World Briefs

RUSSIA

Special forces storm oil tanker

ABOARD THE CARLSKRONA | A Russian warship hunted down an oil tanker hijacked by Somali pirates and special forces rappelled on board Thursday, surprising the outlaws, who surrendered after a 22-minute gunbattle. Twenty-three Russian sailors were freed.

The dramatic Indian Ocean rescue came a day after pirates seized the tanker, which was heading toward China carrying $50 million worth of crude. One pirate was killed and 10 others were arrested, officials said.

The Russian destroyer Marshal Shaposhnikov had rushed to the scene after Wednesday’s seizure of the Liberian-flagged tanker, Moscow University.

After spotting the hijacked vessel early Thursday, the warship fired warning shots from its large-caliber machine gun, undeterred by the tanker’s flammable cargo of 86,000 tons of crude.

Oil tankers don’t even allow crew members to smoke on board because of the risk of igniting the cargo, but the Russian navy decided to move in with weapons after determining the crew had taken refuge in a safe room.

CUBA

Vatican official to visit Cuba

HAVANA | The Vatican’s foreign minister is coming to Cuba next month to lead discussions on the island’s economic challenges and the effects of emigration and the families torn apart by it.

Roman Catholic Archbishop Dominique Mamberti will mark Catholic Social Week from June 12 to 20 by leading discussions among church leaders from around the island, as well as elders from other religions, said Orlando Marquez, spokesman for Havana’s Conference of Bishops.

Archbishop Mamberti is the first top Vatican official to come since Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of state to Pope Benedict XVI, visited Cuba in February 2008.

SOUTH AFRICA

Police link arms to right-wing groups

JOHANNESBURG | South African police have confiscated a large cache of weapons and arrested suspects linked to right-wing groups, the police ministry said Thursday.

Zweli Mnisi, a spokesman for Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa, told the Associated Press that police acting on tips raided sites in the capital and a western town and found large caches of explosives, illegal guns and ammunition. He said there was a “strong linkage to right-wing operations.”

Mr. Mnisi refused to say what or whom might have been targeted.

“At this stage, we won’t divulge much as it may compromise investigations,” he said.

The news comes a month before South Africa hosts soccer’s World Cup. Security has been a high concern, because of South Africa’s high crime rate and worries racial tension could explode into violence.

FRANCE

Basque separatists held by authorities

BAYONNE | Police in France have arrested four suspected members of an outlawed youth group linked to the armed Basque separatist group ETA, French and Spanish officials said Thursday.

Two of the members of the Segi organization were arrested in Ciboure, one in Saint Jean de Luz and one in Hendaye, all towns in southwest France near the Spanish border, French investigators and the Spanish interior ministry said.

They were arrested in a joint French-Spanish police operation as they were preparing to make contact with ETA members in order to join the armed group, the Spanish interior ministry added in a statement.

Spanish authorities said the four had escaped police raids in the northern Basque Country on Nov. 23 in which 34 Segi members were arrested.

From wire dispatches and staff reports