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World in brief

Coalition readies Afghan offensive

MUSA QALA, Afghanistan - The U.S.-led coalition is unleashing more than 11,000 troops to attack militants in the southern mountains of Afghanistan, the biggest offensive since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

The push starting Thursday by U.S., British, Canadian and Afghan troops aims to squeeze Taliban fighters in four provinces. It will focus on southern Uruzgan and northeastern Helmand, where the military says most of the forces are massed.

Thursday will mark what the military is calling the start of major anti-Taliban operations lasting through the summer. Operation Mountain Thrust will involve about 2,300 U.S. conventional and special operations forces, 3,300 British troops, 2,200 Canadians, about 3,500 Afghan soldiers and air support troops.

Cuba denies cutting water, power to U.S. mission

HAVANA - Cuban authorities Tuesday denied U.S. charges that they deliberately cut off water and power to the American diplomatic mission in Havana, saying bad weather and technical problems were to blame.

Electricity was restored a day after U.S. officials had complained that the service problems were part of a campaign of harassment.

In a front-page statement published in the Communist Party newspaper Granma, the Cuban government said the recent electrical outages at the U.S. Interests Section were the result of a damaged neighborhood grid caused by inclement weather. The Cubans said spotty water service in recent months was caused by drought and the general difficulty of supplying water throughout the city.

The statement said Cuban authorities responded quickly to fix the problems and charged that complaints by U.S. officials were an effort to undermine already limited diplomatic ties between the two nations.

U.S. transport of convicted Marine broke Irish law

DUBLIN, Ireland - The U.S. military violated Irish law by transporting a convicted U.S. Marine through Shannon Airport without government permission, Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern announced Tuesday.

The episode - discovered when a cleaner spotted the man, in handcuffs and military fatigues, on the plane at the airport - underscored Irish suspicions that the U.S. military also could be ferrying munitions and terrorism suspects through this officially neutral nation.

U.S. Ambassador James Kenny confirmed that a U.S. Marine, who had been convicted of stealing by a U.S. military tribunal in Kuwait, was being transported Sunday under guard on a Defense Department-chartered aircraft.

He said the military should have sought written permission from Ireland's Justice Department to bring the convict into Irish airspace but failed to do so.

New investigation begins into 1981 shooting of pope

WARSAW- A state institute has opened an investigation into whether communist-era security services in Poland and other former East bloc nations had a role in the 1981 assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II, a spokesman said Tuesday.

John Paul was shot and seriously wounded on May 13, 1981, in St. Peter's Square by Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turk.

But it has been suggested that larger political motives may have been behind the attack, because having a Polish-born pope was considered a danger by Soviet leaders.

Andrzej Arseniuk of the National Remembrance Institute said it has asked Italy's Justice Ministry for files it has on the shooting and is also examining documents gathered by Italian magistrate Ferdinando Imposimato, whose investigation concluded there was a Soviet link.

Poll shows world view of United States drops again

WASHINGTON - The global image of America has slipped further, even among people in some countries closely allied with the United States, a new opinion poll has found.

Favorable views of the United States dropped sharply over the past year in Spain, where 23 percent say they have a positive opinion, down from 41 percent last year, according to the survey, which was done in 15 nations this spring by the Washington-based Pew Research Center.

Other countries where positive views dropped significantly include India (56 percent, down from 71 percent); Russia (43 percent, down from 52 percent); and Indonesia (30 percent, down from 38 percent). In Turkey, 12 percent said they held a favorable opinion, down from 23 percent last year.

Declines were less steep in France, Germany and Jordan, while people in China and Pakistan had a slightly more favorable image this year. In Britain, positive views of America have remained in the mid 50-percent range in the past two years.

Support for the fight against terrorism led by the United States is also down, Pew found.

Militant cleric released from prison in Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Authorities released militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir from prison today, and about 150 of his supporters jubilantly greeted him with shouts of "God is great!"

The 68-year-old cleric, an alleged key leader of the al-Qaida-linked Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, had served 26 months in prison for giving his blessing to the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, which killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists.

Bashir, who has maintained his innocence, plans to return to his school and retake his position at the head of his legal hardline Islamic organization, the Council of Mujahedeen for Islamic Law Enforcement.

[Last modified June 14, 2006, 07:13:08]