World briefs 3/17/05

Iceland may grant Bobby Fischer citizenship

REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- Lawmakers in Iceland are likely to grant citizenship to mercurial chess genius Bobby Fischer, who currently sits in a Japanese cell, a member of a parliamentary committee studying the issue said Wednesday. Gudrun Ogmundsdottir said that a citizenship motion probably would be approved by the nine-member committee today. If it passes, it will go before Iceland's 63-member parliament, the Althingi. Fischer, 62, is awaiting deportation to the United States, where he is wanted for violating economic sanctions against the former Yugoslavia.

Serial child rapist, murderer hanged in Iran

PAKDASHT, Iran -- A young man convicted of raping and murdering 16 boys was lashed 100 times, and then hanged Wednesday in front of a large, angry crowd who pelted him with stones and scuffled with police. Mohammed Bijeh, 23, confessed in court to raping and murdering the children, between March and September 2004. Iranian media have said Bijeh burned the bodies of his victims, all boys between 8 and 15. Bijeh was sentenced to one death sentence for each murder he confessed and 100 lashes of the whip for the rapes.

Cardinal warns against reading 'Da Vinci Code'

VATICAN CITY -- If you're not among the millions who have already read "The Da Vinci Code," an Italian cardinal has a plea for you: Don't read it and don't buy it. Genoa Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who previously was a high-ranking official of the Vatican's office on doctrinal orthodoxy, told Vatican Radio on Tuesday that the runaway success of the Dan Brown novel is proof of "anti-Catholic" prejudice.

N. Korea refuses talks with Condoleezza Rice

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea bitterly refused Wednesday any dealings with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, as the top U.S. diplomat began a six-day visit to Asia seeking a breakthrough in the two-year standoff over the North's nuclear weapons program. The nuclear crisis deepened last month when North Korea announced it had nuclear weapons and said it would boycott international disarmament talks because of U.S. hostility toward its government.

Plane crashes in Russia's north, killing 29 people

MOSCOW -- A 1970s-era Russian turboprop airliner carrying oil workers slammed into the ground and caught fire Wednesday while trying to land near an oil port along the Arctic coast. At least 29 people were killed in the crash, which officials said came after the plane's tail began to fall apart. Some of the 24 survivors, shivering in temperatures of minus 11 Fahrenheit, used a satellite phone to call authorities.