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Letter to the editor

On video, talk of Holloway and her death

By Times Wires
Published February 4, 2008

NETHERLANDS

Hidden camera footage broadcast in the Netherlands on Sunday showed Dutch student Joran Van der Sloot saying he was with American Natalee Holloway when she collapsed on a beach in Aruba. He said he believed she was dead and asked a friend to dump her body in the sea. "She'll never be found," he said. A series of conversations between Van der Sloot and a man he believed to be his friend were recorded in a Range Rover that had been rigged with three hidden cameras by Peter R. de Vries, a Dutch television crime reporter. Last week, Van der Sloot said he was lying in those conversations and denied that he had anything to do with the Alabama teenager's disappearance. Holloway, 18, vanished in May 2005 just before she was due to fly home to Alabama, at the end of her high school graduation trip to the Caribbean island. No trace of her has been found.

SERBIA

Pro-West president wins close election

Serbia's pro-Western president won a closely contested election Sunday, edging an ally of late autocrat Slobodan Milosevic days before an expected declaration of independence by the breakaway Kosovo province. President Boris Tadic won 51 percent of the vote, while Tomislav Nikolic, who ruled with Milosevic during the wars in the Balkans in the 1990s, had 47 percent, according to the state electoral commission. The outcome indicated that a majority of Serbians want the country to stay on its path of pro-Western reform and closer ties with the European Union, instead of heading back to the nationalism and isolation that characterized the Milosevic era.

COLUMBIA

Rebels say three captives to go free

In its latest gesture to push for a high-profile prisoner swap, Colombia's main leftist rebel army says it will free three ailing politicians it has held for more than six years. In a communique, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, said the planned liberation springs from efforts by President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and "other friendly governments" to seek a solution to the country's long-running conflict. The FARC set no date for the promised release of Gloria Polanco, Luis Eladio Perez and Orlando Beltran, all Colombians kidnapped in 2001.

KENYA

Opposition says send peacekeepers

Kenya's opposition leader, Raila Odinga, called Sunday for international peacekeepers to help restore calm in a country once considered one of the most stable on the continent, as weeks of violence linked to the disputed presidential election gathered momentum. In western Kenya, the epicenter of some of the worst bloodshed since the Dec. 27 vote, gangs with machetes and bows and arrows fought and black smoke billowed from torched homes. More than 800 people have died and 300,000 have been forced from their homes.

Elsewhere

Pakistan: Benazir Bhutto's party plans to launch a vigorous campaign for Pakistan's Feb. 18 parliamentary election once the 40-day mourning period for the slain opposition leader ends this week, her supporters said Sunday.

Sri Lanka: A female suicide bomber attacked the main railway station in Colombo Sunday, killing at least 11 people and wounding 92 others, officials said.

[Last modified February 4, 2008, 00:44:43]