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Smugglers push migrants overboard

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 27, 2007

SANA, YEMEN - Smugglers taking illegal migrants from Somalia to Yemen forced hundreds of Africans overboard in stormy seas in an effort to make a fast getaway from security forces Thursday, officials said Monday. Twenty-nine people died and nearly 71 people remained missing, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said, though there may be more victims. Passengers who resisted the smugglers were stabbed or beaten with wooden and steel clubs, then thrown into the water, where some were attacked by sharks, the agency said, citing survivors. Survivors also reported rapes during the voyage from Bosaso, Somalia.

Israeli, Palestinian leaders will meet

JERUSALEM - Israel has agreed to resume face-to-face talks with moderate, Western-backed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is sharing power with Hamas, a political and military organization that Israel, the United States and the European Union count as a terror group, an anonymous senior U.S. official told the Associated Press on Monday. Also Monday, Israel welcomed the idea of a regional peace summit, although no such meeting is set, and Saudi Arabia suggested it would consider changes in a dormant peace initiative that could make it more acceptable to Israel. The new developments came at a time of high-profile diplomacy, with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.N. chief Ban Ki Moon both in the region for talks with Israeli and Arab leaders.

Iran pulls back on trespassing fight

TEHRAN, IRAN - Iran said Monday it was questioning 15 British sailors and marines to determine if their alleged entry into Iranian waters was "intentional or unintentional" before deciding what to do with them - the first sign it could be seeking a way out of the standoff. The two countries continued to disagree about where the military personnel were seized Friday, with Britain insisting they were in Iraqi waters after searching a civilian cargo vessel and the Tehran regime saying it had proof they were in Iranian territory. The Iranian emphasis Monday on the detainees' intent was a noticeable pullback from the certainty expressed Saturday by Iran's military chief, Gen. Ali Reza Afshar. Afshar said then that the 15 confessed to "aggression into the Islamic Republic of Iran's waters." Other Iranian officials suggested afterward that the Britons might be charged with a crime, presumably espionage or trespassing.

Nuclear standoff: European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Monday renewed an offer from six world powers to talk with Tehran over its nuclear ambitions, and Ali Larijani, Tehran's top nuclear negotiator, agreed to stay in contact in an effort to find common ground. The U.N. Security Council toughened its anti-Iran sanctions on Saturday because of the Islamic republic's refusal to freeze uranium enrichment.

Few turn out for constitution vote

CAIRO - Turnout was low Monday in a rushed referendum on amending Egypt's Constitution, changes the government has touted as democratic reforms but critics dismiss as attempts to curtail rights and consolidate the regime's power. The opposition, led by the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, boycotted the vote.

[Last modified March 27, 2007, 01:34:52]