the news in brief

(MCT) LAHORE, Pakistan – On election day, the text messages began pouring in before dawn:… (MCT) LAHORE, Pakistan – On election day, the text messages began pouring in before dawn: “Wake up. Go out and vote against Musharraf and his allies.”

The messages began at midnight and lasted until noon, buzzing away constantly on one cell phone after another.

Athar Minallah, an Islamabad attorney, says people were sending him messages against President Pervez Musharraf from across the country. He counted at least 100.

At the polling places last week, Pakistanis sent a biting missive to the country’s president of eight years, handing a resounding victory to his opponents in parliament. They helped deliver victory for the opposing parties by dispatching get-out-the-votes messages from phone to phone.

Over the past year, Pakistanis young and old have become addicted to their cell phones, thumbing away lengthy political speeches, announcing protests, grieving the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, oozing cynicism and inspiring hope – all via text messaging.

Short Message System, or SMS, was introduced in Pakistan by the largest cell phone service provider, Mobilink, in 2000. Text messages are cheap, costing about one cent each.

Until this year, Pakistanis would text message each other on Valentine’s Day or the two religious holidays of Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha. They’d send one another tongue-in-cheek jokes in Urdu or English. But all that changed March 9 of last year.

That day, Musharraf dismissed Supreme Court Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry over allegations of misconduct. Many Pakistanis believe the judge was removed because he was embarrassing the president by probing deeply into cases involving the disappearance of individuals whom the government deemed terrorists.

Outraged, Pakistanis sent out text messages, rattling one another to stand up to the establishment.

The text messages also keep the politically in tune up to date on the latest gossip – such as which parties will form a coalition government and who will be the next prime minister. – Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Chicago Tribune

(MCT) BELGRADE, Serbia – A mob of several hundred people arrived at the U.S. Embassy Thursday with rocks and clubs. As police looked on, one of the protesters climbed to the second floor of the embassy, tore down the American flag, set it on fire and hung a Russian flag in its place.

Rioters then broke into the embassy’s upper level and set an office on fire. Police later found a charred body there – possibly that of one of the rioters.

Thursday’s assault on the U.S. Embassy drew a strong protest from the Bush administration. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the embassy “was attacked by thugs.”

The attack took place during a rally to protest independence for Kosovo, which until Sunday had been formally treated as a Serbian province. The protest was organized by the Serbian government under the banner “Kosovo is Serbia,” and it drew more than 150,000 people to Belgrade, th e Serbian capital. Workers in Serbia were given the day off, and the government and political parties organized free bus trips to Belgrade.

Demonstrators – locally described as “football hooligans,” best known for causing violent clashes at soccer games – rampaged through the Serbian capital for hours, attacking foreign banks and restaurants, as well as the embassies of other countries that had recognized Kosovo, among them Britain, Belgium, Turkey, Germany and Croatia. – Aleksandar Roknic, McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT) Raul Castro was elected as Cuba’s new president Sunday, capping the island’s first change of leadership in 50 years with a perfectly managed and carefully orchestrated succession of power that caused little stir in Havana and Miami.

In a clear sign of what role the ailing Fidel Castro will play in the coming years, moments after taking office, Raul asked the nation’s assembly to allow him to consult his brother on key matters.

In his inaugural speech, Raul Castro paid homage to his brother’s rule, saying he could never be replaced. He stressed the need to make the country more efficient, with fewer state institutions and bureaucracy. He proposed a gradual “integral” revaluation of the Cuban peso and criticized news coverage of recent public debate in Cuba, saying outsiders did not understand that it took place “within socialism.”

“Fidel is Fidel, we all know that well. Fidel is irreplaceable, and the people will continue his task after he’s no longer physically here, although his ideas will always remain, (ideas) that have made it possible to build the bulwarks of dignity and justice that our country represents,” Castro said. “Only the Communist Party, sure guarantor of the unity of the Cuban nation, can be a dignified heir of the trust placed by the people on their leader.”

Contrary to expectations that the top leadership would incorporate economic reformers, the assembly instead chose old timers and hard-liners to fill top spots in the Council of State.

The move to pack the council’s leadership with aging members of the old guard was announced while Castro stressed that the number of assembly members under the age of 30 had increased from 23 to 36. – Pablo Bachelet, Ani Martinez and Frances Robles, McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT) CHICAGO – They came in waves, students and mothers, alumni and politicians, streaming across a mourning campus, clouds of breath trailing on cold evening air.

They arrived hours early, thousands clad in school colors, forming lines that stretched out like ribbons of red and black. Some stood, solemn. Others reconnected, allowed a quick laugh. Many shook heads and openly wondered what lies ahead.

Northern Illinois University on Sunday night, an hour before a memorial service to honor victims of a campus shooting.

Dignitaries and frat boys, friends and strangers gathered to remember the Valentine’s Day shooting, the 48 shots fired, the five students killed and the 16 wounded.

“I have seen your courage and I have seen your strength,” University President John G. Peters told the audience, as security guards walked the aisles handing out tissue. “Your presence wraps us in a warm embrace and reminds us we are not alone.”

The memorial was the culmination of 10 days of grieving, which began moments after Steven Kazmierczak, a former NIU student, opened fire on a crowded lecture room in Cole Hall. The shooter took his own life, leaving few clues to his motive.

But Sunday night, with classes set to resume the next day, was not about seeking answers. The dead and wounded were honored, and the university community was challenged to take a stand.

Many students seemed relieved to be back, as if the time off was almost too much.

“Campus has been too quiet this week and we all miss one another,” said Whitley Cole, a freshman from Evergreen Park. “We thought this is what we needed to get closure.”

Members of the geology class that was in the lecture hall the day of the shooting sat together in the arena.

Five sprawling bouquets of red roses and white lilies sat on tables to the left of the stage, one for each of the victims, whose names were read as the ceremony began.

Gayle Dubowski. Catalina Garcia. Julianna Gehant. Ryanne Mace. Dan Parmenter.

Pictures of them all flashed on wide screens. Students placed hands over their mouths, cried. Some buried their heads in friends’ shoulders.

Dignitaries included presidential candidate and Illinois senator Barack Obama, who did not speak, and Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Sen. Dick Durbin and Michael Leavitt, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. – Josh Noel and Alexa Aguilar, Chicago Tribune