PERSIAN GULF

SADDAM TRIAL COULD START NEXT MONTH, JUDGE SAYS

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Saddam Hussein could go on trial as early as next month for his alleged role in a massacre 23 years ago, a top judge said yesterday. He said the ousted dictator could face the death penalty. The chief judge of the Iraq Special Tribunal, Raid Juhi, said the investigation into the July 8, 1982, massacre in Dujail, a predominantly Shiite village 50 miles north of Baghdad, is complete. Judge Juhi said four other former senior officials would stand trial in the Dujail massacre, in which Saddam’s security agents allegedly shot dead at least 50 people after a plot to assassinate him was uncovered. Judge Juhi said the trial would begin “in August or September, but we would like it to begin before that.” Saddam and the others could be sentenced to death if convicted, Judge Juhi said. Iraqi officials have announced the imminent start of Saddam’s trial before, only to have the proceedings delayed. The Americans privately have urged caution about rushing into a trial, saying Iraq must develop a good court and judicial system first.

– Associated Press

MIDDLE EAST

ISRAELI TROOPS SEAL OFF GAZA SETTLEMENTS AHEAD OF EVACUATION

KISSUFIM JUNCTION, Gaza Strip – Israeli troops sealed off a cluster of Gaza Strip settlements yesterday that are marked for evacuation to stop the influx of hard-line opponents, the government’s most sweeping measure yet to prepare for next month’s pullout. Settlers responded defiantly, threatening to block roads throughout Israel and to step up other protests. Also yesterday, Israeli troops reoccupied the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem in response to a suicide bombing that killed four Israeli women in the resort town of Netanya a day earlier. A firefight between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian police in Tulkarem left one police officer dead and a second critically wounded. Soldiers arrested six people.

– Associated Press

EAST ASIA

NORTH KOREAN LEADER SAYS IT SEEKS NUCLEAR-FREE PENINSULA

BEIJING – North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told a visiting Chinese diplomat yesterday that his country seeks a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported. Xinhua also paraphrased Mr. Kim as saying he hoped six-party international talks could be an important platform for realizing that goal. A new round of talks – involving the two Koreas, America, China, Russia, and Japan – are expected to begin in Beijing the week of July 25.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

CHIRAC’S ONE-TIME PROTEGE PUBLICLY SNUBS HIM

A one-time protege of President Chirac who is now his bitterest rival, Nicolas Sarkozy, has snubbed the French leader by suggesting he scrap his Bastille Day TV appearance.

The interview planned for today is a waste of time partly because most of France will be “at the beach,” Mr. Sarkozy, who is the interior minister and the current favorite to succeed Mr. Chirac, told the country’s cabinet. During its weekly breakfast meeting, Mr. Sarkozy, leader of the ruling UMP Party founded by the president, calmly questioned the purpose of the interview, a 25-year-old ritual and one of the calendar’s political highlights. According to the Liberation newspaper, Mr. Sarkozy, who did not mention Mr. Chirac by name, caused ministerial jaws to drop by asking: “Why do we perpetuate this tradition when there is nothing to report and the French already have their mind on their holidays?”

“People are at the beach, the impact of the message will not be optimum.”

The comments were clearly designed to undermine Mr. Chirac on the eve of what is his most difficult Bastille Day in a decade as head of state. They also threaten to annihilate a fragile truce between the two men since Mr. Sarkozy agreed to rejoin the government in the crisis that followed France’s shock rejection of the European constitution. According to an opinion poll in yesterday’s Le Parisien, six out of 10 French voters no longer have faith in the president, results suggesting that Mr. Chirac has lost touch with the electorate after a series of humiliating defeats.

– The Daily Telegraph