World Digest: Burma's government sets date for long-awaited elections

BURMA

Government sets date for long-awaited elections

The Burmese government will hold the country's first elections in 20 years on Nov. 7 despite growing international criticism.

The elections, announced Friday, will be the final element in Senior Gen. Than Shwe's seven-step program to establish "discipline-flourishing democracy." Opponents have criticized the constitutional framework behind the elections, which guarantees the military a quarter of the seats in parliament, as well as its mechanics, which have barred opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from running. The 65-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate is under house arrest in Rangoon, the former Burmese capital.

About 40 parties have registered, but at least seven are thought to be proxies of the military. The National League for Democracy, Suu Kyi's party, is not participating. The party won a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but the ruling junta refused to recognize the results. To run, the NLD would have had to expel Suu Kyi.

The Nov. 7 date presents a challenge for authorities, who have less than three months to organize elections in a country of 50 million people in mountainous terrain during the wet season.

-- Financial Times

KASHMIR

Deaths of 4 in unrest spark further clashes

Tens of thousands of Kashmiris staged angry street demonstrations Friday after government forces killed four people and injured 31 others during the latest unrest against Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan region.

Two months of violent clashes with security forces have left at least 55 people dead in Indian-controlled Kashmir -- mostly protesters who have been shot.

Paramilitary troops opened fire in Bomai, a village northwest of the main city of Srinagar, after thousands of protesters threw rocks at them, police said. Two people were killed.