In the World
Two appointed to new EU posts
BRUSSELS, Belgium - European Union leaders yesterday handed the group's top new positions to two little-known compromise figures, dashing hopes of those who wanted to raise the continent's global profile.Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy was chosen as EU president, and EU trade commissioner Catherine Ashton of Britain was named foreign-policy chief.
The new positions are aimed at giving the EU a bigger role in such global issues as climate change, terrorism, and trade.
The appointments suggested that the need for compromise outweighed the desire for big names like former British leader Tony Blair, who was once considered a leading contender for the presidential job.
- AP
Russian court ends death penalty
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - Russia's Constitutional Court effectively outlawed the death penalty yesterday, saying a moratorium on capital punishment should remain in force until the nation fully bans executions.Constitutional Court chief Valery Zorkin said Russia must extend the moratorium on executions until it ratifies a European convention banning the death penalty.
Russia announced a moratorium on capital punishment in 1996 and pledged to abolish it, but parliament has been reluctant to do so because of public support for the death penalty.
There is public pressure for convicted murderers and serial killers, as well as terrorists from the North Caucasus, to be executed. - AP
Acquittal in blast at French firm
TOULOUSE, France - A court yesterday acquitted a subsidiary of the French oil giant Total and a former factory chief in a 2001 explosion at a chemical plant that killed 31 people and injured 2,000.The court in Toulouse acquitted the former chief of the AZF chemical fertilizer plant, Serge Biechlin, and Total subsidiary Grande Paroisse after a nine-month trial, citing "reasonable doubt" because there was no direct proof that they were responsible for the explosion.
No one has been convicted in the explosion that tore apart the chemical plant with the force of a magnitude-3.4 earthquake. It came 10 days after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, raising fears at the time of a link with terrorism.
- AP
Elsewhere:
The extremist group Hezbollah in Lebanon said Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has been reelected as the group's leader for a sixth term. A statement yesterday did not say when top Hezbollah officials voted to reelect Nasrallah as the guerrilla group's secretary-general.
A government-appointed panel in Kenya unveiled a draft constitution as part of an effort to avoid a repeat of political violence that left 1,000 people dead after the 2007 presidential elections. The proposed constitution could help eliminate political parties based on ethnicity, a step leaders believe will reduce violence.
A rare white tiger was killed by two lions at the Liberec Zoo in northern Czech Republic. Officials said the lions managed to enter an open-air area occupied by the 17-year-old tiger, Isabella.
