Foreign Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

CARIBBEAN
HAITI DEATH TOLL PASSES 1,000
GONAIVES, Haiti – Workers used dump trucks to empty more than 100 bodies into a 14-foot-deep hole yesterday – the first mass grave for the more than 1,070 flood victims of Tropical Storm Jeanne. Bystanders shrieked, held their noses against the stench and demanded that officials collect bodies in waterlogged fields. The government late yesterday said up to 1,250 people were still missing and that the death toll could rise to 2,000 people. Meteorologists, meanwhile, said Jeanne could strike America by this weekend. It was too soon to tell where, but the National Hurricane Center in Miami warned people in the northwest and central Bahamas and along the southeast America coast to beware of dangerous surf and rip currents kicked up by Jeanne in the coming days.
At 5 p.m., Jeanne was centered about 500 miles east of the Bahamian island of Great Abaco. It was moving west-southwest and was expected to strengthen and turn toward the west in the next 24 hours. Hurricane-force winds extended 45 miles and tropical-storm force winds another 140 miles. In Gonaives, U.N. peacekeepers fired into the air to keep a hungry crowd at bay as aid workers handed out the first food in days for some in this city devastated by the floods. Residents were growing impatient because of decaying bodies and a lack of food and drinking water.
– Associated Press
EASTERN EUROPE
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE ALLEGEDLY POISONED
KIEV, Ukraine – Ukrainian prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into the alleged poisoning of a leading candidate in a crucial presidential election scheduled for next month, officials said. The candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, became sick more than two weeks ago, and his campaign charged that he was poisoned by political opponents. The allegations have roiled the already heated race to replace outgoing President Kuchma. Mr. Yushchenko, a leading opposition figure who is running neck-in-neck with the ruling party’s candidate, became ill September 6 and was hospitalized in Austria. After he was discharged Saturday, doctors in Vienna said it was possible he had been poisoned but they could not confirm it.
Prosecutors said in a statement that they were investigating charges of “attempted murder of a statesman or a public figure.” They offered few details and did not indicate if authorities had substantiated the poisoning charges or identified suspects. The prosecutor general, Henadiy Vasiliev, later told reporters “not to make hasty conclusions” and to wait for the results of the examination. He said authorities hadn’t ruled out anything in their investigation and that his office had contacted Austrian authorities.
– Associated Press
RUSSIA’S DUMA BROADENS POWERS
MOSCOW – Russia’s lower house of Parliament adopted a far-reaching anti-terror plan today that calls for broadening the powers of all agencies involved in the fight against terrorism and threatens officials with punishment if they fail to prevent attacks.
Convening for the first time since a string of terror attacks blamed on Chechen rebels, including a school siege that killed more than 330 people, legislators in the State Duma voted 343 to 0 for the anti-terror plan, with four abstentions. The plan sets out what legislation will be introduced for approval in Parliament in the months ahead. Vladimir Vailyev, chairman of the Duma’s security committee, told ITAR-Tass that 40 anti-terror bills will be considered.
“All institutions of civil society and all branches of authority must become consolidated in order to resist this evil,” the anti-terror plan reads. The text did not specify which agencies would be affected. While the pro-Kremlin factions that dominate the Duma easily mustered support to adopt the plan, some opposition legislators questioned the approach.
– Associated Press
CENTRAL ASIA
U.S. SOLDIER REPORTED KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN
KABUL, Afghanistan – An attack on a patrol killed an American soldier, the third American fatality this week in Afghanistan, the military said yesterday, amid a flurry of attacks that wounded over a dozen Americans in the run-up to the October 9 presidential election.
Meanwhile, a group of 11 prisoners, including a former Taliban commander, arrived home from the American jail at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Another 10 detainees were transferred from Afghanistan to the American naval base, the Pentagon said. The soldier died in an attack on a security patrol on Monday in Khost province, said Major Scott Nelson, a military spokesman, but he provided no further details. The military had already announced the death of two American troops Monday in another incident – an attack in neighboring Paktika province.
– Associated Press
MIDDLE EAST
LEBANON SAYS IT CAPTURED TOP QAEDA AGENT
BEIRUT, Lebanon – Lebanon said yesterday it had arrested the top Al Qaeda operative in the country and another man linked to Osama bin Laden’s terrorist group who were plotting to blow up foreign embassies in Beirut, assassinate Western diplomats, and recruit insurgents to fight American-led forces in Iraq.
Senior officials said the two Lebanese men arrested Friday along with eight accomplices were also planning to attack Lebanese security and judicial targets. The interior minister, Elias Murr, speaking at a news conference, identified the leaders of the plot as Ahmed Salim Mikati and Ismail Mohammed al-Khatib, both Lebanese, and said they had eight Lebanese and Palestinian Arab accomplices, who were also arrested on Friday night. The prosecutor-general, Adnan Addoum, told the same news conference Mr. al-Khatib was “the head of Al Qaeda organization in Lebanon.”
– Associated Press