Latin leaders oppose pot legalization vote
CARTAGENA, Colombia, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Three Latin American presidents are urging California voters to reject the legalization of marijuana in next week's balloting.
Felipe Calderon of Mexico, Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia and Laura Chinchilla of Costa Rica attended a summit on drug trafficking in Cartagena, Colombia, where California's Proposition 19 was discussed, the BBC reported Wednesday.
"It is confusing for our people to see that while we have lost lives and we invest vast resources in the drug war, in the consumer countries they promote proposals like the Californian referendum to legalize the production, the sale and the consumption of marijuana," said Santos.
Chinchilla, in an interview with Colombian media, said, "If we think that each country on its own is going to successfully face this problem, we're very wrong."
Interviewed on the BBC's "Hardtalk" program, Calderon said Americans "have a clear responsibility in this because they are providing the market for the drug dealers and the criminals."
"They need to do a lot more in terms of reducing the consumption of drugs and to stop the flow of weapons towards Mexico," he said.
Indonesian quake's toll approaches 300
JAKARTA, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- The Indonesian earthquake and the tsunami it set off have killed at least 272 people, with 412 missing, emergency officials said Wednesday.
Rescuers and aid workers are struggling to reach the victims in the remote Mentawai Islands region off the west coast of Sumatra, CNN reported.
A team from the Indonesian Red Cross had to turn back because of high seas. The organization will try again Wednesday, taking some 400 body bags, said spokeswoman Aulia Arriani.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has cut short his visit to Vietnam to survey the area and receive a damage assessment, The Jakarta Post reported.
The West Sumatra branch of the Indonesian Red Cross said it will send tents and assessment teams to the disaster zones, the Antara news agency reported.
Bad weather hampered efforts to send relief aid to the affected regions, officials said.
A spokesman for the Indonesian Health Ministry said victims reported seeing waves 10 feet high in an area considered a magnet for surfers.
Bin Laden: kidnapping a warning to France
DOHA, Qatar, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Osama bin Laden demanded an end to French intervention in Africa Wednesday, saying the kidnapping of five Frenchmen in Niger was a warning.
In a recording released to al-Jazeera purported to be the fugitive al-Qaida leader, bin Laden called on the French to stop intervening "in the affairs of Muslims in North and West Africa."
Al-Qaida's North African wing has claimed responsibility for the September kidnappings of five French mining employees, along with two others from Madagascar and Togo. It released photographs last month showing them sitting on the sand, surrounded by armed guards.
The hostages are believed to be held in the mountains of northwestern Mali. France says it has not received any demands.
"The taking of your experts in Niger as hostages, while they were being protected by your proxy there, is a reaction to the injustice you are practicing against our Muslim nation," Bin Laden said.
He also denounced a new French law banning the wearing of full face veils in public.
"If you unjustly thought that it is your right to prevent free Muslim women from wearing the face veil, is it not our right to expel your invading men and cut their necks?"
Aziz's daughter says appeal won't matter
BAGHDAD, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- The daughter of former Iraqi government spokesman Tariq Aziz says an appeal of his death sentence likely won't stop his execution.
Aziz, the deputy prime minister during dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, was sentenced to die by the Iraqi High Tribunal Tuesday for his role in eliminating opposition religious parties under Saddam's rule.
"I don't think he has any hope of coming out" of prison, Zainab Aziz told CNN from Amman, Jordan.
His family didn't know he was going to be sentenced on Tuesday, she said in the interview.
"My father served his country for more than 22 years. He delivered himself to the U.S. Army (after Saddam fell from power) because he wasn't afraid. He didn't do anything wrong. He served his country," Aziz said of her father. "He has been wronged."
Attorney Badi Arif, who once represented Aziz, said politics played a role in the former deputy prime minister's death sentence.
"Mr. Aziz used to always tell me, 'They'll find a way to kill me, and there is no way for me to escape this,'" Arif told CNN. "But from a legal perspective, this sentence is wrong; this is illegal and this is unexpected."
Amnesty International urged Iraq not to carry out the death sentences handed down against Aziz and two others. The Vatican also urged that the Aziz not be put to death.
"The position of the Catholic Church on the death penalty is known," the Vatican said in a statement. "It is truly hoped therefore that the sentencing against Tariq Aziz not be carried out, precisely to favor the reconciliation and reconstruction of the peace and justice in Iraq after the great suffering it has gone through."
Aid request derails reunion talks
KAESONG, North Korea, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- North Korea has requested huge shipments of fertilizer and half a million tons of rice from South Korea, a Red Cross official said.
The demand for aid came on the final day of talks to resume reunions for families separated by the Korean War, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
Red Cross delegations from the two countries are conducting the talks.
A spokesman for the South Korean Red Cross said his group did not have the authority to approve the large amount of aid requested by North Korea.
The unidentified official told reporters the aid demand essentially derailed the talks.
The two sides agreed to meet again on November 25.
South Korea had hoped the talks held in the North Korean border town of Kaesong would lead to more frequent reunions between families separated since 1953.
The North has used the reunions as leverage for political and economic concessions from the South, the Times said.
