The world in brief

— QUOTE OF THE DAY "Oh God! I have lost everything." Wen Xiaoying, 32, upon returning to her village of Donghekou, China, which was destroyed by Monday's earthquake. Article, 1A

Kuwait sees first vote under new rules

KUWAIT CITY - Voters in Kuwait lined up Saturday to vote in parliamentary elections that could substantially change the legislative body of this tiny, oil-rich Persian Gulf emirate after electoral changes to reduce corruption and vote buying.

The elections come after Kuwait's ruler, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, dissolved the parliament in March in the wake of an increasingly acrimonious relationship between the Cabinet, appointed by the ruler, and the 50-man legislative body.

For the past two years, lawmakers and the government ministers have been unable to work together, prompting Kuwait's emir to dissolve the body twice since 2006.

Repeated grillings of Cabinet ministers and threats to impeach them paralyzed politics and halted development plans that include imposing taxes and allowing foreign companies into the state-owned oil sector.

The electoral districts have been reduced from 25 to just five to defeat attempts at vote buying.

The elections Saturday are the first in the country under the new rules, which were pushed through after widespread protests in the country. Each of the five districts sends 10 representatives to parliament, and each person can vote for four candidates in a district.

Taiwan's Nationalist chief to visit China

BEIJING - China has invited the head of Taiwan's incoming ruling party to visit the mainland, where he is to meet with President Hu Jintao.

Taiwan Nationalist Party Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung will start a six-day visit May 26, a party official said Saturday.

"In the hope to facilitate peaceful progress in cross-strait relations ... Chairman Wu has decided to accept the offer," Nationalist Party Secretary-General Wu Den-yih said.

The Nationalist Party will become Taiwan's ruling party Tuesday when Ma Ying-jeou is sworn in as president. Relations between China and Taiwan seemed to improve as soon as Ma's election victory became clear in March.

China had been deeply suspicious of outgoing Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian, who supports formal independence for Taiwan. China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, and Beijing has threatened military action if the self-ruled island formally declares independence.

"With positive changes of the current situation in Taiwan, Wu's visit will be conducive to strengthening the communication and dialogue of the two parties and will push forward the peaceful development of cross-strait relations," Xinhua quoted Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan Work Office of the CPC Central Committee, as saying.

Jordanian ship on aid mission hijacked

NAIROBI, Kenya - Somali pirates hijacked a Jordanian ship carrying humanitarian aid to Mogadishu on Saturday in the latest in a string of attacks off the Somali coast, the head of a seafarers association said.

Andrew Mwangura of the East Africa Seafarers Assistance Program said the attack occurred early Saturday. The pirates seized the ship not far from the Somali capital of Mogadishu and were taking it north, he said.

Jordan's minister of transportation, Ala'a al-Batayneh, said about a dozen crew members from Pakistan, India, Tanzania and Bangladesh were on board the ship, according to Jordan's official Petra news agency.

He said Jordanian authorities were coordinating efforts with the Danish Embassy in the Somali capital to try to release the ship and its crew. Denmark has an agreement with Jordan to protect Jordanian-flagged vessels passing or anchored off Mogadishu.

The ship was heading from India to the Somali capital carrying 4,000 tons of sugar in a shipment of humanitarian aid, al-Batayneh said.

Pirates tried to board the ship outside the Somali port of Merka last year but the ship escaped.

Spanish police arrest 5 hacker suspects

MADRID, Spain - Spanish police have arrested five people suspected of hacking into or outright disabling thousands of Internet pages, some of them run by government agencies in the U.S., Latin America and Asia, authorities said Saturday.

The National Police said the suspects belonged to one of the most active hacker groups on the Internet and said two of the suspects are 16 years old. The others are 19 or 20.

On the Internet, the group calls itself D.O.M Team, police said.

The group attacked some 21,000 Web pages over the past two years, police said in a statement. The five were arrested this week in Barcelona, Burgos, Malaga and Valencia.

The statement did not identify which government Web sites the suspects are accused of tampering with.

Front Section, Pages 13 on 05/18/2008

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