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Ruling party candidate wins flawed election

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 24, 2007

ABUJA, NIGERIA - A former chemistry professor handpicked by President Olusegun Obasanjo won Nigeria's presidential election in a landslide Monday, a vote denounced as deeply flawed by international observers and the opposition. Umaru Yar'Adua, a 56-year-old Muslim, is not seen as a hard-liner or especially strong supporter of Islamic law. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, the 1980s-era military leader who was the runner-up in Saturday's vote, called the outcome "the most blatantly rigged election results ever produced in Nigeria."

Afghan forces trap 200 Taliban fighters

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN - Afghan forces have trapped up to 200 Taliban fighters in a southern village, possibly including the militia's military commander, demanding they surrender or come under attack, Afghan officials said Monday. The provincial police chief, Gen. Mohammad Qasim Khan, said Mullah Dadullah, a close aide to Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar, and other regional Taliban commanders were at a meeting in the mountain village of Keshay in Uruzgan province when the village was surrounded Saturday.

Also: Canada will investigate allegations that Taliban prisoners captured by its forces in Afghanistan were abused by Afghan authorities, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Monday, after at least 30 detainees told the Globe and Mail newspaper that they had been choked, starved and given electric shocks. None of the abuse in the allegations was inflicted by Canadians. Critics have been saying Canada's agreement to hand over Taliban prisoners to Afghan authorities is flawed.

Veteran dissident finishes sentence

HAVANA - A veteran dissident leader who wrote a book about Cuban prison conditions while behind bars was freed over the weekend after serving his entire 17-year sentence, rights groups said Monday. Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, widely known by the nickname "Antunez," was released Sunday morning, the opposition group Bitacora Cubana said. He was arrested on charges of engaging in enemy propaganda and attempted sabotage in 1990.

Three Munch thieves sentenced

OSLO, Norway - Three men who worked together to steal Edvard Munch's masterpieces The Scream and Madonna from the Munch Museum in 2004 were sentenced Monday to prison. Both paintings were recovered but were damaged. The men received sentences between 5 1/2 and 9 1/2 years in prison and were ordered to pay $262,000 to Oslo, which owns the paintings. A fourth suspect died in November.

Nearly 300 women jailed over clothes

TEHRAN, Iran - With the arrival of spring, Iranian police have launched their toughest crackdown in nearly two decades against women accused of not covering up enough. Since Saturday, 278 women have been detained, 231 of whom were released after signing documents promising not to appear "inadequately dressed in public," a police spokesman, Col. Mahi Ahmadi, said Monday. Another 3,548 women were given warnings, Ahmadi said, and 12 men were detained for wearing tight pants or short-sleeve shirts.

[Last modified April 24, 2007, 00:53:11]