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LATEST WORLD NEWS FROM AP AND REUTERS

U.S. orders combat aviation troops to Afghanistan

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered a combat aviation brigade to Afghanistan as part of a buildup of forces to counter rising insurgent violence, a U.S. military official said on Friday. (Reuters, 2:58 p.m.)

Correction: Malaysia-Legoland story

In a Dec. 15 story about a planned Legoland Park in Malaysia, The Associated Press reported erroneously that it will be opened by Danish toy maker Lego. The park will be opened by the U.K-based Merlin Entertainments Group in partnership with Malaysia's Iskandar Investment Bhd. LEGO Holding/Kirkbi, the owner of Lego, is a minority shareholder in Merlin. (AP, 2:45 p.m.)

WTO issues negotiating text on trade rules

The World Trade Organization (WTO) issued a revised negotiating text on Friday for trade rules but made clear that members had differences on measures to deal with unfairly priced imports and subsidized goods. (Reuters, 2:37 p.m.)

Safavian convicted again in Abramoff scandal

A former Bush administration official was convicted for a second time Friday for lying about his relationship with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. (Associated Press Writer, 2:24 p.m.)

Belgian government collapses over Fortis affair

Belgium's government collapsed on Friday after a top court found signs that it had sought to sway a legal ruling on the future of stricken bank Fortis. (Reuters, 2:19 p.m.)

FROM TODAY'S BOSTON GLOBE

Iraqi arrests widen beyond Interior office

A senior spokesman at the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior confirmed publicly yesterday that 23 of its officials had been arrested in recent days under suspicion of being affiliated with a banned political party related to Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party. (By Campbell Robertson and Tareq Maher, New York Times)
Man gets 20 years in Madrid bombings (ABDELHAK SENNA/AFP/Getty Images)

Man gets 20 years in Madrid bombings

A criminal court in Morocco convicted a 31-year-old man yesterday of belonging to a terrorist group involved in the 2004 Madrid train bombings and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. (Boston Globe)

Mexican police commander killed

A senior police commander's bullet-riddled body was found in the same spot where an apparent hitlist naming 26 officers was found days earlier, police said yesterday. (Boston Globe)

China trips for Nobel jurors probed

Nobel Prize jurors who accepted all-expenses-paid trips to China to discuss the coveted awards are being investigated on suspicion of bribery, a Swedish prosecutor said yesterday. (Boston Globe)

Raul Castro offers to swap
dissidents for 'Cuban 5' in US

Cuban President Raul Castro made an unprecedented offer yesterday to exchange political dissidents jailed in his country for five Cubans imprisoned in the US for espionage. (By Marco Sibaja, Associated Press)

Irish find high levels of dioxin in beef

Lab tests on cattle at four Irish farms have found much higher levels of cancer-causing dioxins than initially thought, government agency officials said yesterday, but they stressed that the problem still posed no risk to public health. (By Shawn Pogatchnik, Associated Press)

Iraqi who threw shoes asks for pardon

The Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at President Bush is begging for a pardon for what he described as "an ugly act," the prime minister's spokesman said yesterday. (By Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Associated Press)

2 Hamas officials say truce with
Israel won't be extended

Two Hamas officials said the Islamic group would not extend a six-month truce with Israel as militants in the Gaza Strip fired rockets at southern Israel and the Jewish state hit back with airstrikes yesterday. (By Ibrahim Barzak, Associated Press)

Netanyahu visits Paris and warns about Iran

Benjamin Netanyahu, who hopes to become Israel's next prime minister, warned yesterday that "a terribly dangerous threshold will be crossed" if Iran obtains nuclear weapons, and urged world leaders to make sure it does not happen. (By Jamey Keaten, Associated Press)

Rwandan military official guilty in ethnic slaughter

The ringleader of the 1994 Rwanda genocide was sentenced yesterday to life in prison for his role in the early days of an ethnic slaughter that eventually killed an estimated 800,000 people. (By Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times)

Algerian says US didn't probe him on terrorism

An Algerian man who spent nearly seven years in the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay said his interrogators never questioned him on the main terrorism allegation against him. (By Daria Sito-Sucic, Reuters)

Georgia parliamentary report criticizes military, not war

A Georgian parliamentary inquiry has said the military conduct of its August conflict with Russia was flawed but backed President Mikheil Saakashvili's attack on the breakaway South Ossetia region. (Reuters)

Mugabe turned terror to staying power

For a very literal example of Robert Mugabe's staying power, look no further than a recent crisis summit of southern African leaders designed to settle the political impasse that has seen the longtime Zimbabwean leader cling stubbornly to the presidency. (By Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times)

US envoy, citing 'collapse' of Zimbabwe, urges action

Zimbabwe has collapsed and the world must act now to keep it from deteriorating into Somalia-scale chaos, the top US envoy for Africa said yesterday. (By Donna Bryson, Associated Press)

Greece rattled by new clashes

Masked youths set up burning barricades and threw firebombs and chunks of marble at riot police yesterday, after a protest march erupted into new fighting that sent Christmas shoppers and panicked parents fleeing to safety. (By Elena Becatoros and Derek Gatopoulos, Associated Press)

German minister under fire over Iraq

The credibility of Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the Social Democrat who will challenge Chancellor Angela Merkel in national elections next autumn, came under sharp attack yesterday over continuing allegations that - under his tutelage - Germany in fact aided the United States both in its war on terrorism and in the Iraq invasion that Berlin opposed. (By Judy Dempsey, International Herald Tribune)

Egyptian women gaining their voice on harassment

She was leaving the bus when the driver touched her in a way a stranger shouldn't. (By Jeffrey Fleishman and Noha El-Hennawy, Los Angeles Times)

Argentine suspects ordered released

An Argentine court yesterday ordered that six former naval officers accused of torturing and killing dissidents during the 1976-1983 dictatorship be freed on bail, including two of the most notorious suspects. (By Jeannette Neumann, Associated Press)