World Scene

TURKEY

150 Kurdish rebels killed, military says

ISTANBUL — The Turkish military said yesterday that more than 150 Kurdish rebels were killed last week in a cross-border air raid in northern Iraq. Among the victims were possibly senior members of the rebel group. Kurdish rebels disputed the tally, saying only six had been killed.

According a Turkish military statement, warplanes hit all their intended targets in a three-hour air operation on Mount Qandil in Iraq. The raid ended early Friday, the military said.

A spokesman for the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, said the six rebels killed were members of PEJAK, a breakaway faction of the PKK that targets only Iran.

BRITAIN

Johnson sworn in as London mayor

LONDON — London’s new mayor, a Conservative lawmaker, was sworn in yesterday after ousting the left-wing incumbent in a vote that capped the worst local election results for Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s party in four decades.

Ex-magazine editor Boris Johnson said his triumph over Labor incumbent Ken Livingstone offered a glimpse of Britain’s likely political future.

Mr. Johnson won 53.2 percent of the vote, compared with Mr. Livingstone’s 46.8 percent.

BELARUS

11 U.S. diplomats leave amid spat

MINSK — Eleven U.S. diplomats left Belarus yesterday after being declared personae non gratae amid escalating diplomatic tensions between Washington and the ex-Soviet nation, an embassy official said.

Belarus on Wednesday had ordered 10 of the embassy’s 11 diplomats to leave the country, giving them 72 hours to comply. All 11 left yesterday, a U.S. embassy official said.

TURKMENISTAN

President shifts Niyazov statue

ASHGABAT — Turkmenistan’s leader has ordered the removal of a giant golden statue of his late predecessor from downtown Ashgabat, the Turkmen capital, a state-run daily said yesterday.

Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov told a Cabinet meeting Friday that the statue of Saparmurat Niyazov should be relocated to the southern outskirts of the city, the Neutralny Turkmenistan daily reported. The statue, nearly 40 feet high, tops a 20-story tower and rotates to always face the sun.

AFGHANISTAN

Blast damages Bamiyan Buddha

KABUL — The United Nations was investigating reports yesterday that a controlled explosion of old ordnance has caused more damage to one of the famed Bamiyan Buddha statues that were destroyed by the Taliban seven year ago.

Najibullah Harar, chief of information and culture for Bamiyan, told the Associated Press the blast conducted by NATO-led troops near the smaller of the two statues Thursday had caused cracks in what is left of the 114-foot-high ancient structure.

From wire dispatches and staff reports