THe Americas
• PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- U.N. troops battled street gangs in firefights near a lawless Haitian slum, the latest in a series of clashes between peacekeepers and armed groups that some fear could disrupt elections in the fall.
At least five gang members were wounded or killed in the gunfight late Sunday in the Port-au-Prince slum of Cite Soleil, soldiers said. A U.N. military spokesman, Lt. Col. Elouafi Boulbars, could not immediately confirm those casualties but said no U.N. peacekeepers had been hurt.
Peruvian peacekeepers were patrolling the western edge of Cite Soleil when armed men in four cars opened fire, Boulbars said. Troops returned fire and chased the cars through the slum, a hotbed of gang violence between supporters and opponents of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
• RIO DE JANEIRO -- Authorities arrested 11 police officers suspected of participating in death squad killings on Thursday night that left 30 people dead in two towns on Rio's poor outskirts.
Four of the officers were charged with murder in the shootings, while seven are being confined at the police barracks, said Rio de Janeiro's state security secretary, Marcelo Itagiba. Authorities say they believe the killings were a show of force by rogue policemen angered by the arrest of eight officers caught on film disposing of two bodies.
Asia
• BEIJING -- China, which does not recognize the pope, has arrested two elderly Roman Catholic priests, one of them a bishop who had been under pressure to break ties with the Vatican, a U.S.-based religious rights group said.
Bishop Yao Liang, from the Xiwanzi area of Hebei province, was arrested on Thursday and the Rev. Wang Jinling of Zhangjiakou, also in Hebei, was arrested on Friday, the Cardinal Kung Foundation said in a statement.
Europe
• VIENNA -- Joerg Haider and his supporters broke with the once-powerful Freedom Party to form a new movement meant to reflect the former firebrand's turn from the far right toward relative moderation.
The populist Freedom Party is part of the uneasy coalition government along with the People's Party. Its debut as part of the federal government coalition in 2000 triggered seven months of sanctions by the European Union after statements made by Haider were perceived as anti-Semitic and sympathetic to Nazi Germany's labor policies under Adolf Hitler.
Africa
• ABUJA, Nigeria -- Nigeria charged its former police chief with stealing and laundering about $100 million during his three-year tenure, court papers showed.
As part of a widening crackdown on graft and mismanagement of public funds in the world's eighth-biggest oil exporter, President Olusegun Obasanjo also fired his housing minister -- the second top government official removed in less than two weeks.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said in court papers filed in the capital, Abuja, that former police chief Tafa Balogun -- once an Obasanjo ally, who was forced to step down in January -- had invested most of the funds in blue-chip stocks and property.
-- From News Services
