World briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 16, 2001

Warrants issued as slave ship drifts

COTONOU, Benin -- A decrepit vessel suspected of carrying child slaves was believed to be drifting off western Africa on Sunday as authorities sought the arrest of suspects from several countries in the case.

Officials in Benin and neighboring countries along West Africa's coast are unsure what has happened to the MV Etireno since it was refused entry at two African ports over the past week. U.N. officials have said the ship could contain 100-250 children.

Benin has issued international arrest warrants for the ship's Nigerian owner, captain and crew, police child-protection officer Martin Degan said.

Warrants also were issued for three Benin citizens. One, a businessman, was found in Gabon, where authorities suspect he had been waiting for the ship to dock, Benin Social Protection Minister Ramatou Baba Moussa said.

Also Sunday . . .

CONGO MISSION ABORTED: Minutes before military planes carrying U.N. troops were to land, the United Nations abruptly aborted a deployment in a key eastern city Sunday when increasingly uncompromising Congo rebels denied them clearance.

The Rwandan-backed rebels had warned that they would consider a U.N. deployment in rebel-held Kisangani, Congo's third-largest city, a "declaration of war."

AID TO CUBA: Chinese President Jiang Zemin, wrapping up a Latin American tour, visited Cuba on Sunday, where he agreed to provide nearly $400-million in new credits and direct aid. Fidel Castro's government has looked to China for guidance since the collapse of the Soviet Union, once its principal trade partner.

COLOMBIAN MASSACRE: As authorities tried to reach the mountain hamlets in Colombia where rightist paramilitary fighters reportedly massacred 30 people, rival guerrillas on Sunday raided a separate village and killed at least one resident, the army said.

Arriving in southwestern Cauca province, where the reported massacre took place, federal human rights ombudsman Eduardo Cifuentes said he thought "about 30" villagers had been killed.

Reports of the killings by the rightist United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, first surfaced Friday.

THAI NEW YEAR DEATHS: The death toll from accidents and fights during the Thai New Year festival has risen to 375, the government said Sunday. The National Accident Monitoring Cell said 265 people have been killed and 15,705 people injured in road accidents since Thursday, a day before the start of the three-day festival of Songkran.

Another 110 people were killed and 13,672 injured in drunken brawls, electrocution, drowning and other accidents related to the festival, the accident agency said.

OIL SPILL: A ship smuggling thousands of tons of Iraqi oil sank in the Persian Gulf off United Arab Emirates , a U.S. Navy official said Sunday, and authorities said some of the fuel spilled into the water.

Emergency crews were trying to contain the spill more than 24 hours after the ship sank, an official at the Dubai Port Control said Sunday. He said helicopters were at the scene, 20 miles off the coast.

PRISON UPRISING: Inmates wanting to end a 65-hour rebellion at a prison in Brazil killed the uprising's leaders and released 150 hostages Sunday, most of them their own relatives, police said.

The uprising began during visiting hours Thursday at the Carumbe prison in Cuiaba, 800 miles northwest of Sao Paulo in the state of Mato Grosso.

The uprising's seven leaders were stabbed with makeshift knives after refusing inmates' demands to end the rebellion, said Maj. Valdivinio Tavares Pimentel of the Cuiaba Police Department.

EL SALVADOR EARTHQUAKES: Three earthquakes shook El Salvador early Sunday, scaring residents who are still recovering from two strong quakes this year. No major injuries or damage were immediately reported.

The first quake early in the morning had a magnitude of 3.5 and was centered 20 miles south of El Salvador's Pacific coast.

The second quake a couple of hours later was a magnitude-2.5 and was centered in central El Salvador. The third, a magnitude-4 quake, was centered 20 miles south of El Salvador's coast.

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