World Scene

VATICAN CITY

Pope discusses sex, love in encyclical

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI warned in his first encyclical yesterday that sex without unconditional love risked turning men and women into merchandise.

In the 71-page document “God Is Love,” Pope Benedict explored the relationship between the erotic love of man and woman, referred to by the term “eros,” and the Greek word for the unconditional, self-giving love, “agape.”

He said the two concepts are most unified in marriage between a man and a woman, in which a covetous love grows into the self-giving love of the other, as well as God’s unconditional love for mankind.

CHILE

Pinochet’s daughter detained at Dulles

SANTIAGO — A daughter of former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet was detained at Washington’s Dulles International Airport yesterday while customs officials sought to determine whether to return her to Chile to face indictments on tax evasion and false passport charges.

Lucia Pinochet, 60, was taken into custody when she got off a flight from Argentina.

The Chilean government said later yesterday that Miss Pinochet has requested political asylum in the United States.

CHINA

Google agrees to censor search

SHANGHAI — Google Inc. introduced a search engine in China yesterday that censors material about human rights, Tibet and other topics sensitive to Beijing — defending the move as a trade-off that grants the Chinese people greater access to other information.

Within minutes of the launch of the new site bearing China’s Web suffix “.cn,” searches for the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement showed scores of sites omitted, and users were directed to articles condemning the group posted on Chinese government Web sites.

IRAN

U.S., Britain blamed in bombing

TEHRAN — Iran’s president yesterday blamed “the occupiers of Iraq” — referring to the United States and Britain — for two bombings that killed at least nine persons in the southwestern city of Ahvaz.

The foreign minister said the bombers were supported by the British military, which is based in southern Iraq. Ahvaz has a history of violence involving members of Iran’s Arab minority.

A spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s office called the accusations “ludicrous.”

BRITAIN

Paper loses appeal in Galloway libel

LONDON — The Daily Telegraph yesterday lost its libel appeal against flamboyant British anti-Iraq war lawmaker George Galloway over its report that he accepted large sums of money from former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime.

The court of appeal rejected the paper’s argument that its claims were in the public interest and upheld a damages award of $268,000 granted to Mr. Galloway by the High Court in December 2004.

The Telegraph reported in 2003 that Mr. Galloway had received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Saddam’s regime via the United Nations’ oil-for-food program.

BRITAIN

Harry could see service in Iraq war

LONDON — Prince Harry, the third in line to the British throne, will join one of the army’s oldest and most prestigious units, making him eligible for service in Iraq, the Ministry of Defense said yesterday.

Harry, 21, will serve in the Blues and Royals Regiment of the Household Cavalry, which has been deployed to Iraq.

SERBIA-MONTENEGRO

Rugova to receive state funeral

PRISTINA, Kosovo — The province prepared a state funeral today for President Ibrahim Rugova, enshrining him for posterity as father of the ethnic Albanian struggle for independence from Serbia.

Police said they were braced for up to 1 million to attend, roughly half the population of the disputed province.

Mr. Rugova died of lung cancer on Saturday.

SRI LANKA

Government, rebels agree on truce talks

KILINOCHCHI — Sri Lanka’s government and Tamil Tiger rebels said yesterday they would hold talks in Switzerland on implementing a strained 2002 truce, easing war fears.

A string of suspected rebel attacks on troops in the Tamil-dominated north and east in the past two months killed more than 200.

The talks could be held in Geneva next month, Norwegian truce broker Erik Solheim said. The rebels had previously said they would accept talks only in Oslo.

From wire dispatches and staff reports