Bosnia: U.S. Embassy closes because of threat

The U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo shut down all operations Friday because of a terrorist threat, just days after police raided an Islamic charity, arrested an espionage suspect and seized bogus passports, weapons and plans for making bombs, officials said.

The embassy had reduced operations Wednesday after receiving word of a possible terrorist threat. Friday, it got new information “that prompted us to take further precautionary measures and close the embassy entirely,” spokeswoman Karen Williams said.

“We are reassessing the situation continually and will reopen when appropriate,” she said. No other details were available.

Beijing: Amnesty accuses China of stepped-up repression

China has carried out sweeping arrests since Sept. 11, detaining possibly thousands of people in a crackdown in its Muslim northwest, Amnesty International said Friday.

Many of those detained in Xinjiang and accused of terrorism or separatism may have done “little more than practice their religion or defend their culture,” Amnesty said in a 33-page report.

A Chinese government spokeswoman, Zhang Qiyue, would not comment on specific cases cited by Amnesty but accused the London-based rights group of using “fabricated information to accuse China on a groundless basis.”

India: 52 civilians wounded in grenade explosions

Attackers hurled grenades at a bus stand and marketplace Friday, wounding 52 people in a rare attack on civilian targets in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Police blamed Islamic separatists for the attacks, and army officers said three militants were killed in gunbattles in two other places Friday in Kashmir.

The attackers threw four or five grenades, wounding 35 civilians in Shopiyan, about 30 miles south of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu-Kashmir state, said an officer at the state’s police control room.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

London: Court: Paralysis victim has right to end her life

A paralyzed woman who wants doctors to remove the ventilator that keeps her alive has a right to die, a British judge ruled Friday.

The case was apparently the first in Britain in which a mentally competent patient had applied for the right to terminate life-sustaining treatment.

The High Court ruling was relayed by video link to the hospital bedside of the woman, identified only as B.

B was paralyzed from the neck down when a blood vessel ruptured a year ago; she is unable to breathe unaided. Her doctors argued that it would be unethical to turn off the ventilator.

Paris: Suspect in 1998 killing loses extradition case

France’s prime minister signed an order Friday allowing an American suspected in the 1998 killing of an abortion doctor to be returned to New York for trial. But it could be months before the extradition occurs.

James Kopp can still appeal to France’s Council of State and the European Court of Human Rights.

Kopp is charged with the October 1998 sniper-style killing of Dr. Barnett Slepian in his home near Buffalo, N.Y. Authorities searched for Kopp for 2 1/2 years before arresting him in the western French city of Dinan a year ago.

In June, a French court recommended that Kopp be extradited. The court based its recommendation on assurances that the U.S. would not seek the death penalty.