Greece

Most wanted terrorist suspect surrenders

Greece’s biggest manhunt ended Thursday when a slim, clean-shaven man stepped out of a taxi at police headquarters and told a startled officer his identity: the alleged main hit man for the November 17 terrorist group.

“I’m Koufodinas. I’ve come to surrender,” the 44-year-old told the officer, according to authorities. “I know my rights, you know your job. Let’s get on with it.”

Police now believe they now have arrested the entire inner core of November 17, blamed for 23 killings including four American officials and scores of bombings, rocket attacks and bank robberies since 1975. Koufodinas is linked to at least 17 of the slayings dating back to 1984, including those of two Americans, two Turkish diplomats and a British envoy.

Vatican City

Pope says ‘deviants’ must not be priests

Pope John Paul II said Thursday that men with “obvious signs of deviations” must be barred from becoming priests, alluding to the risk of further sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church.

The pope also reaffirmed the Church’s requirement that priests be celibate, saying that candidates for the priesthood must understand that celibacy “is not a useless element.”

The pope told visiting Brazilian bishops it would be regrettable if “immature young men, or those with obvious signs of deviations, were ordained, which, as it is sadly known, can cause serious anomalies in the consciences of the faithful, producing clear damage to the whole Church.”

The pope did not explicitly mention the sex abuse scandals in the United States and elsewhere, but he made clear he expected his bishops to assure that seminaries emphasize “faithfulness to the doctrine on priestly celibacy.”

About 300 of the 46,000 U.S. priests have been taken off duty this year because of abuse allegations.

Jerusalem

Wife of former leader says Israel ‘can burn’

In audio taped remarks played on Israel TV Thursday, the wife of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “this country can burn” and that she and her husband would leave Israel because he was not appreciated.

Sara Netanyahu later apologized in a letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. She made the comments Monday during a telephone conversation with Shimshon Deri, an activist in Netanyahu and Sharon’s Likud party. Her husband is vying with Sharon for party leadership.

Israel and the Palestinians are locked in nearly two years of fighting, during which Palestinian suicide bombers have killed more than 250 Israelis. Netanyahu has repeatedly criticized Sharon for failing to bring an end to the attacks, demanding harsher military measures.

Netanyahu was prime minister from 1996 to 1999.

Zimbabwe

President defends land reform policies

In a rare interview with foreign journalists, President Robert Mugabe defended Zimbabwe’s land redistribution program Thursday and denied that his seizure of white-owned commercial farms had worsened the nation’s hunger crisis.

“It’s absolute nonsense,” he said, describing his program to redistribute the land to blacks as an effort to better the lives of the poor. “If anything, it’s the only way you can empower people to produce.”

Zimbabwe faces its worst hunger crisis in a decade with an estimated 6 million of the nation’s 12.5 million people at risk of starvation. The World Food Program has blamed the crisis on a drought during the growing season and on Mugabe’s land program, which has crippled farming in a nation that was once the breadbasket of southern Africa.

Angola

Powell tells nation to help its people

Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Angolan officials Thursday that the apparent end of their country’s 27-year civil war will require the oil-rich government to shoulder more of the burden for caring for its 4 million refugees and former combatants.

In a one-hour discussion with Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Powell suggested the United States soon would begin to reduce direct humanitarian assistance to Angola, which now totals $100 million a year. He told the president to begin rooting out the corruption that skims off $1 billion in oil revenues a year, allow political opposition to flourish and take other steps that would attract foreign investments.

“In the short term, there is a very real need for humanitarian assistance,” a senior State Department official said. “But in the long term, Secretary Powell emphasized that you have to take the wealth you have and use it for your own people.”