SOUTH ASIA

SUSPECTED TALIBAN FIGHTER ARRESTED IN SOUTHERN PAKISTAN

Intelligence agents raided an Islamic seminary in southern Pakistan and arrested a suspected Taliban fighter wanted by Afghanistan in the 2001 killing of a pro-America Afghan leader, officials said yesterday. The suspect, identified as Sirajul Haq, was detained late Sunday in eastern Karachi along with another man, an intelligence official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, in accordance with the policy of Pakistani intelligence officers not to make their names public.

Mr. Haq, an Afghan national, is wanted in the death of Abdul Haq, a pro-America Afghan leader who was captured and killed by the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan in 2001. The two are not related.

– Associated Press

CENTRAL ASIA

ARMS CACHE EXPLODES AT HOUSE OF AFGHAN WARLORD

A warlord’s stockpile of explosives detonated in a remote Afghan village yesterday, flattening a half dozen houses and a mosque and killing at least 26 people in what appeared to be the deadliest accident of its kind since the ouster of the Taliban regime.

The blast shook this farming hamlet 75 miles north of Kabul, about dawn, also injuring at least 30 villagers. There was disagreement over the type of explosives that detonated with villagers saying they were for road-building. Afghan officials insisted the house hid an illegal weapons cache, highlighting the danger from old arms piled up in a quarter-century of war and the task of disarming commanders wary of rivals and the country’s American-backed government.

– Associated Press

SOUTHEAST ASIA

HEALTH OFFICIALS FIND POLIO CASE IN INDONESIA

Officials at the World Health Organization said a case of polio has been found in Indonesia, a sign that the disease had traveled from Nigeria, which suffered an outbreak in 2003.

The strain of the virus, which was found on the island of Java, is similar to one found in December in Saudi Arabia, the New York Times reported on its Web site last night. Officials said that, most likely, the virus had been transferred by an Indonesian worker who returned from Saudi Arabia or a pilgrim who had traveled to Mecca. New cases of polio are almost only found in Muslim countries, where resistance to vaccination is high due to speculation that the disease is an attack by Western nations. After the discovery of the case in Indonesia, a country that is home to the world’s largest Muslim population, officials started planning last week to vaccinate five million children on the island of Java.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

PERSIAN GULF

KUWAITI LAWMAKERS FAIL TO ADOPT VOTING RIGHTS FOR WOMEN

A push to allow women to participate in Kuwait’s local elections stalled yesterday when Islamist and conservative lawmakers abstained en masse from a key vote in parliament, leaving the measure undefeated but short of the number of votes needed for passage. After less than an hour of debate, 29 of the 60 lawmakers present voted for the proposal. Two legislators voted no, while 29 abstained. Thirty-three yes or no votes were required for a valid vote, so the speaker said a new vote would be required. No date was set, although the matter was expected to be taken up again in today’s parliament session. The measure would let women, for the first time, run for seats and vote in elections for local councils. The prime minister, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, told reporters after the session that another vote will be held because the house’s vote did not kill the bill but postponed it.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

CASE AGAINST DANISH CAPTAIN, SERGEANTS ECHOES ABU GHRAIB

In a case with echoes of the Abu Ghraib scandal, a Danish army captain and four military police sergeants pleaded innocent yesterday to charges of mistreating Iraqi detainees. The charges stem from an interrogation on March 9, 2004, of four Iraqi detainees at Camp Eden in the southern city of Basra, where the 530-strong Danish contingent in Iraq is based. The four were detained on suspicion of participating in riots. The military prosecutor, Benny Holm Frandsen, told the Copenhagen City Court that Captain Annemette Hommel forced the four detainees to kneel in uncomfortable positions while she questioned them. He said Captain Hommel and the four military police sergeants on trial verbally humiliated the detainees and denied them water during questioning. Two of the military police allegedly dragged one detainee so that his pants were pulled down to his ankles. The court banned publication of the names of the four military police, who are all men.

– Associated Press