PERSIAN GULF

AUDIT: U.S. UNABLE TO ACCOUNT FOR NEARLY $9 BILLION IN IRAQ

The American occupation authority in Iraq was unable to keep track of nearly $9 billion it transferred to government ministries, which lacked financial controls, security, communications, and adequate staff, an inspector general has found.

The American officials relied on Iraqi audit agencies to account for the funds but those offices were not even functioning when the funds were transferred between October 2003 and June 2004, according to an audit by a special American inspector general. The findings were released yesterday by special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, Stuart Bowen Jr. Mr. Bowen issued several reports on the Coalition Provisional Authority, the American occupation government that ruled Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004.

The official who led the CPA, Paul Bremer, submitted a blistering, written reply to the findings, saying the report had “many misconceptions and inaccuracies,” and lacked professional judgment. Mr. Bremer complained the report “assumes that Western-style budgeting and accounting procedures could be immediately and fully implemented in the midst of a war.”

– Associated Press

NORTH AMERICA

KOJO ANNAN ADMITS TO OIL DEALING UNDER SADDAM

Secretary-General Annan’s son admits that he was involved in negotiations to sell 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil under Saddam Hussein’s regime, according to a report in the Sunday Times of London.

Kojo Annan allegedly told a friend of his involvement in the sale to a Moroccan company in 2001. The disclosure will likely increase pressure on the beleaguered secretary-general, who has been facing calls for his resignation over his handling of the United Nation’s oil-for-food program.

A U.N. spokesman, Fred Eckhard, told The New York Sun that the body will not comment because it is being investigated by a U.N.-sanctioned team led by Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CENTRAL ASIA

AFGHANISTAN IN PUSH TO COLLECT STINGER MISSILES

Authorities are launching a new push to collect American-made Stinger missiles distributed to Afghans fighting Soviet troops in the 1980s in an effort to keep the weapons from terrorists and governments – including Iran, an Afghan official said yesterday.

The Afghan intelligence service is offering to buy the anti-aircraft missiles for an undisclosed sum, taking up a CIA program to recover weapons given to Islamic fundamentalists who battled the Soviets alongside Osama bin Laden in the 1980s. Hussein Fakhri, a senior intelligence official, confirmed a report of the offer on Afghan state TV, but would not elaborate. The CIA in the 1980s supplied an estimated 2,000 Stingers to Afghan mujahedeen rebels, who put the heat-seeking, shoulder-fired missiles to deadly use against Soviet helicopters and transport planes. But since the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, America has been trying to buy back unused missiles for fear governments or terrorist organizations could get hold of a weapon equally effective against civilian jetliners. It is unclear how many remain unaccounted for, despite cash offers reportedly as high as $150,000 each.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

BOMB EXPLODES IN HOTEL IN SPANISH RESORT TOWN

MADRID, Spain – A bomb exploded yesterday in a Mediterranean resort hotel in southeast Spain after a telephone warning from the Basque separatist group ETA, injuring one person, the Interior Ministry said.

The bomb was contained in a backpack and detonated in a courtyard of the Hotel Port Denia at about 3:15 p.m. Denia is a beach town in the Spanish province of Alicante and is popular with tourists.

The warning call was placed to police in the Basque region. The caller ended the warning by saying, “Gora ETA,” which is Basque for “Long live ETA,” an Interior Ministry official in Madrid said on condition of anonymity.

The hotel immediately evacuated about 160 people before the bomb exploded about 30 minutes later. A male guest suffered slight ear injuries from the blast, the official said. ETA is blamed for more than 800 deaths since the late 1960s in a campaign of bombings and shootings aimed at achieving an independent Basque homeland in land straddling northern Spain and southwest France. The hotel bombing occurred two days before Spain’s Parliament was scheduled to debate – and almost certainly reject – a proposal making the Basque region virtually independent.

– Associated Press

AUSTRIA’S UNEASY GOVERNMENT COALITION ON BRINK OF COLLAPSE

Pushing Austria’s government to the brink of collapse, the conservative Freedom Party angrily accused its coalition partner yesterday of breaking up the alliance by pushing through reforms aimed at moving the country toward an all-volunteer army. The Freedom Party’s general secretary, Uwe Scheuch, issued a statement lashing out at the center-right People’s Party and accusing its leadership of being “intoxicated by power.” He also said the party “busted” the coalition with “single-handed” reform attempts. The two parties have shared power in an uneasy alliance since 2000. Tensions soared last week after the defense minister, Guenther Platter, a member of Chancellor Schuessel’s People’s Party, formally proposed shortening obligatory military service from eight months to six and halving the federal army’s ranks from 110,000 soldiers to 55,000.

– Associated Press

SOUTHEAST ASIA

HOPES DIM FOR FORMAL TRUCE IN ACEH

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia – Workers buried more tsunami victims in Aceh province yesterday as a premature end to ceasefire talks between the Indonesian government and separatist rebels dampened hopes for a quick resolution to a 30-year-old conflict in the devastated province. Five weeks after the tsunami disaster, the government said nearly 5,000 dead were found over the past week in Aceh, increasing the death toll to between 150,000 and 178,000 across 11 nations. Some 26,500 to 142,000 are missing, most of whom are presumed dead. The variation in numbers reflects differing figures released by separate government agencies in both Sri Lanka and Indonesia, the countries hit hardest by the December 26 disaster. There had been optimism that the immensity of the disaster in Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra Island would spur Indonesia’s government and rebels to find a way to end fighting and focus on rebuilding.

– Associated Press

NORTH AFRICA

DARFUR OFFICIAL DENIES SUDAN GOVERNMENT BOMBED VILLAGERS

The governor of North Darfur state said reports that a Sudanese government plane bombed villagers last week were fabricated by foreigners, according to the official news agency yesterday. Darfur rebels appealed yesterday to the African Union, which has truce monitors in the western region, to send more troops to stop government forces from attacking civilians. The request came as African leaders met in Nigeria to discuss ways of tackling conflicts, poverty, and disease. The United Nations, citing African Union observers at the scene, said Friday that the Sudanese air force bombed civilians in the village of Shangil Tobaya in North Darfur state, killing or wounding nearly 100 people. U.N. officials said it was one of the most serious violations of a cease-fire signed last year by the government and Darfur rebels. Osman Mohamed Yusuf Kibir, the governor of North Darfur state, denied the allegations in a statement carried by the Sudan News Agency.

– Associated Press