World briefs 10/24/04

High oil prices stir worldwide discontent

PARIS -- Grumbling about high gas prices, Sri Lankan businessmen ditch their cars for the bus. Strikes over fuel costs shut down cities around Nigeria. Would-be vacationers in France put off their getaway plans. Far from commodity markets in London and New York, the high price of crude oil is frustrating consumers around the world -- and governments are groping for answers. Fears about supply from top oil-producing countries and the increasing appetite of emerging economic powers like China and India have helped drive up crude oil prices about 80 percent from a year ago.

Death toll rises in China coal mine explosion

BEIJING -- Struggling 1,000 feet below ground, rescuers drew close Saturday to a section of a collapsed mine shaft where they hoped to find 71 coal miners missing in a gas explosion. The number of confirmed dead rose to 77. The 1,000-member rescue team hasn't found a miner alive in the Daping Mine since the blast Wednesday -- the deadliest disaster this year in China's accident-plagued coal mines.

Spanish judge files terror charges against 17

MADRID, Spain -- Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon has filed terror charges against 17 people for their alleged role in a suspected plot to blow up the National Court, a hub for the nation's investigations into Islamic terrorism. Sixteen of the suspects, mostly Moroccans and Algerians, were charged with belonging to an armed group. The 17th, a Spaniard identified as Baldomero Lara, was charged with collaboration.

Sunni group threatens boycott of Iraq elections

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- With three months left before a landmark election, the Association of Muslim Scholars, created only 18 months ago but now the most influential representative of Iraq's Sunni Arabs, is threatening to boycott the January balloting if U.S. and Iraqi troops storm the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. Sheik Abdul-Salam al-Kobeisi, a senior association official, said the group would call for a boycott if it determines the vote would prolong the American presence in the country. A large-scale boycott by the powerful Sunni Arabs would be disastrous for the vote's credibility and may push Iraq into even deeper disarray.

-- From wire reports