Post
Monday, May 23, 2005; A13

At Least 7 Teens Drown Off South African Coast

JOHANNESBURG -- Seven teenage girls drowned Sunday in a riptide off South Africa's east coast and a boy was missing, police said.

Lifeguards later rescued 20 swimmers, said police Capt. Tienkie van Vuuren. The search for the missing boy was called off Sunday night and was to resume Monday morning. The victims were ages 16 or 17, van Vuuren said.

The swimmers went to the beach at the town of Richards Bay on South Africa's east coast about 7 a.m. and went into the water before lifeguards were on duty.

· NEW DELHI -- Bomb blasts rocked two theaters Sunday night, killing at least one person and injuring more than 30 others, some of them seriously, authorities said. The theaters had been showing a film that had drawn protests from members of the Sikh religious minority who said it was offensive to their faith.

The title of the film, "Jo Bole So Nihal," is part of a Sikh religious cry and translates as "blessed is the one who says God is eternal." Some Sikhs had been offended by both the title and scenes they deemed sacrilegious.

-- John Lancaster

· KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghan authorities said they are in ongoing contact with the kidnappers of an Italian aid worker and that she is fine. Clementina Cantoni was kidnapped last Monday by four gunmen who stopped her vehicle on a Kabul street and bundled her into a car.

· KATMANDU, Nepal -- Thousands of people marched through the streets of Nepal's capital, Katmandu, demanding restoration of democracy and civil liberties in the impoverished Himalayan kingdom.

· DOI TAILANG, Burma -- Two armed ethnic groups who fought Burma's military junta for five decades have formed an alliance and vowed to intensify their struggle for an independent state. The Shan State Army and the Shan State National Army declared their merger at the 47th anniversary of "Resistance Day" on Saturday at the SSA's remote headquarters on the Burmese-Thai border.

· BEIJING -- China has rushed more than 3 million doses of bird flu vaccine to a remote western province after migratory birds were found dead from the H5N1 strain, which can be fatal to humans, state media said on Monday.

· GUATEMALA CITY -- Thousands of indigenous Mayan villagers in Guatemala burned and killed four men they suspected of belonging to a gang of thieves, police said.

Two others were left seriously injured in the Saturday night mob attack in the village of Cruz Sish, about 125 miles north of the country's capital, said police spokesman Antonio Cosidel.

· MEXICO CITY -- President Vicente Fox defended his commitment to minorities and human rights on a U.S. radio program, in his first public response to his controversial comment that Mexicans take the U.S. jobs that "not even" blacks want.

Civil rights leader Jesse L. Jackson pressed the Mexican president for an apology for the remark during an interview on a Chicago gospel station.

"I very much regret the misinterpretation," said Fox, touting laws created under his administration that outlaw discrimination and protect minorities.

· LOS ANGELES, Chile -- Searchers piercing the snow with stakes and combing the mountain with dogs recovered the bodies of five more of the 45 young soldiers who froze to death in the Andes in the country's worst peacetime military tragedy.

· BERLIN -- Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called for early elections this fall -- a year ahead of time -- after his party suffered a crushing defeat in Germany's most populous region, saying he lost the mandate he needs to fix the country's struggling economy.

· TEHRAN -- Iran's hard-line legislative watchdog, the Guardian Council, cleared six of 1,014 hopefuls to stand for president on June 17, including front-runner Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and four other conservative loyalists. The announcement prompted a crisis meeting by reformers, who immediately threatened to boycott the election.

· ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- New voting was held in Ethiopia for six disputed seats after candidates alleged fraud in the May 15 parliamentary vote, the electoral board said.

The Ethiopian Election Board has said it was investigating charges of major voting fraud leveled by the ruling party and the opposition in the second set of multiparty elections to be held in Ethiopia.

-- From News Services