WORLD IN BRIEF

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

GERMANY

Obama Switches Sites

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will deliver a long-planned speech later this week in Berlin at the Victory Column in the city's huge Tiergarten Park, not the Brandenburg Gate, which had been under consideration.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel had frowned upon using the gate, a symbol of German unity, calling it an inappropriate place for "electioneering." But Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit, who officially holds final approval authority, said the candidate would be free to speak at whichever venue he chose.

The 230-foot-high Victory Column was built to celebrate 19th-century Prussian military victories over Denmark, France and Austria and was moved to its present site by dictator Adolf Hitler. In recent years, however, it has shed much of its associations with war and nationalism.

The choice did not end the controversy. Andreas Schockenhoff, a foreign policy expert with Merkel's Christian Democrats, told the newsmagazine Der Spiegel that the site is "dedicated to a victory over neighbors who are today our European friends and allies. It is a problematic symbol."

Berlin authorities are preparing for a large turnout. Obama is popular in Europe and an opinion poll published last week in the Bild newspaper found 72 percent of Germans would vote for him over Republican John McCain in the Nov. 4 election, if they could.

CAMBODIA

Help From U.N. Sought

Cambodia has asked the U.N. Security Council and its Southeast Asian neighbors to help resolve a military standoff over disputed border territory around an ancient temple.

The government requested an emergency meeting of the council "to find a solution to the problem in accordance with international laws," said a Foreign Ministry statement received Tuesday.

Cambodia is also seeking regional intervention after talks between the neighbors Monday failed to end the stalemate around the Preah Vihear temple.

There was no immediate reaction from the Thai government to the initiatives.

The dispute over 1.8 square miles of land near the temple escalated earlier this month when UNESCO approved Cambodia's application to have the complex named a World Heritage Site.

More than 4,000 troops have been deployed around the temple and in the immediate vicinity since July 15.

BURMA

No Release for Suu Kyi

Burma's foreign minister has said that pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi can be kept in detention legally until late 2009, Singapore officials said Tuesday.

Burma Foreign Minister Nyan Win was misunderstood by his nine counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations during a dinner conversation on Sunday, a Foreign Ministry official said.

Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo had quoted Nyan Win as saying that a political detainee can be held for a maximum of six years, and that the limit was approaching in about "half a year's time."

But the Straits Times newspaper on Tuesday quoted Yeo as saying that the six-year period will only be reached in the six months after May 2009, when Suu Kyi's latest one-year detention period expires.

SUDAN

A.U. Requests Deferral

The African Union will ask the U.N. Security Council to suspend action for a year on the indictment of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Darfur genocide charges, Nigeria's foreign affairs minister said. The union will make the request in an effort to allow progress in slow-moving negotiations to end the five-year-old conflict in Darfur, Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister Ojo Maduekwe said.

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Officials Close McCann Case

Portugal's attorney general ordered police Monday to halt their investigation into the disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann because detectives uncovered no evidence of a crime during their 14-month probe.

The case will remain closed unless new evidence emerges, Attorney-General Fernando Pinto Monteiro's office said.

Suicide Bomb Injures 3

A Taliban suicide bomber wounded three civilians when he blew himself up as he was challenged by police in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said. Taliban militants have launched about 100 suicide attacks this year.

Damage in Burma Assessed

Burma will need at least $1 billion over the next three years to put the survivors of Cyclone Nargis back on their feet, a U.N.-led report said Monday in the first comprehensive assessment of damage caused by the storm that killed more than 84,000 people.

The May 3-4 cyclone caused damage estimated at $4 billion, said the report prepared by the United Nations, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the military junta that governs Burma. Damage to assets was determined to be about $1.7 billion and loss of income was estimated at $2.3 billion.

Cease-Fire Achieved in Mali

The government of Mali and ethnic Tuareg rebels have reached a truce agreement in dangerous northern Mali, Algeria's ambassador to the West African country said Monday. The rebels want more help for the Tuaregs, an ethnic minority and semi-nomadic tribe living in several West African nations as well as in southern Algeria.

From News Services