Spain: European Union leaders agree on energy plan

European Union leaders announced a deal that would partially open energy markets to competition, one of the more contentious areas of reform at the two-day EU summit that ended Saturday.

The opening up of national markets, boosting investment in education and research and development and promoting high technology are all part of the EU drive to become the world’s most “dynamic economy” by 2010.

Faced with French resistance, the leaders agreed to open the gas and electricity markets to competition by 2004 at the latest, but only for commercial customers.

A date to open the gas and electricity markets for private users will be decided in the next 12 months, the leaders agreed.

The summit in Barcelona was followed by a march and rally by tens of thousands of protesters who banged drums, blew whistles and carried banners with slogans such as “Terror USA” and “Against A Capitalist Europe.”

VATICAN CITY: Pope gives blessing to Parkinson’s group

Pope John Paul II, who suffers from the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, has given his blessing to an Italian group helping those with the disease.

The Vatican said Saturday that the pope sent a telegram to the head of Azione Parkinson or Parkinson’s Action complimenting the group on its work. The pope expressed the wish that such efforts will “contribute to increased commitment in favor of the promotion of the dignity of the human person.”

John Paul has a chronic hand tremor and often is troubled by slurred speech and difficulty in walking, all common symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, but the Vatican has never confirmed that the pope suffers from the disease.

BEIJING: Bus crash kills 22 people in China

Twenty-two people were killed when the bus they were riding in plunged 165 feet off a cliff in central China’s Hubei province, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Another nine people were injured in the crash, which occurred on a mountain road near the town of Enshi on Friday afternoon, the report said.

The accident’s cause is under investigation, Xinhua said.

A man who answered the phone at government offices in Enshi confirmed the Xinhua report, but declined to give other details or his name.

Bus accidents caused by unsafe or overloaded vehicles, poor roads and exhausted drivers claim thousands of lives in China each year.

Seventeen people burned to death on Thursday after a bus carrying teachers to an agricultural college collided with a truck on a foggy highway in northern China.

Bangladesh: At least nine die in fire at dormitory

A fire Saturday raced through a wood-and-tin dormitory at a school for Islamic women on the outskirts of the capital, killing at least nine teen-agers and seriously injuring a dozen others, officials said.

The fire gutted the two-story building at the privately run school in Demra, a suburb of Dhaka, a Fire Service spokeswoman said. Rescuers recovered nine charred bodies.

“The bodies were burned beyond recognition, but they seemed aged around 15-16,” said police officer Mohammad Yasin. Eleven females aged seven to 20 were hospitalized with severe burns, he said.

Police were investigating the cause of the fire.

Northern Ireland: British helicopter crashes; 7 are injured

A British military helicopter crashed Saturday in Northern Ireland, injuring seven of the nine people on board, two of them critically, army and hospital officials said.

Army officials in the British province said they had ruled out a terrorist attack but were still investigating the cause of the crash.

The Puma helicopter, normally used to ferry soldiers among several hilltop watchtowers in the South Armagh border region, was carrying three crew members and six passengers when it crashed near Jonesborough, less than a mile from the Irish border, they said.