World briefs 6/3/04

Japanese girl slashed to death by classmate

TOKYO -- Police examined e-mails and cell phone messages and investigated reports of a playground dispute in a search Wednesday for the motive behind the killing of a 12-year-old girl who was slashed with a box-cutter by a classmate in southern Japan. Shocked education officials, meanwhile, called for teachers to review school curriculums emphasizing compassion and respect for human life.

Royal Geographical Society opens archive

LONDON -- There's Charles Darwin's sextant, Edmund Hillary's oxygen canister and Dr. Livingstone's hat. They are among artifacts, available to the public for the first time, from the archives of the Royal Geographical Society, the 174-year-old British institution that sent explorers to the South Pole, up Mount Everest and in search of the source of the Nile -- and amassed one of the world's largest geographical archives.

Activists taken ahead of Tiananmen anniversary

BEIJING -- Three Chinese activists have been removed from their homes just ahead of the June 4 anniversary of the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing, a human rights group said Wednesday. The dissidents have been forced to stay in hotels outside Beijing, said the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

Police chief fired after unrest in Pakistan

KARACHI, Pakistan -- The Karachi police chief was fired Wednesday, and the government promised more changes after three days of unrest that has left at least 26 people dead and brought Pakistan's largest city to a standstill. Government officials struggled to explain what was behind the wave of violence, with one accusing al-Qaida of trying to spark sectarian fighting between the Sunni Muslim majority and the Shiite minority.

Azerbaijan to invest $3.4 billion in oil field

BAKU, Azerbaijan -- The Azerbaijani fuel and energy minister said Wednesday that $3.4 billion would be invested by 2006 in the first phase of development of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil field. The field is estimated to hold reserves of 5.4 billion barrels of oil and 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Chirag, the only field in commercial development, produced 131,400 barrels a day in the first half of 2003.

Peru airline mogul added to drug trafficker list

LIMA, Peru -- In a major blow to a Peruvian airline mogul, the U.S. government has placed him on its list of overseas drug kingpins and frozen the American assets of Peru's largest airline and several related companies. The White House announcement Tuesday came hours after a Lima court began a retrial against Aero Continente founder Fernando Zevallos, who pleaded not guilty to cocaine trafficking charges.

Africa worst economic tragedy of 20th century

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- A report released Wednesday by the World Economic Forum called Africa's stagnating growth the worst economic tragedy of the 20th century. The report said in 1970 Africa accounted for one in 10 of the world's poor, but by 2000 nearly half the world's poor were African. Economic growth has been so dismal that most sub-Saharan countries are worse off than they were at independence.-- From wire reports

Officials struggle to identify dead after Brazil prison rebellion

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Authorities struggled Wednesday to identify the bodies and remains of 30 inmates killed -- and in some cases beheaded and dismembered -- during a brutal three-day uprising at a Rio de Janeiro prison. Officials said 19 bodies at the Benfica detention center had been identified, but accounting for all the dead had been made difficult because body parts were strewn about the prison. Officials lowered the death toll to 31 from 38 as they identified bodies, that also included a prison guard.

Iran holds open option of producing centrifuges

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran left open the option of producing a centrifuge capable of making weapons-grade uranium, its top nuclear negotiator said Wednesday, a day after a U.N. agency credited Tehran with more openness but expressed concern about years of secret activities. Hasan Rowhani said the International Atomic Energy Agency report meant that scrutiny of Tehran's nuclear activities, which the United States alleges is aimed at making weapons, was nearly over.

Canada church go-ahead on same-sex unions withdrawn

ST. CATHARINES, Ontario -- The Anglican Church of Canada seemed ready to edge away from a showdown over homosexuality Wednesday, as the authors of a proposal that would let dioceses provide same-sex blessing ceremonies substituted that bill with one that called for more study. Delegates expressed concern about the impact that a green light for the blessing ceremonies would have on the Canadian church -- and internationally in the 77 million-member Anglican Communion of which it's a part.

Three aid workers killed in Afghanistan attack

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Three foreign medical workers and two Afghans were killed Wednesday when their car was ambushed in northwestern Afghanistan, police and the aid agency said. Resurgent Taliban militants claimed responsibility. The assault was the deadliest on foreign aid workers since the U.S.-led ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001, and was bound to raise new security fears that already prevent agencies from operating in much of the insurgency-hit south and east.

-- From wire reports