South Africa

Mandela’s ex-wife found guilty of fraud and theft

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the ex-wife of former President Nelson Mandela, was convicted Thursday of theft and fraud involving $120,000.

Madikizela-Mandela — whose financial adviser, Addy Moolman, also was convicted — could be sentenced to 15 years in jail.

The trial in Pretoria marked the latest setback for Madikizela-Mandela, who had played a role in the nation’s successful anti-apartheid campaign led by Nelson Mandela.

Madikizela-Mandela and Moolman had both pleaded innocent to 60 charges of fraud and 25 of theft involving $120,000 at the African National Congress Women’s League, which Madikizela-Mandela leads.

Kazakhstan

Russian rocket ready for space station trip

Russia on Thursday rolled out the spacecraft that will carry the next crew to the international space station, filling the gap left by the suspension of U.S. shuttle flights after the Columbia disaster.

The Soyuz TMA-2 capsule — an updated version of the longest-serving manned spacecraft in the world — was roped into service to ensure the orbiting outpost, some 250 miles above Earth, isn’t abandoned.

Carrying Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and American astronaut Edward Lu, the spaceship is scheduled to blast off Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Without the U.S. shuttles, the Soyuz and Russia’s unmanned Progress cargo ship are the only links to the $60 billion international space station.

Iceland

World’s first hydrogen service station opens

Iceland opened a filling station for hydrogen-powered vehicles on Thursday — one of very few in the world and the next step toward its dream of giving up fossil fuels completely.

The first car in line was a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van, a prototype provided under a European Union-backed program to use Iceland as a test for hydrogen power.

There weren’t any other customers Thursday: None of Iceland’s 280,000 people are known to drive cars powered by hydrogen.

The new station will be used by three DaimlerChrysler hydrogen-powered buses being introduced into the Reykjavik fleet for two years, starting in August. Each bus can go about 125 miles before it needs refueling.

Serbia-Montenegro

Police file charges against Milosevic

Serbian police have filed charges against former President Slobodan Milosevic and several of his allies in the abduction and killing of a Serbian ex-president, officials said Thursday.

Police investigating the March 12 assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic found the remains of former Serbian President Ivan Stambolic last month. Stambolic was once Milosevic’s mentor, but the two politicians later became bitter rivals.

Stambolic had been missing since he was abducted in August 2000 while jogging in Belgrade. He disappeared just weeks before a presidential election in which Stambolic was preparing to challenge Milosevic.

Turkmenistan

U.S. citizen returned

An American citizen accused in an alleged plot to kill Turkmenistan’s president was handed over to U.S. officials Thursday, after almost five months in prison.

Opposition leaders and human rights advocates contend the assassination attempt was fabricated as a pretense for a brutal crackdown on President Sapamurat Niyazov’s opponents.

Leonid Komarovsky of Newton, Mass., was arrested Nov. 26. The State Department criticized Turkmenistan’s investigation of the attack, saying U.S. officials were denied immediate access to Komarovsky and had received reports that entire families of suspects were being rounded up.

Komarovsky, whose family has denied he played a role, was handed over to U.S. consular officials, said Anzhela Begdzhanova, an embassy spokeswoman.