World digest 07/27/04

Woman convicted of faking anti-Semitic attack

PONTOISE, France -- A young French woman who admitted to lying about being the victim of an anti-Semitic attack was convicted Monday for fabricating a story that stunned France and given a four-month suspended sentence. Marie Leblanc, 22, was also ordered to receive counseling and put under probation for two years at the trial north of Paris. The woman claimed she was robbed on a Paris train earlier this month by a knife-wielding gang that mistook her for a Jew and scrawled swastikas on her body. But police found no clues or witnesses. After learning the woman had a history of filing complaints about assaults that were never proved, she was detained for questioning.

Reports: Saddam writes poems, gardens in prison

LONDON -- Saddam Hussein spends his time in solitary confinement tending a garden, writing poetry and reading the Quran, according to published reports Monday that described him as depressed and demoralized. One of Saddam's poems is about George Bush, though it wasn't clear whether that referred to President Bush or his father, Saddam's foe in the 1991 Gulf War. The Guardian newspaper in Britain and Newsday in New York quoted Bakhtiar Amin, the human rights minister in the Iraqi government, who said he visited Saddam's cell on Saturday.

Israel makes changes to West Bank barrier route

JERUSALEM -- Israel's Defense Ministry has mapped out a new route for the separation barrier in the West Bank that heeds a Supreme Court order to reduce hardships for Palestinians and runs closer to the Israel's 1967 border, officials said Monday. Elements of the new route for the barrier will be presented this week to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz for their approval, security officials said. Details of the new map were not available. The system of fences, walls and razor wire cuts into the West Bank at several points, keeping many Palestinians from reaching their jobs, schools and farms.

Man marks anniversary of mountain's conquest

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- It's not quite as high as Mount Everest, but it's been about three times as dangerous to conquer. And on Monday, an Italian marked the 50th anniversary of his grandfather's first successful climb of K-2 by summiting the mountain. Italians Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni first scaled K-2, the world's second-highest mountain, on July 31, 1954. Compagnoni's grandson, Michele, reached the summit along with four other climbers. They were the first to reach the top of K-2 in three years. Pakistan began its three-week celebration of the K-2 Golden Jubilee earlier this month.

Death toll in South Asia flooding tops 1,000

PATNA, India -- Authorities recovered more than 100 decomposed bodies as overflowing rivers receded in eastern India. Floodwaters, disease and snakebites killed 58 more people in Bangladesh, officials said Monday, as the death toll from monsoon flooding across South Asia rose above 1,000 victims. The decomposed bodies started surfacing in India's Bihar state. The new deaths in Bangladesh came as rivers around the capital, Dhaka, burst their banks, leaving 40 percent of the city of 10 million people under water.

-- From wire reports