World
"Our republic vehemently denounces and roundly refutes" the imposition of sanctions by the UN Security Council, North Korea's Foreign Ministry said, announcing a "bolstering" of its deterrent force "in every way." The sanctions, passed Saturday by unanimous vote, require that UN member states prevent the export or import of any material or funds related to the North's weapons of mass destruction. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that the North "will eventually realize that [it's] got to come back" to the six-sided negotiations on halting its nuclear weapons program.
Peace negotiations with neighboring Pakistan that were due to open Thursday were postponed by India's government, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanded "a firm commitment" to reining in terrorists. Singh said Sunday that Pakistan also must back such a commitment "by action on the ground." He stopped short of accusing Pakistan of having a hand in last week's terrorist bombings of a train, which killed or wounded almost 1,000 people in Mumbai (Bombay), but said the attack was "on a scale that could not be accomplished without some external involvement."
Radicals in the ranks of Chechnya's separatist rebels appeared unwilling to agree either to a call for surrender by Aug. 1 or to their own exiled foreign minister's offer to negotiate "some other solution" with Russian leaders. Russia's Federal Security Service chief suggested Sunday that Chechen militants who "switch to the side of the people" could avoid prosecution unless they're suspected of "grave crimes." But in an Internet posting, new rebel leader Doku Umarov said, "the war continues." Umarov succeeded the notorious Shamil Basayev, who died in an explosion July 10.
A harsh response was being signaled by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Sunday to the latest wave of violence blamed on Kurdish separatist rebels. Erdogan said members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), attacking from neighboring Iraq, were "mercilessly martyring the sons of the country" and the growing list of casualties was "unbearable." At least 12 soldiers and a village guard have been killed in the past four days. The PKK broke a five-year-old cease-fire in 2004 because of Turkey's refusal to meet it for peace negotiations.
As many as 30,000 Haitians jammed the streets of their capital Saturday to demand the return of exiled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the freeing of political prisoners. The protest outside the National Palace in Port-au-Prince followed a week of new political violence in which more than 20 people died. New President René Préval blames the unrest on criminal gangs. But civic organizations and foreign diplomats have become impatient over his inability so far to impose effective public safety measures.
A rally even larger than the roughly 100,000 people who turned out July 8 was anticipated in Mexico City Sunday by supporters of defeated leftist presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador. But although it was designed to put further pressure on the nation's electoral court to force a second complete recount of votes, results of a new national opinion poll showed that 60 percent of respondents oppose that and 75 percent said the organizer of the July 2 election had been impartial. The electoral court has said it will rule on López Obrador's demand by Aug. 31 and will formally announce the winner a week later.
Floodwaters as deep as 10 feet forced the evacuation of a majorprison in southeastern China Sunday, and authorities were regularly revising the number of casualties across the region, putting the latest casualty count at 115 dead. Tropical storm Bilis also was blamed for more than 340 injuries, and thousands of houses were washed away. The storm followed on the heels of weather- related disasters last month that killed 349 people.