SOUTHERN AFRICA

THATCHER’S SON TO PLEAD GUILT Y TO COUP PLOT

Sir Mark Thatcher will plead guilty to unwittingly bankrolling an alleged coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, a person close the family said yesterday. Sir Thatcher, the son of Prime Minister Thatcher, will admit in court today that he paid for air ambulance services used by the mercenaries but will maintain that he believed it was for humanitarian purposes, the person said. Sir Thatcher will pay a $563,000 fine in a deal that lets him leave South Africa to rejoin his family in America. If Sir Thatcher does not pay the fine, he faces a five-year prison sentence, the person said. A spokesman for Lady Thatcher’s office said: “”She is very relieved that matters have now been settled and that the worry of these last few months is now over.” A spokesman for the national prosecuting authority, Sipho Ngwema, and a member of Mark Thatcher’s legal team, George van Niekerk, refused to disclose the reason for Sir Thatcher’s scheduled appearance Thursday in the Cape High Court. Sir Thatcher, who has lived in South Africa since 1995, was arrested at his suburban Cape Town home on August 25 and charged with violating anti-mercenary laws.

– Associated Press

EASTERN EUROPE

STUDY: AIDS GROWING AT DEVASTATING PACE IN RUSSIA

MOSCOW – HIV/AIDS is spreading at a devastating pace in Russia, with a new study showing an estimated 1 million people infected – three times the number officially reported – American and Russian experts said yesterday. A recently released 90-page report by Murray Feshbach and Cristina Galvin of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars urged Russian authorities to take aggressive steps to fight the epidemic. The study was sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development. According to official statistics, Russia has some 300,000 HIV-positive people. But Mr. Feshbach, as well as Russian experts, said the true number is closer to 1 million. The study estimated the number of AIDS deaths in Russia at 13,000, almost three times the official figure of 4,800. If officials ignore the problem, “the consequences will be devastating to the society, family formation, to the military, labor productivity” within two to three years, Mr. Feshbach said by telephone from Washington. Local experts say authorities are not getting the message.

– Associated Press

YANUKOVICH DELAYS CHALLENGING ELECTION RESULTS

KIEV, Ukraine – Representatives of the loser of Ukraine’s presidential election said yesterday that they would delay filing complaints challenging Viktor Yushchenko’s victory because the hundreds of volumes of documents were not yet ready. Viktor Yanukovich, the pro-Russian former prime minister, has refused to concede defeat in the December 26 election awarded to Mr. Yushchenko. Mr. Yanukovich charges that the vote – a rerun of an annulled November vote – was filled with irregularities. “We will file the complaint within a few days,” Mr. Yanukovich’s campaign manager, Taras Chornovyl, told reporters. Mr. Yanukovich’s supporters had earlier said they would file the complaints to the Supreme Court yesterday. “The documents are not ready yet,” Mr. Chornovyl said. He added that the deadline for filing the complaints is next Tuesday. Mr. Chornovyl announced that the appeal would consist of 621 volumes of documents and 240 videotapes that would prove election fraud on December 26.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

PRINCE SAYS ‘SORRY’ FOR DRESSING UP AS NAZI

Prince Harry issued an apology last night after he dressed as a Nazi officer at a fancy dress party. The prince wore a swastika armband with an Afrika Korps army uniform.

In a statement released by Clarence House, the prince said: “I am very sorry if I have caused any offense or embarrassment to anyone. It was a poor choice of costume and I apologize.”

Prince William also attended the party earlier this month. Its theme was “native and colonial” and William wore a lion outfit.

A spokesman for Clarence House said Harry had spoken about the matter to his father. “The Prince of Wales knows Prince Harry is very sorry if he has caused offense.”

The picture is the latest embarrassment involving the prince. Last October, he was caught in a scuffle with photographers as he emerged from a London nightclub.

The Queen’s former assistant press secretary, Dickie Arbiter, described the latest incident as “offensive” and criticized Prince Charles for his “lack of control.”

– The Daily Telegraph

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT OKAYS E.U. CONSTITUTION

BRUSSELS, Belgium – The European Parliament gave its overwhelming endorsement to the European Union’s first-ever constitution yesterday and urged E.U. governments to quickly follow suit.

The E.U. assembly, meeting in Strasbourg, France, voted 500 to 137, with 40 abstentions, to ratify the new treaty, which is to take effect in 2007 if unanimously ratified across the 25-nation bloc.

The 732-member Parliament called on E.U. governments to move quickly to sell the constitution, which faces widespread opposition in several E.U.-skeptic countries. The Parliament called on E.U. governments to ensure that “all possible efforts be deployed to inform European citizens clearly and objectively about the content of the constitution.”

“The result of the vote leaves no room for doubt of the support this European Parliament has expressed,” said the European Parliament president, Josep Borrell, after the legislators gave the result a standing ovation.

The prime minister of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker, whose country holds the E.U. presidency, urged all E.U. governments and the European Parliament to ratify the treaty, signed in Rome last October after a two-year drafting process.

– Associated Press

BANKS TO RELEASE MORE ACCOUNTS OF PROBABLE NAZI VICTIMS

Swiss banks will publish on the Internet today the records of thousands of World War II-era accounts that may belong to victims of the Nazis, a lawyer for the victims said.

The publication is the result of a settlement reached in June between the banks and Nazi victims. The agreement could allow the victims or their descendants to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in unclaimed funds. The banks’ refusal to release the records had angered Holocaust survivors and infuriated a federal judge overseeing the case.

Lawyers in the case said in June that Credit Suisse and UBS AG would publish the names of approximately 3,000 accounts opened during the Nazi era. They were to open databases of Nazi-era accounts for comparison with a list of thousands hoping to recover family assets from Swiss banks.

The list of names will be posted today on the Web site of the tribunal overseeing the distribution of the funds – www.crt-ii.org, a spokeswoman said.

The agreement is intended to resolve much of the outstanding contention between the banks and Holocaust survivors, who agreed to a $1.25 billion settlement of their lawsuit in 1998.

– Associated Press