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World News Quick Take

■ INDIA

Rapists get life sentences

A court punished 11 Hindus with life in prison on Monday for gang-raping a pregnant Muslim woman and murdering her family during one of India's worst riots in which hundreds of people, mostly Muslims, were slaughtered. The court also jailed a policeman for three years for falsifying evidence in a trial seen as testing whether Muslim victims of the 2002 riots in the western Gujarat state could get justice. Human rights groups say about 2,500 people were hacked, beaten or burned to death in the riots that started after 59 Hindu activists burned to death inside a train in Gujarat. Hindu groups blamed a Muslim mob for the train fire, but a subsequent inquiry panel said it was an accident.

■ INDIA

Officials talk tourist safety

Tourism officials are meeting this week to discuss the safety of tourists after at least seven foreign women and girls said they had been raped or molested over the past 20 days, a ministry spokesman said. Several of the alleged attacks took place in Rajasthan, one of the country's popular tourist destinations. The tourism ministry is worried reports could deter potential visitors, which sees about 4 million foreign tourists each year. "We've asked states to report to us what happened in these incidents and how they can not be repeated," a ministry spokesman said.

■ AUSTRALIA

Pyongyang to close embassy

North Korea will close its embassy in Canberra because Pyongyang cannot afford the bills to keep it operating, the foreign ministry said yesterday. North Korean diplomats informed officials in November that the four-person embassy would shut next month. "The embassy advised that they plan to continue with non-resident diplomatic accreditation from Jakarta," a foreign ministry spokesman said. The mission said in a letter it was closing because of "financial reasons." Australia is one of a few Western countries to have diplomatic ties with the state.

■ BANGLADESH

Teachers sentenced to jail

A court sentenced three university teachers to two years in jail yesterday for inciting student unrest in August that caused the army-backed government to impose curfews in major cities, court officials said. The three were among four teachers from Dhaka University who were acquitted on Monday of violating emergency rules in another case related to the student unrest. "The court found them guilty for inciting the unrest, while the other was acquitted as charges could not be proved against him," a court registrar said. They were arrested under the country's emergency rules and later investigated by a judicial commission.

■ CHINA

Beijing exceeds growth goal

Scrambling to provide water and infrastructure for its burgeoning population, Beijing has exceeded its target population of 16 million two years early, state media reported yesterday. The number of permanent residents reached 16.33 million at the end of last year, an increase of 520,000 on the previous year, the Beijing statistics bureau said on www.chinanews.com.cn. The population, comprising 12.13 million residents carrying hukou (戶口), or residence permits, and some 4.2 million migrant workers, had surpassed the city's 2010 ceiling of 16 million two years early. Last year's increase was the fastest in five years for Beijing, which has become a magnet for workers seeking work on massive projects for the Games opening in August.

■ CZECH REPUBLIC

Nurse had thirst for 'action'

A nurse charged with murdering seven of his patients and attempting to kill another 10 said he was motivated by a thirst for "action" at the opening of his trial on Monday. Peter Zelenka -- dubbed the "Heparin murderer" -- is accused of killing patients by administering the anti-blood clotting agent Heparin at the hospital in the central city of Havlickuv Brod between May and September 2006. The doses provoked massive hemorrhages. "I needed to do something, action, I knew that if I gave them [patients] Heparin, the doctor would come and something would happen," to liven up his job, Zelenka said, according to the Czech agency CTK.

■ RUSSIA

Kasyanov accused of forgery

Prosecutors are investigating opposition presidential candidate Mikhail Kasyanov on suspicion of forging signatures in support of his bid, Russian news agencies reported yesterday. Kasyanov, a former prime minister under President Vladimir Putin who has become an outspoken critic of his old boss, has accused the Kremlin of trying to sabotage his election bid. Kasyanov, a pro-Western liberal, has submitted 2 million signatures from voters supporting his bid -- a legal requirement for independent candidates. The criminal probe could give election officials grounds to disqualify him from the race.

