Russia

Pro-Putin leader killed in Chechnya

A local leader of Russia’s main pro-presidential party was fatally shot early Sunday in Chechnya, and the region’s prosecutor said it was a contract killing linked to next month’s presidential election.

Tamara Khadzhiyeva of United Russia, which supports President Vladimir Putin, was killed by masked gunmen at her home in Shali, southeast of the Chechen capital, Grozny, an official in the Moscow-backed government said on condition of anonymity.

Chechnya’s chief prosecutor, Vladimir Kravchenko, said it was a contract killing that was “no doubt linked” to preparations for Chechnya’s Aug. 29 election to replace the region’s pro-Moscow president, Akhmad Kadyrov, who was assassinated in a bombing in Grozny in May.

South Africa

Mandela celebrates 86th birthday quietly

Former President Nelson Mandela celebrated his 86th birthday quietly Sunday at his family home in Qunu in the Eastern Cape with his wife, Graca Machel, and family members.

The low-key celebration was in keeping with the Nobel Laureate’s announcement in June this year that he would cut back on public appearances, a spokesman from the Nelson Mandela Foundation said.

The anti-apartheid hero has looked frail in recent appearances and has difficulty walking without a cane. Mandela indicated a more moderate schedule would allow him to spend more time with his family and complete the second volume of his memoirs.

Berlin

Anniversary marks Hitler coup attempt

Germany’s main Protestant bishop paid tribute Sunday to the dissident army officers who tried to blow up Adolf Hitler in a failed coup 60 years ago, calling them an example to the nation.

The sermon was part of the buildup of anniversary events honoring Col. Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg and other high-ranking soldiers from the German aristocracy, executed in Berlin after the Nazi dictator survived the July 20, 1944, briefcase bomb placed by Stauffenberg.

“Our society, and also our church, struggled for a long time to honor the plans and the daring” of the Nazi resistance, Lutheran Bishop Wolfgang Huber said at the Berlin Cathedral. “Those who sacrificed their lives during those days did not die in vain. Their example lives on.”

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is to lead official commemorations Tuesday of the best-known attempt to assassinate Hitler.

Rwanda

Leaders reject report on violence in Congo

Rwanda on Sunday rejected a draft U.N. report that accuses the country’s officials of directly helping renegade Congolese troops who temporarily seized a key city in eastern Congo last month.

Rwandan Minister for Regional Cooperation Protais Mitali said the draft, leaked to The Associated Press before its release — expected Tuesday — was unfair and biased because its authors both refused to give Rwanda more than one day to discuss initial findings, and declined to discuss final accusations by claiming the investigation was secret.

The draft report says Rwandan officials recruited, trained and sheltered potential fighters in the Rwandan border town of Cyangugu, promising them mobile phones or $100 to fight with forces loyal to renegade Col. Jules Mutebutsi in the neighboring Congolese province of South Kivu.

Mutebutsi seized control of Bukavu, capital of South Kivu, on June 2 with the help of hundreds of troops loyal to another renegade officer, Brig. Gen. Laurent Nkunda. Congolese government troops retook the city June 9 after Nkunda and his troops withdrew under international pressure.