World in brief: Camilla not going to Diana’s service

Prince Charles’ wife announced Sunday that she will not attend a service marking the 10th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana, after criticism that her presence would be inappropriate.

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, had accepted an invitation from Charles and his sons, Princes William and Harry, to accompany them to the service Friday at the Guards’ Chapel in London’s Wellington Barracks. Some criticized the decision, since Camilla had an affair with Charles when he was still married to Diana.

Hard-core Diana fans, who accuse Camilla of destroying Diana’s marriage, were relieved.

“I couldn’t be happier if I’d won the lottery,” said Joan Berry, secretary of the Diana Appreciation Society.

Diana, known for her charity work and tabloid celebrity, died in a Paris car crash with her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, on Aug. 31, 1997.

JERUSALEM

Olmert, Abbas to meet Tuesday

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Israeli officials said.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said aides would hold a preparatory session today.

Olmert and Abbas have been meeting regularly in recent months. Their last summit was earlier this month in the West Bank town of Jericho, the first time they met outside Israel.

The meetings are meant as a boost to Abbas, who is in a power struggle with the militant Islamic Hamas, which has taken over Gaza and threatens his position in the West Bank. So far there have been few concrete results.

Palestinians want talks on issues that could lead to a peace treaty, but Israel prefers to limit the discussions to general principles and day-to-day matters because of the internal Palestinian political turmoil.

SEOUL, South Korea

Border fence will keep people in

North Korea has started building a fence along parts of its border with China in an apparent move to prevent people from fleeing the impoverished communist country, a news report said Sunday

The North has put posts on a six-mile stretch along a narrow tributary of the Yalu River, which marks the border between North Korea and China. It has also built a road to guard the area, Yonhap news agency reported. The North has yet to string barbed wire fencing between the posts, the report said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment on the report.

Less than a year ago, China built a massive barbed wire and concrete fence along its side of the same river.

North Korea and China share an 880-mile border.

Most of China’s trade and aid to the North, on which North Korea heavily relies, moves across the border. Up to 90 percent of the North’s oil supplies also come across the border from China.

China had left their border lightly guarded but it has became a security concern for Beijing in the past decade as tens of thousands of North Korean refugees began trickling across into northeast China.

More than 10,000 North Koreans have defected to the South, with most arriving in recent years.

BOGOTA, Colombia

Rebels blamed in nine killings

Gunmen raided a rural farm in southern Colombia and killed nine people, including four children, in an attack Sunday that authorities blamed on the nation’s largest rebel group.

Col. Harold Martin Lara, chief of police in Putumayo state, told Caracol Radio the assailants belong to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. He said the owner of the farm where the two families had lived “received threats for refusing to pay bribes to the guerrillas.”

The farmers were killed after attending a church service near the town of Puerto Asis, a longtime stronghold of the FARC – Latin America’s oldest and most potent leftist insurgency. A 13-year-old girl who was asleep at the time survived, Lara said.

From wire reports