Japanese Tourism Minister Tetsuzo Fuyushiba, with South Korean singer Younha and Hello Kitty, the popular cartoon character who has been named "envoy" to welcome visitors from China and Hong Kong.

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RABAT — Moroccan security services have arrested 11 people on charges of plotting attacks in Morocco and Belgium and having links to Iraq's insurgency, the Moroccan state news agency said Monday.

The suspects, including a Moroccan living in Belgium, were arrested in the cities of Nador and Fez, the MAP agency said. The report did not say when the arrests took place.

Those arrested are accused of having links to cells sending fighters to Iraq's insurgency and to camps of an Algeria-based militant group, Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa. The report said authorities believed the suspects were planning attacks in Morocco and Belgium, without elaborating..

SAN JUAN — Military lawyers are seeking to delay the arraignment of five Guantanamo detainees suspected of mounting the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, alleging the government has made it impossible to defend them, authorities said.

The motions — four were filed in a flurry on Monday and one on Friday — attempt to postpone the first pretrial hearings for men charged with the 2001 attacks that killed almost 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

The arraignment is scheduled for June 5 at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The U.S. is seeking the death penalty for all five defendants.

A postponement would likely mean that the hearing would not come until after the Supreme Court rules on the Bush administration's latest attempt to try terror suspects in the first U.S. war-crimes trials since World War II.

CARACAS — Venezuela wants the U.S. ambassador to explain a violation of its airspace by a U.S. Navy plane, the country's foreign minister said Monday.

The S-3 U.S. Navy plane was detected in Venezuelan airspace on Saturday night near the Caribbean island of La Orchila, and questioned by the Caracas airport control tower, Defense Minister Gen. Gustavo Rangel Briceno said.

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the plane "may have strayed inadvertently into Venezuelan airspace" while flying a counter-drug mission.

The U.S. Joint Interagency Task Force South, which coordinates counter-drug operations in the region from Key West, Fla., thanked Venezuelan air-traffic controllers for their "assistance in guiding the U.S. aircraft (back) to international airspace."

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert underwent a medical imaging exam at Hadassah University Hospital late Monday to check development of his prostate cancer, the hospital said in a statement.

The hospital said the exam "confirmed the findings of previous examinations" and Olmert's doctors would decide on further treatment.

The 62-year-old Olmert announced in October that he had cancer. At the time, he said the growth was not life-threatening and would be removed in surgery, but he has not yet had the operation.

Olmert's office said earlier in the day that the procedure was scheduled weeks ago and was an "acceptable and routine procedure in monitoring a prostate growth."

TEL AVIV — Al Gore received a $1 million prize on Monday for his environmental work from an Israeli fund.

The Dan David Foundation awarded the former vice president its annual "present" prize for alerting the world to the crisis from the overuse of fossil fuels. It also gave prizes in "past" and "future" categories.

The Nobel laureate received the award at a ceremony at Tel Aviv University.

Gore said 10 percent of the prize would go to young researchers and the rest to the Alliance for Climate Protection, an advocacy group he co-founded and which works to change public opinion worldwide about the urgency of the climate crisis.

TOKYO — Hello Kitty, Japan's ubiquitous ambassador of cute, has built up an impressive résumé over the years. Global marketing phenom. Fashion diva. Pop culture icon.

Now the moon-faced feline can add "government envoy" to the list.

Japan's tourism ministry on Monday named Hello Kitty as its choice to represent the country in China and Hong Kong, two places where she is wildly popular among kids and young women.

Officials hope tapping into that fan base will lead to a bigger flow of tourists into Japan and push the country closer to the goal of attracting 10 million overseas visitors every year under the "Visit Japan" campaign.

Last year the number of foreign tourists traveling to Japan hit a record high of 8.35 million, up 60 percent since the government began the marketing effort in 2003.

Arrivals from China and Hong Kong, who accounted for 16.5 percent of visitors to Japan last year, are poised this year to become the second-largest group of tourists after South Koreans.

Japan's other goodwill tourism ambassadors include Korean singer Younha, Japanese actress Yoshino Kimura and Japanese pop/rock duo Puffy AmiYumi.

LONDON — Beatlemania erupted at London's Chelsea Flower Show on Monday as Ringo Starr rolled up in a gaudily painted Mini to join George Harrison's widow for the opening of a garden inspired by the "quiet Beatle."

Photographers swarmed around as Starr drove up in the Mini decorated with symbols of the Hindu faith that Harrison embraced.

"Peace and love," Starr said as he kissed Olivia Harrison on each cheek.

Harrison, who died of cancer in 2001, was an avid gardener, and the display at the flower show reflects that interest.

NAIROBI — Zimbabwe's opposition party on Monday accused the country's military of plotting to assassinate presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai using snipers.

The Movement for Democratic Change said Tsvangirai planned to return to Zimbabwe to contest the June 27 runoff election once security measures are in place to protect him.

On Saturday, the opposition said it had received details of the alleged assassination plot as Tsvangirai was on his way to the airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, to return home.

Zimbabwean officials could not immediately be reached for comment Monday on the allegations.

Tsvangirai has survived three assassination attempts, including one in 1997 by unidentified assailants who tried to throw him from a 10th floor office window. Last year, he was hospitalized after a brutal assault by police at a prayer rally, and images seen around the world of his bruised and swollen face have come to symbolize the plight of dissenters in Zimbabwe.

REIGER PARK — Clashes pitting the poorest of the poor against one another have killed 22 people in South Africa and underscored bitter frustration with the government's failure to deliver enough jobs, housing and schools.

Police brought in reinforcements as violence hopped from slum to slum in scenes reminiscent of some of the bloodiest days of apartheid. Most of the victims have been immigrants from Zimbabwe and elsewhere living in squatter camps.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu made an impassioned plea Monday for the violence to end. "Please stop. Please stop the violence now," he said in a statement. "These are our sisters and brothers."

Tutu said that when South Africans were fighting apartheid, they were supported by people worldwide. "We can't repay them by killing their children," he said. "We can't disgrace our struggle by these acts of violence."

President Thabo Mbeki reiterated his call for an immediate stop to the attacks, saying "nothing can justify it."