Foreign Desk

SOUTH AMERICAPINOCHET ORDERED TO REMAIN UNDER HOUSE ARRESTSANTIAGO, Chile – General Augusto Pinochet was ordered yesterday to remain under house arrest at his country estate as he awaits trial on the latest human rights abuse charges stemming from his 17-year rule. The 89-year-old retired general was served legal notice of the Supreme Court’s decision on Tuesday to uphold the indictments against him for nine kidnappings and one homicide allegedly committed during his regime. Court official Ivan Pavez, accompanied by police, went to the estate west of Santiago to deliver the notification and he said it was signed by Mr. Pinochet himself. A member of Mr. Pinochet’s legal team, Gustavo Collado, was present, and reporters saw two of Mr. Pinochet’s granddaughters entering the residence, known as Los Boldos. “General Pinochet, in spite of his age and his health problems, has signed the notice with the strength, respect, and enthusiasm of a soldier and a former president of the Republic,” Mr. Collado said. Judge Juan Guzman agreed to let Mr. Pinochet stay at the country residence, where the former leader had been recovering from a stroke he suffered last month, instead of his suburban Santiago home. Judge Guzman also approved a request to allow Pinochet to be transferred to a hospital should he suffer another stroke or other health problems.– Associated PressEAST AFRICAA.U. TO SEND PEACEKEEPERS TO SOMALIANAIROBI, Kenya – The African Union agreed yesterday to send troops to Somalia to help its new government set up operations, train new Somali security forces, and stabilize the Horn of Africa nation, officials said. Key details of the mission – including its duration and the number of troops – will be decided after talks with Somali leaders, Somali presidential spokesman Yusuf Mohamed Ismail said in Kenya. “The force would help the new government to relocate back to the Somalia, train, and provide logistic support to the new security forces in order to enable the government to fulfill the pressing task of demobilizing, disarming, and helping combatants rejoin the civilian life through dialogue,” he said. The government, elected last year in Kenya following peace talks, is currently based in Nairobi because Mogadishu, the Somali capital, is considered too dangerous. Somalia, a country of 7 million, has been split among clan-based militias since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991. Civil war has killed more than 500,000. Additionally, 3.5 million have been driven from their homes, 1.5 million of whom have taken refuge in neighboring countries. The African Union’s Peace and Security Council agreed in principle to send the troops to Somalia during a meeting in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa yesterday, spokesman Desmond Orjiako said.– Associated PressMIDDLE EASTPOLICE FOIL PLOT TO KILL U.S. ARCHEOLOGISTSAMMAN, Jordan – Prosecutors leveled charges against two suspected Jordanian terrorists after police foiled a plan to kill four American archeologists, security officials said yesterday. Jamil Mohammed Kutkut, 27, and Ibrahim Mohammed Zein al-Abedeen, better known as Jihad al-Qashah, 36, were charged with plotting to commit terrorist acts, illegal possession of automatic weapons, and infiltrating Jordanian territories. Prosecutors issued the charges recently, but it was unclear when. No details were available on the American targets of the plot, which police say they foiled when they arrested Kutkut on October 17. Mr. al-Abedeen allegedly fled to Syria. Officials suspect both men of belonging to Kata’eb al-Tawhid, Arabic for “Battalions of Monotheism,” a Jordanian terror group headed by Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi and linked to Al Qaeda. Mr. al-Zarqawi, 38, also heads Al Qaeda in Iraq and is wanted for involvement in numerous attacks against American and Iraqi security forces. A charge sheet drawn up by Jordanian prosecutors alleges Mr. al-Abedeen approached Mr. Kutkut to carry a military attack against four Americans archaeologists working in the town of Hartha, near Irbid, 55 miles north of the capital, Amman.– Associated PressNORTH AFRICASUDAN URGED TO WITHDRAW FROM REBEL AREASSudanese troops should immediately withdraw from areas they seized in western Dafur during the last peace talks, a commission said yesterday, adding that the move was needed to create favorable conditions for a renewal of negotiations. The two main rebel groups, however, should not retake the areas once the troops leave, said the commission, which includes representatives of the rebels, Sudanese government, and mediators from Chad. The panel, which monitors the truce signed by the adversaries, issued the statement after rebels said they would only resume negotiations once government troops withdraw from areas they seized while peace talks were under way in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. The hostilities undermined the December 11-12 talks on a political solution to a conflict that aid agencies estimate has killed about 70,000 people since March. Most of the victims have died from disease, hunger, and attacks by pro-government militia called janjaweed. The commission again pressed the Sudanese government to disarm the janjaweed quickly. The violence has forced nearly 2 million people to flee Darfur since February 2003, when the conflict started after two rebel groups took up arms to fight for greater autonomy.– Associated PressTEAM DOES CT SCAN TO UNRAVEL WHY BOY KING DIEDLUXOR, Egypt – A team of researchers briefly removed King Tut’s mummy from its tomb yesterday and laid bare his bones for a CT scan that could solve an enduring mystery: Was it murder or natural causes that killed Egypt’s boy pharaoh 3,000 years ago?Tut’s toes and fingers and an eerie outline of his face could be seen as the mummy, resting in a box to protect it, was placed inside the machine in a specially equipped van parked near his underground tomb in the famed Valley of the Kings.The 1,700 images taken during the 15-minute CT scan could answer many of the mysteries that shroud Tut’s life and death – including his royal lineage, his exact age at the time of his death – now estimated at 17 – and the reason he died.A simpler X-ray done 36 years ago showed bone fragments inside the skull of Tut – who was buried in a “hurried” fashion in a glitter of gold treasures, said Egypt’s chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass. But that previous test wasn’t sophisticated enough to determine if the bone fragments signified a blow to the head.The CT scan, in contrast, will provide a far more detailed, three-dimensional view of the scattered bones and coverings that make up Tut’s mummy.– Associated Press

Foreign Desk

Foreign Desk

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