CENTRAL ASIA

U.S. TAKING FEWER PRISONERS IN AFGHANISTAN

KABUL, Afghanistan – The American military is taking as few prisoners as possible in its campaign against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, partly to forestall more complaints about its conduct after at least eight prisoners died in custody, an American commander said yesterday. Meanwhile, a second American soldier died in combat in as many days, as the new year saw American forces come under bomb attack in the country’s east and fight a suspected renegade militia leader in the west. One American soldier was killed and three others were wounded in a morning clash yesterday with Kunar province insurgents who detonated two homemade bombs, triggering a shootout. The mountainous area next to the Pakistani border is viewed as a stronghold of renegade Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former prime minister who has joined the Taliban in vowing to drive out foreign troops. Colonel Gary Cheek, the American commander for eastern Afghanistan, said the troops under his command would be “relentless” in their pursuit of insurgents, including some 20 unidentified top leaders, through the bitter Afghan winter. But following a review of the military’s policy on detentions last summer, the soldiers were taking as few prisoners as possible as they try to win stronger support from the local population.

– Associated Press

SOUTH AMERICA

ARGENTINE PROTESTERS SAY MAYOR SHOULD RESIGN

Thousands of Argentines angered over perceived security lapses in a nightclub fire that killed 183 people, many of them teenagers, marched through the capital’s streets yesterday to demand the resignations of key city officials. Holding pictures of the victims, families and friends of those killed in the December 30 fire marched on government offices, chanting slogans against the Buenos Aires mayor and calling for toughened fire safety codes in the city’s nightclubs. The third straight day of protests over the December 30 fire that injured more than 700 others at a rock concert came as forensic experts studied whether a flare launched by an audience member lit foam on the club’s ceiling, asphyxiating many with choking fumes. City officials yesterday revised the death toll downward from 188 to 183. Demonstrators staged two marches during a weekend of burials, charging that the Buenos Aires mayor, Anibal Ibarra had not properly regulated nightclub safety. They vowed that last night’s march to city hall to demand his resignation would be their largest yet. Many in the crowd of about 4,000 yesterday said that Mr. Ibarra should be held accountable and that new citywide reforms should be imposed on all clubs.

– Associated Press

PERUVIAN NATIONALIST GROUP CALLS OFF DEAL TO SURRENDER

The leader of an armed nationalist group that violently seized a remote Peruvian police station, taking 10 officers hostage and allegedly killing four others, said yesterday the group would not turn over its weapons as promised because the government violated the terms of surrender. Antauro Humala, a former army major who on Saturday led about 100 gunmen to overrun the police station, said security forces surrounding the town of 35,000 people were still shooting at his group. “Because the other side continues to use troops close to us, firing their weapons in violation of one of various conditions of the truce,” the deal was off, Mr. Humala said. “I declare the negotiations terminated until the arrival of a commission from Lima,” he said, adding that he also wanted mediators from the state’s human rights ombudsman’s office, the Red Cross, and President Toledo’s government. The attackers, who want to establish a nationalist indigenous movement modeled on the ancient Incan Empire, demanded that Mr. Toledo resign. Mr. Humala’s men, many of them army reservists who reportedly fought in the 1995 jungle border war with Ecuador, maintained an armed perimeter two blocks around the police station. Townspeople, many of whom expressed support for Humala, milled about freely within the zone.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

SPAIN’S PM: BASQUE AUTONOMY WILL BE DEFEATED

MADRID, Spain – Spain’s prime minister condemned an initiative by Basque lawmakers to make their region virtually independent, deriding it yesterday as secessionist, unconstitutional, and anomalous in a Europe seeking to become more united.

In his first public remarks concerning Thursday’s passage of the plan by the Basque regional parliament, Prime Minister Zapatero said the initiative is doomed to failure when it reaches Parliament for debate, probably in a month or two. “This proposal does not form part of the future of our country. This proposal is part of policies of the past,” Mr. Zapatero told a news conference in Seville. “The policy of the future is the integration and union of the peoples of Spain and Europe.”

Mr. Zapatero said he would meet soon with the mastermind of the plan, Basque President Ibarretxe, but only to hear him out – not to negotiate – and to tell him firmly that the government rejects his blueprint. “The Basque president knows well that this plan will not succeed,” Mr. Zapatero told a news conference.

He also rejected appeals by the conservative Popular Party that the Socialist government immediately file a Constitutional Court lawsuit against the proposal. That would freeze the initiative and prevent Parliament from even debating it.

– Associated Press

CARIBBEAN

CUBA RENEWS CONTACT WITH EUROPEAN NATIONS

HAVANA – The Cuban government has resumed formal diplomatic contacts with eight European nations, including France, Germany, and Britain, the foreign minister, Felipe Perez Roque, said yesterday.

Cuba’s relations with Europe chilled after President Castro cracked down on the island’s dissidents in March 2003, rounding up and sentencing 75 of them to long prison terms. European nations were also troubled by the firing-squad executions of three men who tried to hijack a ferry to America around the same time.

European Union nations responded by reducing high-level government visits, canceling participation in cultural events, and inviting dissidents to embassy gatherings. But some countries, led by Spain’s new socialist government, argued these diplomatic maneuvers were having little effect. In mid-December, an E.U. commission recommended member states work out a new policy to encourage the Caribbean island to open up.

Mr. Roque said part of the effort to improve relations with Cuba included the E.U. nations ending the practice of inviting dissidents to national holiday celebrations at their embassies in Havana.

– Associated Press

NORTH AFRICA

ALGERIA ARRESTS ISLAMIC INSURGENT

ALGIERS, Algeria – Algerian security forces arrested the leader of the Armed Islamic Group, the radical insurgency movement responsible for brutal village massacres several years ago, and killed his replacement, the Interior Ministry said yesterday.

The arrest of Nourredine Boudiafi and the killing of Chaabane Younes are near-fatal blows to the seriously weakened GIA, as the movement is known, the statement said. The GIA was at the forefront of the bloody insurgency that erupted in 1992 after the army canceled elections to thwart a likely victory by Muslim fundamentalists.

An estimated 120,000 people – civilians, soldiers, and insurgents – have been killed in the violence, which has largely subsided following continuous offensives by security forces and divisions among insurgents.

In a sweep that began in early November, soldiers and security forces also seized gold stolen from homes during the massacres, as well as weapons and vehicles used by the GIA, the statement said.

The ministry statement did not say when Mr. Boudiafi was arrested nor explain the circumstances, saying only that he was caught in the eastern Algiers suburb of Bab Ezzouar. Several other armed Islamists active around the capital also were arrested, along with a dozen others who provided logistical support, the statement said.

– Associated Press