Nation/world roundup

Hurricane Wilma lashes Caribbean coastline

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras -- The fringes of Hurricane Wilma lashed Caribbean coastlines Wednesday, forcing tourists to flee and thousands to evacuate as it threatened to slam into Cancun and southern Florida.

At least 13 deaths have been blamed on the storm this week, including a man who drowned Wednesday while trying to cross a river that overflowed its banks in southern Haiti.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami warned that Wilma -- packing 160 mph winds Wednesday afternoon, down from 175 mph earlier in the day -- would be a "significant threat" to Florida by the weekend in a season that already has seen devastation from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Visitors were ordered out of the Florida Keys.

A defiant Saddam pleads innocent at hearing

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A defiant Saddam Hussein quarreled with judges and scuffled with guards at the opening of his long-awaited trial Wednesday, rejecting the tribunal's right to judge him and insisting he is still the president of Iraq.

Sitting inside a white pen with metal bars, Saddam appeared gaunt and frail as he pleaded innocent to charges of murder, torture, forced expulsions and illegal detentions.

If convicted, the 68-year-old Saddam and seven of his regime's henchmen who appeared with him in the hearing could face the death penalty for their role in the 1982 killing of nearly 150 people from the mainly Shiite town of Dujail north of Baghdad after a failed attempt on Saddam's life.

Governor pushes 'year of reform' initiatives

SACRAMENTO -- The Nov. 8 special election called by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger remains a mystery to many California voters.

Public opinion polls show they don't understand its urgency and are turned off by its $50 million price tag.

But to Schwarzenegger, it's an essential next step to the recall election that swept him into office in 2003. And he says its cost is a bargain when compared to the fiscal and political changes it will bring if he's successful.

The movie star-turned-governor sees the special election as simply the middle chapter of a three-part series that is needed to turn around California's moribund government.

From wire reports. E-mail news@thesantaclara.com.