World Scene

LATVIA

Grounded ship strands 984

RIGA — A cruise ship with 984 people on board ran aground early yesterday in the Baltic Sea, off the northwest coast of Latvia, the coast guard said.

The Bahamas-registered Mona Lisa had embarked from Kiel, Germany, and was destined for Riga when it ran aground on a sand bank about 10 miles from the Latvian coast in the Irbe Strait between Latvia and the Estonian island of Saaremaa.

Latvian coast guard service spokeswoman Liene Ulbina said the passengers, most of whom are German, were safe and not at immediate risk.

AFGHAN

Assassin probe cites government workers

KABUL — Top officials say they have arrested two Afghan government employees accused of being involved in a plot to kill President Hamid Karzai.

Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak says a police nurse and a Defense Ministry weapons expert supported the gunmen who targeted Mr. Karzai at an April 27 military parade.

Mr. Karzai escaped unharmed but three other people, including a lawmaker, died.

BRITAIN

Brown admits flaws after election loss

LONDON — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said yesterday that concerns about rising prices of food, utilities and gasoline contributed to his party’s worst local election results in 40 years.

Mr. Brown responded to reports that the outcome has shaken confidence in his leadership of the Labor Party.

The party took 24 percent of the vote in Thursday’s local elections in England and Wales, which were capped by Labor losing control of London’s City Hall to Conservative candidate Boris Johnson.

BANGLADESH

U.S. sending food for school meals

DHAKA, Bangladesh — The United States yesterday announced $40 million in food aid for Bangladesh, which is facing shortages after floods and a devastating cyclone last year.

James F. Moriarty, the U.S. ambassador to Dhaka, said about $10 million in aid would be used to meet emergency food needs while the rest would be distributed over the next three years, mainly through school feeding programs.

The emergency aid will primarily benefit people who lost their property in last year’s Tropical Cyclone Sidr, Mr. Moriarty said.

JAPAN

Population decline hits Children’s Day

TOKYO — Japan, which designates every May 5 as Children’s Day, has fewer children to celebrate than at any other time in the past century.

A government report released yesterday said there were 17.25 million children ages 14 or younger as of April — a record low for the 27th consecutive year.

Children’s share of the general population — 13.5 percent — is the lowest ever recorded.

CHINA

Torch finds friendly reception

SANYA — Cheering Chinese stood on their chairs and waved flags as the Olympic torch started its mainland leg yesterday on the tropical island of Hainan — the first stop in what is expected to be a peaceful three-month journey to Beijing.

Protests followed the torch overseas, but organizers in the seaside resort of Sanya promised a trouble-free national tour that will wind through every Chinese province and region before arriving in Beijing prior to the start of the Olympics on Aug. 8.

Some Chinese, including the torchbearers, seemed relieved the flame was safely home.

ITALY

Libya accused of interference

ROME — Italy’s foreign minister attacked Libya’s warning against appointing a far-right lawmaker to a ministerial post as “intolerable” interference in internal affairs, adding to a growing political outcry over the issue.

Italian lawmakers have been angered by a Libyan charity’s warning of “catastrophic repercussions” to bilateral ties if Roberto Calderoli — a maverick lawmaker known for his anti-Islamic rhetoric — becomes reforms minister as expected.

The issue now risks becoming the first diplomatic headache for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s new government.

AUSTRIA

Incest father called ’a broken man’

VIENNA — The attorney for the Austrian man who held his daughter captive and fathered her seven children said yesterday his client was “emotionally, a broken man.”

Lawyer Rudolf Mayer told Reuters Television that it would be hard for Josef Fritzl to get a fair trial in front of a jury because of the massive publicity generated by the case.

Mr. Fritzl, 73, has admitted keeping his daughter Elisabeth in a cellar for 24 years. Three of her children had spent their entire lives underground until the case was uncovered just over a week ago.

From wire dispatches and staff reports