World Scene

YEMEN

Al Qaeda suspect tries to flee hospital

SAN’A | An al Qaeda suspect tried to shoot his way out of a hospital in Yemen’s capital Sunday and killed a guard, authorities said, while security forces and separatists clashed in the south of the country with five wounded.

The suspected al Qaeda militant snatched a gun from one of two intelligence agents guarding his room and opened fire, a hospital administrator said. One of the agents was killed and the other wounded, a security official said.

A Defense Ministry Web site identified the suspect, who was apprehended, as a German citizen of Somali origin. More gunmen opened fire at the hospital gate as the al Qaeda suspect tried to escape, the administrator added.

WEST BANK

PLO approves talks with Israel

RAMALLAH | A skeptical Palestinian leadership agreed Sunday to hold U.S.-mediated peace talks with Israel for four months, effectively ending a 14-month breakdown in communications between the two sides.

Sunday’s decision marks a first achievement in more than a year for U.S. diplomacy in the Israeli-Palestinian arena and a softening in the position of the Palestinian leadership, which has insisted that it would not begin talks unless Israel fully froze construction in its settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The indirect format is meant to give the Palestinians the necessary political cover to resume talks. However, they warned that they would walk away if the outlines of a border deal with Israel have not emerged after four months. They also ruled out subsequent direct talks without a complete Israeli settlement construction freeze.

The Palestine Liberation Organization announced its decision to resume talks a day before Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. begins the highest-level visit to the area by an Obama administration official. Israel accepted the indirect talks last week.

The talks are expected to be held with the help of the U.S. Middle East envoy, former Sen. George Mitchell.

TOGO

Opposition to fight president’s re-election

LOME | Togo’s defeated opposition said Sunday that it would contest an election result that returned President Faure Gnassingbe as leader of the West African state and that international observers said went smoothly.

The election was seen as a test for democracy in a region that in recent weeks has experienced a coup in Niger and street riots over delayed elections in Ivory Coast.

Police fired tear gas at demonstrators Sunday, though the violence was not on a level with Togo’s last presidential election in 2005, when hundreds died.

Mr. Gnassingbe, who took over after 38 years of dictatorship under his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, won 1.24 million of 2.1 million cast votes in Thursday’s election.

His closest rival, Jean-Pierre Fabre of the UFC party, scored about 692,000 votes, the electoral commission said Saturday. Both sides had claimed victory Friday.

HONG KONG

Beijing warns against democracy push

HONG KONG | China has warned that a plan by pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong to use a special election as a de facto referendum on democratic reform is a threat to stability in the former British colony.

While Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997, it maintains a separate political system and enjoys Western-style civil liberties typically denied on the mainland. But Beijing has continued to deny full democracy. Hong Kong’s leader is chosen by an 800-member committee stacked with pro-China figures, and its legislature is half elected and half selected by special interest groups.

Pro-democracy activists have argued for years that the wealthy financial hub of 7 million people is mature enough to choose its own leaders. In their latest campaign, five opposition legislators — one from each of Hong Kong’s five major electoral districts — resigned in January, triggering a special election. Opposition parties plan to field candidates in the by-election, hoping to turn the territorywide contests into a de facto referendum on democratic reform.

“There are political groups that have launched the so-called ’five district referendum campaign,’ even proposing sensational and extreme slogans like ’civic uprising’ and ’liberating Hong Kong,’” Peng Qinghua, the head of China’s liaison office in Hong Kong, said when he met with Hong Kong delegates on the sidelines of the annual meeting of China’s parliament in Beijing on Saturday.

ISRAEL

Einstein’s relativity manuscript on show

JERUSALEM | The original manuscript of Albert Einstein’s groundbreaking theory of relativity, which helps explain everything from black holes to the big-bang theory, went on display Sunday in its entirety for the first time.

Einstein’s 46-page handwritten explanation of his general theory of relativity, in which he demonstrates an expanding universe and shows how gravity can bend space and time, is being shown at the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Jerusalem as part the scholarly association’s 50th anniversary celebration.

Einstein was one of the founders of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He contributed the manuscript to the university when it was founded in 1925, four years after he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics.

His will bequeathed the rest of his papers to the university upon his death in 1955.

The university is lending the manuscript to the academy for the anniversary celebration.

First published in 1916, the general theory of relativity remains a pivotal breakthrough in modern physics.

• From wire dispatches and staff reports