World briefs 10/05/05

High-profile Protestant militant killed in Belfast

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- One of Northern Ireland's most high-profile Protestant militants was shot to death outside his home Tuesday night, more than six months after he was ousted by his outlawed group. Two gunmen fired several shots at Jim Gray after he answered his door in Protestant east Belfast, his longtime power base, police said. Detectives covered his body with a white sheet as they searched outside his home for evidence. No group claimed responsibility for his assassination, but a previous assassination attempt in 2002 came during a feud among Protestant militants involved in Belfast's thriving drug trade.

Kazakh police raid office of youth group Kahar

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Police raided the office of a pro-democracy youth movement Tuesday, and the group said it was an attempt to intimidate opponents ahead of December presidential elections. About a dozen police officers searched the two-room basement office of the group, Kahar, in the commercial capital of Almaty, said its leader, Bakhytzhan Toregozhina. They did not seize anything but counted leaflets about election rights and wrote down their findings, she said. Kahar, or "Hero," was inspired by groups that played an important role in mobilizing young people for demonstrations against flawed elections in Ukraine and Georgia that eventually helped bring opposition leaders to power.

Indian conjoined twins could be separated

NEW DELHI -- An American neurosurgeon said Tuesday he believes 10-year-old Indian twins joined at the skull could survive surgery to separate them, but that he will wait for more test results before deciding to perform the complex operation. Dr. Benjamin Carson, director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore, made the announcement as doctors waited for the parents of sisters Saba and Farah to give the go-ahead. "If everything goes the way we plan, I expect they will both be alive" after the surgery, said Carson, an international authority on conjoined twins. With help from teams in Denver and at New Delhi's Indraprastha Apollo hospital, where the sisters are staying, Carson plans to conduct the operation in India -- a first for South Asia.

Editor of Afghan women's magazine arrested

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The editor of an Afghan women's rights magazine was jailed after a presidential adviser accused him of publishing un-Islamic material. Police arrested the magazine's editor, Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, on Saturday. One article criticized the practice of punishing adultery with 100 lashes. Minority Shiite Muslim clerics in Kabul objected to that article and another in the monthly magazine that argued that giving up Islam was not a crime.

Hurricane Stan slams into Mexico's Gulf coast

VERACRUZ, Mexico -- Hurricane Stan slammed into Mexico's Gulf coast Tuesday. It spawned related storms across the region that left at least 66 people dead, most from landslides in El Salvador. Stan whipped up maximum sustained winds of 80 mph before weakening to a tropical storm. It came ashore along a sparsely populated stretch of coastline south of Veracruz, a major port 185 miles east of Mexico City.

Alleged terror chief calls Bali bombings a warning

BALI, Indonesia -- New terror fears gripped Asia on Tuesday, sparking security scares at embassies and travel alerts, but Indonesia shrugged off calls to outlaw the militant group suspected in the deadly suicide bombings on Bali island. Investigators were piecing together evidence -- pellets, batteries, cables and detonators -- from the scenes of the blasts and renewed calls for anyone who recognized grisly photographs of three suicide bombers to step forward. Two men were being held for questioning, but they have not been named as suspects, said Bali police chief Maj. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika, adding that 39 witnesses were also being debriefed. From his prison cell, Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir -- the group's alleged spiritual leader -- said in a statement that last weekend's blasts were a sign of God's displeasure with the Indonesian government. "I suggest the government bring themselves closer to God by implementing his rules and laws because these happenings are warnings from God for all of us," said Bashir, who has campaigned for the implementation of Islamic Shariah law in Indonesia.

Pakistan says Taliban spokesman nabbed

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan said it arrested a man who might have been the chief spokesman for the Taliban, though his ties to the group are a bit murky. Mullah Hakim Latifi, who has often claimed responsibility for the Taliban for attacks against U.S.-led coalition forces, was caught in southwestern Baluchistan province, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said. Baluchistan borders Afghanistan, where the Taliban ruled until it was ousted in 2001.

-- From wire reports

"It is a big success. We were looking for him for a long time," Ahmed said.