‘Santas’ rampage in New Zealand
Auckland, New Zealand A group of 40 people dressed in Santa Claus costumes, many of them drunk, rampaged through New Zealand’s largest city, robbing stores and assaulting security guards, police said today.
The rampage, dubbed “Santarchy” by local newspapers, began early Saturday afternoon when the men, wearing ill-fitting Santa costumes, threw beer bottles and urinated on cars from an Auckland overpass, said Auckland Central Police spokeswoman Noreen Hegarty.
She said the men then rushed through a central city park, overturning garbage containers, throwing bottles at passing cars and spraying graffiti on buildings.
Some of the Santas later entered a downtown convenience store and carried off beer and soft drinks.
“They came in, said ‘Merry Christmas’ and then helped themselves,” store owner Changa Manakynda said.
Alex Dyer, a spokesman for the group, said Santarchy was a worldwide movement designed to protest the commercialization of Christmas. Three people were arrested and charged with drunkenness and disorderly behavior.
U.S. told to butt out of Colombia’s affairs
Bogota, Colombia Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, one of Washington’s best friends in South America, told the United States to stop “meddling” in his country’s affairs after the U.S. ambassador urged him to take steps against corruption in regional elections.
U.S. Ambassador William Wood, in a speech in the capital Friday, said the 2003 elections for mayors and governors saw many unopposed candidates because potential opponents were bribed, scared off and, in some cases, murdered.
He said rightist paramilitary groups were often to blame for those abuses and warned the same could happen in elections scheduled for March.
The illegal paramilitaries recently signed a peace deal that makes fighters who disarm eligible for benefits such as reduced prison sentences, pardons, job training and stipends. Wood said fighters who seek to manipulate elections should be stripped of their benefits.
Uribe responded in a sharply worded statement late Friday.
“The Colombian government does not accept the meddling of foreign governments, even if it is the United States,” he said, adding that it is already clear that paramilitary leaders lose benefits if they break the law.
The U.S. Embassy said Wood meant no offense by his remarks.
Bangladesh arrests terrorism suspects
Dkaka, Bangladesh Police said Saturday they seized two large caches of bomb-making materials and arrested five suspected members of a banned Islamic group that has been blamed for a wave of deadly bombings in this South Asian nation.
Bomb materials, including large quantities of a gel explosive and about 2,000 detonators, were seized late Friday during raids on two houses in Rajshahi district, 145 miles northwest of Dhaka, the capital, a police statement said.
Rajshahi police arrested four suspected Islamic extremists, including one believed to be a high-ranking member of the banned Jumatul Mujahideen Bangladesh group, the statement said.
Jumatul Mujahideen Bangladesh wants to establish strict Islamic rule in this Muslim-majority country of about 140 million people. Authorities have blamed the group for bombings that have killed 22 people and wounded dozens since the end of November.
Activist Sheehan calls Bush a war criminal
Madrid, Spain Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan led a small protest Saturday outside the U.S. Embassy to denounce the war in Iraq.
About 100 protesters carried banners criticizing President Bush. Sheehan, whose soldier son was killed in Iraq, called Bush a war criminal and said, “Iraq is worse than Vietnam.”
The protest also was called in memory of Jose Couso, a Spanish television cameraman killed on April 8, 2003, in Baghdad when a U.S. tank fired at a hotel where many foreign correspondents were staying.