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.

MIDDLE EAST
ISRAELI LAWMAKERS TO HELP SETTLERS RESIST WITHDRAWAL
A dozen Israeli lawmakers have signed a pledge to join Jewish settlers in resisting the dismantling of settlements in the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank – the latest sign that protests could be fierce.
Lawmaker Effie Eitam, a leader of the group, told Israel Army Radio yesterday that the petition calls for nonviolent protests, but acknowledged that things could get out of hand. “We must not carry out this evacuation. I think the prime minister has to understand that this evacuation stretches…the limits of democracy,” Mr. Eitam said. Prime Minister Sharon’s plan to dismantle 25 settlements and remove 8,600 settlers from their homes has infuriated Israeli hard-liners. Protests escalated this week, after Mr. Sharon managed to stabilize his wobbly coalition and the settlers’ political options were dwindling.
Some settlers, comparing the evacuation of settlements to the Nazi Holocaust, began wearing orange Star of David patches, similar to those the Nazis forced Jews to pin to their lapels. The campaign caused an uproar in Israel, which gave refuge to hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors after World War II. Critics said the settlers belittled the suffering of the survivors and caused them new anguish.
Organizers of the Star of David campaign said yesterday they would stop handing out the patches, at the request of the Yesha Settlers Council, the main umbrella group of settlements.
– Associated Press
EASTERN EUROPE
PUTIN ACCUSES WEST OF ‘DOUBLE STANDARDS’
President Putin delivered a testy end-of-year critique of the West yesterday, accusing it of “double standards.”
Mr. Putin criticized the American presidential election as marred by the kind of flaws the West has highlighted in Ukraine. He also upbraided Washington for saying that Chechnya was not ready for elections while pushing ahead with plans for next month’s vote in Iraq.
While Mr. Putin had warm words for President Bush, saluting him as a “decent and consistent person,” he condemned America’s attempt to push ahead with elections in Iraq next month as “absurd” and described the decision of European monitors to observe the election from Jordan as a “farce.”
“We do not understand how there can be an election in a country under conditions of total occupation,” he said. But he said he would abide by the result of Sunday’s rerun of the Ukraine election.
– The Daily Telegraph
RUSSIAN CREW BLASTS OFF FOR SPACE STATION
MOSCOW – A Russian cargo ship blasted off early today carrying badly needed food and equipment for the international space station, where supplies for the American and Russian crew have been dwindling rapidly. The Progress M-51 took off from the remote Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakstan at 1:19 a.m. Moscow time with about 2.5 tons of food, fuel, and research equipment for Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and American astronaut Leroy Chiao, the ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agencies said. It was scheduled to arrive Sunday morning.
Russian and American space officials were alarmed earlier this month to learn that Mr. Sharipov and Mr. Chiao, in their second month at the station, had gone through much of their food. There was food to last seven to 14 days beyond December 25 if the supply ship did not arrive. The crew has been ordered to cut back on meals. A Russian Space Agency spokesman has said the two could be forced to return to Earth if the Progress does not reach the station. An independent team was looking into how the orbiting station’s food inventory ended up being tracked so poorly and how it can be improved in the future.
– Associated Press
ROMANIAN PRESIDENT PROMISES REFORMS
Romania’s new centrist president promised yesterday to slash taxes and to root out corruption and overhaul the way the country is governed, saying the former communist elite’s grip on the state must be broken. “People of the old regime are running the state institutions. These puffed-up faces of the old regime are destroying everything. They are chewing up democracy,”Traian Basescu said in his first interview with foreign press since taking office Monday. “We need to finish with this regime,” he said.
A former sea captain who was twice elected mayor of Bucharest, the 53-year-old leader defeated former Prime Minister Nastase in a runoff election December 12. He succeeds Ion Iliescu, a former communist who served three times as president since the bloody revolt that toppled dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989.
Mr. Basescu said he was confident his centrist Justice and Truth Alliance would get enough support from smaller parties in parliament to form a Cabinet by year’s end. He promised wide-ranging reforms to bring efficiency and fairness to public administration, the police, and the courts in order to ready Romania for joining the European Union.
– Associated Press
CARIBBEAN
CASTRO WALKS IN PUBLIC FOR FIRST TIME SINCE SHATTERING KNEECAP
HAVANA – A smiling Fidel Castro walked in public yesterday for the first time since the 78-year-old Cuban leader fell two months ago, and lawmakers attending a year-end National Assembly meeting gave him a standing ovation.
Mr. Castro entered the room on the arm of a uniformed school girl, then walked in front of the gathered lawmakers and up some steps before taking his seat on stage at Havana’s Convention Palace.
“Long live Fidel!” a lone deputy shouted, followed by chants of “Long live a free Cuba!” Mr. Castro, 78, made headlines around the globe when he stumbled and fell October 20 in the central city of Santa Clara, shattering his left kneecap and breaking his right arm. After staying out of the spotlight for several weeks, Mr. Castro began making public appearances again. In November, he surprised many when he suddenly stood up from his wheelchair during a state visit by Chinese President Hu, leaning on a metal cane with an arm support.
– Associated Press
SOUTHEAST ASIA
NEWMONT ACKNOWLEDGES MERCURY LEAKS
JAKARTA, Indonesia – The head of American mining giant Newmont Corp. defended his company’s environmental record yesterday, saying mercury emissions at an Indonesian mine were well within the country’s standards and posed no health hazards.
Wayne Murdy, CEO of the Denver-based Newmont, acknowledged that the mine in Indonesia, where sick villagers have launched a $543 million suit against the company, released 17 tons of waste mercury into the air and 16 tons into the water over five years. But he said in a telephone interview that the emissions were below Indonesian government standards – which he said amounted to the equivalent of 22 tons per year until 2000, when the country lowered the permissible limit to 11 tons per year.
– Associated Press
CENTRAL AMERICA
GUNMEN KILL 23 IN ATTACK IN HONDURAS
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Gunmen opened fire on a public bus in northern Honduras late last night, killing at least 23 passengers and wounding 16 others, police said. The shooting took place in the northern Atlantic city of Chamelecon, 125 miles north of the capital, Tegucigalpa, said the deputy police commissioner, Wilmer Torres.
“It was an unbelievable massacre,” he said in a telephone interview. “We don’t know yet who did it.”
The bus was driving through the heavily populated neighborhood of San Isidro when a car carrying an unknown number of armed attackers cut in front of it and other assailants fired from behind the bus, Mr.Torres said. He said officials did not yet know how many people were aboard the bus.
Honduras’s La Prensa newspaper reported on its Web site that the attackers left a written message alluding to the leader of the country’s congress, Representative Porfirio Lobo.
– Associated Press