WORLD IN BRIEF: Suspect spurns role in terror trial

A military tribunal for alleged former Osama bin Laden aide Ali Hamza al-Bahlul hit a snag Monday at the U.S. terrorism facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as both the prisoner and his Pentagon-appointed lawyer refused to take part. After the judge, Air Force Col. Ronald Gregory, denied the prisoner’s request to represent himself, al-Bahlul’s appointed lawyer, Air Force Maj. David Frakt, said he had to respect his client’s wishes and would remain mute. The judge then ruled the burden would be on the prosecution to prove any guilt and ordered jury selection to begin.

Parliament prayer tradition debated

The speaker of Australia’s Parliament has called for a public debate about ending the practice of starting each session with the Lord’s Prayer. Lawmakers have done that for more than a century, keeping a tradition inherited from Britain during colonial rule. But some question whether a prayer adopted by the first Australian Parliament in 1901 remains relevant in an increasingly secular and religiously diverse nation.

Cross-border leaflets protested

North Korea threatened Monday to expel South Koreans working at two reconciliation projects in the North if Seoul does not prevent activists from dropping propaganda leaflets across the border. Military officers made the demand to their South Korean counterparts during a 20-minute meeting at the border, the second official meeting between the rival Koreas since the North broke off relations in February. The Koreas agreed in 2004 to end decades of propaganda warfare involving leaflets, loudspeakers and radio broadcasts. However, activists in South Korea continue to send anti-Pyongyang leaflets to the North, and Seoul cites freedom of speech in not stopping them.

No nationalistic holiday after all

The British government has decided patriotism is no holiday. Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government has scrapped a proposal for a new public holiday to celebrate Britishness, one of a series of ideas intended to promote social cohesion and combat extremism in the wake of home-grown terrorist attacks and new waves of immigration. “Britain Day” had been championed by Brown and was proposed in a government-commissioned report earlier this year. But Constitution Minister Michael Wills told Parliament “there are no plans to introduce a national day at the present time.” The main opposition Conservatives had scorned the idea., saying, “British identity … can’t be remanufactured by their spin doctors.”

5 kidnapped men killed, 2 escape

Sudan’s Foreign Ministry said the kidnappers of nine Chinese oil workers killed five of the men Monday. Two kidnapped workers managed to flee their abductors, while the remaining two were still captives, the government said. The Chinese were kidnapped Oct. 18 in southern Kordofan province —- home to much of Sudan’s oil industry and adjacent to the violence-torn Darfur region.

Villagers attack timber offices

Scores of villagers in a remote Chinese timber region ransacked the offices of a forestry company and fought with security guards, accusing the company of paying too little for use of their land. About 100 police officers were called to break up the riot Thursday in Tonggu county of Jiangxi province, which left 12 villagers and three police injured, the official Xinhua News Agency said. No villagers were being sought in connection with the violence and authorities were investigating their grievances, Xinhua said. Violent protests flare regularly across China as citizens vent anger over official corruption, land disputes and the environmental effects of industrialization.

Repressive regimes renew their ties

Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win arrived in Pyongyang on Monday to meet with his North Korean counterpart, Pak Ui Chun, more than a year after two of the world’s most repressive governments resumed diplomatic ties for the first time since 1983, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said, without providing details. Myanmar, which is under an arms embargo by the United States and European Union countries, reportedly has been buying weapons from North Korea.

—- From news services

Fiery leap saves tigers

Three Siberian tigers leapt through a wall of fire to safety from a burning truck Monday on the orders of their circus ringmaster. The tigers drew on their experiences of leaping through fiery rings during performances to escape a fire on the truck taking them between shows in northwestern Germany, circus owner Daniel Renz said. “The three tigers used to jump through rings of fire in the ring, and that saved their lives,” Renz said. He said his show would go on as planned Thursday, but the tigers involved in the blaze will be given a break and some of the circus’ seven other tigers will perform in their place. The suspected cause of the blaze was an overheated suspension system on the truck.

—- Associated Press

Ex-political prisoner runs against old foe

Asia’s longest-serving leader faces a democracy activist he once held as a political prisoner in a run-off vote today in the Maldives’ first democratic presidential election. President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, 71, who has led the tiny Muslim state through three decades of economic expansion but is accused of suppressing human rights, is hoping to win a seventh term in office. The election, the first with more than one candidate on the ballot since the country gained independence from Britain in 1965, is seen as a referendum on Gayoom’s policies. His challenger is Maldivian Democratic Party leader Mohamed Nasheed, who finished second in the first round of voting earlier this month in which no candidate received the required majority. Today’s winner will inherit tough challenges —- a looming global recession that will hit tourism numbers, rising sea levels caused by climate change, a growing heroin problem and a threat of Islamic fundamentalism.

—- Associated Press