West Bank

Polls show close race for Palestinian president

Opinion polls published Monday showed that jailed Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti poses a threat to mainstream candidate Mahmoud Abbas in the Jan. 9 presidential election to replace Yasser Arafat.

However, Barghouti’s associates say he might yet withdraw in exchange for reform promises from Abbas.

The polls are the first since Barghouti threw the election scene into turmoil by entering the race just before the filing deadline. Barghouti is serving five life terms in an Israeli prison for his role in deadly shooting attacks of Israelis.

Two of the polls published Monday predicted a tight race between Abbas and Barghouti, while a third gave Abbas the advantage.

Cuba

Another dissident freed

Authorities Monday freed an independent journalist who had opposed Cuba’s communist government, bringing to seven the number of political prisoners released in a week.

Jorge Olivera Castillo, who worked on the magazine De Cuba and contributed to news agencies outside the country, was freed for health reasons after a medical checkup at a prison hospital.

Olivera, 43, had been sentenced to 18 years in prison after a massive government crackdown on 75 dissidents in March 2003. All the activists were accused of working with U.S. officials to undermine Fidel Castro’s government.

The De Cuba magazine was the first of its kind to publish independent writings on the island. Two issues came out before the 2003 crackdown, in which De Cuba editor Ricardo Gonzalez Alfonso was also imprisoned. He remains behind bars.

Mexico

Former president’s brother found slain

Enrique Salinas, the youngest brother of former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, was found dead in a car Monday on the outskirts of Mexico City, with a plastic bag tied over his head in an apparent murder, officials said.

Alfonso Navarrete Prida, attorney general of Mexico State, where the body was found, said it appeared Salinas was killed during an attempt to extort him or get information out of him.

Enrique had long maintained a low profile, in contrast to the stormy lives of two of his brothers. Raul Salinas is serving a prison sentence of nearly 27 years for masterminding the murder of his former brother-in-law.

Carlos Salinas is widely hated in Mexico because of the economic collapse that immediately followed his 1988-1994 administration. Raul Salinas has been investigated for alleged corruption and money laundering during his brother’s administration.

Enrique and a fourth brother, Sergio, stayed out of the spotlight, dedicating themselves to business activities.

Japan

U.S. Army deserter leaves military base

Close to four decades after deserting the U.S. Army for North Korea, Charles Jenkins today left a military base outside Tokyo to start a new life in his wife’s hometown on a remote island in northern Japan.

His departure came close to two weeks after he finished serving a one-month sentence for abandoning his army post in 1965 to avoid the perils of duty on the Korean peninsula and in Vietnam. He was released five days early for good behavior.

Jenkins, his wife Hitomi Soga, and their two daughters left the Camp Zama army base about 8 a.m., said Sgt. 1st Class N. Maxfield.

Jenkins turned himself into the U.S. military earlier this year after he left the North to join Soga, who had returned home in 2002 after Pyongyang admitted to kidnapping her and 12 other Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s.

Spain

Series of bombings blamed on Basques

Explosions rattled seven Spanish cities Monday after telephone warnings from the armed Basque separatist group ETA, in a resurgence of violence after months of keeping a low profile since the deadly Madrid train bombings by Muslim militants.

Officials said ETA chose a highly symbolic day for a fresh show of force — the anniversary of Spain’s constitution, which established a system of regional autonomy the Basque group rejects.

The nearly simultaneous explosions in coffee shops, parks and other public places slightly injured 18 people. They stretched across Spain, with the apparent message that ETA can strike wherever it wants — even with security forces on high alert because of five blasts Friday claimed by ETA.

The bombs went off in Valladolid, Leon and Santillana del Mar in the north, Avila and Ciudad Real in central Spain, Alicante in the east and Malaga in the south.