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World News Quick Take

■ China
`Door open' to Dalai Lama
Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) held open the door for dialogue with the Dalai Lama yesterday, but revealed Beijing's deep-seated fears of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader. "Our policy towards the Dalai Lama has been clear and consistent. That is to say as long as the Dalai Lama recognizes that Tibet and Taiwan are parts of inseparable Chinese territory and abandons splittist activities ... then the door is always open," He told a news conference. Wen accused the Dalai Lama of "demanding that all Chinese troops withdraw from Tibet." The winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize is not known to have called for troops to leave.

■ Australia
Imposter fools military
A truck driver who was once jailed for armed robbery posed as an army officer, mixed with top brass and talked his way into high-level security meetings, a court has been told. Peter Bennett, 54, started his 10-month fantasy military career in September 2005 when he wore formal military dress to gain entry to an air force base dinner, where he chatted to the air force chief, Air Vice-Marshal Geoffrey Shepherd. Melbourne's Age newspaper said over the following months, Bennett joined meetings of the defense force's security operation for last year's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, and received a defense force identity card.

■ Afghanistan
Ultimatum for reporter over
The Taliban movement, which threatened to kill an Italian journalist unless its demands were met, said yesterday the ultimatum was over but could be extended on request. Daniele Mastrogiacomo, 52, was kidnapped with two Afghan colleagues in southern Afghanistan on March 4. A top Taliban commander said last Saturday that the Italian would be killed in seven days unless two captured Taliban spokesmen were released and Italy set a date for the withdrawal of its 2,000 troops. Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said by telephone yesterday the ultimatum could be extended.

■ India
Strike hits West Bengal
The state of West Bengal was paralyzed yesterday by a general strike over the killing by police of 14 villagers protesting over forced land purchases to make way for industrial parks. Schools, shops and offices shut down across the eastern state, leaving the streets nearly empty, West Bengal's inspector general of police Raj Kanojia said. Some cases of arson and clashes between strikers and supporters of the state's ruling communist party were reported early in the day, he said. Soumitra Majumdar, a spokesman for Eastern Railways, said train services had been severely disrupted as protesters squatted on railway tracks.

■ Georgia
President pushes resilience
In his annual address to parliament, President Mikhail Saakashvili said on Thursday that the nation is shrugging off a virtual Russian trade embargo and that overall trade increased sharply last year despite the restrictions. In other remarks reflecting persistent tension in ties with Moscow, he reiterated his criticism of peacekeeping mechanisms that include Russian contingents in two separatist regions he is seeking to bring back to the fold. He said it was perhaps unprecedented that "a young country on the path of development has been subject to such economic pressure and so many blows in one year. But Georgia, and the Georgian people most of all, showed the whole world their strength and their ability to fight." He also stressed Tbilisi's desire to join NATO.

■ Macedonia
Greek troop chant irritates
The government protested to Athens on Thursday over a video distributed on the Internet which allegedly shows Greek soldiers chanting anti-Macedonian slogans while training. State Secretary Igor Ilievski handed the formal complaint to the Greek ambassador in Skopje. "This is contrary to the spirit of friendship and neighborly relations," the Foreign Ministry said. The Albanian government also complained last week about a similar video involving Greek soldiers and posted on the popular video sharing site YouTube. Greek defense officials have condemned the soldiers' conduct and ordered an inquiry into that incident and the video's authenticity.

■ Nigeria
French hostage rescued
Troops yesterday rescued a French oil worker who had been taken hostage by suspected ransom seekers on Feb. 7, oil industry sources said. The release of the contractor to French oil company Total means that there are no foreign hostages in the world's eighth-largest oil exporter for the first time this year. "The military was planning to storm the hideout and the kidnappers got wind of it and made a pre-emptive release," an oil industry source said, asking not to be named. A second industry source confirmed the release. A different group released two Italian hostages it had held for 98 days on Thursday.

■ France
Doctor convicted in death
A court in southwestern Perigueux convicted Dr Laurence Tramois on Thursday in the poisoning death of a terminally ill cancer patient. The court in gave a one-year suspended prison sentence over the Aug. 25, 2003 killing of pancreatic cancer patient Paulette Druais in the nearby town of Saint-Astier. The other defendant in the case, Chantal Chanel, a nurse who delivered the fatal dose of potassium prescribed by the doctor, was acquitted. In the trial, Tramois expressed regret that science was unable to help the patient. During the proceedings, Chanel, 40, said she "didn't have the impression of killing, but of helping [Druais] through the passage ... It was the cancer that killed her." Euthanasia is illegal in France.

■ Spain
Lump of ice falls out of sky
A football-sized block of ice hit the roof of an industrial building in Madrid, denting the roof but causing no injuries, police said on Thursday. "We don't know where it came from," the police spokeswoman said of the 20kg lump. "We've taken samples from the block which are in the process of being analyzed," she said.

■ United States
Strykers leave for Iraq
A ship carrying 300 Stryker vehicles and other military equipment has finally left Washington State bound for Iraq after more than a week of anti-war demonstrations. Port operations are back to normal after the ship left on Wednesday, Tacoma police detective Brad Graham said. The eight-wheeled Strykers, along with 700 other vehicles and equipment, are being shipped to Iraq in advance of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, a Stryker Combat Team heading to the country next month. War foes protested while the equipment was loaded onto the USNS Soderman, resulting in the arrest of 37 people since March 5, including 23 arrested on Sunday.

■ Cuba
Castro strolls with novelist
They were two old friends, each semi-retired, taking a stroll and catching up on each other's news. President Fidel Castro was out of his sick bed for a long walk and reportedly back to his old self, passionately discussing Latin American politics and global warming. The other surprise was his companion: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Nobel prize-winning novelist who vanished last week when the literary world wanted to celebrate his 80th birthday. Yesterday Marquez confirmed reports he had been in Cuba visiting Castro and said his host was in ebullient form. "It's the same old Fidel," the Colombian writer told the Spanish daily El Pais.

■ Mexico
Watchdog pans government
The National Human Rights Commission blasted the federal government for failing to stop the killing of 20 people, including a US activist-journalist, during a six-month long conflict in the southern city of Oaxaca last year. The human rights watchdog, a publicly funded organization, on Thursday handed a report to the Senate demanding the killings and other human-rights abuses are punished. "There were threats, persecution, physical aggression and acts of intimidation," the report said. "They should be cleared up and those responsible presented to the courts."

■ United States
`Black Widows' on trial
Two elderly women dubbed the "Black Widows" were ordered to stand trial on Thursday on charges of befriending two homeless men and murdering them in hit-and-run crashes to collect US$2.8 million in life insurance. Helen Golay, 76, and Olga Rutterschmidt, 74, are accused of making friends with the men, paying their rent and claiming to be a fiancee or cousin in order to take out life insurance premiums. Prosecutors told a preliminary hearing in Los Angeles that after waiting for two years, the women drugged the men, ran them over with their cars in dark alleys and collected US$2.8 million in the life insurance and accidental death policies they had taken out.

■ Ecuador
Seven injured in protest
At least seven people were injured when protesters attacked lawmakers as they tried to block a court ruling that ousted more than half of the politically unstable nation's legislature, police said. The electoral tribunal fired 57 of the 100 members of Congress last week, accusing them of interfering in a nationwide referendum to redraw the constitution. The ruling came after the lawmakers ordered impeachment proceedings against the court's majority. Police fired tear gas on Thursday to break up the crowd as legislators sought a legal injunction against that decision.

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