WORLD IN BRIEF

Gas deliveries to resume

Russia’s state-run monopoly Gazprom announced it will resume shipping natural gas today to Europe, where tens of thousands of homes and buildings have been left without heat in freezing weather. The shift came after Ukraine signed off on a European Union-brokered deal that sent teams of EU, Russian and Ukrainian monitors in to track the movement of Russian gas through Ukraine’s vast pipeline system. Gazprom had shut off deliveries last Wednesday, accusing Ukraine of siphoning off gas intended for Europe, a charge Ukraine denies.

Court reinstates corruption charges

A South African appellate court on Monday ruled that corruption charges against Jacob Zuma, the leader of the governing African National Congress and most likely the country’s next president, were wrongly dismissed by a lower court last September, clearing the way for the case to be reinstated. The National Prosecuting Authority said it would seek a date for Zuma to stand trial on 16 charges of corruption, racketeering, fraud and money laundering.

U.N. draft calls for peace force

The United States circulated a draft resolution Monday calling for a U.N. peacekeeping force 8,000 strong to be deployed in Somalia by June 1 to replace an African Union force now confined to a small area of Mogadishu, the capital. The resolution is drafted under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which is militarily enforceable. Meanwhile, Islamic insurgents fired mortar rounds at the presidential palace Monday as Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein was meeting with African Union peacekeepers. Witnesses said at least 13 people were killed as government forces fired mortars in retaliation, hitting a crowded market and residential area.

Last Marcos money is headed home

Switzerland’s supreme court has cleared the way for the last of hundreds of millions of dollars linked to the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his entourage to be returned to the Philippines. The decision Monday to return a final $8 million brings to a close 22 years of legal wrangling over the assets deposited in Switzerland before Marcos’ overthrow. Embarrassment from case also led to a tightening of Swiss banking secrecy rules to keep out assets linked to dictators and money launderers.

Photos back up hostage claims

Nigeria’s most potent militant group has released pictures of what it claims are two British hostages seized Sept. 9 in the country’s oil producing south. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said Monday that the pair would not be released until the Nigerian government frees the group’s leader, Henry Okah, who is being tried on arms trafficking charges. The statement said the militants would continue to kidnap “high value oil workers from Western Europe and North America” in 2009 to keep pressure on the government to share oil revenues with the inhabitants of Nigeria’s oil-rich but impoverished delta region.

UFO hacker fights extradition

A British man accused of hacking into U.S. military computers is offering to plead guilty to a criminal charge in Britain to avoid extradition to the United States. Gary McKinnon has signed a statement admitting an offense under Britain’s Computer Misuse Act, his lawyer said Monday, and the Crown Prosecution Service said it was considering the request. U.S. prosecutors say McKinnon, 42, broke into 97 computers belonging to NASA, the Department of Defense and several branches of the military from a bedroom in a north London home, causing nearly $1 billion in damage. McKinnon says he was just looking for evidence of UFOs and only succeeded in his hack because of lax security.

Court weighs atrocity evidence

War crimes prosecutors at The Hague, Netherlands, accused former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba on Monday of using systematic rape to terrorize civilians suspected of supporting rebels during a bloody power struggle in neighboring Central African Republic. Defense attorneys argued that Bemba’s troops were not under his command once they crossed the border, and that the prosecution failed to show that Bemba ordered his men to commit atrocities during the upheavals of 2002-2003. After the pretrial hearing, the International Criminal Court will have 60 days to decide whether to commit Bemba for trial, seek more evidence or let him go.

Flood crisis grips resort island

Authorities in Fiji on Monday rushed to deliver clean drinking water and other supplies to thousands of villagers who fled flooding from tropical storms that have killed at least eight people in the Pacific island nation. The government declared a state of emergency in hard-hit western districts that are home to most of the country’s international resorts. There were no reports of tourists in trouble, but some tourists were being turned back from Fiji’s largest airport in Nadi.