UN: Half of ethnic Uzbeks have fled

UN: Half of ethnic Uzbeks have fled

OSH, Kyrgyzstan

An estimated 400,000 people — nearly one-twelfth the population — have fled their homes to escape Kyrgyzstan’s ethnic violence, the U.N. said Thursday as throngs of refugees huddled in grim camps along the Uzbekistan border without adequate food or water.

That figure represents half the roughly 800,000 ethnic Uzbeks who lived in Kyrgyzstan’s south before Central Asia’s worst ethnic violence in decades erupted there last week. More than 200 people — possibly many more — have been killed, and Uzbeks have been all but purged from some parts of the south.

Ethnic Uzbeks on Thursday accused security forces of standing by or even helping ethnic-majority Kyrgyz mobs as they slaughtered people and burned down neighborhoods.

Bobby Fischer’s body to be exhumed

LONDON

The remains of chess genius Bobby Fischer are to be exhumed to determine whether he is the father of a 9-year-old girl, a lawyer representing the child and her mother said Thursday.

Thordur Bogason, a lawyer based in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik, said the country’s Supreme Court made the decision earlier this week to allow for tests so his client, Jinky Young, can find out who her father is.

Fischer, 64, died in Iceland in January 2008. He left no will, Bogason said, adding that legal cases over who has the right to the U.S.-born player’s estate are ongoing.

Poll: World likes Obama, not policies

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama still has great popularity abroad — where he enjoys higher approval ratings than he does at home — but foreign publics are a lot less happy with his administration’s foreign policy, according to a new poll by the Pew Trust.

The survey released Thursday found that Obama remains popular in most parts of the world even though his job-approval rating in the United States has dropped to 47 percent from 64 percent in February 2009.

In largely Muslim countries, however, opinion of Obama is now “decidedly negative,” former Sen. John Danforth, R-Mo., the co-chairman of the Pew Global Attitudes Survey, said.

Army reservist shot dead at Ga. post

FOREST PARK, Ga.

An Army reservist was shot to death and another was in custody Thursday at a post south of Atlanta that is a gathering place for area reserve units.

Army spokesman Col. Dan Baggio said the victim died at the U.S. Army Reserve Center located on Fort Gillem. He could not offer specifics about the shooting that happened between 4:30 and 5 p.m.

Authorities said they were withholding the names of the soldiers until they can notify family members but did say both were men.

Times Square bomb suspect indicted

NEW YORK

Times Square bomb suspect Faisal Shahzad was charged Thursday with 10 terrorism and weapons counts in an indictment that accuses him of receiving explosives training and financial help from the Pakistani Taliban.

The indictment returned by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Manhattan added five charges to the original case against the 30-year-old Shahzad and also detailed in greater depth his alleged financing.

Combined dispatches