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NewsMarch 2, 2004

Russia's Putin names new prime minister MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin nominated a low-profile technocrat to the post of prime minister on Monday, signalling he wanted a politically unambitious head of government to push through sensitive economic reforms. ...

Russia's Putin names new prime minister

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin nominated a low-profile technocrat to the post of prime minister on Monday, signalling he wanted a politically unambitious head of government to push through sensitive economic reforms. The choice of Mikhail Fradkov -- who also could become a scapegoat if the reforms fail -- was announced six days after Putin's unexpected dismissal of Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and his Cabinet in advance of this month's presidential election.

Landmark abuse, murder trial opens in Belgium

ARLON, Belgium -- Belgium's public enemy No. 1 and three co-defendants went on trial Monday on charges of kidnapping, abusing and killing young girls in a mid-1990s crime spree that shocked the country -- as much for the inept police work as for the depravity of the acts. Marc Dutroux, 47, his ex-wife and two other defendants sat silently during selection of a 12-member jury and 12 alternates. Dutroux is charged with kidnapping six girls and killing four of them. The girls, two of them just 8 years old, were abused in the cellar of a house owned by Dutroux. A parliamentary probe found that rival police units hindered the search for Dutroux, who was finally arrested Aug. 13, 1996.

Protesters mark 50th of Bikini Atoll nuclear tests

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TOKYO -- Thousands marked the 50th anniversary Monday of a U.S. nuclear test in the Pacific that exposed Japanese fishermen to radiation, laying flowers at the grave of one of the victims and staging a protest against atomic weapons. About 2,100 marchers carrying photographs of Aikichi Kuboyama, who died six months after the March 1, 1954, bombing, walked about a mile through his hometown in Yaizu to a ceremony at his grave, police said. Kuboyama, who was 100 miles away from the test on a fishing boat, died from the effects of radiation poisoning at age 40, followed by 11 others who died from liver ailments apparently related to the same cause.

Amnesty International allowed into Libya

TRIPOLI, Libya -- Amnesty International, given its first access to Libya in 15 years, has detailed a number of serious human rights violations, including the disappearance of prisoners and intolerance of political activity. The four-member team shared its report with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who promised to consider Amnesty's recommendations, team leader Claudio Cordone told The Associated Press Monday. Cordone said that while there have been minor improvements in Libya's human rights, the situation "remains problematic in many respects." The Amnesty team arrived in Tripoli two weeks ago.

Most distant galaxy in universe discovered

PARIS -- French and Swiss astronomers say they have detected the farthest galaxy ever observed, a glimmer that dates back to when the universe was still in its infancy. The galaxy, dubbed Abell 1835 IR1916, is 13.23 billion light-years from Earth -- beating by a chunk another galaxy that until now was believed to be the farthest known object, said France's state-funded National Center for Scientific Research, a major European research organization. Because light from the new find took 13.23 billion years to reach us across the vastness of space, astronomers are seeing the galaxy as it was back then. The universe, believed to have started with the Big Bang some 13.7 billion years ago, would still have been in its infancy. Previously, the farthest-known galaxy, the discovery of which was announced in mid-February, was roughly 13 billion light-years from Earth.

-- From wire reports

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