World Scene

HAITI

Aristide backers threaten beheadings

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Enraged supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide armed themselves with machetes, guns, rocks and bottles, and roamed a downtown slum, threatening to behead foreigners while Haitian police arrested dozens of people yesterday.

As gunfire crackled and two helicopters roared overhead, U.N. peacekeepers in armored personnel carriers moved into Bel Air, trying to put down a campaign by Aristide loyalists who have carried out gory beheadings in imitation of Iraqi insurgents.

Stepping up their protests, the crowds demanded the former president’s return from exile in South Africa. They called themselves “Operation Baghdad.”

IRAQ

Suicide bomber kills 16, injures 30

BAGHDAD — A suicide car bomber plowed into an Iraqi military checkpoint northwest of Baghdad yesterday, killing 16 Iraqis and wounding about 30, as U.S. and Iraqi forces sealed off roads south of the capital in a campaign to curb the insurgency before January’s elections.

The car bomb attack occurred about 11:15 a.m. at an Iraqi national guard encampment near Anah.

TURKEY

EU to start membership talks

BRUSSELS — The European Union’s head office yesterday recommended the start of EU membership talks for Turkey, but said the negotiations could be halted if Ankara backtracks on sweeping democratic and human rights reforms.

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