Venezuela

Thousands sign petitions seeking recall

Thousands of Venezuelans signed petitions Friday demanding a recall vote against President Hugo Chavez.

Motorists drove through Caracas’ streets waving Venezuelan flags, honking horns and urging residents to sign petitions during the four-day drive.

Venezuela’s opposition needs 2.4 million signatures to force a vote next year on whether Chavez should be removed from office. Results won’t be known for weeks.

Chavez played down the petition drive, saying he would run again in 2006. “I’m going to govern until 2013.” He’s also said previously that he’d govern until 2021.

Chavez already has survived a general strike this year and a brief coup last year.

Germany

DNA proves siblings are Lindbergh’s children

A DNA test has proven that U.S. aviator Charles Lindbergh fathered the three children of a German hatmaker, a spokesman for the siblings said Friday.

The children, Dyrk and David Hesshaimer and their sister, Astrid Bouteuil, have no plans to stake a claim as legal heirs, but wanted to verify the relationship before going ahead with plans to publish a book on their mother’s long-running secret relationship with the married pilot, said the sibling’s spokesman, lawyer Anton Schwenk.

A TV documentary on the family is scheduled for release in Germany next year.

No one was immediately available for comment at the Lindbergh Foundation in Anoka, Minn., which was closed for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Pakistan

Clinton praises nation’s role in terrorism fight

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton praised Pakistan’s role in the war on terror during a meeting with the president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the state-run news agency reported Friday.

The former first lady and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., met with Musharraf late Thursday in Islamabad after returning from Afghanistan, where they had Thanksgiving with American troops.

Clinton praised the rebuilding of the country and the work of U.S. forces. But she said more troops were needed to provide the kind of security needed by the government, U.N. workers and relief agencies against attacks by pro-Taliban forces.

Clinton also expressed concern that pro-Taliban cells now based in Pakistan were crossing the border to launch attacks against coalition forces and relief workers in Afghanistan.

GENEVA

Governments approve land mine treaty

World governments approved a treaty Friday that would require countries to clean up unexploded mines and other munitions in territories they control after a war.

Ambassadors from 92 nations, including the United States, Russia and China, agreed to the language in the accord. It is the first disarmament treaty accepted by the Bush administration.

Under the treaty, which still has to be ratified by each individual government, nations promise to remove or destroy all unexploded munitions, including unexploded enemy ordnance, in territory they control after a conflict.

Congo

Overcrowding blamed in deadly ferry disaster

Congo’s government promised Friday to prosecute those responsible for a ferry collision that left 182 people dead and scores more missing, saying investigators were questioning the larger vessel’s owner and captain.

As work crews buried as many as four victims to a grave along the thickly forested shores of west Congo’s Mai-Indombe lake, 3,000 mourners filled a cathedral in the lakeside town of Inongo for a Mass remembering victims of Tuesday’s disaster.

As many as 500 fishermen, traders and other travelers were crowded into the ferry Dieu Merci and a smaller vessel, with both boats lashed together as they moved across the lake, authorities said.

The government says 222 people are known to have survived.

After initially blaming the storm, Congolese authorities said Friday that ferry overcrowding also was a factor.

Bulgaria

Five convicted in killing of former prime minister

Five men were convicted and sentenced to life in prison Friday for the 1996 assassination of former Prime Minister Andrei Lukanov.

Alexander Rusov was found guilty of shooting Lukanov in front of his home on Oct. 2, 1996. Alexei Kichatov was convicted of supplying the gun.

Angel Vasilev was convicted of paying $85,000 for the killing. His nephew, Georgi Georgiev, and driver, Yuri Lenev, helped hire the killers.