World briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 18, 2001

Taleban explains decision to destroy statues

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The decision to destroy ancient statues of Buddha was not made by the Taleban's reclusive leader but by 400 clerics who debated for months before declaring them idolatrous and "un-Islamic," the Taleban's information minister said Saturday.

Some clerics had hoped the statues would be spared, but the ruling could not be reversed, Information Minister Qadratullah Jamal told the Associated Press.

"People may have had their individual opinions about it but once their decision was made and the ruling was issued, we had no choice -- we had to follow it," Jamal said in an interview in the Afghan capital.

Even the Taleban's leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, who has taken the title Amir-ul Momineen, or King of the Muslims, could not deviate from the clerics' decision, Jamal said.

The order resulted in the destruction of two towering statues of Buddha in central Bamiyan province earlier this month as well as thousands of smaller statues in museums throughout the country, provoking international outrage.

Muslims around the world have condemned the Taleban for destroying the statues.

On Saturday, Pierre Lafrance, the special UNESCO envoy sent from Paris to try to save the statues, met with Jamal to plead for the preservation of other historic sites in the country.

Earlier in the day, Jamal said Lafrance would be told the Taleban "did not have any choice" but to follow the clerics' decision on the Buddha statues. But "we are prepared to care for other artifacts. It was only the statues that were un-Islamic."

Dominicans' boat sinks; 57 feared dead

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Fifty-seven people are presumed dead in the sinking of a sailboat carrying Dominicans who were trying to reach Puerto Rico, authorities said Saturday.

The boat, with 60 people aboard, went down early Thursday morning after striking a coral reef off the southern end of Ile-a-Vache, a small Haitian island about 90 miles southwest of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Fifteen bodies were recovered after they washed ashore, but 42 others on board were thought to have drowned, authorities said.

Of the three Dominicans who survived the shipwreck, one died Friday night, according to hospital authorities in Les Cayes, a coast town near where the survivors came ashore. Another was in critical condition. The third, 19-year-old Carlos Pineles, was in good condition.

Police officer killed in bomb blast in Spain

GIRONA, Spain -- A car bomb exploded outside a hotel in northeastern Spain on Saturday, killing a police officer and injuring another in the latest attack blamed on the Basque separatist group ETA.

The officers had rushed to the area to evacuate the Montecarlo hotel and surrounding buildings after a man claiming to speak on the ETA's behalf called a newspaper to warn of the bomb shortly before the blast, a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry said.

The 32-year-old officer, Santos Santamaria Avedano, died after being admitted to a nearby hospital. The other officer suffered slight injuries to the hand.

The attack took place in the coastal town of Roses, some 60 miles north of Barcelona.

Indian Internet company says it's now a target

NEW DELHI, India -- An Internet media company that rocked the nation with its expose of official corruption on Saturday said it was being targeted by the government for making the bribery scandal public.

Tarun Tejpal, the editor-in-chief of Tehelka.com, said the prime minister's office was trying to discredit its investigation by planting stories in the media alleging the company was funded by Pakistan's spy agency and organized crime.

"We are being targeted," Tejpal said. "The slander campaign is coming from the PMO. We've also been told that it's probably coming from Brajesh Mishra's office."

Mishra is the National Security Adviser and the principal secretary to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Protests . . .

ITALIAN GLOBALIZATION FORUM: Thousands of protesters clashed with police who used tear gas and clubs to keep them from reaching a forum on information technology in Naples. Although the protest was called to denounce globalization, some of the demonstrators turned out to publicize other causes. Some 70 demonstrators and 50 officers had minor injuries.

SALE OF KOREAN AUTOMAKER: Demonstrators protesting government-backed layoffs threw stones and firebombs at riot police and burned an American flag on Saturday. Some 2,000 students, union members and laid-off workers marched to condemn the government aim of selling bankrupt Daewoo Motor Co. to General Motors.

INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK: Police in Santiago, Chile, used water cannons to break up a protest Saturday by students and leftists against the annual gathering of the bank. About 150 anti-globalization protesters tried to march to a convention center, but were blocked by police.

Elsewhere . . .

BULGARIAN MOTHER CONFESSES: The mother of a 3-year-old whose slaying prompted demonstrations against street crime has confessed to killing the boy, Bulgaria's interior minister, Emanuil Yordanov, said Saturday. Daniela Terziiska, 30, confessed to strangling her son Peter and dumping his body in a Sofia park, claiming he had been abducted while she was taking him to nursery school, Yordanov said.

VATICAN RADIO SPAT: The Holy See on Saturday denounced as "unacceptable" a threat by Italy's environment minister to cut off electricity to Vatican Radio over alleged electromagnetic emissions violations. Italian prosecutors say Vatican officials violate the standards.

BERING STRAIT CROSSING: Two British explorers left London on Saturday to launch a bid to become the first people to cross the Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia by land vehicle. Steve Brooks and Graham Stratford hope to traverse the 56-mile strait -- in winter a mass of shifting ice floes -- in a snowmobile that doubles as a raft.

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