Netherlands
Justice minister calls for more arrest powers
Spurred by the first terrorist killing on its soil, the Dutch justice minister said Monday authorities need broader arrest powers to combat a growing threat from Islamic radicals in the Netherlands.
In an Associated Press interview, Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner said the new laws would empower anti-terrorism investigators to detain suspects without evidence that they may have committed a crime.
"In those cases where we can't even clearly prove the existence of recruitment or radicalization, but only have a suspicion, we will still use possible administrative powers and other powers to disrupt it as much as possible," said Donner, the country's leading terrorism official.
The proposals follow the Nov. 2 slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh. An alleged Islamic extremist has been arrested in the slaying.
Afghanistan
Group split over fate of U.N. hostages
The purported leader of Taliban-linked militants holding three U.N. hostages said Monday his group couldn't decide whether they should "get rid" of the captives.
After a Monday night deadline set for reaching a deal for the hostages' release passed, Jaish-al Muslimeen leader Mohammed Akbar Agha said the group would meet today to decide their fate.
Earlier, Afghan officials said negotiations with the kidnappers had been postponed amid disagreements about ransom demands.
Philippine diplomat Angelito Nayan, British-Irish Annetta Flanigan, and Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo were seized at gunpoint on Oct. 28 -- the first abduction of foreigners in the capital since the fall of the Taliban three years ago.
Mexico
Former ruling party wins two key races
Mexico's former ruling party, trying to fight its way back to the presidency, overwhelmingly won two gubernatorial elections Monday and held razor-thin leads in two other races.
The victories put the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, closer the nation's top post, a position the party lost to President Vicente Fox's National Action Party in 2000 after 71 years in power.
The PRI has been working to rebuild since, winning elections for governor in four states earlier this year. Some warn that a presidential win in 2006 by the PRI would be a regression that could take Mexico back to authoritarian, one-party rule.
Nigeria
Unions suspend strike threat targeting oil
Nigeria's main labor union on Monday lifted its threat of a nationwide strike that would have shut down the oil industry in the world's No. 7 exporter.
The threat was lifted after the government agreed to lower domestic fuel prices -- a key demand of unions.
"We have decided to suspend the strike for now, to give the government a chance," Nigeria Labor Congress spokesman Owei Lakemfa told reporters.
"It's not exactly what we want. But we're convinced one important point has been made -- the government can't behave as if its word is cast in stone, irrespective of what the people want," congress leader Adams Oshiomhole said.
Announcement of the strike, originally set to start today, had worried world oil markets earlier in the month. Unions had threatened to cripple Nigeria's daily oil exports of 2.5 million barrels. Nigeria is the fifth-largest supplier of U.S. oil imports.
Havana
Dollar worth only 90 cents in Cuba
The value of a dollar in Cuba dropped to 90 cents Monday as a surcharge on the American greenback took effect, the latest step in the island nation's conversion from an economy based on U.S. currency to one using the new convertible peso.
Cubans and tourists lined up to change dollars into pesos over the weekend. As of last week, U.S. currency no longer was accepted at Cuban stores, restaurants, hotels or other businesses, and the new 10 percent surcharge is meant to further discourage people from bringing currency from Cuba's No. 1 enemy to the island.
President Fidel Castro has said the widespread use of the American money was being halted to guarantee Cuba's economic independence.
Pedro Michelena stood in line at a cash exchange station Sunday to trade in the dollar he was paid for watching the car of foreign tourists.
"(Monday) it will be worth only 90 cents," the 82-year-old said.
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