London

Flight diverted after suspicious object found

A passenger flight from Portugal to Britain carrying 108 people was diverted under an air force jet escort Tuesday after a suspicious object was found on board, British police said. Officials later said the object was an unclaimed cell phone.

A Ministry of Defense spokeswoman said two air force fighter jets escorted the Thomson holiday company flight to Britain’s Stansted airport, 20 miles northeast of London, where it landed safely at 7:41 p.m.

The flight, with 103 passengers and five crew on board, was en route from the holiday resort of Faro in southern Portugal to Coventry, in England’s midlands region, when defense officials sent fighter jets to escort it to Stansted.

Afghanistan

Government suspects plan to foil elections

A mosque suicide bombing and an attempt to down a U.S. aircraft signaled the start of attempts by al-Qaida and the Taliban to destabilize legislative elections, the presidential spokesman said Tuesday.

The warning by President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman, Jawed Ludin, of efforts to derail the Sept. 18 elections follows a surge in violence, with more than 200 suspected rebels killed in three months, according to U.S. and Afghan officials.

Ludin said a June 1 suicide bombing at a mosque in the southern city of Kandahar that killed 20 people, and the attempt to shoot down an American aircraft with a shoulder-launched missile on the same day were aimed “to create maximum effect … maximum shock among the people.”

Sweden

Report: Global military spending over $1 trillion

For the first time since the Cold War, global military spending exceeded $1 trillion in 2004, nearly half of it by the United States, a prominent European think tank said Tuesday.

As military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terrorism continue, the world spent $1.035 trillion on defense during the year, corresponding to 2.6 percent of global gross domestic product, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said.

The figure “is only 6 percent lower in real terms than it was in (1987-88), which was the peak,” said SIPRI researcher Elisabeth Skons, who co-authored the organization’s annual report.

Egypt

Saudi officials deny persecuting Christians

A Saudi official denied allegations that the kingdom has arrested and tortured Christians, saying such actions run counter to Islamic tolerance.

The remarks to the official Saudi Press Agency came in response to reports in Iranian papers of recent arrests.

The official, who spoke to SPA on condition of anonymity, said the allegations “don’t go with the principals and values of the kingdom and above all our tolerant Islamic belief which guarantees the rights of Muslims and residents of different religions and ethnicities alike.”

Members of other religions in the conservative Islamic kingdom generally are allowed to practice their beliefs in private but are prohibited from seeking converts or holding organized religious gatherings.

Nepal

Rebels apologize for deadly bombing

Communist rebels apologized Tuesday for making a “grave mistake” by bombing a civilian bus in an attack that killed 38 people and injured 71, saying they were targeting government security forces.

The leader of the rebels said the fighters involved in Monday’s attack and the local leadership had been suspended.

“The incident was against our party policy, and we offer serious self-criticism to the general public for the huge civilian casualties,” rebel leader Prachanda, whose real name is Pushpa Kamal Dahal, said in a statement.

“The civilian casualty caused by the explosion detonated by our fighters targeting the soldiers of the royal government was our grave mistake,” he said.

London

Scientists worldwide call for greenhouse gas cuts

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences joined similar groups from other nations Tuesday in a call for prompt action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, warning that delays will be costly.

The statement was released as British Prime Minister Tony Blair was meeting with President Bush in Washington.

Blair has made action on climate change a priority for the July G-8 summit. Bush opposes the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, and his administration questions scientists’ views that man-made pollutants are causing temperatures to rise.

Lord May, president of Britain’s Royal Society, said in releasing the statement that Bush’s policy on climate change was “misguided” and ignored scientific evidence.

Chile

Pinochet loses immunity in tax case

A Chilean appeals court stripped Gen. Augusto Pinochet of immunity from prosecution Tuesday in a tax evasion case stemming from multimillion-dollar bank accounts the former dictator held in the United States.

The 21-4 vote to strip Pinochet of the legal immunity he enjoys as former president adds to the legal troubles of the 89-year-old general, who also faces court battles in lawsuits arising from human rights violations blamed on his 1973-1990 dictatorship.

He has been charged with nine kidnappings and one homicide during his rule. An official report by the civilian government that succeeded Pinochet said 3,197 people died or disappeared during his 17-year regime.

A Chilean investigating judge has accused Pinochet of not paying taxes on several accounts at a Washington, D.C. bank containing up to $8 million.