WORLD IN BRIEF

Wednesday, March 8, 2006

Palestinian Authority Receives Aid for Payroll

JERUSALEM -- The Palestinian Authority received a one-time financial boost from the World Bank and Norway that will help it cover part of its payroll before Hamas installs its cabinet later this month.

The bank said it would release a $42 million grant to the authority to help pay 150,000 employees and trainees, most of whom work for the security services. The authority's caretaker government, struggling to meet a monthly payroll of $115 million, is a week late with February checks.

Norway pledged $10 million at the request of James D. Wolfensohn, special envoy for the quartet of peace interlocutors -- the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. Norway's government said the money would be used to help pay teacher salaries for February and March.

Israel and the United States are urging international donors to cut funding to the Palestinian Authority -- which relies on foreign aid for almost half its operating budget -- once Hamas installs its cabinet. Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel, is designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

-- Scott Wilson

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THE AMERICAS

· SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- Oscar Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who favors a contentious free-trade agreement with the United States, was declared the president-elect, more than a month after the vote that gave him a razor-thin victory.

· RIO DE JANEIRO -- Army troops backed by tanks invaded a hillside slum, raising to nine the number of shantytowns across Rio de Janeiro occupied in recent days in a search for 10 assault rifles and a 9mm handgun stolen from an army barracks, police said.

· BUENOS AIRES -- Mayor Anibal Ibarra was removed from office over allegations that poor government safety regulation contributed to the deaths of 194 people in a December 2004 nightclub fire.

EUROPE

· LONDON -- Two workers at the security depot that was the site of Britain's biggest cash robbery have been arrested in the case, police said. A man who works for a firm contracted to the Securitas Cash Management warehouse and a woman who was a former employee of the unnamed firm were questioned and released on bail.

So far, 17 people have been arrested in connection with the Feb. 22 raid on the warehouse in the town of Tonbridge. More than $19 million of the $92 million stolen has been recovered, police said.

· PARIS -- Protesters opposed to a government plan to reduce joblessness by making it easier to fire young workers rallied throughout the country, disrupting airports, schools and the Paris Metro. Nearly 400,000 people took part in about 200 marches nationwide, police said.

· BERLIN -- Police raided more than 100 buildings across Germany in a hunt for suspected members of the banned neo-Nazi group Blood & Honor.

· VIENNA -- An Austrian cat that had twice tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus did not show the virus in a third test, the Health Ministry said, adding to uncertainty about the infection in cats.

· STRASBOURG, France -- The European Court of Human Rights ruled that a British woman has no right to use frozen embryos to have a baby without permission from the man who provided the sperm.

ASIA

· BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Azerbaijani and Armenian forces exchanged heavy gun and mortar fire at several points along their border in the most serious fighting in months. Azerbaijan said one of its soldiers was killed and one seriously wounded in the fighting late Monday and early Tuesday. Armenian forces said several of their troops were wounded. The two countries remain at odds over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan.

· BEIJING -- China on Wednesday reported its 10th human death from bird flu, a 9-year-old girl in the country's southeast.

AFRICA

· KAMPALA, Uganda -- Uganda's High Court on Tuesday cleared opposition leader Kizza Besigye of rape charges, saying the prosecution failed "dismally" to prove its case. A judge described the investigation as "crude and amateurish, betraying the motives behind the case."

Besigye and his attorneys had argued that the government fabricated the charges to keep him from challenging President Yoweri Museveni, who has held power for more than 20 years. Museveni won a new term in February, and Besigye's party has pledged a court challenge. Besigye also faces treason charges.

· NAIROBI -- Thousands of opposition supporters and human rights activists demonstrated in Kenya's capital to protest last week's raids on the country's oldest newspaper and its sister television station.

-- From News Services