Putin knocks Russian Navy on Kursk disaster

MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized the Navy on Saturday over the sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk, indicating poor planning could in part be to blame for the disaster and casting doubt on the theory that it sank in a collision.

Just hours after Putin was briefed by Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov on the preliminary investigation, the military announced the demotion of two senior naval officers and said another group of senior officers would face disciplinary action. The ITAR-Tass news agency reported that three admirals were fired, and a fourth resigned.

Anatoly Kvashnin, chief of the general staff of the armed forces, insisted that the demotions had nothing to do with the Kursk disaster but resulted from "serious shortcomings in the organization of daily service and combat training," according to Interfax.

Neo-Nazis protest war crimes exhibition

BERLIN -- Thousands of neo-Nazis marched through central Berlin Saturday to protest an exhibition on Nazi-era crimes by the German army, staging one of the largest far-right rallies in the city since World War II.

Police kept them well away from the capital's former Jewish quarter after the proposed route drew outraged objections from the German government and Jewish groups at home and abroad.

Police estimated 3,300 people participated in the protest, with 4,000 officers in place to prevent violence. Before the march began, police used water cannons and tear gas to break up a counter-demonstration of about 1,500 people organized by leftist groups.

Japanese princess gives birth to baby girl

TOKYO -- After more than eight years of marriage to Japan's royal heir, Crown Princess Masako gave birth to a baby girl Saturday, her first child.

The birth was to be followed by a series of elaborate rituals.

Hours after the event, a palace chamberlain was to present to the newborn a specially commissioned sword with a crimson case lined with white silk and embossed with the imperial seal.

Later, when the baby is ready for its first bath, court-appointed officials in silk costumes will line up outside the bathhouse and pluck the strings of wooden bows to ward off evil spirits.

Taiwanese president's party takes control

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The Taiwanese president's party -- distrusted by China -- grabbed the largest number of seats in legislative elections Saturday, a victory that could pressure Beijing to start talking with the island's leader.

In a once unthinkable reversal, the formerly banned Democratic Progressive Party of President Chen Shui-bian snapped the Nationalist Party's five-decade grip on the 225-seat legislature.

However, no party won a legislative majority, and DPP must now try to create Taiwan's first coalition government.

--From wire reports