Algeria

President reshuffles Cabinet before elections

Algeria’s president dismissed six Cabinet ministers Friday for supporting a politician who’s expected to be his chief rival in next year’s election.

In a statement, the President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s office said six ministers and an assistant justice minister were let go for backing former Prime Minister Ali Benflis.

Benflis, who lost his job in May, has said he believed he was fired because of widespread speculation he was planning to run for election.

Both men are leading figures in the National Liberation Front, whose members have been bitterly split over who to support.

Though Bouteflika is expected to run for re-election in April 2004, neither he nor Benflis has officially entered the race.

Estonia

Journalist admits fabricating interviews

An Estonian journalist who claimed to have interviewed financier George Soros, film director Milos Forman and other famous people admitted to fabricating the stories.

The bogus interviews by 21-year-old Argo Riistan, including with Czech writer Milan Kundera and English playwright Tom Stoppard, appeared in several publications in the former Soviet republic of 1.4 million residents from 2000 to 2003.

The fabrications came to light after Riistan offered the Soros interview to the local Sirp weekly last month. Its editors checked with Soros’ office, wondering how the young man managed to get access to such a prominent person. They were told the interview never took place.

Riistan wasn’t immediately available for comment to The Associated Press.

Spain

Al-Jazeera reporter detained for questioning

An Al-Jazeera journalist who interviewed Osama bin Laden shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks was detained Friday for questioning about links to al-Qaida members, the Interior Ministry said.

Syrian-born Tayssir Alouni was taken into custody at his family home in Alfacar, a village on the outskirts of the southern Spanish city of Granada.

Alouni, who has a Spanish passport, was in Spain with his wife to look into opening an office for the Arabic satellite television network, a friend and former colleague of Alouni’s at Efe, Spain’s national news service, told The Associated Press.

Swaziland

Hailstorm cuts short dance of queen hopefuls

Wearing beads, wrap skirts and woolen tassels, thousands of girls danced for Swaziland’s king on Friday, hoping to be chosen as his 12th queen. But hail and lightning broke up the ceremony.

Some said the weather was a good sign for this drought-stricken land, but others disagreed.

“It’s a blessing, a blessing,” said one man as the rain-soaked crowds rushed past him, jumping over metal barriers and pushing toward shelter.

However, one woman said word had spread that lightning struck the royal cattle pen just moments before King Mswati III made his way to the ceremony. Cattle are symbols of wealth and status in many southern African countries, including Swaziland.

LONDON

American illusionist begins starvation stunt

David Blaine, the American illusionist and street magician, began his latest feat of endurance in a blaze of publicity Friday night, entering a plastic box where he will attempt to live without food for more than six weeks.

In a live TV show, Blaine was checked over by medical personnel and searched by a security guard before waving goodbye, hugging his friends and climbing into the top of the box in a small park near Tower Bridge overlooking the River Thames.

A crane lifted the box up 40 feet, where it was to remain suspended while Blaine pursues his goal of spending 44 days and 44 nights alone with only a supply of water, a quilt, a pillow, a journal, a change of clothes and a photo of his mother.

BERLIN

Germany protests over wine with Hitler labels

Germany has complained to Italy about a winery that labels its bottles with portraits of Adolf Hitler, the Justice Ministry said Friday.

Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries recently wrote to her Italian counterpart to say the labels are “contemptible and tasteless” and asked him to see what could be done to stop their production, spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz said.

The so-called “Fuehrerwein” bottles, part of vintner Alessandro Lunardelli’s “historic line,” features 14 different labels portraying Hitler with slogans like “Sieg Heil” and other Nazis.

The line also includes labels with portraits of other infamous characters of history, such as Italy’s former fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.