Mauritania

Insurgents attack base; at least 24 killed

Algerian insurgents attacked an army base in this vast country’s northern desert, setting off a gunbattle that left at least 24 people dead, the defense minister said Sunday.

President Maaoya Sid’Ahmed Taya, who has survived several coup attempts during his 20-year reign, called an emergency meeting of his top military commanders late Sunday.

Those killed in the overnight assault in Mgheiti, near the nation’s borders with Algeria and Mali, included 15 Mauritanian soldiers and nine attackers, Defense Minister Baba Ould Sidi told reporters in the capital.

In recent months, Taya’s government has jailed scores of opponents, accusing them of organizing coup plots and setting up insurgent networks.

France

Normandy gears up for WWII anniversary

World War II veterans and dignitaries were gathering in Normandy for ceremonies Monday to honor the sacrifices of Allied soldiers who died in the D-Day landings 61 years ago.

Dozens of ceremonies were planned to commemorate those who fought and died on the five blood-soaked beaches during the June 6, 1944, siege that marked the beginning of the end of the Nazi regime.

French and American officials planned a tribute with a church choir and band at the Normandy American cemetery in the town of Colleville-sur-Mer, where 9,387 fallen U.S. fighters are buried.

Egypt

U.S. ally condemns Quran desecration

Egypt’s Foreign Minister on Sunday condemned U.S. military guards and interrogators who desecrated the Quran at the military detention camp at Guantanamo Bay and said those responsible should be held accountable.

Egyptian officials informed their American counterparts of their position, Ahmed Aboul Gheit told Parliament, but he didn’t say at what level. Egypt has been a key U.S. ally in the war on terror.

“We denounce in the strongest possible terms what the Pentagon confirmed about the desecration of the Quran,” Aboul Gheit said during his first meeting with lawmakers since taking office last July. “We condemn whoever did this, and we expect that they be held to account.”

France

Major border tunnel closed after accident

An eight-mile Alpine tunnel linking France and Italy will remain shut for no more than a year, Italy’s transport minister said Sunday, while workers clear out debris one day after trucks caught fire inside, killing two drivers.

No structural damage was found inside the Frejus tunnel, Italian Transport Minister Pietro Lunardi said.

Temperatures soared so high in the blaze that the road’s tar melted underfoot, said Xavier Jouannet, a fire brigade commander in the Savoie region of France. Television images showed blackened, soot-coated shells of two tractor-trailers in the tunnel.

The Frejus tunnel is a major thoroughfare linking the French city of Lyon with Turin, Italy, accounting for four-fifths of commercial roadway traffic between the countries.

Singapore

Japan, U.S. plan base deal this year

Japanese Defense Agency Director General Yoshinori Ono reached a basic agreement with U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Saturday to achieve a deal on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan by the end of this year.

In a meeting held in a hotel in Singapore, Ono and Rumsfeld also agreed to release as soon as possible an interim report on the sharing of security roles by the Self-Defense Forces and U.S. troops.

Ono told reporters after the meeting that the report could be issued in one or two months.

During the meeting, the defense chief said that as it would take time to gain the understanding and support of communities hosting U.S. bases for the realignment plans, it would be difficult for Japan to incorporate specific plans in the report for the redeployment of U.S. military bases.

Mexico City

Former outspoken ambassador to U.N. dies

Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, an intellectual who was one of the chief architects of the historic 2000 election of President Vicente Fox, died Sunday in a traffic accident near the resort town of Tepoztlan, where he had a home. He was 55.

Although Aguilar Zinser was at Fox’s side nearly constantly during the raucous campaign, then served initially as his national security adviser, the two had a severe falling out over Aguilar Zinser’s conduct after Fox appointed him as Mexico’s ambassador to the United Nations.

Aguilar Zinser was recalled as U.N. ambassador in November 2003 after he gave a speech in which he accused the United States of dismissively regarding Mexico as its “back yard,” a comment that then-Secretary of State Colin Powell called “outrageous.”

Turkey

Kurdish rebels kill four

Kurdish rebels ambushed a Turkish commando unit overnight, killing four soldiers and wounding one in southeastern Turkey as the rebel command threatened to escalate violence across the country, news reports said Sunday.

Later Sunday, police in Istanbul said they had captured seven Kurdish rebels planning bomb attacks in the city, including the commander of a rebel special forces unit, police said. Police said the rebels were collecting intelligence on possible targets but had not yet brought the explosives to Istanbul.

In the attack, rebels opened fire on a small unit of Turkish commandos patrolling the rugged area near the village of Cicekli in Tunceli province.