Bomb blast blamed on Galician radicals

MADRID -- A bomb exploded yesterday in the busy pilgrimage center of Santiago de Compostela, causing minor damage but no injuries. Authorities blamed radical groups seeking the independence of the Galicia region. Police arrested two people they believe planted the bomb that exploded outside the main office of regional savings bank Caixa Galicia. Santiago is the capital of Galicia, a fishing region that has its own regional government and language. Some Galicians want more autonomy from Madrid. (Reuters)

Kenya

Clinton launches HIV aid program

NAIROBI -- Former president Bill Clinton launched a program yesterday that is to nearly double the number of children receiving treatment for HIV infection in Kenya by the end of the year. Some 100,000 children are infected with HIV, but only 1,200 receive treatment. The Clinton Foundation Pediatric HIV/AIDS Initiative will provide treatment to an extra 1,000 children in this East African nation. The initiative is part of the Clinton Foundation's goal to have 10,000 children on antiretroviral treatment in at least 10 countries by the end of 2005. Clinton has raised funds from private donors led by the Children Investment Fund Foundation, a London-based charity that funds projects to improve the lives of children living in poor countries. The US-based investment fund Lone Pine Capital has also made a substantial contribution. (AP)

Iran

Activist condemns hanging of 2 teens

TEHRAN -- Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi yesterday condemned the hanging of two teenagers accused of raping younger boys in northeastern Iran, a punishment that also prompted protests by the international community and rights groups. Last week's public hangings of an 18-year-old and 16-year-old on charges of involvement in homosexual acts violated Iran's obligations under the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, which bans such executions, Ebadi said. Ebadi said her Center for the Protection of Human Rights will intensify its fight against Iran's executions of minors. (AP)

Japan

N. Korea says direct talks aren't needed

TOKYO -- North Korea took another swipe at Tokyo yesterday, saying it ''feels no need" to sit down directly with Japan at upcoming nuclear talks because the country is insisting on discussing the North's past abduction of Japanese citizens. The North's state-run newspaper, Minju Joson, said in an editorial that it ''feels no need to sit face-to-face with Japan," and criticized Tokyo's plan to raise the abduction issue as a way ''to meet its own interests." It was not clear from the editorial, carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency, whether the North was refusing to attend the talks set to open Tuesday in Beijing if they include Japan -- or if it was saying it did not want to meet with Japanese officials on the sidelines of the talks, as Tokyo has suggested. (AP)

CHINA

Official downplays yuan's link to deficit

BEIJING -- Beijing's decision on Thursday to cut its currency's link to the dollar will do little to narrow the huge US trade deficit with China, the central bank chief predicted yesterday. The remark came after American analysts said the shift, which could make Chinese exports more expensive, might help repair the growing US trade imbalance with China, which hit a record-high $162 billion last year. ''China's exchange rate reform won't have too much influence on US deficits," Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, said. (AP)