World briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 8, 2001

Libyan agent wants appeal of Lockerbie bomb verdict

PARIS -- The Libyan intelligence agent convicted of 270 counts of murder for blowing up a Pan American jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 told the Scottish courts Wednesday that he wanted to appeal.

Lawyers for the agent, Abdel Basset Ali Megrahi, filed a notice in the Justiciary Office in Edinburgh that they would appeal his Jan. 31 conviction. They have six weeks to file a statement describing their grounds.

The right of appeal is not automatic in Scottish courts. That statement will be submitted to a High Court judge; if the judge grants permission for the appeal to go ahead, a panel of High Court judges will be convened to hear it.

Megrahi was found guilty and given the mandatory sentence of life in prison. The court recommended that he not be eligible for parole for at least 20 years. His co-defendant, Lamen Khalifah Fhimah, was acquitted and freed.

Officials hint arrest of Milosevic is near

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Yugoslavia's pro-democracy leaders appeared closer Wednesday to taking action against Slobodan Milosevic, the former president who has been indicted on war crimes charges at the U.N. tribunal in The Hague.

Last week, Milosevic was put under 24-hour police surveillance. Next week, the Parliament of Serbia, the dominant Yugoslav republic, is expected to appoint new prosecutors and judges to replace those picked by Milosevic. Also, a law allowing cooperation with the war crimes tribunal will be put into place.

Prosecution could be swift, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic said Wednesday. An investigation could begin within days, with trial in two weeks, he said.

During her visit to Belgrade last month, chief U.N. prosecutor Carla Del Ponte asserted that The Hague tribunal had priority over local courts. She requested Milosevic's extradition.

Yugoslav leaders rebuffed her demands, insisting that Milosevic should be tried at home on charges including corruption, complicity in political assassinations and abductions.

Venezuela's Chavez leads rally on education reform

CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez led thousands of parents, teachers and students in a march through Caracas on Wednesday to bolster support for his contested education reforms.

Escorted by heavy police security, about 5,000 marchers blew whistles and waved banners bearing slogans defending the government's push to tighten supervision on public and private schools.

The march came in response to two protests by thousands of parents and teachers who fear officials plan to introduce leftist indoctrination in schools. At issue is a decree that allows the minister of education to fire directors or teachers in both private and public schools based on reports by hand-picked supervisors.

The government has drawn up a National Education Project that calls for inculcating a national identity in students. The project was spearheaded by Marxist sociologist Carlos Lanz.

Chavez has railed against the parents who protested the decree, calling them "selfish and individualistic." He says his reforms adhere to a new constitution Venezuelans approved in 1999.

Iranian Jews lose final appeal in spy case

TEHRAN, Iran -- Three judges have rejected the final appeal of 10 Iranian Jews convicted of spying for Israel, state-run Tehran radio reported Wednesday. No reason for the ruling was given.

The defendants were convicted last year of spying for Israel and given sentences of four to 13 years in prison. In September an appeals court revised the conviction to cooperating with Israel and reduced the sentences so that the minimum sentence was two years and the maximum was nine.

The appeals court also found the 10 men innocent of belonging to an illegal spy ring and recruiting new agents.

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