Hydrablog

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/27/AR2006072701974.html
WORLD IN BRIEF
Friday, July 28, 2006; A17
Georgia to Take Over Part of Breakaway Area [Chechnya] [Russia] [former ussr] [use psci 469] [*********] [use psci 350—separatism] [ditto]
TBILISI, Georgia -- Georgia said on Thursday it would set up a local government headquarters in part of the breakaway region of Abkhazia, a step that may escalate tensions with the separatists and their supporters in Moscow. The announcement came after security forces said they had regained full control over a remote gorge from a rebel militia leader, ending an operation that triggered fears of a wider regional conflict.
President Mikheil Saakashvili said Abkhazia's pro-Tbilisi government in exile, which fled in the 1990s, would now be based in the Kodori gorge, a part of the region where Tbilisi is loosely in control but has no official presence.
Security forces were sent into the gorge when Emzar Kvitsiani, a militia leader who had previously cooperated with Tbilisi, said he would stop taking its orders. Kvitsiani escaped and was believed to be in an area controlled by the Abkhaz separatists, Georgian Defense Minister Irakly Okruashvili told Rustavi-2 television station.
The northern part of the Kodori gorge is controlled neither by the separatists nor by Tbilisi. Until now Georgia has relied on local militias as proxies for police or officials there.
asia
• KABUL, Afghanistan -- A civilian helicopter crashed in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, killing all 16 people on board, including at least two American civilians and two Dutch soldiers, officials said.
Afghan army and U.S.-led coalition troops have recovered 12 bodies and were searching for four more in the difficult, mountainous terrain where the Mi-8 helicopter crashed on Wednesday, a coalition spokesman said. There was no indication yet what caused the crash.
• KATHMANDU, Nepal -- Nepal's Maoist rebels say they will extend a three-month-old cease-fire with the government that is due to end this week, but accused the ruling coalition of failing to push the pace of peace talks.
• KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice planned to hold talks Friday on North Korea with officials from seven other nations attending a regional conference here. But the North's delegation is not expected to join the discussions, underscoring the stalemate over what to do about the communist state's nuclear and missile programs.
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill told reporters traveling with Rice to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations conference that the United States is prepared to engage with North Korea if it returns to formal six-party talks that also include China, Russia, South Korea and Japan.
But for the time being, Rice has "zero plans" to meet with the North Koreans who are also at the ASEAN conference, Hill said. The State Department had proposed holding a five-party meeting in Malaysia without the North, but China rejected the idea.
-- Robin Wright
• BEIJING -- About 2,000 people in the southwestern city of Bazhong, including hundreds of middle school students, attacked officials and smashed offices and cars last week after a 14-year-old student was beaten up by officials, a witness and a human rights group said.
• SEOUL -- The death toll from floods and landslides in North Korea this month has risen to at least 154 people, with 127 others missing, according to the United Nations.
• COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Sri Lanka's air force bombed a suspected Tamil Tiger airstrip and targets in the northeast in a second day of air raids that the rebels said killed six fighters and wounded five civilians.
the americas
• LIMA, Peru -- Peru's incoming president, Alan García, who takes office Friday eager to atone for his disastrous 1985-90 first term, named a cabinet mixing left-leaning party members and independent technocrats, promising an investment "shock" to alleviate the country's acute poverty.
EUROPE
• MOSCOW -- Russia said it had sold 24 airplanes and 53 helicopters to Venezuela, defying the United States, which has urged Moscow to halt arms sales to populist President Hugo Chávez.
• LONDON -- A British institute has been given permission to recruit women having fertility treatment to donate eggs for stem cell research and therapeutic cloning, the nation's fertility watchdog group said.
THE MIDDLE EAST
• ANKARA, Turkey -- A Turkish writer, Perihan Magden, was acquitted of turning people against military service by defending a conscientious objector in her weekly magazine column. Human rights groups hailed the decision as a victory for freedom of expression in Turkey. [**********]
Turkish authorities have put a string of Turkish writers and journalists on trial for expressing opinions, despite pressure from the European Union, which Turkey hopes to join, to scrap repressive laws.
Africa
• BAIDOA, Somalia -- At least 20 members of Somalia's parliament resigned, accusing the country's virtually powerless government of failing to bring peace. [*********]
The U.N.-backed interim government watched helplessly last month as Islamic militiamen seized control of nearly all of southern Somalia, including the capital, Mogadishu. [***********]
The lawmakers quit in part over Somalia's rival, Ethiopia, sending soldiers to protect the fragile administration from the Islamic militia. They also accused the prime minister of performing poorly and said the government lacked transparency. [********]
-- From News Services
© 2006 The Washington Post Company