South Africa: Mandela seeks help to solve Thames killing

Nelson Mandela asked fellow Africans Friday for information to help British police investigate the killing of a boy whose mutilated body was found floating in the River Thames.

Police believe the boy may have been the victim of a ritual killing and may have come from Africa. His body, dressed in orange shorts, was found Sept. 21 floating in the water near London’s Tower Bridge and had been in the river for up to 10 days.

Mandela, the former South African president, said Scotland Yard had appealed to him to help identify the boy, aged between 4 and 7.

Geneva: U.S. scientist ejected from climate panel

A U.S. scientist was voted off an international climate panel Friday after what campaigners claimed was pressure from the oil industry and Washington, a claim rejected by the United States.

Atmospheric scientist Robert Watson was seeking re-election as head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He has been vocal in warning governments about the danger of fossil fuel emissions contributing to global warming.

Watson was defeated by Indian challenger Rajendra Pachauri, who was backed by the United States and 75 other nations.

Environmental groups have accused the Bush administration of caving in to a request from Exxon Mobil that it try to remove Watson.

Yugoslavia: Ethnic Albanian rebels face war crimes charges

The chief U.N. prosecutor said Friday that a Balkan war crimes tribunal that has so far focused on Serbian suspects may finish investigations into ethnic Albanian rebels in Kosovo later this year and hand down indictments.

Carla del Ponte met top Kosovo officials at the end of a three-day Balkan tour in which she pressed governments in Bosnia and Serbia to hand over indicted suspects for trial in The Hague, Netherlands.

The U.N. war crimes tribunal has been criticized for alleged bias against Serbs. No ethnic Albanian has been publicly indicted so far for wrongdoing.

“I’m sure that this year we will issue the first indictment,” she said.