World briefs 12/05/02

Africans, Australians, tourists cheer eclipse

KRUGER PARK, South Africa -- Darkness fell over thorn trees, lions feasting on fresh kills and grazing elephants and giraffes Wednesday as the moon slipped over the sun in total solar eclipse over southern Africa.

NASA scientists sent to record the phenomenon despaired as clouds over this wildlife park blocked the view of totality -- the moment the glow of the completely covered sun radiates from behind the moon.

But hundreds of thousands of others cheered as its path crossed Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique and across the Indian Ocean to Australia.

In Kruger Park, foreign tourists with powerful zoom lenses jostled for position with South Africans cloaked in traditional colored fabrics to watch the eclipse.

"There, that's magic," said Cherry Hochfelden of Johannesburg as the light from behind the clouds dimmed and the sky turned a deep twilight.

Taliban leader warns U.S. of more destruction

CAIRO, Egypt -- A statement attributed to ousted Afghan leader Mullah Mohammed Omar says the United States will face more "hostility, chaos and destruction" if it attacks Iraq, an Arab television station reported Wednesday.

Al-Jazeera television said it was faxed the one-page statement. It provided no other details.

"America is using terrorism as a justification to launch war against Iraq ... and the U.S. will not gain anything but more hostility, chaos and destruction" with any attack, the Qatar-based satellite station quoted the fax as saying.

Mullah Omar, the leader of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime, has been in hiding since he fled the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar last December.

Trial concludes of terror suspects in Netherlands

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands -- Prosecutors demanded prison sentences of up to six years for four men believed to be linked to al-Qaida and accused of plotting attacks against U.S. targets in Europe.

The demands came Wednesday at the conclusion of the three-day trial.

Two Algerians, a Frenchman and a Dutch national were accused of helping plan strikes against the American embassy in Paris and a military base in Belgium, where about 100 U.S. military personnel are stationed.

Prosecutors said they ran a cell out of Rotterdam under orders from al-Qaida, providing stolen passports and credit cards to help plan the attacks. The defendants' lawyers said their clients were petty criminals but denied the terror charges.

The four charged were with conspiracy to commit murder and belonging to a criminal organization, charges that together carry a maximum sentence of 10 years and eight months.

General strike in Haiti closes businesses

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Shops and schools were bolted shut Wednesday during a general strike called to protest President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government a day after police and mobs broke up anti-government demonstrations.

Nearly 200 businesses, including banks and gas stations, closed in the capital of Port-au-Prince, while others in the northern provinces were shuttered in solidarity. Business leaders said other strikes would follow if government reforms weren't made.

The call for the general strike came hours after whip-wielding Aristide partisans and police firing tear gas broke up anti-government demonstrations across the country Tuesday.

-- From wire reports