■ ICELAND

Fischer hurriedly buried

Reclusive chess genius Bobby Fischer was buried in a private ceremony at a churchyard in southern Iceland, a television station reported. Fischer, who died of kidney failure on Thursday at the age of 64, was interred on Monday at Laugardaelir church outside the town of Selfoss, Iceland's Channel 2 reported, citing the parish priest. Reverend Kristinn Agust Fridfinnsson told the TV station the ceremony was arranged so hastily he did not arrive until after the burial was over. The church is located on land owned by a family member of Fischer's Icelandic friend and spokesman, Gardar Sverrisson. The funeral was attended by only a handful of people, including Fischer's longtime companion, Miyoko Watai, and Sverrisson.

■ FRANCE

Tax on luxury hotels mulled

France's culture minister on Monday proposed a tax on tourists who stay in luxury hotels to raise money for renovations to historic monuments. Christine Albanel, whose ministry issued a report this week suggesting that about 40 percent of historic monuments are in bad shape, said she had been looking at ways to find money for repairs. One idea is a new game from the national lottery service, while another is a tax of about 2 euros (US$2.93) on stays at four and five-star hotels.

■ LITHUANIA

'Cold war' worries president

Strong economic growth in Russia may be spurring it to embark on a "cold war" strategy, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said in an interview published yesterday. Speaking to the Financial Times from London, Adamkus said: "The question comes up whether a very strong financial recovery in Russia is a stimulus for the new Russian leadership to return to the cold war. It's a big question mark. I don't believe that at the present time any of us, big or small -- the European Union, the US or other big powers -- definitely has the answer. But I believe the same big question is in everybody's mind in the western world.

■ IRAQ

Suicide blast injures 21

A suicide bomber detonated his explosives in front of a high school in Iraq's violent Diyala Province yesterday, wounding 21 people, police said. Students, teachers, bystanders and at least one policeman were among the wounded in the 8:30am attack in the provincial capital, Baqubah, a police officer said. The bomber's target was unclear. The school is next to the provincial governor's office and a municipal building. Meanwhile, in Baghdad's Shiite eastern Mashtal area, a roadside bombing wounded two policemen yesterday morning, a Baghdad police officer said.

■ UNITED STATES

Stone talks up Bush film

Oliver Stone, an Iraq war critic, is ready to put the life of US President George W. Bush on the big screen in a movie that he says will be fair and accurate. The Oscar-winning director has been quietly shopping a script for "Bush" -- a film focusing on Bush's life and presidency, the Daily Variety said. Stone, an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq, told the trade paper he was not looking to make an anti-Bush polemic. He said he wanted "a fair, true portrait of the man. How did Bush go from being an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world?"

■ CHILE

Activist passes 100-day fast

An indigenous-rights activist jailed for setting fire to a farm once owned by Mapuche Indians passed the 100-day mark of a prison hunger strike by urging colleagues to "continue to fight" for the recovery of their lands. "Let's keep advancing, more united than ever to defend our rights to land and freedom," Patricia Troncoso said in a letter dated Jan. 18, the 100th day of her fast, and released by other activists on Monday. "Each one of us has a responsibility, the responsibility of continuing to defend all those who generously fight to support the Mapuche Nation, communities and exploited poor people," she wrote from the southern hospital where prison officials sent her eight days ago as her health failed.

■ ECUADOR

Oil contracts under review

The government has begun renegotiating contracts with five international oil companies to boost state control over the country's crude, Oil and Mines Minister Galo Chiriboga said on Monday. The administration is seeking to renegotiate contracts that allow the state to pay firms a fee for their service, while making sure the government owns all the crude, Chiriboga said. Foreign companies currently own the oil they extract.The five companies with which officials are negotiating are: U.S-based City Oriente, Spain's Repsol YPF, Brazil's state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, French-owned Perenco SA, and the Chinese company Andes Petroleum Corp.

■ UNITED STATES

Army has fewer graduates

The rate of Army recruits with a high school diploma dropped last year, continuing a trend that has worsened since the start of the Iraq War, according to a report released yesterday. National Priorities Project, a research group that analyzes federal data, found that nearly 71 percent of Army recruits graduated from high school in the 2007 budget year. It based its findings on data it obtained from the Defense Department through a Freedom of Information Act request. All troops must have a high school diploma or an equivalent degree. The military prefers that they have a high school diploma because its studies have shown they are more likely to finish an enlistment term.