MIDDLE EAST

ONE OF THREE TEST MISSILES SYRIA FIRED FELL ON TURKEY

Syria test-fired three Scud missiles last Friday, with one of the missiles breaking up over Turkey, the New York Times reported on its Web site last night.

Israeli officials said yesterday that the missile test was a sign of defiance against America and the United Nations by President al-Assad, who was pressured to remove troops his country’s from Lebanon after the death of the former prime minister, Rafik Hariri. The missile over Turkey fell on farmers, the Times reported.

Israeli officials said they decided to go public with the information about the tests, after American officials had stayed silent, a move that puzzled the Israelis.

The test was the first such exercise by the Syrians since 2001 and were part of a missile development project.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

PERSIAN GULF

WEAPONS MATERIAL TAKEN IN IRAQ, U.N. INSPECTORS SAY

UNITED NATIONS – U.N. satellite imagery experts have determined that material that could be used to make biological or chemical weapons and banned long-range missiles has been removed from 109 sites in Iraq, U.N. weapons inspectors said in a report obtained yesterday.

U.N. inspectors have been blocked from returning to Iraq since the U.S.-led war in 2003, so they have been using satellite photos to see what happened to the sites that were subject to U.N. monitoring because their equipment had both civilian and military uses.

In the report to the U.N. Security Council, the acting chief weapons inspector, Demetrius Perricos, said he’s reached no conclusions about who removed the items or where they went. He said it could have been moved elsewhere in Iraq, sold as scrap, melted down, or purchased. He said imagery analysts have identified 109 sites that have been emptied of equipment to varying degrees, up from 90 reported in March.

– Associated Press

SOUTHERN AFRICA

MUGABE’S RAIDS LEAVE TOWNSHIPS IN TATTERS

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – Desperate people picked through the wreckage of their homes yesterday after Zimbabwe’s police raided Harare’s townships, destroying “illegal shelters” and leaving 10,000 homeless.

Riot police conducting “Operation Drive Out the Rubbish” were accused of bringing misery to the urban poor, the latest target of President Mugabe’s campaign of terror. In one township, Irish missionaries were forced to dismantle a clinic and a nursery for children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic. Police demolished shacks inhabited by impoverished orphans.

The townships overwhelmingly supported the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in the election in March. Mr. Mugabe’s critics believe that he ordered the demolitions as a reprisal.

– The Daily Telegraph

BUSH REBUFFS BRITISH PLAN TO DOUBLE AID TO AFRICA

President Bush has rebuffed a plan to double aid to Africa by Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, days before Prime Minister Blair arrives in Washington to argue its merits. In a humiliating slap-down for one of Mr. Brown’s pet projects, Mr. Bush voiced his administration’s dislike of the idea in person for the first time.

“We’ve made our position pretty clear on that: that it doesn’t fit into our budgetary process,” he said. Downing Street played down M., Bush’s remarks yesterday, with officials pointing out that the government was still in negotiations on the issue that will continue until the G8 summit in Gleneagles next month.

– The Daily Telegraph