THE WORLD TODAY

Boston.com Government: Reports it bombed village 'a lie' By Globe Staff and Wires, 4/10/2003

CARACAS - The government yesterday rejected allegations by Colombian border residents that its aircraft bombed a village in Colombia last month in support of leftist rebels fighting right-wing paramilitaries. Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel dismissed the allegations as ''a grotesque lie'' aimed at trying to discredit Venezuela's left-wing president, Hugo Chavez. The two Andean neighbors share a volatile 1,400-mile border. President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia has ordered an inquiry into the allegations by border residents that Venezuelan military helicopters and planes crossed into Colombian airspace on March 21 and bombed a border hamlet at La Gabarra, in North Santander Province, killing and wounding several people. The residents said the aircraft acted in support of left-wing Colombian guerrillas who were under attack from rightist paramilitary groups. (Reuters)

UNITED STATES FBI: Al Qaeda suspect is arrested in Yemen

WASHINGTON - Yemeni authorities have arrested Fawaz Rabeei, a suspected member of Al Qaeda whom the FBI has sought for questioning about a possible plot against US interests, Yemeni officials said. Rabeei, a Yemeni, is the suspected ringleader of a group that may have been planning a terrorist attack in the United States or Yemen on Feb. 12, 2002, according to information FBI officials obtained from Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners held at the US Navy facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The warnings prompted an unusual FBI alert that month seeking Rabeei and 10 other Yemeni men. Rabeei is believed to have escaped an explosion on Aug. 9 that killed two accomplices in a warehouse in the Yemeni capital of San'a. After the blast, Yemeni authorities discovered 650 pounds of the plastic explosive Semtex hidden in pomegranate crates. (Washington Post)

SAUDI ARABIA Pakistani is executed for smuggling heroin

RIYADH - Saudi Arabia, which implements strict Islamic sharia law, executed a Pakistani man yesterday for smuggling heroin into the kingdom, the Interior Ministry said. Under sharia law, Saudi Arabia executes murderers, rapists, and drug smugglers, usually by public beheading. At least 45 people were put to death last year in the Gulf Arab state. At least 75 people were executed in 2001 and 121 in 2000. (Reuters)

LEBANON F ive arrested in plot to attack US interests

BEIRUT - The government said yesterday it had arrested five people in connection with a booby-trapped car discovered outside a McDonald's restaurant and accused them of planning attacks on Lebanon's Western embassies. ''We have five detainees so far who have confessed to placing a booby-trapped Renault car at McDonald's,'' Interior Minister Elias al-Murr said. ''The confessions showed that this terrorist group was also preparing for destructive acts on Western embassies,'' he said. ''We confiscated from one of the detainees a rocket aimed at hitting some of the Western embassies, as well as hand grenades, pistols, machine guns and silencers.'' Murr said the Lebanese detainees confessed to parking a car loaded with explosives outside the fast food outlet on the edge of Beirut over the weekend. The explosives did not detonate. (Reuters)

LATVIA Center to extend push for WWII criminals

RIGA - The Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center said yesterday it was considering extending its drive to catch World War II criminals to several countries across Europe in a final race against time. The Jerusalem-based group already pays $10,000 for information leading to successful legal action in ''Operation Last Chance'' in the three Baltic states. ''We are considering Belarus, Ukraine, Germany, Austria,'' director Efraim Zuroff said. ''But we are not 100 percent sure we will make it. The window of opportunity is only three to five years,'' he said, referring to a race against time as war crimes perpetrators and survivors grow old and die. Zuroff said he would like to see Russia included in the campaign. (Reuters)

This story ran on page A10 of the Boston Globe on 4/10/2003.