South Korea

President travels to meet with Bush

South Korea’s president embarked Thursday on a one-day whirlwind trip to Washington to forge a united front with President Bush on dealing with North Korea, after Pyongyang dealt another setback to reconciliation with new nuclear boasts.

U.S. officials expressed optimism earlier this week after meetings with North Korean diplomats in New York that long-stalled nuclear disarmament talks would resume. But the North did not give any date for its return to the six-nation negotiations – which also include China, Japan, Russia and South Korea – and has reverted to its usual bombast in recent days.

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan told ABC News in Pyongyang that the communist nation had “enough nuclear bombs to defend against a U.S. attack” without being more specific, and he said it was building more. Kim also hinted his country’s weapons scientists could mount nuclear warheads on missiles.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun’s meeting today with Bush is intended to reaffirm their alliance.

Aruba

Three arrested after teen’s disappearance

Aruba’s prime minister said Thursday that finding a missing Alabama teenager was the country’s “No. 1 goal,” and police arrested three young men who acknowledged giving her a ride the night she disappeared.

Prime Minister Nelson Oduber said his government was working closely with U.S. authorities to solve the case of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway, who dropped from sight more than a week ago.

Those detained Thursday were two brothers from Suriname and a Dutch student who is the son of a high-ranking Dutch justice official.

The Dutch student met Holloway at a casino in her hotel, the Holiday Inn, two nights before she disappeared May 30, Aruban police Cmdr. Jahn van der Straaten said.

Afghanistan

Italian hostage released

An Italian aid worker kidnapped at gunpoint three weeks ago in the Afghan capital has been released and has telephoned her mother to say she is safe and healthy, the government said Thursday.

Clementina Cantoni, 32, was abducted by armed men May 16. She was working for CARE International on a project helping Afghan widows and their families.

“I am happy to say that Clementina is well. : She is in good health given the 24-day ordeal she went through,” Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said later at a news conference.

Jalali said no ransom was paid or other concessions given to obtain her freedom.

The kidnapping was the latest in a spate of violence that has shaken Afghanistan and raised fears that militants here are copying the tactics of those in Iraq.

Authorities have said they suspect the kidnapping was the work of the same criminal gang accused of abducting three U.N. workers last year. They were released a month later.

Syria

Baath Party backs political reforms

Syria’s ruling Baath Party endorsed reforms Thursday that include allowing some independent political parties, relaxing a state of emergency and granting more media freedom – big steps for a government that has been slow to change.

The recommendations fall short of the extensive changes sought by many at home and abroad, and must be approved by Syria’s legislature – a process that could take more than a year. Parliament also could modify the reforms.

In addition, the Baath Party said Syria should improve relations with Iraq, find a solution to problems with its minority Kurds and commit itself to a strategy of peace to “restore occupied lands,” a reference to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the official Syrian TV reported.

The recommendations were approved by delegates at the Baath Party congress after being adopted by its political committee, one of three set up after the party gathering began Monday.

Ethiopia

Families mourn victims of deadly political riots

Most stores were shuttered Thursday and families collected the dead for burial following riots over election results and government warnings that any more civil unrest would be dealt with sternly.

Ethiopian security forces opened fire on stone-throwing demonstrators Wednesday in Addis Ababa, leaving at least 26 people dead, the government said.

European Union observers said some opposition politicians were placed under house arrest after the government’s victory in last month’s election.

A senior member of the opposition United Ethiopian Democratic Forces was being held in his office by police and the top two leaders of the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy were under police surveillance, officials said Thursday.

Australia

Police investigate packages at embassies

The U.S. Embassy and those of four other nations with troops in Iraq were closed Thursday after envelopes containing a suspicious white powder were intercepted, authorities said.

The envelopes were received by the embassies of the United States, Britain, Japan, Italy and South Korea. Police said tests showed the powder in at least two of the parcels was not harmful, and officers angrily denounced hoaxes involving the packages in the capital of Canberra.

The U.S. Embassy was closed for several hours after staff found an envelope containing powder and called police, a spokeswoman said.

Packages with powder also were sent to Australia’s parliament and the office of Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch U.S. ally. Police would not say if they were investigating an Iraq link.