The world in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“It’s over for the Love Parade.”

Rainer Schaller,

organizer of the German festival where 19 people were trampled to death, announcing the permanent cancellation of the event Article, this page

8 die in skirmishes in Somali capital

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Eight people were killed in weekend skirmishes between insurgents and troops in the capital, a Somali official said Sunday.

Mogadishu ambulance service chief Ali Muse said five people died and seven were wounded late Saturday. A witness saw three more wounded people. Muse said three died and seven were wounded Sunday when mortars hit a market. He said most of the dead were civilians.

The news came as African leaders discussed Somalia’s conflict at an African Union summit. Somalia became a focus of the summit after 76 people were killed two weeks ago in twin bombings in Uganda. Somali militant group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Islamic insurgents control much of Mogadishu and have been trying to topple the fragile government for three years.

Chavez threatens to cut off oil to U.S.

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez threatened on Sunday to halt oil sales to the United States if Venezuela faces any military attack by its U.S.-allied neighbor Colombia.

Chavez said in a speech to thousands of supporters that if there is an “armed aggression against Venezuela” from Colombia backed by the U.S., “we would suspend shipments of oil.”

Chavez said that “we wouldn’t send one more drop” of oil to the United States, which is the top buyer of oil from the South American country.

If actually carried out, such a threat would be titanic economic blow for Chavez’s government, which depends heavily on oil sales. It’s likely Chavez made the warning in part to put the U.S. and Colombia on notice that he will not stand for a more aggressive international campaign to denounce allegations that leftist Colombian rebels are finding safe haven in Venezuela.

The Venezuelan leader cut off diplomatic relations with Colombia on Thursday after outgoing President Alvaro Uribe’s government presented photos, videos and maps of what it said were Colombian rebel camps inside Venezuela.

Killed hostage, N. Africa al-Qaida says

CAIRO - The leader of al-Qaida’s offshoot in North Africa said in a message broadcast Sunday that the group has killed a French engineer taken hostage in Niger in April.

In an audio message broadcast on Al-Jazeera, Abdelmalek Droukdel said the group killed the 78-year-old French hostage in retaliation for the killing of six al-Qaida members in a recent raid by Mauritanian forces aided by the French military.

The hostage, Michel Germaneau, was abducted April 22 in Niger, and officials believed he was subsequently taken to Mali. Al-Qaida demanded in several Internet messages addressed to French President Nicolas Sarkozy that France help negotiate the release of the group’s prisoners in countries in the region.

“Sarkozy has [not only] failed to free his compatriot in this failed operation, but he opened the doors of hell for himself and his people,” Droukdel said.

French government officials would not immediately comment on Sunday’s audio message.

Families mark 2000 Concorde crash

GONESSE, France - Families whose loved ones died in the fiery crash of a supersonic Concorde jet 10 years ago joined together near Paris on Sunday, laying flowers at a monument to the dead and wandering the breezy field where the plane went down.

A French court is awaiting a verdict on who was to blame for the accident, which killed 109 aboard the plane and four on the ground and devastated the reputation of the jet. The Concorde, which ferried the rich and famous across the Atlantic for three decades and could fly twice as fast as the speed of sound, was taken out of service in 2003.

Some 100 family members, witnesses of the crash and Air France officials attended ceremonies Sunday marking 10 years since the plane crashed after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle Airport, plowing into a hotel in the Paris suburb of Gonesse.

Air France flew in family members from Germany, where most of the victims were from, and gave them flowers to place at a monument in Gonesse. The Concorde program was operated jointly by Air France and British Airways.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 07/26/2010

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