World at a glance

JAKARTA: Religious violence on Indonesia's riot-torn Ambon island has worsened with as many as ten people reported killed after outnumber...

JAKARTA:
Religious violence on Indonesia8217;s riot-torn Ambon island has worsened with as many as ten people reported killed after outnumbered troops opened fire on opposing Muslim and Christian mobs who attacked each other with spears, knives and gasoline bombs. Military officials were not immediately available for comment amid conflicting reports on casualty numbers.

The newspaper Kompas said ten people were killed. The Jakarta Post newspaper said seven died and quoted a nurse at Haulasi General Hospital as saying at least 30 people were wounded by gunfire. Police declined to say how many were killed. Dozens of houses were set on fire in the city, 2,300 km east of Jakarta, when fresh clashes among rival gangs erupted in six places around the city, police said. Fierce fighting among Muslims and Christians erupted in Ambon on January 19. Since then, violence has spread to five neighbouring islands and has left more than 200 people dead in Maluku province. Some analysts fear religious strife couldthreaten a push for greater democracy for Indonesia, which is preparing to hold its most open parliamentary election since 1955 on June 7.

KIEV:
Ukraine will not shut down the last active nuclear reactor at Chernobyl, the site of the worst civilian nuclear disaster in history, before 2000 despite an appeal by the European Union, the Ukrainian presidency said on Wednesday. 8220;Ukraine8217;s position has not changed.

We are ready to close Chernobyl as expected in 2000 if the Group of Seven G7 countries grant the financial aid that was promised,8221; a spokesman for Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, Olexander Martinenko, said . On Tuesday, EU Energy Commissioner Christos Papoutsis urged Kiev to shut down reactor number three, two days after it was restarted. He said the reactor represents a danger to the safety of the plant8217;s employees and the general public.

In a memorandum signed with the G7 in 1995, Ukrainian authorities agreed to close down Chernobyl in 2000 in exchange for 3.1 billion infinancial aid. Reactor number three, which reopened on Sunday after a three-month closure for repairs, is the only operational unit at the Chernobyl plant, the other three having been mothballed since 1986. Chernobyl8217;s reactor number four exploded on April 26, 1986, sending a radioactive cloud across much of Europe.