Bosnia-Herzegovina
CELEBICI — NATO-led troops on Thursday patrolled near the border with Montenegro, where top war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic is presumed to frequently crisscross to evade arrest.
Canada
TORONTO — Jim Thompson, recently appointed chief executive officer of the Canadian Olympic Committee, died Wednesday of a heart attack. He was 60. Thompson took over as CEO at the Olympic committee in January after a career as a sports broadcasting executive. He succeeded Carol Anne Letheren, who died in February 2001 of a brain aneurysm, filling a post left vacant for almost a year.
China
HONG KONG — Sixteen Falun Gong followers were convicted Thursday of causing an obstruction during a protest outside the Chinese government's liaison office here — a case that rights activists called a threat to Hong Kong's freedoms. Magistrate Symon Wong convicted the defendants, including four Swiss and one New Zealand citizen, on all counts. He then imposed fines ranging from $167 to $487 but did not jail anyone.
BEIJING — A top government official in the central Chinese city of Wuhu has been executed for allegedly arranging to have his former lover killed, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday. Zhou Qidong, a member of the municipal Communist Party standing committee in the Anhui province city, was put to death Tuesday, along with three other men who allegedly helped him plan and carry out the stabbing murder, Xinhua said.
India
NEW DELHI — India celebrated 55 years of independence from Britain on Thursday amid tight security against threats of Islamic militant attacks and accused its rival Pakistan of having "double standards" in its fight against terrorism.
Indonesia
JAKARTA — Indonesian courts on Thursday acquitted six former officials accused of human-rights violations in East Timor, a sign of collapsing efforts to punish widespread violence in 1999. The acquittals outraged human-rights groups, which have long demanded that Indonesia prosecute the perpetrators of a wave of killing, burning and looting that swept East Timor after its people voted for independence in a U.N. plebiscite.
Israel
JERUSALEM — Israeli forces knocked down a house where they located Hamas militant Nasser Jerar in the West Bank town of Tubas, and he was buried and killed by the rubble, the military and residents said. The military said Jerar had continued his Hamas activities despite the severe injuries he suffered while trying to plant a bomb in May 2001. Despite the violence, Israeli and Palestinian officials met to discuss steps to ease the economic hardships in the West Bank.
Mexico
MEXICO CITY — The same plane that carried Pope John Paul II back to Rome after his trip to Mexico made an emergency landing in Cancun, officials said Wednesday. The Boeing 767, belonging to the Mexican airline Aeromexico, developed a problem with its hydraulic system shortly after taking off from Mexico City for Madrid late Tuesday, an Aeromexico spokeswoman said. It landed safely in Cancun, and another plane was brought in to fly the rest of the way to Madrid.
Nigeria
ABUJA — President Olusegun Obasanjo has dismissed demands from Nigerian lawmakers that he resign for spending too much time outside the country, a presidential spokesman said Wednesday. The House of Representatives on Tuesday gave Obasanjo two weeks to step down or face impeachment as he came under fire for spending a third of his time abroad since he was elected three years ago.
South Korea
SEOUL, South Korea — Hundreds of students and civic activists ripped a large American flag to pieces in front of a U.S. military base in central Seoul on Thursday, demanding the withdrawal of U.S. troops. About 1,000 protesters held hands to form a human chain along a wall of the Yongsan garrison, headquarters of 37,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against communist North Korea.
Taiwan
TAIPEI — An earthquake shook Taiwan's eastern coast Thursday, but no damage or injuries were immediately reported. The 5.1-magnitude quake's epicenter was 11 off the eastern coast, near the city of Ilan, the Central Weather Bureau said. Ilan is about 30 miles southeast of Taipei.