World briefs

Terror fugitive hid from police on nudist beach

ATHENS, Greece -- Greece's most wanted terrorist suspect spent more than a month hiding on a nudist beach near Athens before surrendering to police, officials said Saturday.

Dimitris Koufodinas, alleged chief assassin of the November 17 terrorist group who has been charged with 17 murders, gave himself up Thursday after taking a taxi to police headquarters in central Athens.

Police said he had been hiding for at least a month on a small beach on Angistri, a small island popular with British tourists, about 31 miles, southeast of Athens. The beach is used by campers and nudists, local residents said.

Police arrest 14 Islamic political leaders

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistani police arrested 14 leaders of six Islamic political parties at the train station in the eastern city of Lahore on Saturday, party officials said.

They accused the police of trying to prevent the politicians from launching the second leg of their election campaign. Police said the politicians, leading hundreds of followers, violated a ban on staging political rallies at railway stations and other unauthorized venues.

Officials also said 75 people were taken into custody, but party officials put the number at 150. All were likely to be released after several hours.

Mafia planning attacks on government officials

ROME -- Fed up with serving hard time, Mafia bosses are planning violent attacks in Italy that could target parliament members, a newspaper reported said Saturday.

The Rome daily La Repubblica said internal documents from the domestic intelligence agency SISDE indicated that two members of parliament, Marcello Dell'Utri and Cesare Previti, could be targeted by the mob.

At issue, the report said, are tough prison conditions imposed in response to a Mafia reign of terror in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The prison terms include isolation in cells and only one visit and one phone call each month.

The newspaper quoted an intelligence document as saying that the Mafia had restored some of the power it lost in the 1990s, and that it was now determined to strike public officials.-- From wire reports

Kyrgyzstanofficial injured in grenade explosion

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan -- The chief of Kyrgyzstan's Security Council was injured by a grenade explosion in an apparent assassination attempt, authorities said Saturday.

Misir Ashirkulov was in stable condition at a government hospital after undergoing surgery for the numerous shrapnel wounds, said Dzholdoshbek Buzurmankulov, spokesman for the Interior Ministry.

Ashirkulov had just gotten home late Friday when an unknown assailant tossed three grenades at him, then fled. The attacker remains at large and the motive unknown.

-- From wire reports