World Scene

SUDAN

Opposition leader freed from prison

KHARTOUM — Sudan yesterday announced the imminent end of a state of emergency across most of the giant country and began releasing political prisoners, including the leading Islamic opposition figure Hassan Turabi, in moves that prepare for a transfer to a transitional government with former rebels.

Sudan has been under a state of emergency for 16 years — ever since President Omar el-Bashir seized power in the largest country in Africa.

The emergency will not be lifted in Darfur, the western region where a rebellion and counterinsurgency has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, and the eastern Red Sea and Kassala states, where there have been occasional anti-government violence and protests.

ZIMBABWE

Deaths reported in crackdown

LONDON — At least three persons, including a pregnant woman and a child, were killed yesterday as the Zimbabwean government destroys what it says are illegal houses, Amnesty International said.

The deaths occurred during the past 48 hours of destruction at the Porta Farm settlement near Harare and the eviction of 10,000 residents, the human rights watchdog said yesterday.

President Robert Mugabe’s government — returned to power in March in elections widely considered to have been rigged — insists the campaign is simply eradicating illegal housing.

CYPRUS

Parliament ratifies EU constitution

NICOSIA — Cyprus yesterday defied skeptical EU partners to ratify the troubled EU constitution in the hope its endorsement of the charter would help offset bitter referendum defeats in France and the Netherlands.

The 56-seat parliament approved the constitution by a vote of 30-19, with one abstention, after a special two-day session.

Cyprus was one of 10 new members that joined the European Union in May 2004 despite the failure of a U.N. peace plan to reunify the eastern Mediterranean island after three decades years of division.

NORTH KOREA

Work said to resume on nuclear reactors

TOKYO — North Korea has resumed building two nuclear reactors whose construction was suspended under a 1994 agreement with the United States, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday.

The communist state has told the United States “through indirect channels” that it has resumed construction of a 50,000-kilowatt reactor in Yongbyon and a 200,000-kilowatt one in Taechon, according to the evening edition of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, which cited U.S. government and other sources.

Fresh building work has been confirmed through spy satellite photographs and other data, the sources told the business daily.

Lebanon

Anti-Syrian official named prime minister

BEIRUT — President Emile Lahoud appointed an anti-Syrian official to lead the first Lebanese government in three decades that will be free of interference from Damascus.

Fuad Saniora served as finance minister under Rafik Hariri, a former prime minister whose assassination in February triggered a sea change in Lebanese politics that led to the final Syrian troop withdrawal in April after 29 years.

Mr. Saniora, a veteran banker, was nominated by the biggest bloc in the new parliament, led by Mr. Hariri’s son, Saad.

Saad Hariri’s allies in the 128-seat parliament supported his choice, and Mr. Saniora was nominated by 126 of the members.

In Washington, the Bush administration yesterday froze the assets of two top Syrian officials — Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan and intelligence chief Rustum Ghazali — for their role in destabilizing Lebanon.