■ peru
President wants new Cabinet
Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo on Friday asked for the resignation of his entire Cabinet, including Prime Minister Beatrix Merino, as well as all of his advisers, his government said. A short statement from the president's office said a new Cabinet is to be sworn in tomorrow. Toledo's government has been hit by accusations of corruption and resignations, and the president himself is plagued by unpopularity on his failure to live up to populist campaign promises. He lost his foreign trade minister in November in an influence-peddling scandal. The same month his defense minister left, citing job frustration, and his foreign minister took another job.
■ Haiti
Four shot in street unrest
At least four people were shot and wounded as supporters of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide reacted to a huge anti-Aristide march with their own demonstrations on Friday in the capital. Gunshots were heard overnight in various Port-au-Prince neighborhoods as Aristide supporters fired into the air, burned tires and set up barricades at intersections, seeking to take back the streets after Thursday's march by thousands of students. Witnesses said at least four people were shot and wounded, one of them with a bullet to the head, in two neighborhoods of the city during Friday's unrest.
■ United states
Man denies killing teenagers
A 49-year-old convicted murderer on Friday pleaded not guilty to murder charges after police dug up the bodies of three teenagers in his basement. David Maust served 18 years for the murder of a 15-year-old boy in Chicago in 1981, but was released on parole in June last year. He had been living in the city of Hammond, Indiana, just south of Chicago, media reports said. Hammond police sergeant Ron Johnson alleged that a witness told him that two of the teenagers had been "hanging around an older man named David over the summer of 2003 and that David had given them money ... beer and marijuana."
■ Azerbaijan
Former president dies at 80
Former Azerbaijani President Geidar Aliev, an ex-KGB general and Communist Party chief who brought stability to a nation plagued by insurgencies, has died in the US. He was 80. Aliev died in Cleveland, Ohio, on Friday, Cleveland Clinic spokesman Cole Hatcher said. Aliev had been admitted to the hospital on Aug. 6 for treatment of congestive heart failure and kidney problems, the clinic said. He had been treated at the hospital in various stays over the last four years for heart, prostate and hernia problems.
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