World Scene

NORTH KOREA

6-party nuke talks to resume Tuesday

BEIJING — Talks on dismantling North Korea’s nuclear program will resume next week, China said yesterday, even as Pyongyang raised a possible obstacle to progress by renewing its demands for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula.

Six-nation talks are due to resume Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said. Speaking at a regular news briefing, he appealed to all sides to be “flexible and practical” in trying to reach a settlement to the dispute.

SRI LANKA

Bomb scare triggers stampede; 1 dead

COLOMBO — Panicked travelers stampeded off a Saudi airliner during a bomb-scare evacuation yesterday at Sri Lanka’s international airport, killing one person and injuring dozens.

The Saudi Airlines flight, carrying 430 passengers and 22 crew members, was taxiing on the runway for takeoff when the pilot received a call from the control tower about a bomb threat.

The plane stopped, the emergency doors opened and passengers poured out.

PAKISTAN

Suspect held in car bombing

KARACHI — An Islamic militant wanted in connection with a car bomb attack that killed 11 French engineers and four others was arrested yesterday after a shootout, police said.

Mufti Mohammed Sabir was arrested near a bus terminal after arriving from Rawalpindi, a city near the capital of Islamabad, police said.

Sabir is suspected to have packed a car with explosives that were detonated in front of Karachi’s Sheraton Hotel on May 8, 2002, killing the French nationals who were building a submarine for Pakistan’s navy.

RUSSIA

Yeltsin has surgery after fall in Italy

MOSCOW — Former President Boris Yeltsin underwent hip surgery yesterday in a Moscow hospital, a day after he fell and broke one of his legs while vacationing on an Italian island, Russian news agencies reported.

Mr. Yeltsin, 74, was recovering after the operation, which proceeded with no complications, a doctor said.

On Wednesday, Mr. Yeltsin broke his thigh bone while staying at a home in the exclusive resort town of Porto Rotondo on the island of Sardinia.

INDIA

Encephalitis toll rises to 594

LUCKNOW — The death toll from an outbreak of Japanese encephalitis in northern India reached 594, officials said yesterday, as 53 more persons died overnight. Authorities struggled to find money for pesticides that could stop the spread of the mosquito-borne disease.

Hospitals in India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh, are struggling to cope with the influx of patients suffering from the disease.

As many as 123 persons were hospitalized in state-run institutions overnight, bringing the total number of reported infections to 2,400.

ITALY

Quake shakes Alpine region

ROME — An earthquake rattled the Alpine region near the Italian ski resort town of Courmayeur yesterday, officials said, but no damage or injuries were reported.

The tremor had a preliminary magnitude of 4.4, and its epicenter was located about 21,000 feet under the Pennine Alps in the Swiss-French border area, according to the National Institute of Geophysics in Rome.

From wire dispatches and staff reports