World briefs 04/24/03

Killer of three nuns executed in Yemen

SAN'A, Yemen -- A Yemeni man who killed three nuns from Mother Theresa's order was executed on Wednesday by firing squad, security officials said.

Abdullah al-Nashri shot the three nuns in 1998 as they left a clinic for the disabled. One nun came from the Philippines, the other two from India.

Al-Nashri was executed in the city of Hodeidah, 138 miles west of the capital San'a, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Police initially said al-Nashri was unstable. But in 2000, a court found him responsible for his actions and convicted him. He was sentenced to death a year later. Last week, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh approved the death sentence.

Amnesty International demands youths' release

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Amnesty International urged the United States on Wednesday to release or charge three minors who are being held in the U.S. detention camp for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The military has not provided exact ages, confirming only that the three are 16 years old or younger. They are among about 660 detainees from 42 countries held on suspicion of links to al-Qaida terrorist network or the ousted Afghan Taliban regime.

The group called on the U.S. military to either release them or file formal charges and transfer them to a juvenile detention facility.

The youths are in a "communal setting" separate from adult detainees' individual cells, but all were "captured as active combatants against U.S. forces" and are considered enemy combatants, said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, chief spokesman for the Guantanamo mission.

Iranian actress sentenced to lashes for kissing actor

TEHRAN, Iran -- An Iranian actress was given a suspended sentence of 74 lashes for kissing a young actor on the cheek, the actress said Wednesday.

Gowhar Kheirandish was prosecuted after she shook hands and kissed Ali Zamani at a public festival in the city of Yazd in September, provoking organized protests.

Iran's strict Islamic laws ban socializing between unrelated men and women. Public kissing between men and women is considered un-Islamic and taboo.

"I've been sentenced to 74 suspended lashes," Kheirandish told The Associated Press. She said the kiss was an "emotional, motherly gesture."

Earlier this week, Yazd's public court found Kheirandish guilty and sentenced her. The verdict means that she will be lashed 74 times if the offense is repeated.

Zamani, in his 20s, was a student of Kheirandish's late husband, Jamshid Esmaeilkhani, an actor who died last year.

Britain rejects IRA proposal as too vague

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Britain rejected a key part of an Irish Republican Army peace overture as too vague Wednesday and demanded that the outlawed group renounce violence in undisputable terms.

Britain and Ireland are pressing the IRA and its allied Sinn Fein party to make new peace commitments in simple language. IRA statements traditionally are open to rival interpretations.

"Clarity is our friend in this process now. Ambiguity is our enemy," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in London.

Both Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern say that the IRA must stop all hostile activities and get rid of stockpiled weapons.

For its part, Sinn Fein must accept the legitimacy of the provincial police force.

Otherwise, they say, it will be impossible to revive the Catholic-Protestant administration at the heart of the 1998 peace accord.-- From wire reports