PERSIAN GULF

AMERICAN SOLDIER KILLED IN BOMB ATTACK Clashes between American troops and insurgents in the so-called Sunni triangle of death killed six Iraqis and left dozens injured in Heet, according to Dr. Mohammed al-Hadithi. Heet is one of several Euphrates River cities west of Baghdad where American and Iraqi forces launched a joint operation Sunday against insurgents.

In Haqlaniyah, 135 miles northwest of the capital, American forces and Iraqi troops fought insurgents throughout the day, the military said. American aircraft fired cannon rounds and dropped bombs to help a Marine patrol that came under small arms and heavy machine-gun fire.The military said there were no American casualties. Elsewhere, an American soldier was killed when assailants set off a bomb near Tuz, 105 miles north of Baghdad.

In Baghdad, gunmen assassinated the director of the Iraqi Trade Ministry, Saad Abbas Hassan, as he drove down a road, police said. His car swerved and smashed into a shop, killing a child. And in the northern city of Mosul, insurgents set off a car bomb, killing two people and wounding 14, the American military said. Also in Mosul, American soldiers shot and killed a civilian in a pickup truck who came too close to their convoy, policeman Ahmed Rashid said.

– Associated Press

DEATH TOLL FROM IRAN EARTHQUAKE IS AT LEAST 500

HOTKAN, Iran – An 18-year-old earthquake survivor pulled yesterday from the ruins of this shattered Iranian hamlet stared at the piles of rubble and burst into tears.

“This is not my village,” cried Zehra Mirzaei. “I wish I had died with the others!” Nearby crushed mud brick houses yielded only lifeless bodies, raising the death toll from Tuesday’s magnitude-6.4 quake to 500. Officials expected it to rise as rescue teams with dogs and heavy equipment cleared away debris.

After a miserable night and day spent homeless in the cold and rain of the mountainous region, survivors in Hotkan and other devastated villages got a morale boost: two truckloads of dates sent from Bam, the nearby city flattened by a December 2003 earthquake that killed 26,000 people.

“Our people know what a catastrophe an earthquake is because they tasted it themselves more than a year ago,” said the head of Bam’s municipal council, Abbas Esmaeili.

– Associated Press

EAST ASIA

JAPAN PRESSES N. KOREA TO REJOIN NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT TALKS

Japan’s prime minister told North Korea yesterday to stop denouncing Tokyo and instead rejoin multilateral talks on dismantling its nuclear weapons program as negotiators from America, Japan, and South Korea prepared to meet in Seoul this weekend to try to revive the negotiations.

Prospects for resuming discussions appeared to dim earlier this month when North Korea declared it had nuclear weapons and would boycott the talks. But on Monday, the communist country’s leader Kim Jong Il hinted at a possible compromise, telling a Chinese envoy his government would return to the negotiating table if certain unspecified conditions are met. In previous talks, North Korea has demanded more aid and a peace treaty with Washington in exchange for giving up its nuclear program. Mr. Kim told the Chinese envoy that a resumption of six-party negotiations depended not only on America but on changes in Japan’s position, Russia’s ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

BLAIR’S ANTI-TERRORISM LAW WINS BACKING OF LEGISLATORS

LONDON – Prime Minister Blair’s proposed new anti-terrorism law, which would allow the government to detain suspects without trial, won the backing of a majority of lawmakers yesterday in a key parliamentary vote.

Lawmakers voted 309 to 233 in favor of the Prevention of Terrorism Bill, despite fears it will erode civil liberties. It faces further debate in the House of Commons next week and stiff opposition in Parliament’s upper chamber, the House of Lords, which may force the government to water down the proposals.

The government wants new powers to electronically tag British citizens and foreign nationals, or detain them without trial based on secret intelligence. Under the proposed law, a government minister, acting on the advice of Britain’s spy agencies, would also have the power to impose curfews, travel bans, and bars on using telephones and the Internet.

“There is a serious security threat to this country,” said Mr. Blair, defending the plans for so-called control orders. “These people would kill thousands of our citizens if they could. This is terrorism without limit.” Opposition parties and civil rights campaigners say such unprecedented powers would erode Britain’s centuries-old judicial process and the right to a fair trial.

– Associated Press

MILITARY JURY CONVICTS TWO BRITISH SOLDIERS OF ABUSING IRAQIS

A military jury convicted two British servicemen yesterday on charges of involvement in abusing Iraqi civilians in 2003.

The panel of seven senior officers found Lance Corporal Mark Cooley, 25, and Corporal Daniel Kenyon, 33, guilty after a month-long trial at a British base in Germany. A third defendant had already pleaded guilty but awaits sentencing with Corporal Kenyon and Corporal Cooley.

The charges relate to the abuse of Iraqi civilians suspected of looting a humanitarian aid warehouse outside Basra in May 2003. Photos of the incidents provoked dismay in Britain after being published in newspapers, leading to comparisons with the scandal over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison.

The defendants were members of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. Corporal Kenyon was convicted of aiding and abetting the abuse and failing to report it, and he faces up to two years in prison.

Corporal Cooley was convicted of simulating punching a detainee, an action that was shown in a photograph, and of tying up a detainee and hoisting him on a fork lift. He also faces up to two years.

– Associated Press

NORTH AMERICA

ANNAN: TREATY TO PREVENT SPREAD OF WEAPONS FACES CHALLENGES

Secretary-General Annan warned yesterday that the treaty aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons faces serious challenges and must be strengthened to allow unannounced and unrestricted inspections of nations’ nuclear facilities.

He said the five-year review conference of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in May “will test the commitment of all states to nuclear disarmament, nonproliferation, and the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”

In a speech to the U.N. Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters, Mr. Annan expressed concern at the prospect of terrorist groups developing or acquiring nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons and the means to deliver them. He also stressed the need to find ways to prevent nuclear technology from being diverted to secret and illegal weapons programs. The Nonproliferation Treaty – the cornerstone of global efforts to control the spread of nuclear weapons – went into effect in 1970 and has been signed by 188 countries, though North Korea withdrew in 2003.Three countries have refused to join – India and Pakistan, which conducted rival nuclear tests in 1998, and Israel, which is believed to have nuclear weapons.

– Associated Press

SOUTH AMERICA

PARAGUAYAN PRESIDENT FIRES INTERIOR MINISTER, 31 POLICE OFFICERS

President Duarte fired his interior minister and 31 police officers yesterday, shaking up his security forces a week after the kidnapped daughter of a former Paraguayan leader was found dead. Cecilia Cubas, 32, was seized in September by gunmen in a commando-style operation and found dead last week in a pit dug beneath a home outside the capital, her body smeared with charcoal. The daughter of Raul Cubas, the former president, was the highest-profile kidnap victim in the nation’s history. A Paraguayan leftist with purported links to a Colombian guerrilla leader has been arrested on suspicion of masterminding the kidnapping, authorities said, but the motive for the killing remained unclear.

The ouster of Interior Minister Nelson Mora and ranking police officers is the biggest shake-up in Paraguay in more than a decade and comes amid a political furor.

– Associated Press

EASTERN EUROPE

TEMPORARY CEASE-FIRE BY CHECHEN REBELS EXPIRES

MOSCOW – A temporary cease-fire called by Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov expired yesterday, the 61st anniversary of the Stalin-era deportation of Chechens to the barren steppes of then-Soviet Central Asia.

Mr. Maskhadov had ordered his fighters, including radical warlord Shamil Basayev, to observe a weeklong cease-fire through Tuesday, the eve of the anniversary. He also renewed a call for talks with the Russian leadership, which has consistently turned them down.

– Associated Press