WORLD DIGEST || Demolishing house where bin Laden was

Demolishing house where bin Laden was

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN

Pakistani authorities late Saturday began demolishing the house where Osama bin Laden had lived in a town in the north of the country, local residents said, in a move that will remove the physical symbol of the al-Qaida leader’s presence in the country.

The destruction of the home in Abbottabad, which began after darkness fell Saturday, could help Pakistan bury the bin Laden issue, which caused the country acute embarrassment after a U.S. special- forces squad found and killed him at the site in May 2011.

Nelson Mandela, 93, is hospitalized

JOHANNESBURG

Former South African President Nelson Mandela was hospitalized Saturday for a test to determine what is behind an undisclosed stomach ailment, and the country’s current leader said the much beloved 93-year-old icon was in no danger.

Mandela, a Nobel peace laureate who spent 27 years in prison for fighting racist white rule, has officially retired and last appeared in public in July 2010.

He became South Africa’s first black president in 1994 and served one five-year term.

At least 89 killed in violence in Syria

DAMASCUS, SYRIA

Syria defied international calls to halt attacks on rebel enclaves as at least 89 people were killed nationwide Saturday on the eve of a constitutional referendum that the opposition sees as a ploy by President Bashar Assad’s regime.

Assad presented the revised charter — which allows for at least a theoretical opening of the country’s political system — as an effort to placate critics and quell the 11-month uprising against his rule.

But the vote is unlikely to overshadow a new round of international condemnation and calls that Assad leave power.

Official: US in talks with Egypt over case

RABAT, MOROCCO

A senior U.S. official says the Obama administration is in “intense discussions” with Egypt to resolve the legal case against 16 American democracy advocates that has badly damaged ties between the countries “in the coming days.”

The official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity due to the delicacy of the matter, said Saturday that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had raised the matter twice in person with Egypt’s foreign minister — once in London and once in Tunis — in the past three days and that other senior U.S. officials are actively involved.

Combined dispatches