Yemen

U.S. Embassy closed for security reasons

The U.S. Embassy in San’a was closed for security reasons Wednesday and protection of the building was increased after revelations that a U.S. Hellfire missile fired from a CIA plane killed a senior member of the al-Qaida terror network.

The CIA involvement could create a backlash in a country where Islamic militants have operated freely in the past and most oppose U.S. policies toward Iraq and the perceived American bias toward Israel in the conflict with the Palestinians.

Embassy officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the diplomatic mission was closed for security reasons and the Yemeni government had been asked to upgrade security.

One official would not say whether the embassy had received any specific threats.

Yemeni security officials, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said patrols around the embassy were increased and the number of intelligence agents in the area was increased.

Ireland

Talks aim to restore N. Ireland government

Britain and Ireland plotted a common strategy Wednesday for reviving a joint Catholic-Protestant administration in Northern Ireland, a key objective of peacemaking that has been derailed by rising Protestant hostility to the Irish Republican Army.

Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy, the newly appointed British governor, met in Dublin with Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen to map the likely structure, schedule and goals of wider negotiations.

Murphy said Britain and Ireland planned to announce a start to multiparty negotiations next week. The process could run until shortly before Christmas, and the main goal would be defusing Protestant-IRA tensions and restore the four-party administration at the heart of Northern Ireland’s 1998 peace accord.

Vatican City

Church steadfast in opposing condoms

The Vatican repeated its opposition to using condoms as a way to fight AIDS, saying Wednesday that chastity was the best way to prevent the spread of the deadly virus.

Monsignor Javier Lozano Barragan, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Workers, acknowledged that to some, the Vatican position may sound “ridiculous in the society in which we live.”

But he said there was only one way to prevent AIDS and the HIV virus from spreading. “We say that prevention … is called chastity.”

Barragan made the comments ahead of a three-day Vatican symposium on health care in Catholic hospitals and clinics around the world.

The Vatican has been criticized for its steadfast opposition to condom use, particularly in poor regions of the world like Africa which have been devastated by the AIDS epidemic.

Russia

Court convicts six on terror charges

A court sentenced six men to prison terms ranging from 6 1/2 to 14 years Wednesday after convicting them of terrorism and participation in a criminal group that prosecutors said tried to establish an Islamic state in southern Russia.

The defendants, all from the mostly Muslim republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessia, were found guilty of taking part in three marketplace bombings during 2002-2001 that killed five people and injured more than 70, the prosecutor’s office for Russia’s North Caucasus region in Rostov-on-Don said.

The court also found the men guilty of participating in a criminal group called Dzhamaat whose aim was to forcibly create an Islamic state with traditional Sharia law in the North Caucasus, the prosecutor’s office said.