World scene

GABON

Court confirms president’s victory

LIBREVILLE | The constitutional court Friday declared the son of Gabon’s late dictator the victor of a disputed presidential election, extinguishing the opposition’s last chance for legal redress and increasing tension in a nation wracked by postelection violence.

The leader of one of the largest opposition parties immediately denounced the court’s declaration, which came just hours after angry voters torched a police station in Gabon’s No. 2 city.

Constitutional Court President Marie Madeleine Mborantsuo validated the results issued by the country’s electoral commission, saying Ali Bongo won 141,952 votes in Sunday’s election, or 41.7 percent.

Mr. Bongo, 50, is the eldest child of late President Omar Bongo, who ruled Gabon for 41 years until his death in a Spanish clinic in June. Although many saw the elder Mr. Bongo as the father of the nation and tacitly accepted his decades-long grip on power, many also said they wouldn’t accept a second Bongo, or allow Gabon to become a “monarchy.”

MYANMAR

Court agrees to hear Suu Kyi appeal

YANGON | A Myanmar court agreed Friday to hear an appeal by detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi of the criminal conviction that extended her house arrest by 18 months, one of her attorneys said.

The Divisional Court in Yangon set a Sept. 18 date for the appeal after lawyers formally presented their request Friday, Nyan Win said.

A district court convicted the 64-year-old opposition leader on Aug. 11 of violating the terms of her earlier detention after an American intruder stayed at her home. The court sentenced Mrs. Suu Kyi to three years in prison with hard labor, but that sentence was commuted to 18 months of house arrest by order of military junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe.

The Nobel laureate has been detained for 14 of the past 20 years for her nonviolent political activities, but this was the first time she faced criminal charges.

The American, John Yettaw, was sentenced to seven years in prison but was released on humanitarian grounds and deported on Aug. 16.

CANADA

Supreme Court to hear Gitmo case

TORONTO | The Supreme Court of Canada agreed Friday to hear the government’s appeal of a lower court ruling directing it to ask the U.S. to repatriate a Toronto man who is the last Western detainee held at Guantanamo Bay.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has steadfastly refused to request the return of Omar Khadr, saying the United States’ legal process must play itself out. The three opposition parties, who make up a majority in Parliament, however, are calling for his return.

Canada’s Conservative government is seeking to reverse a ruling last month by the Federal Court of Appeal, upholding a lower court’s decision ordering the government to seek Khadr’s return.

The Supreme Court, as is customary, provided no reason for its decision. The hearing will take place Nov. 13.

Khadr is one of the youngest people ever charged with war crimes. He was 15 when he was accused of killing an American soldier with a grenade during a 2002 battle in Afghanistan.

COLOMBIA

Thousands protest Chavez’s actions

BOGOTA | Several thousand people marched in the streets of Colombia’s major cities Friday to protest what they criticize as meddling by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as tensions rise between the Andean neighbors.

Chanting “No More Chavez” and waving Colombian flags, the marchers snaked through Bogota, accompanied by smaller protests in other cities, including Caracas and some in the United States and Europe, after organizers called for demonstrations through the Internet social networks Facebook and Twitter.

Venezuela and Colombia are caught in a diplomatic dispute fueled by Bogota’s charges that the Chavez government supports Colombian FARC rebels and over a Colombian plan to allow U.S. troops more access to its military bases.

INDONESIA

Earthquake toll 64, dozens still missing

JAKARTA | Indonesian rescue workers pulled several bodies from the rubble of a giant landslide Friday, lifting the death toll from a powerful earthquake to 64. Dozens more people were still missing, feared dead.

The number of houses recorded as destroyed or damaged in Wednesday’s magnitude 7.0 temblor, which was centered off the southern coast of the main island of Java, jumped to more than 87,000.

PORTUGAL

Helen Keller group gets Vision Award

LISBON | The Helen Keller International nonprofit organization has won a 1 million euro ($1.4 million) prize from a Portuguese foundation for its work in preventing blindness in the developing world, the foundation said Friday.

The Champalimaud Foundation’s annual Vision Award was given to the New York-based organization for its “outstanding achievements,” particularly its efforts to combat vitamin A deficiency, which is a leading cause of childhood blindness, the foundation said.

Hellen Keller International was founded in 1915 and runs programs in 21 countries in Africa and Asia, as well as in the United States. It is named for Helen Keller, an American who was left blind and deaf by illness as a toddler, and became a famed author and humanitarian.

The Champalimaud award, established three years ago, claims to be the largest monetary prize in the field of vision and one of the largest scientific prizes in the world.

From wire dispatches and staff reports