WESTERN EUROPE

BATTLEGROUPS FIRST STEP TOWARD E.U. ARMY

BRUSSELS, Belgium – European Union defense ministers will sign off plans today for battlegroups of troops poised for instant action, in a significant move towards a European army.

The British and the French, the driving forces behind the scheme, will provide the first 1,500-strong battlegroup, or “expeditionary force,” starting in January.

The unit is to be ready for action anywhere within 15 days of a decision by E.U. ministers. “These are combat troops in their barracks with their boots on ready to go,” a British diplomat said. The move comes as the E.U. takes on its first big military mission on December 2, replacing NATO in charge of the 7,000-man Bosnia task force. Most of the troops will remain the same, merely switching from NATO to E.U. insignia, but the politics could change abruptly.

The E.U. has already deployed troops in Macedonia and Congo. The Bosnia operation is viewed as much riskier. One British diplomat called it a crucial test of Europe’s military ambitions, fearing that hard-liners could cause trouble after American NATO forces have left.

– The Daily Telegraph

NEPHEW TO GET ARAFAT’S MEDICAL RECORDS

PARIS – Yasser Arafat’s nephew arrived in Paris yesterday to collect the Palestinian leader’s medical records, which could explain the cause of his death. Nasser al-Kidwa, who is also the Palestinian Arab representative to the United Nations, would not say when he would collect the records. Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat confirmed that Mr. al-Kidwa was in Paris “on behalf of the Palestinian leadership.”

He hoped “the French will hand him the files” yesterday or today, he said in a telephone call from the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority has promised to make public the cause of Arafat’s death on November 11 in a Paris-area military hospital. A half brother of Arafat, Mohsen Arafat, said Saturday that the Palestinian Arab people are entitled to know what killed their leader. “Politically, it is the right of the Palestinian people. We are ready to hand over the records to the Palestinian Authority,” he told Al-Arabiya TV from Abu Dhabi.

– Associated Press

PERSIAN GULF

RELEASED ACTIVIST SAYS KING SERIOUS ABOUT REFORM

MANAMA, Bahrain – A rights activist convicted yesterday of inciting hatred of Bahrain’s government and released hours later by a royal decree said he believes the king is committed to reforms in the tiny Gulf kingdom. Abdul-Hadi al-Khawaja was welcomed home in Daih, southwest of the capital, Manama, by hundreds of well-wishers. Supporters honked their cars and cheering crowds threw flowers and leaves.

“I think both the king and the crown prince are serious about reform. I believed it even when I was in prison,” Mr. al-Khawaja said by telephone. “But sadly, there are parties that don’t like to see this change.” Mr. al-Khawaja, executive director of the now-dissolved Bahrain Center for Human Rights, was detained September 25, a day after publicly blaming the prime minister, Sheik Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, for economic failures and human rights violations and calling for his resignation. Mr. al-Khawaja was convicted yesterday of inciting hatred of the government and spreading false information, and sentenced to one year in prison. But hours later, the king, Sheik Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, issued a decree “pardoning al-Khawaja from spending the rest of his sentence in jail, to suffice with the period he spent in jail,” Bahrain’s news agency reported.

– Associated Press

CENTRAL ASIA

FOUR KILLED AT SUSPECTED QAEDA COMPOUNDS

KABUL, Afghanistan – American-led troops mounted overnight raids on suspected Al Qaeda compounds in eastern Afghanistan, killing four people and detaining several others, officials said yesterday. The American military said “several Arab fighters” were among the suspects killed or detained in the operation in Nangarhar province, although a local official said only Afghans survived.

News of the operation came as the top American commander in Afghanistan said that Al Qaeda suspects continued to slip across the nearby Pakistani border. The overnight attack targeted several compounds that “had clear connections to Al Qaeda,” the military said in a statement. It said the operation was launched partly on the basis of a tip from local residents and also netted a haul of weapons, explosives, and cash. Faizan ul-Haq, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said Afghan and American soldiers took part in the raid in the Bati Kot district of Nangarhar. He said the four people who died were burned beyond recognition, making it impossible to check their nationality. He added that five people were detained. “We are not sure if they burned themselves before the operation started or if the Americans somehow burned them,” Mr. ul-Haq said.

– Associated Press

EAST ASIA

PLANE CRASH IN CHINA KILLS 54 PEOPLE

BEIJING – A passenger plane crashed in an ice-covered lake in northern China seconds after takeoff yesterday, killing all 53 people aboard and one person on the ground after an apparent midair explosion, the government said. The was no immediate word on the cause of the crash, which was the country’s deadliest in more than two years and a setback to China’s efforts to improve air safety following a string of accidents in the 1990s.The China Eastern Airlines plane went down in Baotou, a city in the Inner Mongolia region 330 miles northwest of Beijing, “only about a dozen seconds” after takeoff at 8:20 a.m., the official Xinhua News Agency said.The plane, a Bombardier CRJ-200, was headed for Shanghai with 47 passengers and six crew members when it crashed into the lake in Nanhai Park, Xinhua said. Premier Wen Jiabao ordered all-out efforts to determine the crash’s cause, state TV reported. All CRJ-200 aircraft in China were grounded,and cabinet-level investigators were dispatched to the crash site from Beijing, Xinhua said. Witnesses told the agency they heard an explosion before the plane hit the ground, and one described seeing “a big fireball” overhead.

– Associated Press

NORTH AFRICA

MAURITANIA OPENS TRIALS FOR COUP SUSPECTS

Guarding defendants behind artillery batteries and thousands of troops, coup-wary Mauritania opened a mass trial in the remote Sahara desert yesterday for 181 officers and opposition figures accused of repeated takeover attempts. Mauritania, an Arab-dominated nation straddling Arab and black Africa, has moved the trial from the capital, Nouakchott, to a military barracks in the desert 35 miles to the east.

Anti-aircraft batteries, artillery, and thousands of infantry surrounded defendants in the isolated barracks courtroom yesterday. “This will be a parody of justice,” a defense lawyer, Brahim Edetti, said. Defense attorneys complained of what they said were numerous irregularities, including military officers on the jury for what is supposed to be a criminal civilian trial.

A total of 181 officers and other military members and civilians – including former president Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidallah and the leaders of two opposition parties – are accused of plotting the overthrow of President Taya’s 20-year regime.

– Associated Press