World Scene

IRAQ

Ex-Fed chief to lead oil-for-food probe

NEW YORK — Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, will lead a U.N. probe into the scandal-ridden and now-defunct Iraq oil-for-food program, Security Council diplomats said yesterday.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has been organizing a team to investigate a scandal in the $67 billion humanitarian program that shut down last year, now wants the 15-nation council to adopt a resolution that would put the probe on a sounder political footing, diplomats said.

Council members said they were already working on the text of a resolution that could move forward in the next few days.

The two other members of the panel will be Judge Richard Goldstone, who served as the first prosecutor on the U.N. Balkan war crimes tribunal, and Swiss lawyer Mark Pieth, an expert on international bribery and money laundering.

FRANCE

Muslim cleric expelled over Madrid attacks

NANTES — France has deported an Algerian-born cleric on grounds of preaching radical Islam and expressing support for the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, officials said yesterday.

Abdelkader Yahia Cherif, 34, who had preached in western Brest, was expelled to Algeria by boat Thursday after a court in Rennes rejected his appeal against deportation.

France’s Interior Ministry said the cleric had urged a jihad, or holy war, during a speech in his mosque last month. It also said he had publicly welcomed the suspected al Qaeda-linked Madrid bombings in which 191 persons were killed.

BURMA

Opposition offices allowed to open

RANGOON — The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) will be permitted to reopen its headquarters in Rangoon nearly a year after it was closed in a crackdown by the military government, an NLD official said today.

“Officials informed us that we can reopen our headquarters effective this morning,” Than Tun, a member of the NLD’s executive committee told Reuters news agency.

It was not clear whether restrictions on other party offices also had been lifted. There was no word on NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest at her Rangoon home.

Mrs. Suu Kyi was detained and NLD offices shut on May 30 last year after a clash between her followers and government supporters.

ITALY

Berlusconi trial hit by bias charge

MILAN — A corruption trial against Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi resumed yesterday after a 10-month halt, but was thrown into immediate confusion when prosecutors suggested the chief judge might be biased.

The high-profile case was stalled last June after parliament awarded Mr. Berlusconi immunity from prosecution during his time in office. Italy’s highest tribunal later annulled the controversial law, unblocking proceedings.

BRITAIN

Vengeful cyclist jailed for slashing car tires

LONDON — A British cyclist was jailed for 16 months yesterday after admitting to slashing almost 2,000 vehicle tires in revenge for the actions of “inconsiderate” motorists.

Ashley Carpenter, 37, began his one-man campaign attacking tires on 548 cars, vans and trucks with a sharpened screwdriver after one car almost knocked him off his bike and another splashed him with a puddle.

Mr. Carpenter was unemployed — described by his own defense counsel as a “socially inadequate” loner. The revenge spree reportedly cost an estimated $460,000 in new tires and other expenses to victims.

VENEZUELA

Chavez attacks Bush on Iraq

CARACAS — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez launched an attack against the U.S. occupation of Iraq yesterday, accusing the military of killing civilians.

Mr. Bush has “increased military spending, into the clouds, to finance wars of domination” in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr. Chavez said.

The former paratroop commander accused the U.S. military of killing innocent women and children in Iraq.

It was the latest broadside at the U.S. government from Mr. Chavez, who has accused the Bush administration of participating in a brief April 2002 coup in Venezuela. Washington has denied involvement in the coup.

From wire dispatches and staff reports