Berlin

Former IMF chief elected Germany’s president

Horst Koehler, a former head of the International Monetary Fund who has called for bolder economic reforms in Germany, was elected Sunday as the country’s ninth postwar president.

Koehler, nominated by opposition conservatives, defeated Gesine Schwan, a university professor backed by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s government who sought to become Germany’s first female head of state.

Koehler, a 61-year-old finance expert, won by a vote of 604-589 in balloting by a special assembly of lawmakers and state delegates in Berlin’s Reichstag parliament building.

He replaces Johannes Rau, a member of Schroeder’s Social Democrats who is stepping down after a single five-year term.

India

Military bus bombed, killing at least 33

A bomb struck a bus carrying vacationing soldiers and their families on Sunday, killing 33 people and wounding 10 in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said, just a day after the new Indian prime minister was sworn in.

The attack by suspected Islamic separatists, one of the worst in recent history, was a bloody initiation for newly installed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has pledged to make the Kashmir crisis and relations with rival Pakistan main priorities of his minority government.

Singh condemned the attack. It wasn’t clear whether the bombing was timed to coincide with his announcement of his Cabinet lineup, expected later Sunday.

The powerful explosion on the road connecting Srinagar and Jammu in India’s Jammu-Kashmir state occurred when a Border Security Force convoy was passing by, said Neeraj Sharma, a spokesman for the paramilitary force.

Pakistan

Nuclear talks postponed for leadership transition

Pakistan and India agreed Sunday to postpone nuclear talks originally set for this week so the new Indian government has time to settle into power, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said.

The ministry said India had requested the delay because Prime Minister Manmohan Singh still hadn’t chosen a foreign minister.

The talks, which had been set for Tuesday and Wednesday, are confidence-building measures between the nuclear-armed rivals and coincide with a wide-ranging dialogue on outstanding disputes launched in January by Pakistan and the Indian government then headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Moscow

Gorbachev to join elder Bush for birthday

Mikhail Gorbachev will attend former President George Bush’s 80th birthday celebration next month, but he declined an invitation to join him in a parachute jump, the Interfax news agency said Sunday.

Bush invited the last Soviet president to his birthday during a visit to Moscow last year, Interfax quoted Gorbachev aide Vladimir Polyakov as saying.

A Navy pilot who bailed from a crippled plane during World War II, Bush has gone skydiving twice for fun since 1997 and plans another jump, in Texas, to mark his 80th birthday.

“He asked Gorbachev to jump with him, but this idea was politely refused,” Interfax quoted Polyakov as saying. “Gorbachev said he’d rather greet Bush on the ground, with flowers.”

Gorbachev is 73.

Colombia

Disco bombing kills 6

A bomb planted by rebel suspects exploded in a crowded discotheque in northwest Colombia, killing at least six people and wounding 82 — the bloodiest in a series of attacks marking the 40th anniversary of Colombia’s main rebel group.

Another bomb blew up early Sunday at a pool hall in the Caribbean port city of Cartagena, killing one person and wounding three. It was not immediately clear who was behind that attack.

At least 13 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded since the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, began its wave of attacks Thursday, apparently to mark the 40th anniversary of its founding this week.

Bangladesh

Hundreds thought dead inside capsized ferry

A river ferry carrying about 250 passengers capsized early Sunday during a storm in southeastern Bangladesh, and most of those aboard were feared dead, police said.

Many of the passengers were asleep when the accident occurred and were believed to be trapped inside the double-decker ferry, said Mohammad Dulal Miah, a police officer at the scene.

About 50 people were able to swim ashore.

Fifteen bodies — five of them children — had been recovered so far, authorities said, but added that more than 180 were still missing and feared drowned inside the M.V. Lightning Sun.