NORTH AMERICA

FIVE SECRETARIES OF STATE URGE SUPPORT FOR BOLTON

Five former American secretaries of state urged the Senate yesterday to confirm John R. Bolton as U.N. ambassador.

“We must have an ambassador in place whose knowledge, experience, dedication, and drive will be vital to protecting the American interest in an effective, forward-looking United Nations,” they said in a letter to Senator Lugar, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The former secretaries, James A. Baker III, Lawrence Eagleburger, Alexander Haig, Henry Kissinger, and George Shultz, signed the letter to Mr. Lugar, a Republican of Indiana, who plans a hearing on the Bolton nomination tomorrow. Two former defense secretaries, Frank Carlucci and James Schlesinger, also signed, along with a former U.N. ambassador, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, and five other retired senior American officials. Mr. Bolton, like the Bush administration, has his critics, they said. “Anyone as energetic and effective as John is bound to encounter those who disagree with some or even all of the administration’s policies,” the letter said.

– Associated Press

U.N. GIVES COURT LIST OF 51 DARFUR SUSPECTS

UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations yesterday handed prosecutors from the International Criminal Court thousands of documents and a list of 51 people to be investigated for alleged war crimes in Sudan’s conflict-wracked Darfur region.

U.N. officials moved quickly to provide possible evidence to prosecutors following Thursday’s vote by the Security Council to refer cases of alleged rape, mass killings, village burnings, and other atrocities to the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal. U.N. officials have said the list includes Sudanese government officials, rebels, and government-backed Arab militiamen known as Janjaweed.

– Associated Press

EAST ASIA

ONLINE PETITION OPPOSES JAPAN’S U.N. INCLUSION

NANJING, China – At the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, signs of Japanese wartime atrocities are everywhere. Gory photos and engraved stone tablets exhort visitors to remember that past and hold Tokyo to account. Now, the Internet is doing the same job – only much faster.

In recent weeks, organizers claim to have collected more than 24 million names on an Internet petition demanding that Japan be denied a permanent U.N. Security Council seat, claiming it has failed to apologize for wartime aggression against China. The petition’s angry tone reflects widespread anti-Japanese sentiment among younger Chinese. And it has been publicized by news reports in a system where the Communist Party controls all media, suggesting official approval and the possibility that Beijing might cite the petition for support in opposing Japan’s accession to the Security Council.

– Associated Press

NEW STRAIN OF BIRD FLU FOUND

BEIJING – The strain of bird flu that has struck poultry in North Korea is different from the one that has killed dozens of people in Southeast Asia, a U.N. expert said yesterday after visiting the North.

North Korea has killed some 219,000 birds on three farms within a three-mile radius of the capital of Pyongyang, said a veterinarian for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, Hans Wagner.

FAO tests confirmed those done by the North that the birds were infected with the H7 strain – not the H5 strain that jumped from animals to humans in Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam, Mr. Wagner said. He arrived yesterday in Beijing from North Korea.

– Associated Press

CENTRAL ASIA

AKAYEV RETAINS POWER

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan – Kyrgyz lawmakers failed to show up in sufficient numbers yesterday to accept the resignation of President Akayev, leaving the ousted leader still technically in power and extending a two-week-old political crisis.

Parliament was two short of the 50 lawmakers needed to form a quorum. Some of those who had helped negotiate Mr. Akayev’s resignation were among the legislators absent yesterday. At the same time, some supporters of Mr. Akayev attended the session, adding to the confusion. The reasons behind the no-shows were not clear. Some observers attributed it to a lack of discipline rather than politics.

– Associated Press