Shorts: World

Wiesenthal Center tells Iceland to kick out Fischer

reykjavik (jta) | The Simon Wiesenthal Center protested Iceland's decision to offer citizenship to former chess champion Bobby Fischer, who continues spouting anti-Semitic and anti-American rhetoric.

After being freed from prison in Japan for an alleged passport violation, Fischer arrived last week in Reykjavik, Iceland's capital. Fischer fought attempted extradition to his native United States. Iceland granted him citizenship in recognition of the historic chess games he played there decades ago.

Fischer's mother was Jewish but his anti-Semitism has become legendary. "The U.S. is evil," Fischer said at a news conference, where he accused the "Jew-controlled U.S. government" of ruining his life.




Poll: Some Berliners worry about Jews in power

berlin (jta) | Some 16 percent of people in Berlin believe Jews have too much influence, according to a new poll.

The survey, released recently by the Free University of Berlin and the FORSA polling institute, also revealed that 10 percent of Berliners would consider voting for an extreme right-wing party, and about 6 percent have a right-wing extremist world view. The survey, which found higher percentages of extremist sympathizers in the outlying state of Brandenburg than in Berlin itself, was conducted over several months among 2,000 local residents.

They were asked questions designed to gauge their support for an authoritarian state, extreme nationalist ideology, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and the denial of Nazi crimes. Sixteen percent of Berliners agreed with the statement that "some lives are valuable and others worthless."




Swedes charge Palestinian with abducting children

stockholm (ap) | A Palestinian man was charged last week with abduction and child abuse after taking his five children from their mother's home in Sweden and sending them to the Gaza Strip.

Ismail Nowajah, a Gaza native, took the children from their home near the west coast city of Göteborg, on June 4, 2004, saying they were going on vacation to Cairo, Egypt. The next day he sent them by taxi to his sister's home in Gaza City, where they remained until Dec. 24, 2004, when they flew home to be reunited with their Swedish mother, Elizabeth Krantz.




Arafat death helps U.S., France reconcile

paris (jta) | Yasser Arafat's death was a central element in the rapprochement between the United States and France, a French official said.

Jean-David Levitte, France's ambassador to Washington, D.C., outlined four elements in the improved relations: Syrian heavy-handedness in Lebanon, a former French colony, which united France and the United States on the need for Syrian withdrawal; joint determination to limit Iran's nuclear capacity; successful elections in Iraq, which helped sweep aside French bitterness over the U.S.-led war; and the death of Palestinian Authority President Arafat.