WESTERN EUROPE

FAMILIES OF BOMBING VICTIMS TO RECEIVE $18 MILLION

LONDON – The British government will pay out about $18 million in compensation to the hundreds of victims of the London suicide bombings and their families – the equivalent of just nine payments to relatives of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York.

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, responsible for compensating victims of violent crime, has calculated the amount based on payments to relatives of the 52 innocent people who died in the attacks, the hundreds of people injured, and those who suffered psychological trauma. The average payment could be as low as $8,000.

The body was forced yesterday to defend the level of compensation after stating that only about $20,000 would be paid for each of the dead. The equivalent amount for each of almost 3,000 victims of September 11 was about $2 million.

A government source told the Daily Telegraph that initial calculations by the CICA suggested a final bill of about $18 million, but possibly higher.

In reality, many families of the dead will receive far more than $20,000 – one of a series of set amounts based on degree of injury or death due to criminal activity. The CICA scheme allows payments equivalent to 75% of the victim’s earnings while his or her children remain dependants. Spouses without dependants can receive two-thirds of their dead partner’s earnings projected to retirement.

Compensation awarded in the high court can be deducted from CICA payments. But the body said the rule would not apply to the relief fund set up after the bombings by the mayor of London and the Red Cross, now running at about $11.5 million. Interim payments from that fund of about $8,900 to bereaved families will therefore be in addition to CICA awards.

Comparisons with September 11, 2001, may be unfair. Payments made to the victims of the New York and Washington attacks took into account the waiving of rights to sue the airlines involved in the civil courts for security failures.

– The Daily Telegraph

‘MY MINISTERS DID NOT TAKE BRIBES,’ KOHL TELLS COURT

BERLIN – A former German chancellor, Helmut Kohl, mounted a robust defense of his government yesterday when he told a court that neither he nor any of his ministers had ever been “bribable.”

Mr. Kohl, who was appearing as a witness in the corruption trial of a former deputy defense minister, insisted that his administration had never been influenced by sweeteners.

Ludwig-Holger Pfahls, who was accused of accepting a $2.3 million bribe to facilitate the delivery of arms to Saudi Arabia in 1991, had played no role in the decision to proceed with the deal, Mr. Kohl said. His testimony convinced prosecutors that they should drop the bribery charge against Mr. Pfahls, 62, who was accused of accepting money to speed up the delivery of 36 Fuchs vehicles.

Mr. Pfahls, who was on the run for five years before being arrested in France last year, also faces charges of tax evasion and of abusing his position. He has admitted accepting money from a Canadian businessman and arms dealer, Karlheinz Schreiber, who paid the cash into a Swiss bank account, but he denies that he did anything in return. Mr. Schreiber is fighting an extradition request by the German authorities.

Mr. Kohl, 75, has asserted repeatedly that the Saudi deal was transparent and part of an arrangement with the then American secretary of state, James Baker.

– The Daily Telegraph

EAST ASIA

N. KOREA SLOW TO ACCEPT CHINESE DEAL

BEIJING – China is struggling to persuade its ally North Korea to agree to a statement meant to lay the foundation for nuclear disarmament, the chief American envoy to the negotiations said yesterday, insisting Washington has done all it can.

Envoys from all sides have repeatedly expressed determination to make progress in this round of six-nation talks – the fourth in a series that began in 2003, which so far have failed to make any breakthroughs on the standoff.

Secretary of State Rice spoke by telephone with Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, a State Department spokesman, Tom Casey, said without elaborating.

Senior Chinese officials tried to persuade North Korea to accept the draft statement during an unusual late-night session at a Chinese government guesthouse, said the American envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill. But Mr. Hill said North Korea had not agreed to “basic elements” of the statement proposed by China at the talks, which were scheduled to stretch into their 10th day today. He wouldn’t give any details.

