CENTRAL ASIA

FREED HOSTAGES SET TO LEAVE AFGHANISTAN KABUL, Afghanistan – Three U.N. workers held hostage for nearly a month were preparing to fly home after their release yesterday from an ordeal that suggested Taliban-linked terrorists are adopting the tactics of Iraqi insurgents. Afghan officials remained vague about the identity of the kidnappers, but said a string of armed raids in Kabul increased pressure on the captors to release their hostages. Officials said no deals were done to win the release. Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland, Philippine diplomat Angelito Nayan, and Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo were “abandoned” by their captors in the Afghan capital early yesterday morning, officials said. “They are happy and relieved to see people from their own environment, the people they work with,” spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said. They will return to their home countries “very soon,” he said, possibly as early as today. Armed men seized the trio from a marked U.N. vehicle on a busy Kabul street on October 28, in the first abduction of foreigners in the city since the fall of the Taliban three years ago. The release prompted jubilation among officials, fellow aid workers in Kabul’s 2,000-strong expatriate community and relatives in the hostages’ home countries.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

WORKERS SUE OVER SPEAKING ENGLISH PARIS – A group of French employees took an American multinational to court Tuesday for discrimination, claiming that it is forcing them to speak English. General Electric Healthcare Technologies is marginalizing its francophone staff, many of whom have been with the company for decades and can barely express themselves in English, they argued. “There is pressure from above to speak and send e-mails in English, even between two native French-speakers. That’s counterproductive,” said a woman who compiles manuals for the company, Sylvie Chartier. She claimed that those with poor English were denied promotion within the firm, which makes medical X-ray equipment. “I have been in the company for 15 years and have slowly gone up the ladder. But I know I will never get higher, just because I can’t speak good English.” Lawyers for the CGT union argued that the company had breached the Toubon law, which stipulates that all documents vital to employees must be available in their native language. “Sometimes technicians simply do not understand what an instruction manual is saying. That is a safety hazard,” said Mrs. Chartier. French documents have been phased out since 1998. The company has offered English lessons to bridge the language gap, but workers say they are insufficient.

– The Daily Telegraph

BLAIR’S CAMPAIGN FOCUSES ON CRIME, TERROR LONDON – Prime Minis ter Blair put the fight against crime and terrorism at the center of his campaign for a third term, pledging yesterday to fast-track plans for national identity cards and a new police agency similar to the FBI.

With parliamentary elections expected in May, the government wants to appear tough on law and order, and security lies at the heart of the legislative program it unveiled yesterday.

“The threats faced by this country and every other major country around the world are real,” Mr. Blair told the House of Commons as he outlined plans for compulsory ID cards. “This is a big change, but frankly with terrorism, illegal immigration, and organized crime…identity cards in my judgment are long overdue.”

Political opponents accused Mr. Blair’s government of seeking to frighten voters – similar to a charge that Democrats leveled against President Bush during the American election campaign. “It is clear that they are trying to raise the fears from terrorism in the country at the present time,” said Liam Fox of the main opposition Conservatives. “Now I think that is quite despicable, but it is a desperate government.”

– Associated Press

CARIBBEAN

CHINA FORGES STRONGER TRADE RELATIONS WITH CUBA HAVANA – Chinese President Hu Jintao and trade leaders agreed to an array of business deals with Cuba yesterday as the two communist nations worked to strengthen their economic ties. By the time Mr. Hu flew out of Havana last night, he had agreed to a $500 million investment in the island’s key nickel industry and attended talks aimed at increasing Chinese involvement in Cuban tourism and telecommunications. Mr. Hu, who came to Cuba on a personal invitation from President Castro, flew in from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Santiago, Chile. He also visited Argentina and Brazil on his first trip to Latin America since taking office in 2003. Earlier yesterday, Mr. Hu was accompanied by the Cuban defense minister, Raul Castro, the president’s younger brother, at a forum of about 400 Cuban and Chinese business people negotiating new trade between the ideological allies. “Cuba is one of China’s largest commercial partners in Latin America,” Mr. Hu told the gathering. “We share common ideals allowing us to follow our own path of development whatever the international situation may be.” Relations between the two nations were tense during the Cold War, when the Caribbean island was strongly allied with the Soviet Union, but warmed after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and Cuba lost its preferential trade and aid deals with the Soviet bloc.

– Associated Press

EASTERN EUROPE

SERBIA SAID KEY OBSTACLE ON WAR CRIMINALS The government of Serbia remains “the single most important obstacle” to the prosecution of alleged war criminals from the former Yugoslavia, and has deliberately ignored its obligations to cooperate with the U.N. tribunal, the chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor said yesterday. Carla del Ponte told the U.N. Security Council the Bosnian Serb entity known as Republika Srpska – which has not apprehended a single individual indicted by the tribunal – must take action now to hand over fugitives, as must Croatia. Twenty people indicted for war crimes by The Hague-based Yugoslav tribunal are still at large, including Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic, his military chief General Ratko Mladic, and Croatian General Ante Gotovina, she said. Ms. Del Ponte said probably more than a dozen of those indicted live freely in Serbia, where Prime Minister Kostunica has made clear he is only willing to convince fugitives to surrender voluntarily rather than arrest them. The result is that the Serbian government continues to defy the tribunal and the Security Council, and those accused of war crimes are protected by powerful networks, she said.

– Associated Press

SOUTH AMERICA

COLOMBIAN TROOPS KILL GUERRILLA LEADER BOGOTA, Colombia – Army troops in southern Colombia killed the commander of an elite guerrilla unit blamed for a string of high-profile attacks and kidnappings, officials said yesterday. Humberto Valbuena, the head of the Teofilo Forero unit of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was killed Monday along with three other rebels during an offensive in remote jungles in Caqueta state, an army spokeswoman said. Valbuena, alias “Grass,” was one of the rebels who “carried out the largest number of kidnappings and extortion in the country,” General Carlos Alberto Fracica, the commander of the “Plan Patriota” offensive, told reporters. Valbuena’s killing came less than a year after he took over command of the Teofilo Forero unit from his slain predecessor, Edgar Gustavo Navarro, also known as “the Maimed,” because he lost his right thumb in combat. Authorities blame the Teofilo Forero for the abduction of three American defense contractors after their anti-drug plane crashed in a guerrilla stronghold in February 2002, as well as several deadly bombings in the capital, Bogota. Separately, the United Nations said yesterday it was increasingly concerned over the fate of Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities in northwest Colombia amid reports that FARC fighters and their outlawed right-wing paramilitary foes were massing in the area.

– Associated Press