World briefs 8/27/02

Iran's parliament gives women divorce rights

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's parliament approved a bill giving women the right to sue for divorce, a similar right already guaranteed for men.

The bill, approved by the 290-seat parliament Sunday, amends Iran's Civil Code and lets women seek a divorce in court, said lawmaker Elaheh Koolaee.

In order to become law, the bill must be approved by the hard-line Guardian Council, which reviews all laws passed by parliament and oversees elections. No date has been set for its review.

"The bill is the beginning of the realization of part of a reform promise to improve women's rights and change the male-dominated laws that have harmed Iranian women throughout history," Koolaee said.

The amendment defines alimony and lets women demand housing and health allowances.

Zimbabwean president swears in Cabinet

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Embattled President Robert Mugabe swore in a hard-line Cabinet on Monday, describing it as "a war council" to fight the country's economic woes and its international detractors led by Britain, the former colonial power.

Mugabe, 78, took oaths of office and allegiance to the president and the government from his 50 ministers and their deputies at his mansion.

He described the lineup announced Sunday as "a fully fledged war council" that "will take into account the actions being done by Britain and its allies against Zimbabwe," the radio said.

After dissolving his Cabinet on Friday, Mugabe announced a new lineup that dropped his moderate finance minister and kept hard-liners who have spearheaded harsh media controls and seizures of white-owned farms.

Research goose found in hunter's freezer

TORONTO -- Scientists spent four months tracking by satellite the journey of a goose named Kerry that migrated 3,000 miles from Northern Ireland to the Canadian Arctic.

They finally found it last week -- in an Inuit hunter's freezer.

"Kerry shot in Canada!" reads an Aug. 22 update on the migratory tracking project's Web site.

Kerry was one of six light-bellied Brent geese under study by Britain's Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and the National Geographic Society.

When signals from Kerry's satellite transmitter showed he had moved from one Arctic island to another and then stopped, the researchers asked Canadian wildlife officers to help find the goose.

An initial search in the wetlands near Resolute Bay found nothing, the Web site reported.

Milosevic's trial resumes after monthlong break

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The war crimes trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic resumed Monday after a month recess with the testimony of a man who said he saw Serbian troops gun down at least 39 ethnic Albanians.

Sadik Xhemajli told the court that he watched with binoculars from a nearby hill as Serb soldiers separated 127 men from a group of unarmed civilians in a field near the village of Izbica on March 28, 1999. Some were shot from about 15 feet away, while the crippled and elderly were burned alive, he said.

He said Serb forces then beat and robbed some women before sending them to the Albanian border, seizing their food and burning their blankets.

Several days later, Xhemajli said, he helped bury the dead.

Milosevic, who is acting as his own defense attorney, denied his forces could have committed the crimes and dismissed the claims as "impossible."

Prosecutors have until Sept. 13 to conclude their case on Kosovo. After a two-week adjournment, hearings will then turn to the wars in Croatia and Bosnia. Charges against Milosevic during the wars in 1991-1995 include genocide for the slaughter of thousands of Muslims in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica and 60 other counts of war crimes.

-- From wire reports