World briefs 3/20/03

China's new leaders promise to help poor

BEIJING -- Helping to kick off a new era of communist rule, China's state media on Wednesday trumpeted promises by President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao to close the widening gap in wealth between its booming east and the impoverished countryside.

Newspapers ran rare red headlines to announce the leaders' words Tuesday at the closing of the 13-day National People's Congress, the rubber-stamp legislature that approved the appointment of the new president and premier.

The front page of the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily ran the full text of his five-minute speech -- an address short on specifics but loaded with lofty goals and slogans.

"Only socialism can save China, and only socialism with Chinese characteristics can develop China," Hu said.

Serbian lawmakers sack Milosevic-era judges

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro -- Serbian lawmakers forced 35 judges into retirement Wednesday, accusing the judiciary of failing to prosecute underworld bosses who were plotting the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.

"Inefficiency of courts allowed that a number of killers and other criminals have dodged justice for years," said Justice Minister Vladan Batic, referring to crime gangs that thrived under former President Slobodan Milosevic and have not been eliminated.

Djindjic was killed by a sniper in front of government headquarters March 12. The government has declared a state of emergency, launching a manhunt for the killers and a wider crackdown on organized crime.

The measure ordered 35 judges, including seven Supreme Court justices, dismissed.

Money, visa offered for information on captives

BOGOTA, Colombia -- The United States is offering Colombians $300,000, a U.S. visa and a new life in America in exchange for information leading to the rescue of three U.S. military contractors who were captured by rebels last month.

Authorities on Tuesday began distributing color flyers outlining the offer, complete with pictures of a jetliner, a visa application and a clean, modern metropolis lying along azure waters -- presumably an American city.

The Americans were captured by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- known as the FARC -- on Feb. 13 after their U.S. government plane went down in rebel territory during an intelligence mission.

The U.S. State Department years ago classified the FARC as a terrorist group, but the U.S. Embassy denied that the offer of the money -- equal to more than a lifetime's pay for many Colombians -- and the hard-to-get U.S. visa is tantamount to negotiating with terrorists.

U.S. team helping probe oil workers shooting

SAN'A, Yemen -- Yemen has allowed the United States to help investigate the slayings of two North Americans and a Yemeni, the U.S. Embassy said Wednesday.

In a Tuesday attack, an oil worker shot and killed an American, a Canadian and the Yemeni, and wounded another Canadian. He then shot himself dead.

The American victim was Ronald Horsch, 65, of Munday, Texas, about 170 miles northwest of Dallas. Hunt Oil Co. said in a statement he was a superintendent employed by the Dallas-based company.

The motive for the attack was believed to personal, the Yemeni Interior Ministry has said. The assailant, Naji Abdullah al-Kumaim, had worked for Nabors Drilling Co., which owned the rig, for seven years. All the victims except Horsch worked for Nabors.

Yemeni authorities said al-Kumaim's colleagues reported he suffered from depression. He was not known to have previous political affiliations, they said. During the shooting, he shouted he would take revenge on people filing reports about him.

-- From wire reports