■ Iran
Reporter's release sought
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent a letter to Iran's president on Friday seeking the release of investigative reporter Akbar Ganji, said to be in precarious health after more than a month on hunger strike. Ganji, jailed in 2000 for reporting that intelligence officials had killed five Iranian dissidents, is believed to be in critical condition. Though Iranian officials claim he ate earlier this week, his wife says the hunger strike, which he began in June, continues.
■ Mexico
Sexy `green' ad draws ire
Environmentalists on Friday said they might tone down posters of scantily clad women aimed at saving endangered turtles after a government panel that promotes women's rights objected. The posters seek to dispel a myth that sea turtle eggs are an aphrodisiac. The panel complained that using suggestive images to raise consciousness, even if it is for a worthy cause, is degrading to women. "My man doesn't need turtle eggs. Because he knows they don't make him more potent," says an Argentine model with a sexy stare in one of the posters. Environmentalists said the southern state of Guerrero had asked them to change the posters following complaints by the National Women's Institute.
■ Burundi
Ex-rebel elected president
Hutu ex-rebel leader Pierre Nkurunziza was elected president of Burundi on Friday with a mandate to unify a nation torn by decades of ethnic strife and 12 years of civil war. As one of the last steps in a regionally-backed peace process, parliament overwhelming endorsed Nkurunziza, head of the former rebel Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD) and sole candidate for the post, by a vote of 151 to nine. He and his as-yet unnamed power-sharing government are to be sworn in next week, ending an extended period of transitional administration under a 2001 peace accord that sought to halt the conflict between majority Hutus and minority Tutsis.
■ Germany
Terror suspect sentenced
A Moroccan man was sentenced to seven years in prison on Friday for belonging to a terrorist cell that included three of the Sept. 11 hijackers, a conviction welcomed by the German government and a victim's relative after a string of court setbacks. Still, the Hamburg state court faulted US authorities' failure to deliver more evidence as it acquitted Mounir el Motassadeq of direct involvement in the attacks, finding him not guilty of more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder. In 2003, the Moroccan became the first person anywhere to be convicted in connection with the Sept. 11, 2001 suicide hijackings but his conviction was overturned last year.
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