Morales, rivals seek to lower tensions

LA PAZ - Bolivian President Evo Morales and opposition regional governors agreed yesterday to meet to try to ease a bitter power struggle that has gripped the South American country all year. The announcement followed a weekend recall vote in which both Morales and his biggest rightist rivals were confirmed in their jobs, a result some political analysts said would only serve to deepen their standoff. Governors in four of Bolivia's nine regions want more autonomy and a greater share of the country's booming energy revenues. They are demanding that Morales scrap a plan to redistribute farmland among the poor. (Reuters)

PARIS - Vandals shattered part of a stained glass window by artist Marc Chagall as they broke into a cathedral in the eastern city of Metz, Culture Ministry officials said yesterday. A 24-by-16-inch hole was smashed in Chagall's 1963 biblical scene depicting Adam and Eve, said Emmanuel Etienne, a Metz-based architect for the Culture Ministry. Those who carried out the weekend break-in at Saint-Etienne de Metz cathedral have not yet been tracked down. "They didn't take anything important," Etienne said. "What's more serious is the hole in the stained glass window." A statement from the Culture Ministry in Paris said specialists would fix the window by fitting together pieces of broken glass collected at the site. (AP)

SRINAGAR - Angry Muslims mourning at least 20 protesters killed by police torched security bunkers and rioted in Indian Kashmir's main city yesterday as a land dispute with Hindus revived calls for independence. Police said they fired tear gas to disperse thousands of Muslim protesters who defied a curfew at several places across Kashmir Valley. They said more than two dozen people were injured in clashes between stone-throwing protesters and police. (Reuters)