Haiti

Rebel commander surrenders to officials

Proclaiming his innocence, a rebel commander convicted of killing supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide surrendered to justice officials Thursday.

Louis-Jodel Chamblain’s surrender came as a conference for international donors opened in Port-au-Prince. Haiti’s government hopes to get millions of dollars in aid to rebuild the shattered country, which is reeling from a revolt that ousted Aristide on Feb. 29.

To a few cheers from a curious crowd, Chamblain said his conviction in absentia in 2000 was politically motivated and predicted he would be vindicated. Under Haitian law, those convicted in absentia are entitled to another trial when they return to the country.

Chamblain fled to the neighboring Dominican Republic when a U.S. military intervention restored Aristide to power in 1994. He returned in February to help lead the rebellion that forced Aristide to flee.

Saudi Arabia

Top cleric denounces terrorists after attack

Those responsible for Saudi Arabia’s latest suicide attack will be “burned in hell,” the kingdom’s top cleric said Thursday, as investigators searched for clues to the deadly bombing.

Five people, including two senior police officers and an 11-year-old girl, were killed along with the suicide bomber in Wednesday’s attack on the administrative building of the General Security, the Interior Ministry said. It said 148 people were injured.

A shadowy Islamic extremist group, the purportedly al-Qaida-inspired al-Haramin Brigades, released a statement on at least two Islamic Web sites claiming responsibility for the attack. The authenticity of the statement could not be verified.

Grand Mufti Abdul-Aziz al-Sheik, the kingdom’s highest religious authority, condemned the attack “as one of the greatest sins.”

Wednesday’s attack came days after the United States ordered the departure of nonessential U.S. government employees and family members from Saudi Arabia.

Beijing

Two new SARS cases reported in China

China reported two new suspected SARS cases Thursday — one in Beijing and one in an eastern province — and ordered authorities to prepare for another battle against the highly contagious disease.

The cases in Beijing and Anhui province were the first reported in those areas since China’s initial outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome subsided in July.

The Beijing case was announced by the central government, while word of the Anhui case came from authorities in the Chinese territory of Hong Kong. It wasn’t clear why the central government didn’t announce that case.

SARS first emerged in late 2002 in southern China and killed 774 people — 349 of them in mainland China. More than 8,000 were sickened around the world.

South Korea

North Korea pledges ‘flexibility’ in nuke talks

Prospects for six-nation talks on ending the North Korean nuclear crisis brightened Thursday as the communist state’s leader Kim Jong Il promised to show “patience and flexibility” in the negotiations.

In North Korea’s first confirmation of Kim’s secretive trip to China this week, its official news agency KCNA said Kim and Chinese President Hu Jintao agreed to try to resolve the dispute peacefully through talks with the United States, South Korea, Japan and Russia.

The countries are to convene a third round of talks in July aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program. Previous rounds have made little progress.

During Kim’s visit, China pledged aid to help North Korea’s economic development, KCNA said. Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao also promised to encourage Chinese businesses to increase dealings with North Korea.

Peru

Peru airline banned from U.S. airspace

U.S. authorities have prohibited Peru’s largest airline, Aero Continente, from flying to the United States because of safety concerns, U.S. officials said Thursday.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Aero Continente, which flies four times a week to Miami, lost permission to enter U.S. airspace after an inspection last week by Federal Aviation Administration officials.

The U.S. official said the FAA sent a letter Thursday to Aero Continente’s operations director, Victor Jaime Manrique, saying discussions between the FAA and Peru’s Civil Aviation Authority “resulted in a common understanding of the significant safety issues.”

The embattled airline has other problems. Its founder, Fernando Zevallos — suspected by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration of being a major cocaine smuggler — faces retrial here on drug trafficking charges, expected to begin in several months.