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World briefsCompiled from Times wires © St. Petersburg Times, published August 27, 2000 British soldiers capturedFREETOWN, Sierra Leone -- Eleven British soldiers have been seized in this wartorn West African country, but the identity of the captors isn't known, the British Ministry of Defense said Saturday. British forces lost contact with the soldiers Friday around the towns of Masiaka and Forudugu, about 45 miles east of the capital, Freetown, force commander Brig. Gordon Hughes said in a statement. A radio message received from the group Saturday indicated they were being held against their will, a Ministry of Defense spokesman said later in London. Mandela, negotiators race toward peace deadlineARUSHA, Tanzania -- Nelson Mandela met with negotiators representing 19 Burundian political groups Saturday, as they raced to meet a Monday deadline for reaching at least a partial peace accord to end seven years of civil war in the central African country. President Clinton and the leaders of 12 African countries are expected to attend a signing ceremony Monday, but two key issues -- a cease-fire with armed Hutu rebels who have not attended the talks and leadership of a transitional government -- remain deal-breakers. ElsewhereINDONESIA: In a sign of restored unity, Indonesia's vice president swore in a new Cabinet on Saturday, which embattled President Abdurrahman Wahid hopes will lift his sagging political fortunes. Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri officiated at the ceremony, her first official duty since Wahid bowed to pressure from critics and conferred greater responsibilities on her. CATS ATTACK COPS: Eighteen cats stood vigil for a week over the body of their master in his suburban Cairo, Egypt, home and attacked policemen who came to remove his corpse, police said Saturday. KRAY DYING: Reggie Kray, who with his twin brother was a prominent criminal in London in the 1960s, will be released from prison because he is gravely ill, the government said Saturday. Kray, 67, has bladder cancer and is likely to die within days, his lawyers said. The Krays, a movie about their lives, was made in 1990. SOMALIA: Somalia's parliament elected the nation's first president in almost a decade Saturday. ALGERIA: The 8-month-old government of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has wrestled to end a civil insurgency that has killed thousands of people, resigned Saturday. KOREAS: Thousands of South Korean students on Saturday bid farewell to 63 former North Korean spies who will return to their communist homeland next week after decades in prison. PHILIPPINES: Muslim rebels promised to release six of their 12 foreign hostages today after a court freed two rebels caught carrying bundles of cash, officials said. The cash was believed to be part of a ransom payment the rebels received for an earlier hostage release. POLISH APOLOGY: The leaders of Poland's Roman Catholic Church have asked forgiveness for its toleration of anti-Semitism and disdain of non-Catholics in a letter of joint apologies for failings in its 2,000-year history. The letter, its contents published by Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper Saturday, will likely be read at today's Masses by parish priests across Poland. SIAMESE TWINS: A British judge has ruled that a two-week-old Siamese twin should be separated from her sister, even though she will die in the process -- and despite the opposition of the babies' parents. Without the surgery both twins are likely to perish. KIDNAPPINGS: Hundreds of residents of a largely Indian village in southern Mexico kidnapped two officials, their secretaries and eight others on Friday to demand $100,000 to build a much-needed road. POLITICIAN SHOOTS POLICE: A congressman and ex-vice president opened fire on city police Saturday in San Salvador, El Salvador, wounding an officer before surrendering his gun, police said.
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
