World digest 10/29/02

Cuban dissident groups form opposition assembly

HAVANA -- More than 300 Cuban dissident groups have formed a kind of opposition parliament, forming a huge coalition of opponents of Fidel Castro's government, leaders of the umbrella organization said Monday.

Lead organizer Marta Beatriz Roque said the Assembly to Promote Civil Society pulls together 321 dissident organizations representing everything from human rights groups to independent libraries.

The groups cannot now hold a large gathering, but "we are doing what we can to do so as soon as possible," said Roque. Such a gathering is unheard of in Cuba, where large meetings must be organized or approved by the government.

There was no immediate reaction from the government.

Kyoto opponents want to stall Canadian OK

TORONTO -- Canada's provincial governments sought Monday to delay the nation's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, which is aimed at stopping global warming.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien has said Parliament would vote by year's end on ratifying the 1997 protocol, which requires reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Chretien's Liberal Party holds a solid majority in the federal legislature, making approval likely.

At a meeting with federal officials Monday in Nova Scotia, the provincial governments proposed a high-level meeting on the matter in January. That would put off Chretien's timetable for ratification.

The United States has rejected the Kyoto agreement. Canada's energy industry warns ratification would put it at a disadvantage with U.S. competitors.

Vatican still wants to improve Jewish relations

ROME -- A top Vatican cardinal reaffirmed Monday that the Roman Catholic Church was more committed than ever to improving relations with Jews in a speech marking the anniversary of a major Second Vatican Council document on the issue.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican official in charge of relations with Jews, told a conference of prelates and rabbis that after 2,000 years of antagonism, Catholics and Jews may still disagree -- but that they do so as brothers.

"Fraternity is precisely this contact, where one listens to the heart of the other as if it were his own heart," Kasper said.

The conference commemorated the 37th anniversary of the document "Nostra Aetate," Latin for "In Our Time." In it, the Vatican deplored anti-Semitism and repudiated the charge that blamed Jews as a people for Christ's crucifixion.

Indonesian protesters pelt police with stones

SOLO, Indonesia -- Radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was taken to the capital Jakarta on Monday for questioning about his alleged links to a terrorist network. Supporters pelted police with stones when he was taken from a hospital.

The protesters tossed stones at a police motorcade that escorted Bashir to the airport. He was escorted from the hospital, where he has been for the last two weeks with respiratory problems, in a wheelchair.

Bashir was formally arrested Oct. 18. He is charged with ordering a string of church bombings on Christmas Eve 2000 that killed 19 people. He is not a suspect in the Oct. 12 nightclub bombings in Bali.

Japan, N. Korea to open talks in Kuala Lumpur

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Japanese diplomats arrived Monday for talks on normalizing relations with North Korea amid renewed concern over the North's nuclear weapons program and its abduction of Japanese citizens.

Tokyo and Pyongyang scheduled the current round of talks, set for Tuesday and Wednesday, after a breakthrough summit last month between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

The goal was to try building diplomatic relations between the countries, which have had no direct ties since World War II.

Koizumi said Monday the Kuala Lumpur talks will have a "great impact on peace and stability" in the region.

-- From wire reports