Iran

Evidence growing of terrorists hiding in Iran

U.S. intelligence and foreign allies have growing evidence that wanted terrorists have been residing in Iran despite repeated American warnings to Tehran not to harbor them.

The evidence, which stretches over several years, includes communications by a fugitive mastermind of the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing and the capture of a Saudi militant who appeared in a video in which Osama bin Laden confirmed he ordered the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to U.S. and foreign officials.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because much of the evidence remains classified.

Saudi intelligence officers tracked and apprehended Khaled bin Ouda bin Mohammed al-Harbi last year in eastern Iran, officials said. The arrest came nearly three years after the cleric appeared with bin Laden and discussed details of the 9-11 planning during a dinner that was videotaped and aired across the world.

Aruba

Missing teen’s mother seeks more U.S. help

The mother of a missing Alabama teenager tearfully called for more help from U.S. authorities Friday in the search for her daughter, who disappeared on the last day of a high school graduation trip to this Caribbean island.

Police and volunteers combed beaches and scrubland for any sign of Natalee Holloway, putting up posters with a photo of the 18-year-old honor student. The wording on the posters was changed Friday to add a photo caption saying: “Kidnapped since 1:30 a.m. May 30.”

Authorities say there is no evidence Holloway was abducted, but police commissioner Jan van der Straaten said “after four or five days you are afraid a crime has been committed.”

Aruba’s coast guard also searched surrounding waters, an indication authorities are considering the possibility she might have been taken off the island with or without her consent. Police found her passport in her hotel room.

Holloway was on a five-day excursion with 124 seniors and several chaperones from Mountain Brook High School, near Birmingham, Ala.

Senegal

Aid groups plead for more hunger relief

From Africa’s locust-devastated western dust bowls to the conflict-ridden central jungles and the AIDS-struck south, aid officials calling for urgent hunger relief say a lack of money is making it increasingly difficult to help the continent’s most vulnerable.

Much of the world’s poorest continent is entering its annual “lean season” – the months leading up to harvest when food stores dwindle and hunger worsens among the most impoverished.

The U.N. World Food Program has made urgent appeals this year for food aid to Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. In Zimbabwe, the United Nations now estimates more than 5.5 million people will need emergency food aid before the next harvest.

But funding shortfalls and endemic strife are hampering humanitarian efforts.

Aid workers say the plight of Africa’s hungry has been overshadowed by the devastating losses in the Asian tsunami.

Austria

Mother arrested after four infant bodies found

It was a balmy spring day, and the man thought he’d fetch some ice cream from the freezer he shared with other tenants in his apartment complex. But when he lifted the lid, he recoiled in horror at the gruesome sight of a frozen infant wrapped in plastic.

What happened next has held usually tranquil Austria spellbound: The discovery of another baby’s body in the chest freezer and of two others entombed in concrete-filled pails at the complex in the city of Graz.

A 32-year-old bookkeeper was arrested and confessed to killing her four newborns out of despair over her inability to pay the bills and her fear that having a child might drive away her longtime male partner, police said Friday.

Her 38-year-old companion, who denied involvement, also was arrested and placed under investigation.

Police said they believed the bodies may have been placed in the freezer as long as three years ago.

Thailand

Hundreds of Hmong tribespeople surrender

Nearly 200 members of a Hmong hill tribe surrendered to authorities early today after decades on the run in Laotian jungles, a move that heralds a possible end to a tragic legacy of the Vietnam War.

U.S. sympathizers traveling with the 170 women, children and elderly men said they were received warmly when they arrived around dawn in Laos’ Xieng Khouang province to turn themselves in and reintegrate into society.

The Hmong were recruited by the CIA to fight on behalf of a pro-American government during the Vietnam War.

Singapore

Rumsfeld questions China’s military buildup

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld issued a blunt challenge to China at a regional security conference today, saying Beijing must provide more political freedom to its citizens and questioning its recent military buildup.

Rumsfeld said the Pentagon’s annual assessment of China’s military capabilities showed China was spending more than its leaders acknowledged, expanding its missile capabilities and developing advanced military technology. China now has the world’s third-largest military budget, he said, behind the United States and Russia.

“Since no nation threatens China, one wonders: Why this growing investment? Why these continuing large arms purchases?” Rumsfeld said at the conference organized by the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

South Korea

‘Mr.’ earns Bush praise from North Korea

North Korea gave rare praise to President Bush on Friday, welcoming his use of the honorific “Mr.” when referring to leader Kim Jong Il and saying the softened tone could lead to its return to nuclear arms talks.

The United States wants the North to end its nuclear weapons development.

At a Tuesday news conference, Bush defended his focus on using diplomacy to try to resolve the standoff.

“It’s a matter of continuing to send a message to Mr. Kim Jong Il that if you want to be accepted by the neighborhood and be a part of : those who are viewed with respect in the world, work with us to get rid of your nuclear weapons program,” Bush said.