World Scene

IRAQ

Attacks across Iraq claim 99 lives

BAGHDAD | A suicide bomber detonated explosives outside a textile factory in a crowd that gathered Monday after two car bombings at the same spot. It was the worst of a series of attacks killing about 100 across Iraq, marking the deadliest day this year.

The government blamed al Qaeda in Iraq for violence in Baghdad, saying the terrorist group is stepping up its attacks to exploit political instability.

More than two months after the March 7 elections, it is not clear who will control the next Iraqi government, and the U.S. is planning to pull out half of its 92,000 troops over the next four months.

In the latest in a series of attacks that killed at least 99 people, three bombs hit the southern Shiite port city of Basra in the evening. One exploded in a marketplace, killing at least 15, hospital and police officials said.

IRAN

Families to visit jailed Americans

TEHRAN | An Iranian state television channel said Monday that the families of three Americans arrested along the Iraqi border in July will be allowed to visit them in a Tehran prison.

Iran’s English-language Press TV did not say how it obtained the information, adding only that a date for the visit had not yet been set.

The Americans’ families have been told before that they would be granted visas to visit Iran only to find that they did not have the permission.

Iran has accused Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal of illegal border crossing, espionage and having links to U.S. intelligence. Their relatives and the U.S. government have denied the spying accusations.

PHILIPPINES

Aquino widens lead in election

MANILA | The son of two Philippine democracy icons widened his lead Tuesday in presidential elections after campaigning on a promise to begin prosecuting corrupt officials to restore credibility to the country’s graft-ridden government agencies.

Despite computerized counting machine glitches and violence that claimed at least nine lives, election officials hailed Monday’s vote as a success in a country where poll fraud allegations have marred previous contests.

Sen. Benigno Aquino III — whose father was assassinated while opposing a dictatorship and whose mother led the “people power” revolt that restored freedoms — was leading the nine-candidate presidential race with 40.19 percent of the votes from about 78 percent of the precincts, while his closest rival, ousted President Joseph Estrada, had 25.46 percent.

There is no runoff in the Philippines, and whoever has the most votes is declared winner.

THAILAND

Protesters set new demands, OK poll date

BANGKOK | Thai anti-government demonstrators said Monday they would continue their crippling protest in central Bangkok until the prime minister and his deputy face criminal charges for deadly street violence.

Although a key Red Shirt leader said they accepted Prime Abhisit Vejjajiva’s timetable for Nov. 14 elections, the protesters’ latest demand is likely to dash government hopes of ending the two-month standoff soon.

Nattawut Saikua blamed Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban for violence during the protests that has left 29 dead and hundreds injured. Mr. Suthep played a key role in the government’s security response to the protests.

Another protest leader, Jatuporn Prompan, said Mr. Abhisit also should be prosecuted.

ISRAEL

Official: Israel ready for war with Iran

JERUSALEM | Israel’s deputy premier said Monday that Israel’s air force has improved its capabilities and is better prepared for a war with Iran, considered a dangerous enemy because of its nuclear program.

Moshe Yaalon, a former military chief, said the air force now has better refueling and range and has made “a massive improvement in the accuracy of ordnance and intelligence.”

He told an air power conference Monday that the same sort of air strikes Israel has used against terrorists along its borders also “can be used … for war against the conventional Syrian army, and also for war on a peripheral state like Iran.”

SYRIA

Russian president makes landmark visit to Syria

DAMASCUS | President Dmitry Medvedev arrived on Monday on the first visit by a Russian head of state to Syria, seeking a revival of the once thriving partnership between the Soviet-era allies.

“The plane has landed,” an official with the Russian delegation told Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity after Mr. Medvedev arrived ahead of a meeting later with President Bashir al-Assad.

Mr. Medvedev, who is accompanied by a high-powered delegation focused on the military, said before leaving Moscow that Russia and Syria should develop ties and described Damascus as a key political player in the Middle East.

ITALY

67 mob suspects nabbed in market ring

ROME | Police arrested at least 67 suspected mobsters in predawn raids Monday, dismantling an alleged alliance of Italy’s three main crime syndicates to virtually monopolize southern produce markets, officials said.

Authorities seized rocket and grenade launchers in the raids, and officers kicked in balcony doors, leaped over fences surrounding villas and hustled away the suspects.

The Sicilian Mafia, the Calabrian crime syndicate and the Naples-area Camorra syndicate dropped traditional rivalries to join forces to control a monopoly on fruit and vegetable sales, distribution and transport throughout central and southern Italy, police Gen. Antonio Girone said.

SWITZERLAND

U.N. fears damage to environment

GENEVA | The U.N. warned on Monday that “massive” loss in life-sustaining natural environments was likely to deepen to the point of being irreversible after global targets to cut the decline by this year were missed.

As a result of the degradation, the world is moving closer to several “tipping points” beyond which some ecosystems that play a part in natural processes such as climate or the food chain may be permanently damaged, a U.N. report said.

The third “Global Biodiversity Outlook” found that deforestation, pollution or overexploitation were damaging the productive capacity of the most vulnerable environments, including the Amazon rainforest, lakes and coral reefs.

The U.N. report was partly based on 110 national reports on steps taken to meet a 2002 pledge to “significantly reduce” or reverse the loss in biodiversity.

CHINA

’Murderer’ freed after ’victim’ found alive

BEIJING | A man imprisoned nearly 10 years for murder was freed after his alleged victim turned up alive, a case that raises concerns about police using torture to extract confessions.

The Higher People’s Court in the central province of Henan pronounced Zhao Zuohai, 57, innocent after the man he was accused of killing, Zhao Zhenshang, returned to their village April 30, the China Daily newspaper reported Monday.

An investigation was under way into the conviction, and Zhao Zuohai will receive about $45,000 in compensation for his wrongful imprisonment, the newspaper reported.

The incident raises concerns about police torture, which Zhao Zuohai’s relatives say was used to force him to confess even though he was innocent. Torture is believed to be used widely by police and government officials who rely heavily on coerced confessions to prove criminal cases.

• From wire dispatches and staff reports