World Briefs

BETHLEHEM, West Bank – Standing in the cradle of Christianity, Pope Benedict XVI told Palestinians Wednesday he understood their suffering and offered his strongest and most symbolic public backing yet for an independent Palestinian state.

On a visit to a nearby refugee camp, he expressed regret over Israel's construction of the separation barrier. A section of the barrier fortified by an Israeli military watchtower provided a stark backdrop as he spoke. In Bethlehem, he offered a prayer for Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza.

But he also urged young Palestinians to "have the courage to resist any temptation to resort to acts of violence or terrorism."

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Artillery shells tore through a hospital packed with wounded civilians in Sri Lanka's war zone for a second day Wednesday, killing at least 50 people, setting an ambulance ablaze and forcing the medical staff to huddle in bunkers for safety, doctors said.

Health workers at the makeshift medical facility said they were so overwhelmed by the crush of the wounded and the unrelenting shelling of the area they could do little but give gauze and bandages to the roughly 1,000 patients waiting for treatment.

LONDON – Britons of South Asian descent are far more likely to be detained in anti-terrorism raids than other ethnic groups — and more than half of all suspects arrested in terrorism cases since 2001 were freed without charge, a government study disclosed on Wednesday. The is expected to reinforce the widespread feeling among British Muslims that they are being unfairly singled out by police, community leaders said.

Britain's Home Office said 1,471 people were arrested as suspected terrorists between September 2001 and March 2008 — but that less than 200 of them were eventually convicted on terrorism charges.

MONTEVIDEO – Uruguay is moving to lift a ban on homosexuals joining the armed forces. The defense ministry confirms that Minister Jose Bayardi has signed a decree lifting the ban imposed by the 1973-85 military dictatorship.

LIMA, Peru – Peru gave refuge to two more former Bolivian government ministers who fled genocide charges for the 2003 army killings of dozens of protesters, Peru's foreign minister said.

Bolivia had been demanding that Peru hand over the two ex-officials as well as a third granted political asylum in April, in a case that has further strained relations between the two South American neighbors.

Publicidad