ISLAMABAD, Pakistan
Man killed in gunfight was a militant leader
The identity of a terror suspect killed in a shootout with security agents was confirmed as a senior al-Qaeda operative behind militant attacks in Pakistan’s tribal regions and on U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan, an official said Saturday.
Marwan Hadid al-Suri, 38, died in a gunfight Thursday after agents acting on a tip stopped him at a roadblock at Khar, a town near the northwestern tribal region of Bajur, near the Afghan border.
Al-Suri was the second major terrorism suspect reported killed in Pakistan this month. On April 12, Pakistani forces killed Mohsin Musa Matawalli Atwah, 45, an Egyptian put on the FBI list for alleged involvement in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa.
ROME
Appeals court confirms Prodi win
An appeals court confirmed the incoming Italian prime minister’s electoral victory on Saturday when it certified a two-seat Senate majority for center-left leader Romano Prodi.
Outgoing prime minister Silvio Berlusconi still refused to concede, however, promising through his attorney to exhaust all challenges to the results.
The billionaire media mogul will go to the new parliament and further appeals courts to contest the outcome of the vote, said Niccolo Ghedini, Berlusconi’s lawyer and a top lawmaker in his Forza Italia party.
The confirmation of the center-left’s Senate majority, by a court charged with reviewing votes cast by Italians living overseas, gave 158 seats to Prodi’s bloc, 156 to Berlusconi’s allies and one to an independent – the majority Prodi needed to win the Senate.
MEXICO CITY
Police chief shot dead in troubled Guerrero
Assailants ambushed and shot dead the police chief of a town in the Pacific state of Guerrero, which has been hit by a wave of drug-related bloodshed this year, officials said Saturday.
Fidel Arellano, police chief of Altamirano, about 125 miles southwest of Mexico, was gunned down as he drove in his car early Saturday, said Rodolfo Flores, a spokesman for Guerrero state police.
Arellano’s bodyguard was injured in the attack, he said.
Guerrero has been shaken this year by more than a dozen gun slayings as well as several grenade attacks on police stations and killings of police officers.
Federal investigators link the violence in Guerrero to a turf war between drug gangs in northern Mexico for lucrative smuggling routes into the U.S.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden
“Stateless American” found floating on raft
Swedish authorities Saturday were investigating how a man calling himself a “stateless American” ended up floating on a raft of oil barrels and wood planks in the waters between Denmark and Norway.
The man – who carried no identification, spoke perfect English and said his name was George Williams – was found by a Norwegian oil tanker Friday morning, floating in the Skag errak sea.
He told police he had been thrown from a ship several days earlier and wanted to go to New York. He asked to be taken in by Swedish authorities and shielded his face from photographers when he was taken to a port.
VATICAN CITY
Pope urges Jesuits to interact with culture
Pope Benedict XVI reminded members of the Jesuit religious order Saturday of their vow of obedience to the pontiff and said their main job was to interact with modern culture.
Benedict made the comments after a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in honor of the Jesuits, who are marking several anniversaries surrounding the founder of the order, St. Ignatius Loyola, and other prominent members.
Jesuits are renowned for their intellectual rigor and excellent teachers, scholars and scientists.
