."

Elsewhere ...

Indonesian volcano: Scientists warned Tuesday that erupting Mount Merapi still posed a deadly threat to villagers living on its lava-scarred slopes, even as volcanic activity eased. Clouds of searing hot gases and debris continued to stream down the mountain, but not as far or as often as they did Monday. "That is Merapi," said Ratdomopurbo, the region's chief vulcanologist, who uses a single name. "She is always fluctuating."

French prime minister: Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin survived a no-confidence vote Tuesday sparked by accusations of a dirty-tricks campaign that have engulfed his government. There had been virtually no chance the motion would pass, but the motion forced Villepin to defend himself amid allegations that he was wrapped up in the dirty tricks campaign. The scandal also has been a blow to President Jacques Chirac, Villepin's mentor.

[Last modified May 17, 2006, 06:31:15]