WORLD BRIEFS

INDONESIA: Bombing suspect faces trial

A top Islamist militant will be prosecuted for his alleged role in the 2002 Bali bombings after Pakistan handed him over, the head of the country's counterterrorism agency said Thursday. Pakistani forces captured Umar Patek, a bombmaker for militant group Jemaah Islamiyah who is wanted by the United States, Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia, in January in Abbottabad, the garrison town in Pakistan where U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in May. Patek arrived Thursday in Jakarta and was taken to a detention center, counterterrorism chief Ansyaad Mbai told Reuters. Security analysts say Patek is one of the few Indonesian militants who would be able to explain the connections and extent of cooperation between Islamist militant groups in Asia. The attack on a nightclub in the resort island of Bali, for which Patek allegedly assembled the bombs, killed 202 people. Since then, several key figures in the Southeast Asian network Jemaah Islamiyah, which was blamed for the attacks, have been killed, captured or jailed.

CHILE: Education protest grows

Tens of thousands of protesters marched through a cold rain in Santiago, the capital, Thursday to press demands that the government provide free education and spend more on schools to improve their quality. The protest came just hours after the government offered a settlement that falls short of meeting all the demands that have fed months of sometimes violent demonstrations in Santiago and other Chilean cities.

INDIA: Graft protester to start fast

India's leading anti-corruption campaigner prepared to leave prison after winning an assurance from the government that he could continue his hunger strike and burgeoning protest against official graft at a park in central Delhi for at least 15 days. Anna Hazare, 74, was arrested Tuesday, hours before he planned to begin an indefinite fast, prompting protests across India by tens of thousands.