Aruba

Jailed youth retraces steps at beach

Police took a jailed Dutch teenager Saturday to retrace his steps at the beach where he says he last saw an Alabama teenager the morning she disappeared in Aruba.

Police took Joran van der Sloot, 17, to a beach near the Marriott Hotel where he has admitted to being alone with 18-year-old Natalee Holloway in the early hours of May 30, said police superintendent Jan van der Straaten.

Van der Straaten declined to provide further details, saying only that it was “part of the investigation.” Police have taken van der Sloot to the site before.

Van der Sloot’s mother, Anita, has said her son told her he was alone with Holloway on the beach but did not harm her.

The beach is near the Holiday Inn where Holloway had been staying during a graduation trip with 124 classmates. She vanished hours before she was to catch her flight home.

Van der Sloot, the son of a judge in training in Aruba, faces no charges, and authorities can hold him until Sept. 4, when he must be charged or released. Six other men detained at various times during the investigation have been released.

Turkey

Bus bomb kills five, including two tourists

A bomb tore apart a minibus in a popular Aegean beach resort town Saturday, killing at least five people, including two foreigners, the second explosion in a week aimed at Turkey’s vital tourism industry.

The blast in the coastal city of Kusadasi, a favorite destination for British, Irish and German tourists, reduced the bus to a scorched, twisted heap of metal.

Police boosted security in the town, searching cars as they entered and patrolling the town’s center with dogs.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack. Kurdish rebels have carried out bombings in Aegean resort towns but a Kurdish rebel commander, Zubeyir Aydar, condemned Saturday’s explosion in a statement to the Germany-based Mezopotamya News Agency, which often carries rebels’ statements. The statement could not be verified.

Leftist and Islamic militants also are active in the country, a member of NATO and one of Washington’s most important Muslim allies.

South Africa

Firing of deputy leader shakes up ruling party

President Thabo Mbeki’s firing of his top deputy over corruption allegations has generated a sharp backlash among some factions of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress and provoked what analysts here call the most serious political challenge to Mbeki’s six-year presidency.

But some analysts say the debate over the fate of Jacob Zuma, the former deputy president, has been healthy for South African democracy and could constructively shake up a ruling party that critics say has become intolerant of dissent and inadequate in delivering services to the poor.

At the ANC’s national general council meeting, grass-roots activists long enchanted by Zuma’s gregarious personality and populist politics sang anti-Mbeki slogans and donned T-shirts proclaiming Zuma’s innocence.

Activists at the meeting also voted overwhelmingly to reject Zuma’s offer to step down from his post as deputy president of the party.

Indonesia

Government tries to avoid tribunal

Indonesian government officials said they hoped to avert calls for an international war crimes tribunal on Indonesian military atrocities in East Timor, promoting instead a truth commission to probe abuses committed in the province after it voted for independence in 1999.

A U.N. panel has urged a war crimes tribunal if Indonesia does not take steps to hold credible trials of those charged with responsibility for the massacre of at least 1,400 civilians, who were killed by militiamen under the direction of members of the Indonesian security forces.

Last week a coalition of 12 international human rights groups sent a letter to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, calling on the Security Council to endorse the panel’s recommendations and set up a system to monitor compliance.

The coalition, which includes Human Rights Watch, the Coalition for International Justice, and the International Center for Transitional Justice, called for “decisive action from the international community.”

The coalition criticized the proposed truth commission’s lack of a criminal justice component and its proposal to give amnesty to those who committed crimes against humanity.

Mexico

Governors to work together to stop violence

U.S. and Mexican state governors agreed Friday to ask their governments to declare the border a strategic zone and seek federal funds for public security, including anti-terrorism measures.

The governors also promised to fight the mistreatment of Mexican migrants who live and work in the United States.

“Immigration is a topic that nobody wants to talk about, but we did it effectively,” said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

Earlier Friday, Richardson met with six of his Mexican counterparts to discuss migration and ways to halt a wave of drug-fueled violence.

An agreement by the federal governments of Mexico and the United States to declare the 2,000-mile-long border a “strategic zone” for security would free up funds for public security programs, including anti-terrorism measures.