“We’re confident the Chinese will work very hard to get the DPRK to sign onto the draft agreement,” Mr. Hill said, referring to the North by the initials of its formal name. China didn’t ask the American delegation to change its position on the statement, Mr. Hill said.

– Associated Press

SOUTHEAST ASIA

BRITON CAUGHT WITH MORE THAN 450 FORGED PASSPORTS

BANGKOK, Thailand – An Algerian-born Briton was arrested at Bangkok Airport yesterday with more than 450 fake passports, days after an alleged London bomber fled to Rome using forged documents.

Mahieddine Daikh, 35, was held as he tried to board a China Airlines flight to Amsterdam, with a connecting flight to Glasgow, with 138 false passports in his carry-on. Officials found another 314 sets of papers in his checked luggage. All were purportedly from Spain, France, Belgium, and Portugal.

Mr. Daikh, who at a press conference confessed to trying to smuggle the passports into Britain for sale, claimed he had bought them for about $5,300 from a Pakistani on the resort island of Samui, an account police did not believe.

Mr. Daikh’s shipment is more likely to have been part of the forged passport business, rather than a terrorist operation in itself, not least because clandestine agents seek to maintain a low profile. However, a diplomatic source said: “The existence of Thailand as a country of production and transit of fake documentation is a security concern.”

– The Daily Telegraph

MIDDLE EAST

ISLAMIC JIHAD PROMISES TO ABSTAIN FROM VIOLENCE IN GAZA

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – A major Palestinian militant group promised yesterday it would fire no more rockets at Israelis with the approach of Israel’s planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip this month, after a barrage accidentally killed a 5-year-old Palestinian boy.

The promise by Islamic Jihad came as international mediator James Wolfensohn called on Israel and the Palestinian Arabs to finish their coordination talks on issues such as border crossings. Mr. Wolfensohn had a series of meetings yesterday with officials on both sides.

Officials said Israel’s Cabinet will approve the removal of three isolated Gaza settlements in a vote Sunday. The settlements are Netzarim, southwest of Gaza City; Kfar Darom, in central Gaza; and Morag, in the north, the officials said. The pullout is to begin August 17. The Cabinet has approved it several times, but it must vote separately for each group of settlements to be removed.

– Associated Press

PERSIAN GULF

U.N. AGENCY CALLS ON IRAN TO POSTPONE NUCLEAR ACTIVITY

VIENNA, Austria – The U.N. nuclear watchdog yesterday urged Iran not to resume uranium conversion until the agency can set up a system to monitor the activity, which can be used as part of a weapons program.

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Hasan Rowhani, responded by saying Tehran would push back the reopening of its uranium conversion plant in Isfahan until “early next week” to give the International Atomic Energy Agency time to install surveillance equipment inside the facility.

Tehran had threatened to resume uranium conversion at the plant starting yesterday, sparking harsh criticism from the European Union, America, and others.

While agency inspectors are now in Isfahan as part of a previously planned routine inspection, they would only begin “preparing for a restart of the conversion facility once the surveillance equipment has arrived,” an agency spokeswoman, Melissa Fleming, said.

France, Britain, and Germany have said they plan to seek an emergency meeting of the IAEA board in coming days. The board can report countries to the U.N. Security Council, which in turn can impose sanctions.

– Associated Press

SOUTH AMERICA

VENETIAAN RE-ELECTED TO PRESIDENCY

PARAMARIBO, Suriname – Suriname’s president easily won re-election yesterday in a vote by an assembly of regional councils, ending a heated battle that had left the South American country’s leadership in limbo for more than two months.

President Venetiaan won 560 votes in the 891-member assembly, compared to 315 for his rival, opposition candidate Rabin Parmessar, Suriname’s parliamentary electoral commission announced. Four ballots were invalid and 12 assembly members were absent. The special vote was needed after neither Mr. Venetiaan nor Mr. Parmessar received the two-thirds majority in the 51-seat National Assembly needed to become president in two rounds of balloting last month.

– Associated Press