World/nation briefs

Last update: November 12, 2009 - 9:29 PM

WEST BANK

Cancel Palestinian vote, official says

Hanna Nasser, chairman of the Palestinian election commission, recommended calling off January's presidential vote, a step that could result in Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has vowed not to seek reelection, staying on indefinitely. Nasser blamed the militant group Hamas, which control the Gaza Strip, for holding up the election by not allowing officials to make voting arrangements.

DENMARK

High-level invitations for climate talks

Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen sent invitations asking 191 world leaders to attend the conclusion of the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen, saying their "personal attendance is a pivotal contribution." He is chairman of the Dec. 7-18 talks aimed at reaching a new global pact to curb emissions of greenhouse gases.

CHINA

Rights group: China allows unofficial jails

Kidnapping villagers who have traveled to Beijing to lodge complaints with China's government and keeping them in unofficial jails to silence them has evolved into a lucrative cottage industry, a human rights group said. The report by New York-based Human Rights Watch on China's "black jails" is based mainly on interviews with 38 people who said they were held for days or months in makeshift detention centers, deprived of food and sleep, beaten and threatened. Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang rejected the study.

SOMALIA

Judge who sentenced pirates assassinated

Gunmen in the port city of Bossaso killed High Court Judge Mohamed Abdi Aware, who had sentenced many pirates and human traffickers to long jail terms, the security minister for Puntland in northern Somalia said. Three suspects have been arrested.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

CIA is said to have won turf battle

National security adviser James Jones has decided that CIA chiefs of station will continue also to represent the office of the director of national intelligence, ending a turf battle between the heads of the two spy organizations, officials said. CIA Director Leon Panetta and National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair squared off in May over Blair's effort to choose his own representative at U.S. embassies to be his personal eyes and ears abroad.

CALIFORNIA

NASA to try to free stuck Mars rover

NASA has outlined a plan to free the rover Spirit, which has been bogged in a sand trap on Mars for half a year. The risky operation is expected to last several months. "If it cannot make the great escape from this sand trap, it's likely that this lonely spot straddling the edge of this crater might be where Spirit ends its adventures on Mars," said Doug McCuistion, who heads the Mars exploration program at NASA headquarters in Pasadena.

GEORGIA

Adult smoking rate rises slightly

Cigarette smoking rose slightly for the first time in almost 15 years, dashing health officials' hopes that the U.S. smoking rate had moved permanently below 20 percent. A little under 21 percent of U.S. adults said they smoked, according to a 2008 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based in Atlanta. The year before, 19.8 percent said they were smokers.

ATLANTIC SEABOARD

Ida's torrents dump floods along coast

Relentless rain drenched much of the Atlantic seaboard, pelting communities from North Carolina northward and causing three deaths in hard-hit Virginia. Rain from tropical storm Ida and resulting floods were predicted to continue at least through today.

NEWS SERVICES

Recent Nation stories

Feds investigate complaints that Va. military college creates sexist environment for cadets - November 12, 2009

Feds investigate complaints that Va. military college creates sexist environment for cadets - Virginia Military Institute is defending itself against a lengthy investigation into accusations that the school's policies are sexist and hostile toward female cadets, a dozen years after women won the right to enroll. More