World Scene

BRITAIN

Report seeks curbs on immigration

LONDON — Record levels of immigration have brought little or no economic benefit, a parliamentary report said yesterday, disputing the government’s claim that immigration is good for the economy.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown insisted, however, that British businesses had benefited substantially from immigration over the past decade.

The Economic Affairs Committee of the House of Lords called for new limits on the number of people allowed to enter Britain, where immigration has grown at an unprecedented rate in recent years.

AFGHANISTAN

Two police officers killed in attack

KANDAHAR — A suicide bomber hit a police compound in southwestern Afghanistan yesterday, killing two officers and wounding five others, an official said.

The bomber tried to ram a vehicle packed with explosives inside the police chief’s compound in the town of Zaranj in Nimroz province, said provincial Deputy Police Chief Asadullah Sherzad.

The vehicle exploded at the compound walls, killing two policemen and wounding five others, Chief Sherzad said.

BOLIVIA

’Vampire’ bomber dies in prison

LA PAZ — A convicted hotel bomber from California who modeled himself on a fictional vampire has died after becoming ill in prison, officials said yesterday.

Triston Jay Amero, 26, was serving a 30-year sentence for bombing two low-rent hotels in the Bolivian capital of La Paz in 2006. Two Bolivians died in one of the attacks.

Juan Carlos Limpias, a senior official in the national prison service, said Amero complained of stomach pains Monday night and was taken to a hospital, where he died. An autopsy showed he died of pulmonary edema — a swelling or fluid in the lungs — said Antonio Torres, chief medical examiner for the Bolivian police.

COLOMBIA

Raid hurt chances of release, FARC says

BOGOTA — Colombia’s largest rebel group says a cross-border raid on a rebel camp in Ecuador last month “gravely” harmed efforts to win the release of ailing hostage Ingrid Betancourt.

Ivan Marquez, one of seven leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, said that after the raid by Colombian forces it was clear “there would be no meeting with the French delegation to explore the release of Ingrid.”

Mr. Marquez’s letter was published Monday by Venezuela’s Bolivarian Press Agency, which has carried statements from the rebels in the past.

BOTSWANA

President steps down in smooth succession

GABORONE — Botswana’s president stepped down yesterday, handing over power to his vice president in a smooth transition.

The Botswana Democratic Party, in power since the former British protectorate gained independence in 1966, virtually anoints the next head of state. The BDP is expected to continue its dominance in the face of a weak and divided opposition.

The new president, Seretse Ian Khama, said at his inauguration that “leadership changes can be a time of unease,” but that it doesn’t mean “radical changes.” He said he shared the same objectives that Festus Mogae, 69, and the previous government had pursued.

From wire dispatches and staff reports