World Scene

KENYA

Volcano eruption sends many fleeing

NAIROBI — A volcano spewed ash and dark smoke on the main island of the Comoros archipelago yesterday, sending hundreds of people fleeing from their homes, a U.N. official said.

The 7,746-foot Mount Karthala, one of two active volcanoes on Grand Comore island, last erupted in July 1991. No one was killed then, but tens of thousands of villagers fled their homes. The volcano is known to erupt every 11 years.

Officials urged residents to leave eastern parts of Grand Comore and mobilized trucks to help.

The volcano has the world’s largest volcanic basin — an attraction for hikers.

AUSTRIA

Haider makes comeback

SALZBURG — Austria’s far-right icon Joerg Haider was elected to the leadership of his new party, Alliance for Austria’s Future (BZO), yesterday as he seeks a second wind in his roller-coaster career.

The ambitious 55-year-old politician said April 4 that he would abandon Austria’s junior governing coalition member, the Freedom Party, after five years of worsening results and set up the more moderate BZO, which celebrated its founding congress in Salzburg yesterday.

The charismatic and media savvy Mr. Haider, who is a brilliant orator, wants to relaunch the Austrian far right he led to many victories since taking the helm of the Freedom Party in 1986 up to the day it won 27 percent of the vote in the 2000 legislative election.

AFGHANISTAN

Warlord to take government post

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