Apology vowed to Australia’s aborigines
SYDNEY, Australia — Newly elected Australian leader Kevin Rudd renewed a commitment Monday to apologize to indigenous Aborigines for past indignities.
The issue of apologizing for policies that helped make the continent’s original inhabitants its most impoverished minority is a highly divisive one in Australia. The policies included the forcible removal of indigenous children from their families on the premise that Aborigines were a doomed race and saving the children was a humane alternative. The practice did not end until the 1970s.
Polls show most people support an apology, and Rudd had promised to do so if he was elected.
Rudd also immediately put signing the Kyoto Protocol on curbing greenhouse gas emissions at the top of his international agenda.
Chad, rebels both claim success
N’DJAMENA, Chad — Chad’s army and a rebel group claimed to have killed hundreds of fighters on the opposing side in fighting Monday in the country’s east, an area in turmoil from domestic unrest as well as spillover conflict from the neighboring Darfur region in Sudan.
The violence left “several hundred (rebels) dead, several injured and several prisoners of war” in military custody, according to a statement from Chad’s general staff.
A statement from one of the rebel movements claimed its fighters killed more than 200 government soldiers.
It was not possible to independently confirm either claim.
Chad has struggled in the face of several rebellions in the east, with some insurgents saying President Idriss Deby has not given enough support to their kinsmen in Darfur.
Boy, 7, killed after family unable to pay $680
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Kidnappers executed a 7-year-old boy because his family could not afford to pay $680 in ransom in this impoverished Caribbean nation, police said Monday.
The body of Schneider Hervil was found Friday, about two weeks after abductors snatched him from his family’s home, police spokesman Frantz Lerebours said.
The child’s family received a phone call from kidnappers demanding $680 for his release but was unable to raise the cash, he said.
U.N. peacekeepers warned abductions are expected to increase in coming weeks as gangs try to raise money to buy Christmas presents.
Japan toughens gun laws
TOKYO — Japan passed legislation Monday to toughen punishment for firing or owning guns in connection with organized crime, following several high-profile shootings by gangsters. The legislation is expected to take effect by year-end.
Shootings are still relatively rare in Japan, but authorities are concerned about a recent rise in crimes involving guns.
Currently, firing a gun is punishable by three years to life in prison. Under the revision, if a member of an organized crime group fires a gun, the punishment would be five years to life in prison and a fine of up to $279,600.
Possessing a gun is currently punishable by up to 10 years in prison. But a member of an organized crime group found with a gun could face up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $46,660 under the new law.
Blast traps 60 miners, kills one
QUITO, Ecuador — An explosion ripped through an underground gold mine Monday in southern Ecuador, trapping about 60 miners and killing at least one, said interior Minister Gustavo Larrea. The blast at the mine in Ponce Enrique injured at least 40, said Ponce Enriquez police officer Jose Pazmino.
