Mexico City

Thousands gather to protest tax hikes

Union members, left-wing activists and farmers by the thousand marched to the capital’s central plaza Thursday for a collective show of opposition to plans by President Vicente Fox to raise taxes on food and medicine and sell state-owned assets.

The crowd estimated by police at 80,000 packed major avenues from Mexico’s independence monument to the city center. The march had been billed as Mexico’s largest years, but the turnout fell short of the 150,000 predicted by organizers.

The march was largely peaceful, with demonstrators chanting “Our country is not for sale!” Still, authorities dispatched thousands of police to guard against possible violence.

Moscow

University’s rector resigns over dorm fire

The rector of Moscow’s Peoples’ Friendship University resigned Thursday, saying he bore responsibility for a dormitory fire that killed 37 foreign students and injured scores of others.

Rector Dmitry Bilibin’s office confirmed that he had stepped down. Assistant rector Viktor Ponka said Bilibin told students that he held himself responsible for the blaze.

Ponka said Education Minister Vladimir Filippov accepted Bilibin’s resignation in principle but asked him to remain on the job for an unspecified period of time. No successor was named.

Meanwhile, investigators questioned Bilibin and other university officials, the Interfax news agency reported.

London

Poet rejects honor from Britain’s queen

Rastafarian poet Benjamin Zephaniah has rejected an honor from Queen Elizabeth II, describing it Thursday as a legacy of the “brutality” of British colonialism.

Zephaniah, one of Britain’s best-known contemporary poets, announced he was spurning the invitation in an article published in The Guardian newspaper, breaking the convention that those who reject honors do it privately.

The poet, who grew up in England and Jamaica, was recommended for an OBE award, or Officer of the Order of British Empire.

But in a blistering criticism of Prime Minister Tony Blair and the monarchy, he railed against Britain’s colonial past and its support of the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

London

British police arrest two terror suspects

British police arrested two terror suspects, including one with suspected links to al-Qaida, Britain’s home secretary said Thursday.

Television reports said those links involved convicted “shoe bomber” Richard Reid.

The 24-year-old man was arrested in Gloucester, western England, after police evacuated 119 nearby homes and cordoned off three roads out of fear he may have had explosives, authorities said. London’s Metropolitan Police, which assisted in the investigation, said officers recovered a “relatively small amount” of what was described as “explosive material.” Police gave no further details.

“It is the belief of the security and (police) Special Branch services that this man has connections with the network of al-Qaida groups,” Home Secretary David Blunkett said.