World

Saying, "The need is urgent," the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe sent legal experts to Kyrgyzstan to try to unravel the rival claims to power there. Calm returned to the streets of Bishkek, the capital, after President Askar Akayev's flight to Russia last week. But the nation remained torn as the parliament elected in the disputed election earlier this month and the legislature that lost it met separately. The new parliament is dominated by Akayev loyalists. Although now in exile, Akayev did not resign, further complicating the situation because the old parliament has scheduled a June 26 election to replace him.

Another terrorist bomb exploded in a Christian area of Lebanon Saturday night, wounding five more people and causing heavy property damage. The blast, the third in eight days, overshadowed Easter celebrations and escalated tensions higher still between the nation's pro- and anti-Syrian camps. Pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud pleaded for unity and pledged to do "all we can" to quell the violence. But his opponents predicted still more attacks as parliamentary elections in May approach.

Seeking to reverse their setbacks of the past week, terrorists in Iraq struck back with a series of weekend attacks, among them the attempted assassination of a senior Kurdish leader and the apparent execution of an Interior Ministry official. However, the Defense Ministry said Iraqi and US forces captured 121 terrorist suspects Saturday in a raid south of Baghdad and uncovered a major cache of assault rifles, rockets and rocket launchers, mortar rounds, and car bombs.

Video and news pictures of the massive protest in Taiwan Saturday were censored on the Chinese mainland, and the government-controlled media scorned it as a "carnival." Still, the Beijing government warned that the march had stirred "new tension" and issued a reminder of its new antisecession law, which authorizes military force if Taiwan makes any move toward independence. Police in Taiwan's capital estimated that the march attracted a half-million protesters against the law.

Suspicion fell immediately on Islamic extremists for the ambush of a maintenance train in southern Thailand Sunday that wounded at least 19 people. The attack, a remote-controlled explosion that derailed the train followed by gunfire from hiding, was the fourth in a week as Muslim rebels appear to be picking up the intensity of their campaign for separatism.