Mexico City: Vicente Fox removes ambassador to Cuba

President Vicente Fox announced the end of Ricardo Pascoe’s tenure as Mexico’s ambassador to Cuba, ending what had become a media soap opera involving insults, accusations of wrongdoing, and apologies.

Relations between the Mexican Foreign Ministry and Pascoe, a founder of Mexico’s leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution had been tense for weeks. The ambassador railed against “politically motivated” charges from the ministry that he had mismanaged thousands of dollars and had been absent from his post without permission.

Late Monday, Fox’s office issued a statement saying the president had exercised his constitutional authority to end Pascoe’s work as ambassador, as of Sept. 30.

Beijing: 21 students killed in staircase-rail collapse

A staircase guardrail at a school in northern China collapsed while students were leaving, causing a crush of humanity that killed 21 schoolchildren and injured 47, authorities and the official Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday.

The accident at the No. 2 Middle School in Fengzhen, a city in the Inner Mongolia region of northern China, happened at 6:50 p.m. Monday, Xinhua said. A guardrail along stairs inside the building gave way while students poured out of classes at the end of the day, the report said.

Iran: Bill to increase powers of president reviewed

The Iranian president submitted a reform bill to parliament Tuesday that would check the power of the hard-line judiciary, setting the stage for a possible battle over presidential powers.

President Mohammad Khatami’s proposal is expected to be easily endorsed by the 290-seat Majlis. But the measure also has to pass the conservative-led Guardian Council to become law.

A conflict over presidential powers could erupt, Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi said, creating more tension in an already volatile political atmosphere.

Khatami has in the past seen his objections ignored when he has raised concerns about what he considers unconstitutional limits on freedom of the press and illegal imprisonment of reform-minded journalists and lawmakers.

Spain: Explosion kills officer in Basque region

A booby-trapped sign bearing the logo of the armed Basque separatist group ETA exploded Tuesday, killing one police officer and wounding three others.

The blast came less than a day after two suspected ETA members died when their explosives-laden car detonated in Bilbao.

The bomb was hidden behind a sign placed along a road between the towns of Berastegui at the southeast tip of the Basque region and Leiza in the neighboring Navarra region, the Interior Ministry office in Navarra said.