EASTERN EUROPE

UKRAINE’S SUPREME COURT REJECTS YANUKOVICH APPEALS

The Supreme Court rejected an array of motions from defeated Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovich yesterday in the ex-prime minister’s apparent last legal chance to fend off the inauguration of his Western-leaning rival.

After a day of arguments, the court adjourned until today, leaving open the question of when former opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko might be inaugurated. Mr. Yushchenko was declared the winner of the December 26 election with almost 52% of the vote against Mr. Yanukovich’s 44.2% but he cannot be inaugurated until the Supreme Court resolves the appeal.

The December election was a rerun of November 21 voting in which Mr. Yanukovich was declared the winner, but that result was annulled by the high court after allegations of massive voting fraud.

Much of the alleged fraud was connected with misuse of absentee voting procedures that allowed multiple ballots to be cast. After the November 21 vote, Parliament passed election reforms that eliminated absentee balloting – but that provision was overturned by the Constitutional Court the day before the December voting. That left little time for many old and ailing people to make voting arrangements. Mr. Yanukovich’s appeal focuses on that issue, claiming that large numbers of Ukrainians were denied their right to vote.

– Associated Press

MIDDLE EAST

ISRAELI JETS BOMB HEZBOLLAH POSITIONS IN LEBANON

Israeli warplanes twice bombed suspected Hezbollah targets along the border in southern Lebanon yesterday, wounding two women, after guerrillas blew up an Israeli bulldozer in a disputed area near the frontier, Lebanese officials said.

Israeli artillery pounded positions in the disputed Shebaa Farms area, where the bulldozer attack took place, before fighter jets raided two nearby Lebanese border regions. The flare-up near Israel’s northern border came as the Palestinian Authority tries to rein in Palestinian terrorists responsible for attacks in southern Israel.

The Lebanese security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said two Lebanese women were injured after Israeli planes fired two missiles at targets in Qsair, an area about four miles from the Israeli border.

Hours later, another jet fired a missile at Wadi Izziyeh, an area where Hezbollah maintains positions between the southern port city of Tyre and the border town of Naqoura on the Mediterranean coast. There was no word on casualties, but a plume of smoke was seen billowing from the bombed area.

Earlier, Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said Hezbollah forces planted a bomb that destroyed a bulldozer in the Shebaa Farms area. It said there were “definite casualties” among the Israelis, adding that Israeli ambulances rushed to the scene.

But the Israeli army said there were no casualties in the bulldozer attack, which it said took place inside Israeli territory.

– Associated Press

SOUTHEAST ASIA

HUMAN ERROR BLAMED FOR THAI SUBWAY CRASH

BANGKOK, Thailand – A subway train slammed into another one stopped at a station during the morning rush hour yesterday, injuring more than 200 people, six months after the subway system opened in the Thai capital, police and officials said.

The head of the transit authority, Praphat Jongsanguan, blamed human error for the accident. Subway service has been suspended for a week to allow authorities to investigate the accident.

“Procedures were not followed and that is what caused the accident today,” he said. At a press conference, Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungreunkij described how workers, after disabling an automatic braking system, lost control of a train being taken out of service, which then slid down a hilly area of track and crashed into another, occupied train.

Lights in the parked train at the Thai Cultural Center station went out as passengers inside were tossed about. But the doors quickly opened to allow their exit.

Some of the victims were bleeding as rescue workers carried them up the stairs of the station to ambulances. Others, dazed and crying, were helped up the stairs to the street. Local hospitals reported at least 212 people hurt in the accident, most with minor injuries.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

TWO BOSNIAN SERBS CONVICTED FOR MASSACRE

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – A U.N. tribunal convicted and sentenced two former Bosnian Serb army commanders to lengthy prison terms yesterday for their roles in the 1995 slaughter of thousands of Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica, Europe’s worst massacre since World War II. Colonel Vidoje Blagojevic, 54, received an 18-year term for complicity in genocide and other war crimes. He was the wartime commander of the Bratunac brigade that took part in the killing of more than 7,000 Muslims near the eastern Bosnia city of Srebrenica.

A major in the Zvornik brigade, Dragan Jokic, 47, who assumed command during a week of killing at the end of the 1992-95 war, got a nine-year sentence. He was convicted of murder, extermination, and persecution on racial grounds.

Prosecutors had sought 15-20 years in prison for Mr. Jokic and 32 years for Mr. Blagojevic. Both men were acquitted of allegations of command responsibility. The court said the men had merely passed on orders, rather than giving them.

Some analysts criticized the sentences as relatively light when compared to the 17-year and 27-year sentences handed down to two lower-ranking officers who pleaded guilty and testified against Mr. Blagojevic and Mr. Jokic, their former superiors.

– Associated Press

BRITAIN CALLS ON AFRICAN DEBTS WRITTEN OFF

British Treasury chief Gordon Brown yesterday called on wealthy nations and international institutions to write off Africa’s debt, saying debts incurred by past generations are keeping the continent poor. Mr. Brown wants rich nations to set a timetable for increasing African development aid and is urging more countries to sign on to the International Finance Facility – an initiative intended to double rich countries’ help for Africa from the current level of $50 billion a year.

Speaking at the opening of a meeting between 19 African finance ministers and their British and Canadian counterparts, Mr. Brown said the extra money would go to helping poor nations meet the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals of halving poverty by 2015, boosting the fight against AIDS and educating some 100 million children not now in school.

Those goals are far from being met. At current rates, enrolling 100 million more children in Africa’s schools would not happen until 2130 and halving poverty until 2150, he said. “African people know that it has been necessary to be patient, but 150 years is too long to ask any peoples to wait for justice,” he said.

– Associated Press