South Africa: Mandela, Clinton buoy AIDS awareness efforts

Nelson Mandela and former President Clinton spoke with South African youths Saturday to boost AIDS awareness and prevention.

Clinton and Mandela, the former president of South Africa, listened to a group of young South Africans talk about their efforts to boost awareness of HIV, the deadly virus that has killed so many of their friends.

An estimated 4.7 million South Africans one in nine is HIV positive, more than any other country in the world.

Clinton told the gathering that since leaving office, that AIDS prevention and youth community action have become his top priorities.

“You represent the two things I believe are critical to all of Africa’s future,” Clinton told the crowd.

Jerusalem: Israeli accuses Iraq of training Palestinians

Palestinian militants have been trained in Iraq by a group supported by Saddam Hussein to carry out terror attacks against Israel with the knowledge of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, a senior Israeli official said Saturday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that Iraqi-backed Palestinian militants were arrested as they tried to enter Israel recently with plans to carry out attacks at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport.

Turkey: Weapons-grade uranium seized by police; 2 arrested

Paramilitary police have seized about 35 pounds of uranium and arrested two Turks who they said planned to sell the weapons-grade substance, the Anatolia news agency reported Saturday.

Police in Sanliurfa, near the Syrian border, confirmed the arrests but refused to give further information.

Anatolia said the uranium was enriched for use in weapons. Police believe it was smuggled from an eastern European country.

London: Former prime minister admits to four-year affair

After a series of Cabinet sex scandals helped topple his government, former Prime Minister John Major admitted Saturday to a four-year affair with a colleague while both were married.

Edwina Currie, a health minister in Margaret Thatcher’s government, was quoted by The Times newspaper as saying she and Major began a relationship in 1984, while he was a Parliamentary whip, and ended it shortly after his promotion in 1988 to Thatcher’s Cabinet.

Major, a Conservative, was prime minister from 1990 until 1997. He was long considered one of Britain’s most personally upright politicians.