World datelines

Ukraine: Putin rides hog

SEVASTOPOL — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin leaped on a Harley Davidson and roared into an international biker convention in southern Ukraine.

Around 5,000 bikers from Europe and beyond gathered in Sevastopol for the annual festival Saturday on Ukraine's Crimea peninsula. Putin, in Ukraine for talks with the country's new Russia-friendly leadership, described the motorbike as "the most democratic form of transport" and praised the bikers' free spirit.

Cambodia: War crimes

PHNOM PENH — A U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal was expected to issue a decision Monday in the trial of the Khmer Rouge's chief jailer and torturer — the first verdict involving a leader of the genocidal regime that created Cambodia's killing fields.

Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, ran Toul Sleng — the secret detention center reserved for "enemies" of the state. He admitted overseeing the deaths of up to 16,000 men, women and children who passed through its gates and asked for forgiveness during his 77-day trial.

England: Brown moves on

LONDON — Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown says he's looking forward to the future after his Labour party's loss in Britain's recent election.

Brown spoke with the BBC in Kampala, Uganda, after a speech on international development on Saturday. The interview was his first since leaving office in May. When he left Downing Street with his sons and wife, Brown says, it was the end of an era and "I had to accept that, and you accept it and then you move on and say look, there are other things you can do that can make a difference."

Iran: Military warning

TEHRAN— The former naval chief for Iran's Revolutionary Guard said the country has set aside 100 military vessels to confront each warship from the U.S. or any other foreign power that might pose a threat, an Iranian newspaper reported Saturday.

Such a military confrontation in the vital oil lanes of the Persian Gulf would be of major global concern. The warning builds on earlier threats by Iran to seal off the Gulf's strategic Strait of Hormuz — through which 40 percent of the world's oil passes — in response to any military attack. "We have set aside 100 military vessels for each (U.S.) warship to attack at the time of necessity," Gen. Morteza Saffari said.

Italy: Archbishop's power