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.

SUDAN

Ambassador dares U.S. to send troops

NEW YORK -- Sudan's U.N. ambassador challenged the United States to send troops to the Darfur region if it really thinks a genocide is taking place as the U.S. Congress and President Bush have determined.

Elfatih Mohammed Erwa said: "If it is really a genocide, they should be committed to send troops. This is why I don't think they're genuine about its being genocide."

CANADA

Supreme Court weighs gay 'marriage'

OTTAWA -- Canadian government lawyers opened a landmark case before the Supreme Court yesterday, arguing that same-sex "marriage" should be supported as a matter of justice.

Supporters include the attorney general of Canada, the Canadian Human Rights Commission, homosexual groups and the Presbyterian and Methodist churches.

BRITAIN

Nobel-winning DNA pioneer dies

LONDON -- Nobel laureate Maurice Wilkins, one of the scientists involved in the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA, died yesterday in London. He was 88.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1962.