Zimbabwe Opposition Movement Says It Will Join Parliamentary Elections
JOHANNESBURG -- Zimbabwe's leading opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, announced Thursday that it would participate in national parliamentary elections on March 31 despite earlier threats that it would boycott.
In August, party leaders said they could not participate in the elections until far-reaching changes, such as equal access to state-controlled television and newspapers, were adopted by the government of President Robert Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980.
But the opposition leaders said Thursday they had reconsidered and would participate to "keep the flames of hope for change alive," according to a party statement.
Many political analysts have said the opposition is poorly situated to challenge Mugabe because of repressive measures against political discourse and because it is generally weak.
-- Craig Timberg
EUROPE
• LONDON -- Seven British soldiers will stand trial on charges of murder for the killing of an Iraqi civilian in 2003, Attorney General Peter Goldsmith said.
Goldsmith said the soldiers would face court-martial in the death of Nadhem Abdullah on May 11, 2003, in U'Zayra in southern Iraq. He gave no further details of the death, other than that it occurred at a roadside.
The soldiers were members of the 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, he said.
• BELFAST -- The Irish Republican Army warned Britain and Ireland not to underestimate the seriousness of a breakdown in efforts to secure a political settlement between Northern Ireland's feuding communities.
The warning came a day after the guerrilla group withdrew a conditional offer to put its weapons beyond use. Britain and Ireland had said they did not believe the withdrawal meant the IRA was preparing to plunge the British province back into the violence that plagued it for 30 years. "The two governments are trying to play down the importance of our statement because they are making a mess of the peace process," the IRA said in response. It did not explicitly threaten to end its 1997 cease-fire.
• MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin signed a resolution that would have Russian troops join a proposed U.N. peacekeeping operation in Sudan in the wake of a Jan. 9 peace agreement between the Sudanese government and rebels in the south.
ASIA
• KABUL, Afghanistan -- An Afghan passenger plane with 104 people on board was missing Friday after being turned away from Kabul airport the previous day because of a snowstorm. An official for private airline Kam Air said the plane, bound for the capital from the western Afghan city of Herat, was diverted to an airport in Pakistan but then failed to appear.
• ABOARD THE USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN -- The USS Abraham Lincoln, which played a key role in the tsunami relief effort, steamed away from the disaster zone Thursday. Helicopters from the aircraft carrier flew hundreds of missions to deliver aid along the devastated west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
-- From News Services
