World digest 05/10/02

India debates handling of deadly religious violence

NEW DELHI, India -- Ending a 16-hour debate, India's Parliament on Wednesday defeated a motion to censure the government for its handling of India's worst religious riots in a decade -- violence that has left more than 900 people dead in two months.

The governing coalition of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee won the vote 276-182, with eight abstentions.

A key ally of the government, with 28 votes, walked out of the Parliament chamber before the vote, expressing its dissatisfaction with Vajpayee's speech, in which he announced no action to halt the rioting.

The riots began Feb. 27 when Hindu mobs went on a retaliatory rampage after Muslims set fire to a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, killing 60 in the Gujarat town of Godhra.

British court upholds ban on Farrakhan visiting

LONDON -- The government won a legal battle Tuesday allowing it to continue barring Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan from Britain on the grounds that his political views are a threat to public order.

Three judges sitting in the Court of Appeal upheld the decision to bar the Chicago-based activist and said the government had properly balanced the importance of freedom of speech against the risk of disorder.

The court said that Farrakhan would not be allowed to appeal its decision to the House of Lords, which is Britain's highest court.

Zimbabwe's food shortages worsening

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Zimbabwe declared a state of disaster over worsening food shortages Tuesday in a bid to get donor aid and avert mass starvation in a nation long seen as a regional breadbasket.

Aid agencies estimate 7.8 million of Zimbabwe's 13 million people are in need of food assistance.

The disaster declaration, signed by President Robert Mugabe, was effective for three months and granted Mugabe the authority to order "extraordinary measures" to alleviate food shortages.

The measures were expected to include an international appeal for emergency aid and possible commandeering of transport and other facilities to distribute food.

Zimbabwe has blamed the crisis on a drought, but the World Food Program says farm disruptions caused by a government program to seize white-owned farms for landless blacks has also contributed to the problem.

Fire guts main market in Somalian capital

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- A raging fire fueled by drums of cooking oil destroyed half of Mogadishu's sprawling Bakara market Tuesday, and at least seven people were killed when police and private gunmen fired shots to deter thousands of looters, police said.

The fire broke out late Monday in the housewares section of outdoor market that sells everything from foodstuffs and false passports to furniture and semiautomatic weapons.

The cause of the fire in the market, a maze of wooden structures in the heart of the Somali capital, was not immediately known.

Police spokesman Mohamed Yussuf Omar Maddaleh said at least 30 people were injured in the shooting and confusion. Dozen of looters were arrested, Maddeleh said.

Germany's industrial union votes to strike

FRANKFURT, Germany -- Germany's main industrial union voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to strike beginning next week, in what could be the nation's worst labor disruption in seven years just as Europe's biggest economy is emerging from recession.

Members of the IG Metall union in the Berlin-Brandenburg and Baden-Wuerttemberg regions gave more than 85 percent support for a strike, clearing the 75 percent threshold required for a walkout, the union announced.

Union members are angry, saying they heeded appeals from government and big business in 2000 to accept lower wages to save jobs, then watched unemployment soar over 10 percent and inflation eat up their wages.

-- From wire reports