November 27, 2006 in Nation/World

Cabinet member lashes out at Putin

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A British Cabinet minister accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “attacks on individual liberty and on democracy” and said Sunday that relations with Moscow were strained after a former KGB agent was poisoned to death in London.

Peter Hain, the government’s Northern Ireland secretary, said Putin’s tenure had been clouded by incidents “including an extremely murky murder of the senior Russian journalist” Anna Politkovskaya.

They were the strongest comments leveled at Moscow since Alexander Litvinenko died Thursday from poisoning by the radioactive element polonium-210. In a dramatic statement dictated from his hospital bed and read outside the hospital after his death, the Kremlin critic accused the “barbaric and ruthless” Putin of ordering his poisoning.

British officials have so far avoided blaming Moscow for Litvinenko’s death, and Hain did not comment directly on the case.

KABUL, Afghanistan

Suicide bomber kills 15 in restaurant

A Pakistani suicide bomber detonated himself in a crowded restaurant Sunday, killing 15 people and wounding 24, including an Afghan special forces commander and a district chief, the provincial governor said.

The restaurant, located in the southeastern province of Paktika, was destroyed, said Gov. Mohammad Akram Akhpelwak. The attacker was believed to be targeting the military commander and the district chief, he said.

The suicide strike was the 102nd in Afghanistan this year, attacks that have killed 241 people, said Maj. Luke Knittig, a spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.

BEIRUT, Lebanon

Hezbollah limiting protest plan details

A top Hezbollah official said Sunday that the militant Shiite Muslim group will press ahead with threatened street protests and other peaceful means seeking to topple Lebanon’s Western-backed government and will stage its actions without warning.

Sheik Naim Kassem, Hezbollah’s deputy secretary-general, said the group would not reveal details of planned activities beforehand.

“There is no specific time frame and no final plans. There is a basket of ideas which we will use the way we see fit for achieving our goals,” he told the group’s Al-Manar television, saying that would make the actions “more effective.”

OAXACA, Mexico

March turns violent; buildings torched

Leftist protesters trying to force out the Oaxaca state governor set fire to another building Sunday after a night of torching government offices and vehicles in running street battles with police that injured at least 43 people.

The violence broke out late Saturday after masked youths broke away from a protest march by about 4,000 people and began attacking police and buildings in picturesque Oaxaca city.

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