Around the World

china

Agreement Expands Cross-Strait Travel

China and Taiwan agreed Friday to allow 36 round-trip charter flights every weekend as the first step toward dramatically expanding visits to the self-ruled island by Chinese tourists.

The agreement, signed in Beijing, also gives each party the right to open airline and travel offices on the other's territory. It marks the first concrete achievement since Ma Ying-jeou took over as Taiwan's president May 20. In a clear change in atmosphere, Ma has proposed -- and Chinese President Hu Jintao has backed -- dropping the dispute over Taiwan's status and working instead to improve ties.

The charter flights, beginning July 4, will be routed through Hong Kong airspace for the time being, a security precaution insisted on by Taiwan. But Ma said recently he wants to eliminate the detour soon.

-- Edward Cody

japan

Earthquake in North Kills at Least 2 People

A powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake rocked a rural area of northern Japan on Saturday, killing at least two people, triggering landslides and reportedly knocking down a bridge. News reports said dozens of people were injured.

Two nuclear power plants in the area were undergoing inspections, but there were no immediate reports of damage, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura. Electricity had been cut to about 29,000 households in the quake zone, he said. There was no danger of a tsunami.

U.S. Urges Support For Climate Fund

Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. urged other Group of Eight industrialized nations Friday to back a special fund of up to $10 billion to help developing countries fight global warming.

Paulson appeared with his counterparts from Japan and Britain and World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick to encourage G-8 nations to back the Climate Investment Funds.

"None of us in the world are going to solve this problem unless we deal with it here," Paulson said at the two-day finance ministers' meeting in Osaka.

israel

More Homes Approved

Israel announced plans Friday to build 1,300 more homes in East Jerusalem, further angering Palestinians who warned that ongoing construction threatens efforts to work out a peace deal by the end of the year.

The announcement by Israel's Interior Ministry brought to more than 3,000 the number of homes Israel has approved for construction, on land that Palestinians want for a state, since the renewal of U.S.-supported peace talks late last year.

russia

9 Killed in N. Caucasus

Russia's volatile North Caucasus experienced one of its worst eruptions of violence in months, with at least nine people killed in a series of attacks across the region, officials said Friday.

The Kremlin is struggling to contain a mix of Islamist insurgents, separatist rebels and organized criminals in the North Caucasus, even though a rebellion in one of the region's hot spots, Chechnya, has largely been quelled.

Mugabe Warns of War

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe said veterans of the liberation war would take up arms if he loses a June 27 presidential runoff vote. Mugabe told youth members of his ruling ZANU-PF party in the capital, Harare, that the veterans had told him they would launch a new bush war if opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai wins.

Norway to Seek Aid Battling Fire

Norway may seek foreign help to extinguish its biggest forest fire since World War II, the government said. The fire, which has been raging for five days, has burned out about 5,000 acres.

From News Services