World Scene

ALGERIA

Rebel surrender could end Islamist challenge

ALGIERS — The bulk of Algeria’s main Islamic armed rebel group allied to al Qaeda is in talks to surrender to authorities, security sources said yesterday, a move that would all but end a 12-year Islamist insurgency.

Up to 300 members of the hard-line Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat could lay down their arms in exchange for an amnesty, the sources said.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was overwhelmingly re-elected earlier this month largely on the strength of his success in halting an Islamic uprising that cost the lives of an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 people.

ISRAEL

Sharon makes plea for pullout deal

JERUSALEM — Scrambling to halt the erosion of support for his Gaza pullout plan, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon urged lawmakers yesterday to back him or risk losing unprecedented U.S. assurances to the Jewish state.

Mr. Sharon said a new package of U.S. commitments that could widen Israel’s borders and prevent the return of Palestinian refugees was an “inseparable part” of his proposal to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements.

A new poll found support for the disengagement proposal in his right-wing Likud party had slipped to 44 percent ahead of a crucial May 2 party referendum. Forty percent oppose the plan.

SOUTH KOREA

Terror group threatens U.S. allies

SEOUL — A previously unknown anti-American group is threatening terrorist attacks against eight U.S. allies by the end of the month, including South Korea, Japan, Australia and Pakistan, a South Korean official said yesterday.

The group, called the Yellow-Red Overseas Organization, threatened in a statement to attack diplomatic compounds, airlines and public transportation systems in the eight countries that are U.S. allies or have plans to send troops to Iraq. The four other countries named were Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore and Kuwait.

SPAIN

U.S. seeks help in Mideast conflict

MADRID — The United States has asked Spain’s new foreign minister to help mediate in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Spain said yesterday.

Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, who spent seven years as the European Union’s special envoy to the Middle East, received the request from Secretary of State Colin L Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice during a meeting Wednesday in Washington, a government spokesman said.

GUATEMALA

Top drug boss seized in Mexico

MEXICO CITY — A Guatemalan man described by U.S. authorities as Central America’s most wanted drug smuggler was captured by Mexican agents at the capital’s airport in an arrest officials here hailed yesterday as important for the hemisphere.

Otto Herrera, a 39-year-old Guatemalan trucking company boss, did not resist when federal authorities seized him at Mexico City’s Juarez International Airport Wednesday as he met a woman identified as his girlfriend.