Briefly

Togo

President sworn in amid boycotts, protests

The man the military picked to succeed his late father as Togo’s president was sworn in Monday even as Western diplomats boycotted the ceremony and hundreds of protesting students tried to disrupt it.

Faure Gnassingbe came to power in a tiny, impoverished country with little experience of rule of law, having spent nearly 40 years under the ruthless rule of his father. President Gnassingbe Eyadema, who died of a heart attack Saturday, was among the last of Africa’s “Big Men” who held power through patronage, the loyalty of their ethnic and regional groups, and military force.

His son promised change, saying Togo is on the road to democracy. Gnassingbe, wearing a blue suit at his 15-minute inauguration, pledged to “devote all my force to the development of the well-being of all Togolese and respect for human liberties in the national interest.”

But the international community has sharply questioned how he came to power, with some calling it a military coup.

VATICAN CITY

Pope to stay in hospital as health precaution

Pope John Paul II will remain hospitalized a few more days as a precaution, the Vatican said Monday, a day after the 84-year-old pope appeared at his clinic window to show the world he was recovering from his latest health crisis.

Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the pope, who he said was continuing to improve, had no fever, was eating regularly and has been sitting in a chair every day for several hours. Officials said the frail pope’s sixth night at the clinic passed calmly.

“His doctors have advised him to stay a few more days,” Navarro-Valls said.

The pope has been reading the newspapers, and Navarro-Valls quoted John Paul as saying he was doing so “just to follow in the papers the evolution of my health.”

Afghanistan

Victims’ families kept away from plane wreck

Security forces Monday turned back relatives trying to get to a mountain where NATO soldiers found human remains but no survivors in the wreckage of an Afghan airliner four days after it struck a snowbound peak with 104 people on board.

NATO helicopters spotted parts of the wreckage some 11,000 feet up Chaperi Mountain on Saturday, but freezing fog, low clouds and up to 8 feet of snow had prevented teams from reaching the site.

Clear weather Monday allowed a Spanish Cougar helicopter to drop Slovenian troops onto the mountain where they toiled through the deep snow to inspect several pieces of fuselage.

Afghan soldiers and police manned checkpoints to stop family members and media from approaching the area — to the fury of dozens of men eager to observe Muslim custom by quickly burying their dead.

The Boeing 737-200, flown by Kam Air, Afghanistan’s first post-Taliban private airline, vanished Thursday as it approached Kabul airport in a snowstorm from the western city of Herat.

United Nations

Oil-for-food program officials suspended

Secretary-General Kofi Annan suspended the head of the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq and a senior official who dealt with contracts after an independent inquiry accused them of misconduct, a U.N. spokesman said Monday.

Benon Sevan, who was in charge of the $64 billion humanitarian program, and Joseph Stephanides, head of the U.N. Security Council Affairs Division, were informed Friday that they had been suspended with pay, spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

Annan said he was shocked by the findings of an investigation led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker regarding Sevan. The secretary-general has said that if any of Volcker’s findings lead to criminal charges, he would lift diplomatic immunity.

Eckhard noted Monday that Volcker is still investigating Sevan but has not alleged any criminal wrongdoing.