A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 hit northern Peru late Sunday, causing power outages and cutting phone service throughout much of the region. One radio report said four people were killed. The earthquake was felt throughout Peru’s northern coast and as far away as Bogota in Colombia.
Japan: Postal reform advances
Japan’s Cabinet approved legislation today to privatize the country’s trillion-dollar postal service, pushing ahead with its plan to create the world’s largest financial institution. The government planned to submit the bills to parliament later in the day.
Rwanda: Punishment for genocide
About 774 Rwandans convicted by community courts for their role in the 1994 genocide began excavating stones for road construction as punishment for their role in the killings of more than a half-million people in this small central African nation. The community service is intended to foster reconciliation after the slaughter of members of the Tutsi ethnic minority and political moderates from the Hutu majority. The killings were orchestrated by the extremist Hutu government then in power. The convicts began performing the alternative punishment after serving at least half of their sentences in jail.
Lebanon: Car bomb hurts journalist
A bomb rigged to the car of a prominent journalist for an anti-Syrian television station exploded Sunday, severing the woman’s arm and leg in the latest in a string of targeted explosions in Lebanon. May Chidiac, a political talk show host with the private Lebanese Broadcasting Corp., was inside her car when the bomb exploded in Ghadir, Lebanese security officials and the TV station said. Hotel Dieu Hospital in Beirut reported that Chidiac’s left arm and leg were severed in the blast and her right leg and pelvis were broken.
Poland: Voters boot incumbents
Exit polls showed Polish voters ousted the nation’s scandal-prone government of ex-communists in parliamentary elections Sunday, giving a broad majority to two center-right parties that have promised tax cuts and clean government. Prime Minister Marek Belka’s defeated government had said it would withdraw Poland’s troops from Iraq by Dec. 31, though it might keep some officers there as advisers. The challengers said they might be open to keeping them there longer if a new contract can be negotiated with the United States.
From Herald news services
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