World briefs 8/3/04

Palestinian gunmen make hospital raids, kill two

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- In dramatic, daytime raids on Gaza City's largest hospital, Palestinian vigilantes killed two men convicted of collaborating with Israeli intelligence, shooting them at close range hours after they were admitted for wounds suffered when a grenade exploded in their jail cell Monday. The two had confessed to helping Israeli forces kill two top Islamic militants. The audacious military-style operations in broad daylight with hundreds of witnesses illustrated a progressive breakdown of law and order in the Palestinian territories.

At Auschwitz, Gypsies remember their dead

OSWIECIM, Poland -- Gypsies from across Europe gathered at Auschwitz Monday to remember hundreds of thousands of their murdered ancestors and to call for wider recognition of their suffering in the Nazi Holocaust. The ceremony, exactly 60 years after the night the Nazis gassed the last 2,900 Gypsies in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, also heard warnings that today's Gypsies still face discrimination, especially in eastern Europe. Calling Auschwitz "a symbol of the genocide perpetrated on our people," Roman Kwiatkowski, the top Gypsy representative in Poland, said: "These crimes should be properly commemorated. We fear again that the Roma Holocaust will be forgotten."

U.N. food agency begins airdrops in Darfur, Sudan

ROME -- The United Nations began airdrops of food into Sudan's conflict-ridden Darfur region, a U.N. agency said Monday, the same day Egypt said it was airlifting medicines and other necessities. The Rome-based U.N. World Food Program said that it had dropped 22 tons of food supplies to the farming town of Fur Buranga in western Darfur on Sunday. The agency plans to deliver a total of some 1,400 tons of food in a first round of airdrops to help more than 70,000 people displaced by the 17-month conflict.

Mexico's former ruling party claims two races

TIJUANA, Mexico -- Mexico's former ruling party scored an electoral upset in this border city with a narrow victory by its mayoral candidate, a gambling magnate who had trailed in pre-election polling, according to vote results Monday. The Institutional Ruling Party, or PRI, also claimed victory in the governor's race in the southern state of Oaxaca, though the challenger promised to contest the outcome of Sunday's vote. A win in Oaxaca to complement its triumph in Tijuana would boost the PRI, whose 71-year hold on the presidency ended in 2000 with the election of Vicente Fox.

Ex chess champ appeals deportation order again

TOKYO -- Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer, who was taken into custody by Japanese authorities two weeks ago for traveling with a revoked U.S. passport, has appealed a deportation order to the United States, an adviser said Monday. The American chess player, wanted by U.S. authorities for playing a 1992 match in the former Yugoslavia in violation of international sanctions, was granted a three-day extension Friday to contest Japan's decision last week to deport him. Fischer's attorney filed the appeal with immigration authorities at Narita international airport, where Fischer is being held.

-- From wire reports