Ukraine

Orange Revolution takes to road

Supporters of opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko took the so-called Orange Revolution on the road Tuesday, piling into cars and buses for a 10-day odyssey to spread their message beyond the capital, targeting eastern provinces largely hostile to their candidate.

With sirens blaring and trademark orange flags unfurled, more than 150 opposition supporters left Kiev, hoping to win over voters in areas where support for Yushchenko’s opponent, Viktor Yanukovych, has been strong. The two candidates face off in a Dec. 26 rematch after a Supreme Court ruling that annulled a fraud-tainted Nov. 21 runoff in which Yanukovych claimed victory.

New Zealand

Penguin chicks may starve to death

A remnant of the largest iceberg ever recorded is blocking Antarctica’s McMurdo Sound, threatening tens of thousands of penguin chicks with starvation and cutting off a supply route for three science stations, a New Zealand official said Tuesday.

The iceberg, known as B15A, measures about 1,200 square miles, said Lou Sanson, chief executive of the government scientific agency Antarctica New Zealand.

Tens of thousands of the chicks could starve in coming weeks because the ice build-up in the sound has cut off their parents’ access to waters where they catch their fish, Sanson said.

The penguins are important to scientists as markers of environmental change, such as global warming. The iceberg is threatening two of four colonies in the area that scientists have been studying for 25 years.

Mozambique

Opposition demands new elections

Twenty opposition parties united Tuesday to demand a rerun of Mozambique’s presidential and parliamentary elections, claiming widespread fraud.

The parties, led by the main opposition, Renamo, accused the ruling Frelimo and National Electoral Commission of rigging the Dec. 1-2 vote.

“Our Frelimo brothers should know that what they committed is not merely fraud, but serious crime, and this means that democracy is in jeopardy,” Renamo candidate and former rebel leader Afonso Dhlakama said.

Leaders of the 20 parties, including all 16 who contested the elections, met Tuesday in the capital, Maputo, to draft a memorandum of their grievances.

They plan to address the letter to the European Union, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, African Union and Mozambique’s attorney general.

Mexico City

Ex-Guatemalan official charged with genocide

Mexican federal police on Tuesday sought to arrest a former interior minister of Guatemala on genocide charges.

Former minister Donaldo Alvarez Ruiz, 73, a longtime resident of Mexico, is sought in connection with his alleged role in the burning of Spain’s embassy in Guatemala City in 1980. The fire killed at least 36 people.

Mexican Fourth District Judge Salvador Guillermo Gonzalez authorized Alvarez’s arrest Monday afternoon, acting on an arrest warrant from Spain. It’s the third case in which Spain’s high court has pursued former Latin leaders for alleged human rights crimes committed many years ago. Spain’s legal actions, while involving cases in which its citizens died, are also intended to encourage other Latin countries to pursue alleged rights violators.

The cause of the resulting embassy fire remains disputed. Guatemalan authorities said at the time that the hostage-takers had torched the embassy deliberately.