Sarkozy puts end to mass pardoning

PARIS -- President Nicolas Sarkozy of France disappointed thousands of prisoners yesterday by refusing to sanction a traditional Bastille Day pardon. Sarkozy's two predecessors, Jacques Chirac and Francois Mitterrand, regularly ordered the release of prisoners on the July 14 holiday, to help relieve prison crowding. But Sarkozy, who is considered a law and order hard-liner, said in an interview that he would end the practice. (Reuters)

LATVIA

RIGA -- A trauma surgeon with no political experience and widely publicized tax problems was sworn in yesterday as Latvia's third president since the Baltic state gained independence in 1991. Valdis Zatlers, 52, who once practiced medicine in the United States, was politically unknown until his candidacy was announced by the center-right government days before the May 31 Parliament vote. (Reuters)

CHINA

BEIJING -- Floods and landslides unleashed by heavy rains have killed at least 94 people and left 25 others missing in parts of southern and eastern China, state media reported yesterday. Xinhua News Agency said about 500,000 people had fled their homes in Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Sichuan, and Shaanxi provinces and the city of Chongqing. It said more than 49,000 houses had been destroyed in the worst-hit Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces over the past week. (AP)

ENGLAND

LONDON -- Tony Blair wanted to quit as Britain's prime minister a year before the Iraq war after a fall in his poll ratings, his former media aide Alastair Campbell said. Blair asked his advisers in 2002 whether he should decline to lead Labor into a third election, Campbell said in an extract from his diaries, due to be published today. Blair handed over the reins to Gordon Brown last month after a decade in power. (Reuters)

NIGERIA

PORT HARCOURT -- Nigerian gunmen have released a British toddler kidnapped in the country's oil-rich south, a regional official said yesterday. Margaret Hill, 3, has been reunited with her parents, state government spokesman Emmanuel Okah said. Gunmen seized the girl while the car taking her to school idled in traffic Thursday. Her Nigerian mother, Oluchi Hill, previously said the abductors had contacted her and demanded an unspecified ransom. She also said the gunmen threatened to kill her daughter if the parents did not meet their demands, including one that the father take his daughter's place. (AP)

GERMANY

BERLIN -- The Bild newspaper, which often publishes photos of naked women, has joined with the pope to produce a "Benedict Bible." The tabloid will launch the edition tomorrow in the Bavarian town where Benedict was born. It includes 16 pages from the pope about his election, his choice of name, and reading the Bible. Bild editor Kai Diekmann sees nothing inconsistent in this, saying "religion is not prudish." (Reuters)