World scene

BRITAIN

Lords reject detention plan

LONDON | Britain’s House of Lords rejected a controversial plan to extend the amount of time that police can hold terror suspects without charge from 28 to 42 days, and the government said it would abandon the proposal.

The 309-118 vote came after an impassioned debate Monday, dealing the government a significant defeat. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said hours after the vote that the government would drop the 42-day clause from the government’s counterterrorism bill.

But Ms. Smith said a different version would be put into new legislation even though it wouldn’t be automatic - prosecutors would have to apply to a court each time they wanted a terror suspect held for that long and Parliament would then have to vote on each case if the court agreed to it.

The government had said the initial proposal - endorsed by the House of Commons in June by a margin of only nine votes - was needed to fight the complex international terrorist threats facing Britain.

The government’s effort to strengthen counterterrorism provisions gathered backing after suicide bombers killed 52 rush-hour commuters in London in July 2005.

BELARUS

EU suspends travel ban

LUXEMBOURG | The European Union suspended travel bans on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and dozens of other officials Monday as a reward for freeing political prisoners, but kept some sanctions in place.

In a further move to warm relations with former Soviet republics key to the bloc’s aim of diversifying its energy supply routes, EU ministers also ended most sanctions against gas-rich Uzbekistan after citing human rights progress in the Central Asian state, and pledged deeper ties with Moldova.

EU foreign ministers suspended for six months the visa ban imposed on Mr. Lukashenko after he was accused of rigging his 2006 re-election, together with restrictions on other officials.

PAKISTAN

American arrested in border region

PESHAWAR | A 20-year-old American man was arrested late Monday at a checkpoint near the Afghan border in a tribal region where Pakistani troops are fighting Taliban and al Qaeda militants, police said.

Officers were investigating what the man was doing in the border area, which is thought to be a possible hiding place for Osama bin Laden and other foreign extremists, said one officer, Pir Shahab.

He said the man - identified on his passport as Juddi Kenan, a resident of Florida - did not have permission to be in the region, as required by Pakistani law. He was arrested at a checkpoint trying to enter the Mohmand agency area.

Another police official, Marjan Khan at the station in Sarrokali, said the man was wearing traditional Pakistani clothes and appeared to be a civilian.

SOUTH AFRICA

ANC to suspend dissident ex-minister

JOHANNESBURG | South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has decided to suspend former Defense Minister Mosiuoa Lekota after he threatened to form a breakaway party, the ANC’s national working committee said Monday.

Mr. Lekota, who quit as defense minister in protest at the party’s ousting of former President Thabo Mbeki last month, has indicated that the African National Congress is close to a split and that he may form a new party ahead of next year’s elections.

The ANC said it would also suspend Mr. Lekota’s former deputy, Mluleki George, who joined him in threatening to split from the ANC, and said other dissidents would face the same fate.

IRAQ

Christian latest killed in Mosul

BAGHDAD | A Christian music store owner was fatally shot in Mosul, Iraqi police said Monday, the latest in a series of killings that has caused thousands of members of the religious minority to flee the northern city.

Religious leaders have called for action to stop the apparent Sunni insurgent campaign against Christians. Government officials have responded by announcing new security measures and plans to send troop reinforcements to the area.

Gunmen stormed into the businessman’s store late Sunday in an eastern part of the city, killing him and wounding his teenage nephew, according to police.

THAILAND

Queen weighs in with protesters

BANGKOK | Thailand’s Queen Sirikit attended the funeral Monday of a protester killed in clashes with police last week, giving explicit royal backing to a five-month street campaign to oust the elected government.

After chants of “Long Live Her Majesty” from thousands of members of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), the queen told Jinda Radappanyawuthi, father of 28-year-old victim Angkana, that his daughter had died in a noble cause.

The woman died from chest injuries after police fired tear gas into a crowd of PAD protesters blockading parliament on Tuesday. Another man died in a car bomb and nearly 500 were hurt in the worst street violence in Bangkok in 16 years.

Mr. Jinda’s emotional account of his conversation with the queen is likely to damage the government, especially his revelation that King Bhumibol Adulyadej, whom many Thais regard as semi-divine, was behind the donation of $29,150 to treat those injured in the unrest.

CHINA

U.S. asked to end Taiwan military links

BEIJING | The United States should end all its military links with Taiwan and scrap a recent arms sale deal with the island, Chinese state media on Monday quoted the defense minister as telling a visiting U.S. senator.

China claims Taiwan, ruled separately since 1949, as a part of its sovereign territory and says the self-ruled, democratic island must accept eventual reunification, by force if necessary.

Beijing has already denounced the $6.5 billion Taiwan package, which includes 30 Apache attack helicopters and 330 Patriot missiles.

• From wire dispatches and staff reports