SOUTH ASIA

TERRORIST WANTED IN PEARL ABDUCTION KILLED

KARACHI, Pakistan – An Islamic terrorist wanted in connection with the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl was killed in a shootout with police, according to Pakistani authorities yesterday, who also announced the arrest of a suspect in the deadly bombing near the American Consulate in Karachi two years ago.

The actions mark the latest in a series of high profile arrests and killings of suspects wanted for terrorist attacks in Pakistan since its president, General Pervez Musharraf, made the Muslim country a key ally in the American-led war on terror in late 2001.

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said authorities arrested Naveed-ul Hasan, an alleged member of the outlawed terrorist group Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen al-Alami, near Pakistan’s main border checkpoint with India at Wagah, near the eastern city of Lahore, yesterday. Mr. Sherpao said that Hasan was wanted for the suicide bombing near the U.S. Consulate in the volatile southern city of Karachi that killed 14 Pakistanis in June 2002,and another smaller blast during New Year’s celebrations 2002 at a popular club in the city that wounded at least nine people.

Hasan, who had a $33,300 bounty on his head, had been running a clothes shop near Wagah for the last few months, Mr. Sherpao said. It wasn’t immediately clear how authorities learned of his whereabouts.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

CHIRAC OUTSPOKEN OVER IRAQ

LONDON – The American-led invasion of Iraq mobilized Islamic extremists and made the world more dangerous, President Chirac of France said, keeping up his vocal opposition to the war on the eve of a visit to London. “There’s no doubt that there has been an increase in terrorism and one of the origins of that has been the situation in Iraq,” Chirac told the British Broadcasting Corp. “To a certain extent Saddam Hussein’s departure was a positive thing. But it also provoked reactions, such as the mobilization in a number of countries, of men and women of Islam, which has made the world more dangerous,” Mr. Chirac said in French, which was translated into English by the BBC.

Despite Mr. Chirac’s criticism of the war, officials in Paris say he wants stronger relations with Washington. The issue will figure prominently in talks today between Mr. Chirac and Prime Minister Blair, who has called for reconciliation between European leaders and the newly re-elected President Bush.

Mr. Chirac also said that France and America have a 200-year history of “cooperation, friendship, and solidarity.” The dispute over Iraq does not “mean that our relationship is in question,” he added. “Don’t let’s confuse a state of continuing friendship, understanding, and mutual respect, allied to a trans-Atlantic link, with a differing stance on the specific situation in Iraq.”

– Associated Press

OPPOSITION: TEHRAN CONTINUES TO ENRICH URANIUM

VIENNA, Austria – Iran bought blueprints of a nuclear bomb from the same black-market network that gave Libya such diagrams and continues to enrich uranium despite a commitment to suspend the technology that can be used for atomic weapons, an Iranian opposition group said yesterday.

A senior official for the National Council for Resistance in Iran, Farid Soleimani, said the diagram was provided by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani head of the nuclear network linked to clandestine programs in both Iran and Libya. “He gave them the same weapons design he gave the Libyans as well as more in terms of weapons design,” Mr. Soleimani told reporters in Vienna.

Mr. Soleimani said the diagram and related material on how to make nuclear weapons was handed to the Iranians between 1994 and 1996.

In 2001, Mr. Khan also delivered to Iran an amount of highly enriched uranium, the material that can form the core of nuclear warheads, he said. He said he didn’t think the amount was enough to make a weapon.

– Associated Press

CENTRAL ASIA

CRIMINALS, NOT TALIBAN HOLDING HOSTAGES, OFFICIALS SAY

Criminals rather than Islamic terrorists are holding three kidnapped U.N. workers, an official said yesterday, dismissing the claims of a Taliban-linked group threatening to kill the trio unless America frees 26 jailed comrades.

Afghan authorities believe the three foreigners – Philippine diplomat Angelito Nayan, British-Irish citizen Annetta Flanigan, and Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo – have been kept in Kabul since their abduction three week ago, but still haven’t uncovered their hiding place. A little-known rebel group called Jaish-al Muslimeen, or Army of Muslims, said yesterday through a spokesman that its leaders were holding a critical meeting on the hostages’ fate. The spokesman insisted the captives were in the group’s hands. But a spokesman for the Afghan government’s Interior Ministry, which is leading the search for the hostages, said Jaish-al Muslimeen is not holding the foreigners, who were seized at gunpoint on October 28 in Kabul after helping organize the country’s presidential election.

“The kidnappers are armed robbers, not Jaish-al Muslimeen,” spokesman Latfullah Mashal said. “We can say they are thieves.” Mashal said authorities believed the rebel group had paid the real kidnappers for a video of the hostages, which bolstered their claim of responsibility and stirred fear they were copying the tactics of insurgents in Iraq.

– Associated Press

SOUTH AMERICA

ONE KILLED AS BOMBS EXPLODE AT BUENOS AIRES BANKS

Homemade bombs exploded in two Buenos Aires banks before they opened yesterday, killing a security guard, police said. The explosions occurred near ATM machines in branches belonging to Citibank and Banco Galicia, damaging the building’s facades and shattering windows, officials said. No group immediately claimed responsibility.

A 38-year-old security guard was killed at the Citibank branch in downtown Buenos Aires, said German Fernandez, a spokesman for a private ambulance service. Police said they also deactivated two explosive devices, and at least one officer was injured after authorities detonated a bomb found inside a second Citibank branch. Banks remain a flashpoint of public anger following Argentina’s 2001-02 economic crisis. Billions of dollars in bank accounts held by Argentines were frozen as the government tried to thwart a run on the banks and prop up a tottering financial system. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Argentines have filed lawsuits hoping to recover their savings, much of which were forcibly converted from dollars to devalued Argentine pesos.

– Associated Press

NORTH AFRICA

AID EARMARKED FOR IRAQ GOING TO SUDAN

House and Senate congressional committee yesterday approved a measure to transfer $93 million in unused Iraqi aid to emergency relief efforts in Darfur, Sudan. A major chunk of the money would be used to support the African Union mission in Sudan and the rest will go to humanitarian aid. The House and Senate must still pass the bill.

“A humanitarian tragedy is unfolding before our eyes, and the world’s response is inadequate,” said Senator Leahy, a Democrat of Vermont and co-author of the bill. “This is an opportunity to save the lives of thousands of people who would otherwise succumb from hunger, exposure and disease, simply because of their ethnicity.” The Senate version of the bill would have transferred $150 million.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun