France
BOURG-SAINT-MAURICE — Three people hiking on skis were killed Saturday in two separate avalanches in the French Alps, rescue officials said. A couple fell 656 feet to their deaths while ascending the Grand-Mont peak after an icy outcropping they were standing on gave way, and an Italian man was killed as he climbed with friends in the Haute-Alpes region.
PARIS — France's Socialist Party on Saturday expelled a politician who said there were too many black players on the national soccer team, party officials said. Georges Freche was quoted by Midi Libre newspaper in November as saying he was ashamed that as many as nine of 11 starters on the French team were black.
Guinea
CONAKRY — Guinea's union leaders ended a deadly 17-day strike today after the president agreed to name a new prime minister with boosted powers. The strike, launched by the country's top unions Jan. 10, spiraled into street protests that have claimed at least 59 lives and brought the West African nation to an economic standstill.
Israel
JERUSALEM — Israel's Holocaust memorial has launched a version of its Web site in Farsi to educate the country's most bitter enemy — Iran — about the Nazi genocide of 6 million Jews. Iran has faced widespread condemnation for hosting a conference last month that questioned whether the Holocaust took place.
Kazakhstan
ALMATY — Nearly a week after his term elapsed, the former Communist strongman who has kept a tight grip on Uzbekistan for more than 15 years shows no sign of vacating the presidential office. The clock ran out on Islam Karimov's second term last Sunday, but there has been no official recognition of the fact.
Kenya
NAIROBI — Gunmen carjacked a U.S. Embassy vehicle on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital Saturday and killed the wife of an embassy employee and his mother-in-law. The attackers, who were armed with assault rifles, escaped with the embassy vehicle. Police later killed two of the carjackers, police spokesman Gideon Kibunja said.
Mexico
TIJUANA — Police in this violent border city got their guns back Saturday three weeks after they were forced to turn over weapons to federal authorities because of allegations they were colluding with drug traffickers. Tijuana Public Safety Secretary Luis Javier Algorri said soldiers returned all 2,130 guns to his department.
Netherlands
AMSTERDAM — The Netherlands government has extradited a naturalized Dutch citizen charged with involvement in terror attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, the Justice Ministry said Saturday. Iraqi-born Wesam al Delaema, 32, was on a plane headed for an undisclosed location in the U.S., said Justice Ministry spokesman Ivo Hommes.
Poland
WARSAW — The late Pope John Paul II slipped away from his Swiss Guards to go skiing more than 100 times in the early years of his 26-year papacy, the pontiff's longtime personal secretary says in a book released on Saturday. Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz's book is titled "Swiadectwo" or "The Testimony."
Senegal
DAKAR — Senegalese riot police fired tear gas Saturday at protesters calling for early parliamentary elections, beating back the crowd with rifle butts and detaining the head of the country's main opposition party. Moustapha Niasse, 67, was released several hours later.
Switzerland
GENEVA — Fresh allegations of corruption within the United Nations have surfaced in a confidential audit report that claims the 2003 election of the current chief of the U.N. weather agency was manipulated. The report, obtained by the Associated Press, centered around payments to government delegates at the World Meteorological Organization.