World briefs 09/18/01

Parents plead for safety of daughters in Kabul

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The father of an American aid worker jailed in Kabul, Afghanistan on charges of preaching Christianity said he pleaded Monday with the country's Taliban rulers to let him take his daughter's place.

"I offered to go in place of my daughter," said John Mercer, squeezing his eyes closed to stop his tears. "It was a very serious offer. I would do it."

Mercer said he met Taliban authorities at the Afghan embassy in Islamabad and that they did not respond to his request to take the place of his 24-year-old daughter, Heather.

Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry were arrested in early August along with six other foreign aid workers of the Christian-based Shelter Now International aid group on charges of preaching Christianity in this Muslim nation.

N. Ireland peace process architect stepping down

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- John Hume, Nobel Peace Prize winner and the intellectual architect of the peace process in Northern Ireland, announced his resignation Monday as leader of the major moderate Catholic party after 22 years in charge.

Hume, 64, said he would surrender the helm of the Social Democratic and Labor Party -- which holds the most Catholic posts in Northern Ireland's foundering unity government -- at the party conference in November. He cited ill health as the only reason why he was leaving.

Security boosted ahead of pope's trip

MOSCOW -- Kazakstan will take "unprecedented" security measures for this weekend's visit by Pope John Paul II, in the wake of the attacks on the United States and tension throughout Central Asia, the foreign minister said Monday.

"The security measures will be unprecedented in connection with the recent terrorist attacks in the United States," Kazak Foreign Minister Bulat Iskakov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

He said 2,400 Interior Ministry police and troops would guard the Kazak capital, Astana -- a new capital with just 350,000 residents -- for the visit. He said $1.2 million had been earmarked to prepare this former Soviet republic for the pope's trip.

Ten people die in latest violence in Algeria

ALGIERS, Algeria -- Violence over the weekend left six civilians, two police officers and two armed Islamic militants dead in Algeria, newspapers reported Monday. The country has been wracked by a nine-year insurgency.

A government official who spoke on condition of anonymity told Le Matin that authorities have stepped up their anti-terrorism efforts, citing an increase in violence in Algeria and last week's terrorist attacks in the United States.

Officials have increased security at the international airport in Algiers and reinforced police checkpoints throughout the country over the last three days.

More than 100,000 people have been killed since the insurgency began in 1992, when the military canceled elections that an Islamic fundamentalist party was expected to win.

School bus collides with a truck; five killed

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- A school bus collided head-on with a lumber truck Monday morning in central Sweden, killing four students and both drivers and seriously injuring seven others, police and rescuers said.

Four students and the bus driver, a man, died in the crash, police spokeswoman Margareta Roeden said. Police said the truck driver died later Monday. Seven students were in serious condition, and more than 25 students were hospitalized with minor injuries.

-- From wire reports