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Tuesday, March 18, 2003 - 12:00 a.m. Pacific
World Digest
BANGUI, Central African Republic Residents ventured out timidly among the burned and ransacked buildings of the capital yesterday following a lightning coup led by a former army chief who declared himself president. The rebels struck Sunday while President Ange-Felix Patasse was abroad. Patasse was stranded in neighboring Cameroon where authorities said they were trying to find another country that would grant him asylum. The uprising in the diamond-rich but impoverished Central African Republic triggered waves of looting over the weekend. People smashed windows, broke doors and tore off tin roofs to strip government buildings and private villas of valuables. A hospital official said about 30 civilians had been killed, many of them shot during the looting. "The city looks like it has been ripped apart by a tropical storm," one resident said. Coup leader Francois Bozize dissolved parliament Sunday, suspended the constitution, imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew and pledged to work with political parties to prepare future elections in the former French colony. Ghana's ex-president faces human-rights questions ACCRA, Ghana A commission investigating human-rights abuses in Ghana said yesterday that it has asked former President Jerry Rawlings to answer allegations involving murder and torture in the 1980s. A spokesman for Rawlings denied the allegations, branding them "hearsay," and said the former president was prepared to go before the panel appointed by President John Kufuor. The commission was set up to probe abuses in the former British colony by five military administrations dating back to 1966, including those of Rawlings, who led coups in 1979 and 1981 and had three former heads of state shot on a beach for corruption. Rawlings, 56, eventually introduced multi-party democracy and stepped down two years ago after serving the two elected terms allowed under the constitution. Rioting youths burn down king's palace in Nigeria LAGOS, Nigeria Rioting youths burned down the palace of a local king in southwestern Nigeria yesterday. At least one person a woman hit by a stray bullet was killed. Residents said the rioting was triggered by the killing of a young man in Sagamu on Sunday by gunmen suspected to be members of a militia loyal to the king. The man's body was taken away by the attackers, raising suspicions of a ritualistic killing. "The youths went to the palace to demand the body. They then set the palace ablaze and went on to burn cars and other houses," a police official said. Residents said the whereabouts of the king, Oba Michael Adeniyi Sonariwo, were not known. House raided in hunt for Serb leader's killer BELGRADE, Serbia and Montenegro Serbian police hunting for the killers of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic ransacked the home of the late warlord Arkan yesterday and arrested his widow, suspected of having close links with key suspects. Police said they had apprehended popular folk-music star Svetlana "Ceca" Raznatovic and searched her luxurious Belgrade home. Arkan, whose real name was Zeljko Raznatovic, died in a hail of bullets in a Belgrade hotel in 2000. The raid on the house unearthed a huge quantity of firearms, ammunition and military gear, police said. Police have arrested about 400 suspects since a sniper shot Djindjic dead in central Belgrade last Wednesday. Judges in Spain outlaw militant Basque party MADRID, Spain The Supreme Court yesterday outlawed a militant Basque nationalist party accused of terrorism through links with the armed separatist group ETA. Chief Justice Francisco Hernando released the unanimous verdict by a 16-judge panel ruling against the Batasuna party, six months after the government filed suit. It was the first time since democracy returned to Spain following the 1975 death of longtime dictator Gen. Francisco Franco that a political party was banned. The government sued Batasuna in August, arguing that the group is a key part of ETA's shadowy network of commandos, fund-raising and recruitment. Batasuna denies it is the political wing of ETA. ETA, which stands for Basque Homeland and Freedom, has killed more than 800 people in a 34-year campaign of bombings and shootings aimed at carving out an independent Basque homeland in lands straddling northern Spain and southwest France. Adventurer sets sail for Australia in reed boat SANTIAGO, Chile U.S. adventurer Phil Buck and an eight-member crew set sail for Australia yesterday in a primitive craft in an attempt to cross the Pacific Ocean in a reed boat made using a pre-Inca maritime design. Buck, 39, a wildlife biologist from Massachusetts, and his crew are in a huge crescent-shaped vessel, a replica of boats crafted by pre-Incan civilizations, that was built in Chile from 20 tons of reeds collected from the shores of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and Peru. Buck led a successful reed-boat voyage in 2000 from Chile to Easter Island, a 2,850-mile stretch. This voyage would be 11,400 miles. He hopes to prove a maverick scientific theory that pre-Incan cultures colonized Easter Island and other parts of Polynesia.
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