Putin Signs Bill to End Election of Governors
MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill Sunday -- Constitution Day -- to end the election of governors by popular vote, while more than 1,000 opposition activists converged to denounce what they called his increasingly authoritarian rule.
It was notable that Putin chose Sunday to sign one of two measures that critics say could violate Russia's constitution, which was adopted in 1993 under his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, and was considered one of the main democratic achievements of Yeltsin's rule.
The new law gives the president the right to appoint governors, who would then be confirmed by regional legislatures. Russia consists of 89 regions, whose leaders are chosen by popular vote.
Another proposal, which would end the direct election of national lawmakers, is also expected to receive swift parliamentary approval. Putin proposed the changes after a siege in Beslan in September in which hundreds of people, most of them schoolchildren, were killed.
ASIA
• MANILA -- A bomb exploded in a market packed with Christmas shoppers, killing at least 14 people and shattering a months-long lull in attacks in the volatile southern Philippines, where Muslim and communist rebels are active.
The bomb detonated in General Santos, a predominantly Christian port city of 500,000 people, about 620 miles south of Manila. It was not clear whether militant groups were involved.
• MANILA -- A film star who narrowly lost this year's presidential election suffered a stroke and slipped into a coma, his spokesman said.
Fernando Poe Jr., 65, complained of dizziness while dining with friends and employees in his suburban Manila film studio. He was brought to a hospital late Saturday and placed under intensive care.
• RANGOON, Burma -- Two pro-democracy leaders were among hundreds of prisoners released from a Burmese prison as part of a broad amnesty granted by the country's ruling junta, the prisoners and family members said.
Htwe Myint, 76, chairman of the now-defunct Democracy Party, and Thu Wai, 73, a senior party member, were freed from Insein Prison.
THE AMERICAS
• BOGOTA, Colombia -- Government troops captured a top guerrilla commander suspected of planning the 1999 kidnapping of an entire congregation from a Roman Catholic church, the army said. Ramiro Velez, a regional leader of the National Liberation Army, was arrested in Chachaui, 300 miles southwest of Bogota.
• LIMA, Peru -- Secret police intelligence reports linked the brutal 1989 murder of an American journalist, Todd Smith, to Peru's most notorious reputed cocaine trafficker. Smith, a reporter for the Tampa Tribune, was found beaten and strangled on the outskirts of Uchiza, 245 miles northeast of Lima. A note found on his body indicated the killers believed he was a U.S. drug enforcement agent.
