CANADA
Hooligans wreak havoc after Stanley Cup loss
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA | Angry, drunken fans ran wild after the Vancouver Canucks’ 4-0 loss to Boston in the decisive Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, setting cars and garbage cans ablaze, smashing windows, showering giant TV screens with beer bottles and dancing atop overturned vehicles.
Later, looters smashed windows and ran inside department stores.
“We have a small number of hooligans on the streets of Vancouver causing problems,” Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said. “It’s absolutely disgraceful and shameful and by no means represents the city of Vancouver.”
Police said they had reports of four stabbings Wednesday night, though spokeswoman Constable Jana McGuinness said she couldn’t confirm them.
LIBYA
NATO strikes ratchet up pressure for diplomacy
TRIPOLI | Renewed diplomatic efforts to halt the country’s civil war appeared to be gaining momentum Thursday as thunderous NATO airstrikes once again hammered Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s stronghold of Tripoli.
Officials in the capital say they are open to international efforts that would bring an end to four months of fighting between forces loyal to the longtime leader and rebels who control the eastern third of the country along with pockets in the west.
Yet they insist that Col. Gadhafi will not bow to international pressure to push him aside.
SUDAN
U.S. seeks China’s help with Bashir as alarm grows
The Obama administration on Thursday asked China to use its influence with Sudan’s president to press for an end to rising violence that threatens a landmark peace deal and could complicate Southern Sudan’s planned declaration of independence next month.
U.S. officials said they want China to urge Sudanese President Omar Bashir to abide by the terms of a 2005 peace agreement that ended Sudan’s two-decade north-south civil war and led to a secession vote by the south.
This month, ahead of Southern Sudan’s July 9 independence, Mr. Bashir is to visit China, which has pull with Mr. Bashir’s regime in Khartoum because of major investments there.
“We hope that Beijing takes this opportunity to reaffirm the importance of stopping the violence, of getting back to the [peace agreement], and of full accountability for past issues,” State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland told reporters.
China has been criticized in the past for either ignoring the deteriorating situation in Sudan or not doing enough to press Khartoum to abide by its commitment to the peace deal so as not to endanger its substantial interests in the country.
Sudan is China’s third-largest trading partner in Africa, and China is uniquely positioned to exert influence over the north-south conflict. Beijing has sought to maintain friendly ties with the southern region to protect Chinese oil investments while remaining a key political ally of Sudan’s government in the north.
SYRIA
Regime sweeps up northern males
GUVECCI, TURKEY | Syrian security forces fanned out through villages and towns in the northern province of Idlib on Thursday, randomly hauling in males older than 16 as the government worked to silence a center of anti-regime protest.
In this border region, where thousands of Syrian civilians have fled to havens in Turkey, Turkish officials were preparing to send food, clean water, medicine and other aid to thousands more stranded on the Syrian side.
The unusual plan for a cross-border operation on Syrian soil appeared to have Syrian clearance. It was announced by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu after he met with an envoy from President Bashar Assad’s authoritarian regime.
BRAZIL
Landless activist arrested on public fraud charges
RIO DE JANEIRO| A charismatic former leader of Brazil’s landless rural workers movement was arrested Thursday on suspicion of misappropriating public funds intended for the resettlement of families, the federal police said.
Jose Rainha, 50, a longtime leader of the MST, as the group is known in Brazil, was arrested in rural Sao Paulo state after a 10-month investigation, police said in a statement.
He was one of 10 people wanted in connection with the suspected misuse of public funds meant to support landless activists who are being allocated plots as part of land reform in the region. The police did not specify how much of the funds they suspect were misused.
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