JAMAICA
Leader rejects election results
KINGSTON — Jamaica’s first female prime minister refused to accept a razor-thin defeat that apparently ended her party’s nearly 20 years in power, but the head of an international observer team said yesterday that the vote was “free, fair and credible.”
The opposition Jamaica Labor Party won 31 of the 60 seats in the House of Representatives Monday, just enough to oust Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and her People’s National Party.
Mrs. Simpson Miller said several races were so close that they could switch in a recount and complained of irregularities.
IRAN
Inspectors dispute nuclear claims
VIENNA, Austria — There is no evidence to support the Iranian president’s announcement that Iran has 3,000 centrifuges running, which would allow it to produce significant amounts of nuclear fuel, diplomats familiar with U.N. inspections said.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defiantly proclaimed the achievement on Sunday after Western powers cast doubt on an Iranian atomic transparency plan and warned of stiffer sanctions against Tehran over its refusal to stop enriching uranium.
Nuclear specialists say 3,000 centrifuges running smoothly in unison at supersonic speed for long periods could refine enough uranium for an atomic bomb in about a year.
BELGIUM
Scientologists face fraud charge
BRUSSELS — A Belgian prosecutor yesterday recommended that the U.S.-based Church of Scientology stand trial for fraud and extortion, after a 10-year investigation concluded that the group should be labeled a criminal organization.
Scientology said it would fight the criminal charges recommended by investigating prosecutor Jean-Claude Van Espen, who said that up to 12 people, not identified, should face charges.
Scientology has been active in Belgium for nearly three decades. In 2003, it opened an international office near the headquarters of the European Union to lobby for its right to be recognized as an official religious group, a status it does not hold in Belgium.
ETHIOPIA
Stray dogs to be poisoned
ADDIS ABABA — Authorities plan to kill tens of thousands of stray dogs in the Ethiopian capital using strychnine-laced meat, saying they want to eradicate rabies before the celebration of the Coptic millennium next week.
Animal rights activists and commentators have condemned the proposal.
Efrem Legese, president of the Homeless Animals Protection Society, said authorities should sterilize the dogs instead of killing them.
AFGHANISTAN
Security forces claim hostage taker killed
KABUL — Afghan security forces said yesterday that they had killed a Taliban commander behind the July kidnappings of 23 South Korean church workers. The Taliban denied that the dead man was one of their militants.
Up to 27 other insurgents also were slain, officials said.
The Taliban commander, named as Mullah Mateen, was among 16 militants killed in fighting late Monday and early yesterday in Ghazni province, where the South Koreans were abducted.
Two of the hostages were executed and the rest were freed.,
From wire dispatches and staff reports
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