GENEVA

Red Cross gives U.S. report on Guantanamo

The Red Cross gave U.S. authorities a report on the treatment of prisoners held at the American naval base at Guantanamo Bay, but declined to say Thursday whether it cited abuses similar to those it found in Iraq.

The document, based on organization visits to the base in February and March, was given earlier this month to officials at the State Department, Pentagon and National Security Council, said Antonella Notari, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Notari declined to discuss the report’s contents or say which individuals had received it.

The ICRC has previous expressed grave reservations about the U.S. military’s practice of holding without charge hundreds of prisoners at Guantanamo.

Greece

Radicals: Some Olympic visitors ‘undesirable’

A Greek radical group claimed responsibility Thursday for triple bombings at a police station and warned that some visitors to the Olympic Games — from heads of state to wealthy Western tourists — would be “undesirable.”

The proclamation by the group Revolutionary Struggle did not threaten future attacks. But its anger over Olympic security measures could further shake international confidence about the safety of the Aug. 13-29 games.

Greek government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos said authorities were “not worried.”

Syria

President refuses to expel Palestinians

A defiant President Bashar Assad said Thursday he wouldn’t bow to U.S. demands to expel Palestinian militant groups and criticized new U.S. sanctions against Syria, disputing Bush administration charges that his country has weapons of mass destruction and is allowing foreign fighters to move across the border into Iraq.

In a meeting of about 90 minutes with American editors, Assad offered no fresh proposals to spur talks on the stalled Middle East peace process — including Syrian attempts to regain the Golan Heights — saying the United States has made it clear that its No. 1 priority is Iraq and not the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Philippines

Report: Al-Qaida funded Philippine bombings

Police arrested a suspected Muslim militant who arranged for al-Qaida funds to finance bombings in the Philippines — including one that killed a U.S. Green Beret — a new government report said.

The money bought explosives, speedboats and rifles, according to the confidential report seen today by The Associated Press.

Khair Mundus, who was arrested last week, funneled at least $89,000 from al-Qaida militants in Saudi Arabia to Abu Sayyaf leader Khaddafy Janjalani, the report said.

U.S. and Philippine officials have linked the Abu Sayyaf with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network. The Abu Sayyaf, a small but ruthless group notorious for kidnappings and beheadings, has been labeled a terrorist organization by Washington.

Brazil

Court blocks expulsion of N.Y. Times reporter

Brazil’s Supreme court on Thursday temporarily blocked the expulsion of a New York Times correspondent who wrote an article that offended the president.

The decision means Times correspondent Larry Rohter would be allowed to stay until the court decides whether the government’s cancellation of his visa was constitutional.

Communications Minister Luiz Gushiken said it would be up to the attorney general to decide on a government appeal of the Supreme Court ruling.

“This is a country ruled by law. If there is room to appeal, it is up to the attorney general,” he said during a meeting with foreign correspondents.

Rohter’s whereabouts were not known. His visa was canceled Tuesday and he was given eight days to leave the country.

BEIJING

U.S.-based dissident gets 5 years in prison

A Chinese court sentenced a Boston-based dissident to five years in prison Thursday for allegedly entering China illegally and then spying for rival Taiwan — a case that U.S. lawmakers said was “indefensible” and “inhumane.”

Yang Jianli, 40, a Chinese citizen with permanent U.S. residency, was in China to meet with dissidents and protesting laid-off workers when he was detained in April 2002 while boarding an airline flight in the southwestern city of Kunming with a fake identity card.

Yang’s family denies he is a spy and says he was using a friend’s identity because he was barred from China after helping pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thursday’s verdict was announced by the official Xinhua News Agency, which said Yang was tried in a closed court in keeping with Chinese national security laws

UNITED NATIONS

Diplomat: Dollar-only stores will reopen

The dramatic closure of Cuba’s dollar-only stores was temporary to allow the government to assess the impact of “brutal measures” announced last week by President Bush, Cuba’s U.N. envoy said.

Ambassador Orlando Requeijo Gual said he didn’t know whether the stores would be back in business in days or weeks.

The government said the closures were a response to Bush’s new measures to tighten the 44-year U.S. embargo on the communist state. The U.S. measures announced last week were designed to reduce hard currency on the island by limiting how often Cuban-Americans can visit relatives. They currently can visit one a year and spend $164 a day. The new rules allow visits only every third year with a daily expenditure of $50.