World briefs

UKRAINERebel regions elect leaders

Residents of the rebel-held east voted for leaders yesterday, taking another step toward establishing an independent enclave and exacerbating tensions between Russia and the West. Thousands of residents across war-torn eastern Ukraine lined up to give their backing to the current rebel leadership, which has been working to establish a new pro-Russian state in the southeast corner of the country.

BANGLADESHNational power restored

Power was back on yesterday, a day after the energy-starved country was plunged into a nationwide blackout when the transmission line from India failed, officials said. The country's energy grid was fully restored, and any further problems that may arise would be for "local reasons," Junior Power Minister Nasrul Hamid said.

Death verdict for '71 killings

A special tribunal sentenced to death yesterday a senior leader of the country's largest Islamist party, the second death sentence in a week for mass killings during the nation's 1971 independence war with Pakistan. Mir Quashem Ali, 62, protested his sentence, calling witnesses who testified against him "fake." He is a member of Jamaat-e-Islami's highest policymaking body. Last week, party leader Motiur Rahman Nizami was sentenced to death for war crimes. Another senior leader has been hanged.

MEXICOSoldiers charged in homicide

Seven soldiers have been formally charged with crimes ranging from homicide to improper conduct in the shooting deaths of suspected gang members at a rural warehouse on June 30, officials said yesterday. Authorities initially said that all 22 suspected gang members died in a shootout with soldiers near Tlatlaya, 95 miles southwest of Mexico City. Witness statements and evidence from the scene contradicted the official version of events. Only three of the seven participated in the killings, officials said. They face charges in the deaths of eight people, according to a statement released yesterday by the Federal Judiciary Council.