World
Opposition negotiators proposed a new solution to Kenya's political crisis: sharing power for two years with President Mwai Kibaki, followed by another national election. In that span, a spokesman said, the government should concentrate on rewriting the Constitution, reforming the electoral commission, and rebuilding areas that have been destroyed in the violence following the disputed Dec. 27 presidential vote. Kibaki aides said the idea would be studied "to see if we can reach an agreement." Ex-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is mediating the negotiations, said they'd move to a secret location in the hope that a deal could be agreed to in the next three days.
Plans by Burma's military rulers for a constitutional referendum and multiparty elections are "not enough," the opposition National League for Democracy said. Dozens of its members staged a rare public protest (above) in Rangoon, the former capital, Tuesday, asking, "Where are the results of the 1990 election?" a vote it won before the military overturned it and seized power. The protest was greeted coldly by the ruling junta, which accused "subversive elements with negative attitudes" of trying to tear the nation apart.
An estimated 12,000 additional refugees from Darfur have fled to Chad, which can't absorb any more, Prime Minister Nouradin Koumakoye said. He demanded that "the international community" move them to a third country or "we will do it," adding, "We are being attacked by Sudan because of these refugees." His words appeared aimed at goading European Union peacekeepers into deploying more quickly along the Sudanese border, sealing it, analysts said. About 250,000 Darfur refugees now are in camps on the Chadian side of the boundary. Sudan accused Chad of using them as "bargaining chips."
A state of emergency was declared in East Timor Tuesday and a new force of peacekeeping troops from Australia arrived to help patrol the streets following assassination attempts against the nation's top two leaders. But military chief Taur Matan Ruak questioned the abilities of international peacekeepers already deployed there, saying they'd demonstrated "a lack of capacity" to enforce security. President Jose Ramos-Horta was reported in "extremely serious" but stable condition after surgery in an Australian hospital on his wounds from Monday's attack. Above, a Timorese submits to a search for hidden weapons.
At least partial autonomy could be granted to three provinces in southern Thailand where militants from the Muslim majority have been waging a violent insurgency, the new government hinted Tuesday. But independence for the region is out of the question, Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobambrung said. Drive-by shootings and bombings in Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat provinces have killed at least 2,900 people, most of them Buddhists, since January 2004.
Police in Denmark arrested three Muslims of North African descent Tuesday for their alleged roles in a plot to kill an artist whose cartoons of the prophet Mohammad triggered an uproar in Islamic nations in 2006. The artist and his wife have been under police protection since the plot became known, reports said. The plot is at least the second to be uncovered; last November, a Danish court sentenced three other Muslims to prison terms for planning attacks related to publication of the cartoons.
Ensuring that the births of all girls are registered would help curb the "big, big time" increase in human trafficking, film star and rights activist Emma Thompson told a news conference as the UN prepared to open a global forum on the issue in Vienna. She said traffickers are "fantastically sophisticated" but that birth certificates would make their activities more difficult. The forum, billed as a first, is expected to draw attendees from more than 100 countries.
