World briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 5, 2001

Hussein appears on TV amid stroke rumors

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- In an appearance that could help dispel rumors of a stroke, President Saddam Hussein was shown on Iraqi television for the second time in two days Thursday.

He appeared smoking a cigar while chatting to a mostly Egyptian group of entertainers.

"Saddam loves his nation, but he loves Egypt especially because he has lived in Egypt," television viewers heard the president say.

On Wednesday, an Iraqi government spokesman dismissed a report from an Iraqi exile group in Syria that Hussein, 63, had suffered a stroke Sunday.

Later Wednesday, state television showed the Iraqi leader leading a Cabinet meeting.

Surgeon: I was misquoted on pope

ROME -- The surgeon who performed Pope John Paul II's 1994 hip operation denied Thursday that he had said the pontiff was suffering from Parkinson's disease.

Gianfranco Fineschi said he was misquoted in an interview he gave to the magazine Oggi.

"I was asked if the holy father had Parkinson's, to which I replied, "I cannot exclude that he suffers from a Parkinson's-like illness, but it is not in my field,' " Fineschi said Thursday.

The 80-year-old pope's difficulty in walking and speaking and tremors are common symptoms of Parkinson's, but the Vatican has never confirmed that he has the disease.

Spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, asked why the Vatican doesn't say what condition is causing the pope's symptoms, replied: "It's a question for his doctors."

Fujimori not linked to illicit cash

LIMA, Peru -- Congressional investigators said Thursday they have found no evidence linking former President Alberto Fujimori to his former intelligence adviser's multimillion dollar bank accounts.

"As of now, there is no direct link to the bank accounts of Vladimiro Montesinos," said Congressman David Waisman, head of a commission investigating the fugitive ex-spy chief.

But Fujimori bears responsibility for allowing Montesinos, once his closest adviser, to organize a reputedly vast network of illicit arms dealing, money laundering and influence peddling, commission members said.

Fujimori is in self-imposed exile in Japan.

Five arrested in art thefts

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Police have arrested five men in connection with the theft of three Renoir and Rembrandt paintings from Stockholm's National Museum, but the artworks remain missing, authorities said Thursday. All the arrested men were Swedes.

The paintings were taken from the museum on Dec. 22. Police think they are still in Sweden.

"We think that we are going to get them back, but we cannot say when," police superintendent Leif Jennekvist said.

12 train crash victims buried

LORCA, Spain -- Thousands of people attended a funeral Mass at a sports arena Thursday for 12 Ecuadorean farm workers killed in a train accident in southeastern Spain.

Eight men and four women, aged 16 to 55, died Wednesday when their van was hit by a commuter train at a rail crossing outside the town of Lorca in the province of Murcia.

The crossing was clearly marked but had no barriers. The town's mayor said he had complained repeatedly to the state railway company that the crossing needed barriers.

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