Austria

Death toll mounts in European floods

Torrential rains in Europe inundated Austrian villages Thursday, swept away campers on Russia’s Black Sea coast, flooded London’s subway system and battered vineyards and olive groves in northern Italy. At least five people were killed in some of the continent’s worst flooding in decades.

On Russia’s Black Sea coast, two bodies of flood victims were found in the village of Abrau-Dyurso, said Viktor Beltsov, a spokesman for Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry. At least 100 people were missing, but there were no details on their situation.

In London, heavy rain caused extensive flooding of the city’s subway and train system, closing several stations and cutting services before the morning rush hour.

The British capital suffered the worst of storms that swept England overnight, and rail operators warned commuters to expect long delays throughout the day.

United Nations

Powell intercedes in diplomat parking case

Secretary of State Colin Powell launched a last-ditch diplomatic initiative Thursday afternoon to resolve an international parking dispute between New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the city’s diplomatic community.

The move came hours after Bloomberg threatened Thursday morning to begin at midnight towing hundreds of diplomatic vehicles that have racked up more than $22 million in unpaid parking bills since 1997.

The State Department, which has accused Bloomberg’s office of cutting off negotiations aimed at reaching a settlement, warned that the city’s action would represent a violation of international law.

Bloomberg softened his position after a phone call from Powell and agreed to reopen talks.

Colombia

New president makes promise after attack

Undaunted by a deadly mortar attack during his inauguration the day before, President Alvaro Uribe vowed Thursday to proceed with plans to create a force of 1 million Colombians to report on rebel groups the government has been fighting for years.

“We must overcome fear,” Uribe said in the provincial capital of Valledupar. “We do that by everybody getting involved.”

It was Uribe’s first full day as president of the hemisphere’s most troubled nation, and he hardly talked about the attack that killed 19 people as his inauguration ceremony began Wednesday. He kissed and hugged residents under the eye of army snipers on rooftops and as hundreds of other soldiers stood guard nearby.

The plan to recruit citizen informants and equip them with radios to report on rebels was a cornerstone of Uribe’s election campaign.

Zimbabwe

Court rules seizures of white land illegal

Hours before a government deadline for all of Zimbabwe’s white farmers to leave their land, a court released a ruling Thursday that such evictions were illegal if government officials failed to notify banks holding mortgages on affected farms.

It was unclear whether the ruling would provide a reprieve of any kind to the 2,900 white farmers who had been ordered to leave their farms by midnight Thursday as part of President Robert Mugabe’s efforts to redistribute the southern African nation’s most fertile land from wealthy whites to poor blacks. A trickle of farmers and their families vacated their homes Thursday, but most prepared to defy the government’s effort to order them off land that many have worked for generations.