Beijing

Rice increases pressure on North Korea

Raising the stakes in a standoff with nuclear North Korea, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice suggested Monday that the Pyongyang government could face international sanctions.

North Korean intentions dominated the closing days of Rice’s weeklong trip to South Asia and East Asia.

Six-way arms talks hosted by China have been on hold since North Korea pulled out last year and later declared that it had already built at least one nuclear weapon. None of the countries talking to North Korea has declared the diplomatic process dead, but Rice discussed that possibility during visits to Japan, South Korea and China this last week.

Rice did not spell out the fallback position, but it could include seeking tough economic sanctions on North Korea through the United Nations Security Council.

“Obviously everyone is aware that there are other options in the international system,” Rice said.

West Bank

Israel, Palestinians agree on handover of 2nd town

Israelis and Palestinians reached a deal Monday about handing over security control of the West Bank town of Tulkarem, another boost for a fledgling peace process.

The handover could help Palestinian officials carry out a new directive restricting weapons in the hands of militants, who insist they’ll comply only if Israel withdraws from West Bank towns.

Tulkarem is the second of five towns to be delivered to Palestinian security as part of an agreement to end four years of bloodshed that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced at a Feb. 8 summit.

Vatican City

Pope won’t hold Wednesday audience

Pope John Paul II won’t have his traditional audience this week, a Vatican official said Monday, but it remained unclear whether he would greet pilgrims from his apartment window as he continues to recover from throat surgery to help him breathe.

John Paul has scaled back his public appearances since his back-to-back hospitalizations and has designated cardinals to take his place during this week’s busy Holy Week ceremonies. The Vatican has only confirmed one appointment for the pontiff: an Easter Sunday blessing.

The pope has made three public appearances since being discharged from the hospital a week ago, his latest on Palm Sunday when he blessed the crowd silently from his third-floor window.

Zimbabwe

Observers say elections skewed

Thousands crammed a stadium near Zimbabwe’s eastern Mutare city, their cheers rising to a deafening roar as the country’s only effective opposition leader made a triumphant entrance in an open-topped vehicle.

Club-wielding police refrained from breaking up the weekend rally. But Human Rights Watch, in a report released Monday, says years of violence, intimidation and repression already have skewed this month’s parliamentary vote in favor of the country’s aging and embattled President Robert Mugabe.

As a result, the March 31 elections are “highly unlikely” to reflect the free expression of voters, the New York-based rights groups says.

“The government has denied the opposition, civil society activists and ordinary citizens the right to freely express their opinions,” Human Rights Watch researcher Tiseke Kasambala said at a news briefing.

Iceland

Citizenship granted for Bobby Fischer

Iceland, the country where Bobby Fischer won the world chess championship a generation ago, granted citizenship to the 62-year-old recluse Monday — a boost to Fischer’s efforts to fight deportation from Japan to the United States.

Fischer, who is wanted by the United States for violating economic sanctions against the former Yugoslavia by playing a highly publicized match there in 1992, has been in Japanese custody since July 13. He was detained while trying to board a flight with an invalid passport.

Immigration officials in Iceland said a passport for Fischer could be ready as early as today.

The legislation, which passed with 40 members of parliament voting in favor and two abstaining, took effect immediately.

Namibia

President sworn in

President Hifikepunye Pohamba was sworn in Monday, taking the reins of power from Sam Nujoma, who led the country to independence.

Despite heavy rains, thousands of Namibians crowded into the National Independence Stadium to witness the inauguration on the 15th anniversary of the country’s independence.

Pohamba, Nujoma’s hand-picked successor, promised to reduce unemployment, poverty and hunger. He also promised to fight the scourge of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. More than 21 percent of the country’s 1.8 million population are HIV-infected. Namibia also suffers from deep poverty and perennial food shortages.

“I will now accept this mandate to lead the nation to greater heights of peace and stability,” Pohamba said.

Lebanon

Demand lessens for president to resign

Seeking a way out of political deadlock, the anti-Syrian opposition softened its tone Monday and urged Prime Minister-designate Omar Karami to form a new government to ensure parliamentary elections take place on time.

Opposition leader Walid Jumblatt shelved for now his demand that pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud step down immediately. But a waterborne demonstration Monday showed the opposition’s rank-and-file have not give up their demands for Lahoud to resign.

About 200 opposition supporters staged a protest in some 50 speedboats and yachts in the St. Georges Hotel marina, near the site of a massive explosion that killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 17 others on Feb. 14 and set off intense anti-Syrian protests in the country.

Syria’s foreign minister, indicating the pressure his nation is under from the United States to pull its troops out of Lebanon, said Syria is enacting the U.N. Security Council resolution calling for the withdrawal.