China’s capital smothered by fog
Beijing’s weather office warned children and the elderly to stay indoors Friday as heavy fog blanketed the host city of the 2008 Olympics, exacerbating its chronic air pollution, Chinese state media reported.
Fog caused severe delays at Beijing airport and reduced visibility in the center of the city to less than 200 yards.
Mumbai, India
Bombers reported lurking in city
Police warned Friday that three suicide bombers are roaming Mumbai and looking for targets more than a year after a series of bombs ripped through the city’s commuter rail network.
Police in the city have been on alert since the July 2006 commuter-train bombings killed 188 people and wounded more than 800. Thirteen men with alleged links to two Islamic militants groups, Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, or Army of the Pure, and the Students’ Islamic Movement of India, have been arrested in connection with the blasts.
A taxi driver who took the three suspects to landmarks in the city said they discussed security at the places they visited.
Washington
USS Cole terrorist freed in Yemen
The White House sharply criticized Yemen on Friday for releasing one of the al-Qaida masterminds of the USS Cole bombing in 2000 that killed 17 American sailors.
Jamal al-Badawi, wanted by the FBI, was convicted in 2004 of plotting, preparing and helping carry out the USS Cole bombing and received a death sentence that was commuted to 15 years in prison.
He and 22 others, mostly al-Qaida fighters, escaped from prison in 2004. But al-Badawi was granted his freedom after turning himself in 15 days ago and pledging loyalty to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a senior security official in Yemen disclosed Thursday.
Yangon, Myanmar
Opposition party members released
The military government released 50 members of Myanmar’s pro-democracy party on the same day it met with their leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a response to international pressure over the crushing of peaceful demonstrations, a party spokesman said Friday.
Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N. envoy trying to broker a compromise between Suu Kyi and the junta, told reporters in Japan that the meeting was a good beginning.
Ten monks and 50 members of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy were among 70 people freed Thursday from the infamous Insein Prison in Yangon, said Nyan Win, a spokesman for the party.
Santiago, Chile
Charges dropped against Pinochet kin
A Chilean appeals court on Friday dropped corruption charges against former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s widow and four of his children, who had been accused of embezzling state money in multimillion-dollar overseas bank accounts.
The Santiago Court of Appeals also dropped charges against 10 of the late dictator’s former associates and aides.
Pinochet’s family and associates were indicted Oct. 4 as part of Judge Carlos Cerda’s investigation into the former dictator’s bank accounts in the United States and elsewhere. Pinochet himself was under indictment in the case when he died in December at age 91.
Also
Terrorist sentenced: Algerian Rachid Ramda was convicted and sentenced to life in prison Friday for helping fund and organize a string of deadly terror attacks in Paris 12 years ago by the now-defunct GIA terrorist group.
Afghan bombing: A suicide bomber detonated his explosives at the entrance to a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan today, killing three Afghan soldiers and one Afghan civilian, a U.S. official said.
Seattle Times news services