WORLD IN BRIEF

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Ethiopian Prisoners Sign Paper in Bid for Release

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania -- Ethiopian opposition leaders jailed in a brutal crackdown following 2005 elections have signed a document accepting partial responsibility for the violence in exchange for their release, senior U.S. and Ethiopian officials said.

Only some of the 38 political detainees, whom Amnesty International has called prisoners of conscience, have agreed to sign the document. Others, including the senior opposition leaders, have refused, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are involved in the discussions.

Those who signed could be freed within days, the officials said.

Negotiations on the prisoners' release have proceeded despite their conviction last week on charges including "outrage against the constitution" and aggravated high treason in a trial that human rights groups and some U.S. officials condemned as a sham. The prisoners are to be sentenced in July and could face the death penalty.

The prisoners' families have accused the United States of softening its criticism of Ethiopia's human rights record because the country is a key military ally in the fight against terrorism in the Horn of Africa.

The 2005 elections were generally hailed as free and fair, and the opposition made significant gains. But when opposition members took to the streets to protest some of the results, Ethiopian security forces, including sharpshooters, responded with massive force, arresting about 30,000 protesters and killing at least 193 people.

-- Stephanie McCrummen

* * *

asia

· KABUL -- Afghanistan's surging violence left three Canadian soldiers and 21 suspected Taliban fighters dead, while insurgents grabbed control of another district headquarters in the south.

The Canadians died when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Kandahar's Panjwayi district, said Brig. Gen. Tim Grant, the head of Canadian forces in the country.

NATO and Afghan troops, meanwhile, clashed with insurgents in the same province and called in airstrikes, killing 21 suspected fighters, local Mayor Khairudin Achakzai said.

· COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Government troops killed as many as 44 Tamil rebels in northern and eastern Sri Lanka while destroying three small camps in the insurgents' last eastern stronghold, the military said. The clashes came after the navy said it fought off a rebel sea attack Tuesday, killing 40 separatists.

· ASTANA, Kazakhstan -- President Nursultan Nazarbayev dissolved Kazakhstan's lower house of parliament and called early general elections in what opponents called a maneuver to secure his grip on power.

· TOKYO -- Japan has changed the name of the Pacific island of Iwo Jima, site of the famous World War II battle, to its original name of Iwo To after residents there were prodded into action by two recent Clint Eastwood movies. The original name in Japanese looks and means the same as Iwo Jima -- or Sulfur Island -- but sounds different.

europe

· PRAGUE -- Czech authorities confirmed the country's first case of bird flu in poultry, the CTK news agency reported. The agency quoted the state veterinary office as saying it would take until Friday to know whether the case, found in a turkey, was the deadly H5N1 strain.

-- From Staff Reports and News Services