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Former Austrian president buried

By TIMES WIRES
Published June 24, 2007

VIENNA 

Former President Kurt Waldheim was buried Saturday in the presence of Austrian dignitaries who declared he was unjustly smeared by allegations linking him to the Nazis.

Waldheim, who also served as U.N. chief from 1972 to 1981, died June 14 at his home in Vienna, with his name still on a watch list barring him from entering the United States. He was 88 years old.

Speaking at the ceremony at St. Steven's Cathedral, President Heinz Fischer said Waldheim's that life had to be judged "as a whole, " and that he was unjustly accused of deeds "he did not do."

Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer did not attend the service, although he did later take part in a minute of silence.

Fischer said Waldheim stood as a symbol of Austria's guilty conscience about the Nazi era and the nation's delays in owning up to its role during that time.

BRUSSELS

EU opts for treaty instead of constitution

The European Union has given up hope for a constitution, agreeing instead Saturday to peddle a watered-down treaty to its 27 capitals in hopes of ending a two-year stalemate that has hobbled one of the world's most potent economic and diplomatic blocs.

"We have avoided a crisis, " European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in an interview to be published today in the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag. The details of the treaty must still be negotiated and the final document ratified by all 27 EU members to become effective. EU leaders set a goal of 2009 for winning approval of the treaty.

SANA, YEMEN

Guard opens fire on foreign oil workers

A Yemeni guard at the Occidental Petroleum Corp. in southern Shabwa province opened fire Saturday on a group of foreign oil workers shortly after they landed at a company airstrip, killing one and wounding five - including an American, officials said.

Provincial Gov. Ali al-Maqqdishi said the guard was mentally ill. The U.S. Embassy in Sana confirmed the attack in a message posted on its Web site and said the American was "critically injured." A Yemeni security official said other guards shot the gunman in the leg to stop the attack. The worker killed in the attack was an Indian national; those wounded include two Britons, a Tunisian and a Yemeni.

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA

Curfew declared after bombings wound 23

A wave of bombings in Colombia's most violent city wounded 23 people late Friday, and marines defused another two bombs Saturday. Authorities blamed the bombings on rebels seeking revenge for the killing of a regional guerrilla commander.

The mayor's office in Buenaventura, Colombia's largest port and a major transit point of cocaine leaving the country, declared a nighttime curfew following the seven nearly simultaneous explosions late Friday, and security forces increased patrols Saturday.

In an interview with Caracol radio, Buenaventura's ombudsman, Saulo Quinones, blamed Latin America's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, for the attacks. This month, the navy killed the local rebel commander.

PORT HARCOURT, NIGERIA

Kidnappers release 4 foreign workers

Kidnappers on Saturday released four foreign oil workers seized weeks ago in restive southern Nigeria. As journalists looked on, mediators handed the Pakistani, British, French and Dutch citizens over to top security officials in Port Harcourt.

All the foreigners, who had been seized June 3, appeared healthy. There were no details on any ransom payments for the four.

VATICAN CITY

Blair makes farewell visit to the pope

The Vatican on Saturday bid farewell to Tony Blair as British prime minister, wishing him well on what it said were his plans to work for Middle East peace and interreligious dialogue.

Blair held long talks with Pope Benedict XVI, with the Vatican stop on his farewell tour fueling rumors that he plans to convert to Catholicism. The two men met privately for 25 minutes and then were joined for further talks by English Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor. A Vatican press office called the audience a normal meeting between the pope and a government leader. Blair leaves office on Wednesday.

ROME

Russia, Italy sign deal to build gas pipeline

Russia and Italy on Saturday signed a memorandum on the construction of a new natural gas pipeline from Russia to Europe across the Black Sea.

The memorandum was signed in Rome by representatives of Russian energy giant Gazprom and Italy's ENI in the presence of Russian Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko and Italian Economic Development Minister Pierluigi Bersani. The pipeline, which will be called South Stream, will stretch for 560 miles across the Black Sea from Russia to Bulgaria at a maximum depth of over a mile.

HYDERABAD, INDIA

Heavy rains, flooding kill at least 45

Heavy rains and flooding killed at least 45 people in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and left nearly 100 children stranded on the roof of their school, a top government official said Saturday. The worst affected district in the state was Kurnool where 21 people died, state Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy said.

31 feared drowned: Twelve members of a wedding party were among 31 feared drowned in two separate boat accidents in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, officials said on Saturday. Anupam Shashank, a senior government official, told the Associated Press from the state capital Lucknow that only five bodies had been recovered.

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN

Islamists free 9 seized from massage parlor

Muslim students linked to a radical mosque kidnapped nine people, including three Chinese women, from a massage parlor on Saturday, freeing them hours later, officials said.

The abductions were the latest act in an antivice campaign by students and teachers affiliated with the controversial Red Mosque. Abdul Rashid Ghazi, one of two brothers who run the mosque, accused those who were abducted of "spreading obscenity" and "running a brothel in the cover of a massage parlor."

[Last modified June 24, 2007, 01:21:29]