Foreign Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

EAST ASIA
FIVE AMERICAN MISSIONARIES DETAINED IN CHINA
SHANGHAI, China – Authorities in northern China detained five American church workers in raids on unofficial Protestant church groups, a Texas-based monitoring group, the China Aid Association, said yesterday. Four Americans, including a married couple, were held after authorities broke up a Christian fellowship service Monday in Luoyang, about 460 miles southwest of Beijing. Police detained 27 Chinese citizens in the raid. Another American was detained by plainclothes officers in the nearby city of Yichuan. The group said the Americans apparently were traveling together, but it said it did not have their names. A spokesman for the American Embassy in Beijing said officials were checking the report. China’s communist government allows worship only in state churches. Those who meet outside are frequently harassed, fined, and sometimes sent to labor camps.
– Associated Press
PERSIAN GULF
AL QAEDA’S SAUDI LEADER KILLED IN RAID
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Al Qaeda’s leader in Saudi Arabia was killed yesterday during clashes with police in the western city of Medina, the Interior Ministry said.
Saleh Mohammed al-Aoofi was among six Al Qaeda militants reported killed during police raids on numerous locations in the holy city and the capital, Riyadh, security officials told the Associated Press.
Al-Aoofi was considered the top leader of Osama bin Laden’s network in this Gulf country. He was believed to have been involved in the June 2004 kidnapping and beheading of American engineer Paul Johnson.
– Associated Press
CENTRAL ASIA
TWO AMERICAN SOLDIERS KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN
KABUL, Afghanistan – A roadside bomb explosion in southern Afghanistan yesterday killed two American soldiers and wounded two, the American military said.
The soldiers were traveling in an armored vehicle north of Kandahar, part of a convoy supporting a road construction project, the American military said in a statement. The two wounded soldiers were evacuated to Kandahar Airfield for medical treatment. Both were in stable condition, the statement said.
– Associated Press
SOUTH ASIA
VIOLENCE USHERS IN PAKISTANI MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A homemade bomb exploded near a polling station yesterday, while clashes between supporters of rival candidates in Pakistani municipal elections left seven dead and 82 injured, police said.
Security was beefed up for the first round of the three-phase elections that started yesterday in 53 districts across the country, with authorities deploying about 35,000 policemen, 10,500 paramilitary troops, and 40,000 soldiers to guard polling stations and voters.
The bomb hit a polling station in the southwestern town of Khuzdar, but nobody was injured, local government administrator Amir Farooqi said. Three people were killed and 12 injured when gunmen opened fire on a candidate’s supporters in the northwestern town of Bannu, police official Abdi Ali said. Four others died and 70 were wounded in separate incidents across the country.
Dozens of people were killed or injured during the last municipal elections in Karachi. About 3 million voters were registered to participate in the elections, a senior election commission official, Kanwar Mohammed Dilshad, said. A total of 79,651 seats are being contested in the elections, which are held every four years.
– Associated Press
ENCEPHALITIS OUTBREAK KILLS 79 INDIAN CHILDREN
LUCKNOW, India – An outbreak of mosquito-borne Japanese encephalitis has killed at least 79 children in a north Indian state over the past week, with dozens of other children in serious condition, officials said yesterday.
Local newspapers reported that the death toll could be much higher, as many casualties were going unreported. Japanese encephalitis, which often hits children, is caused by a mosquito-borne virus that attacks the brain. Symptoms of the disease start with a very high fever, followed by seizures, vomiting, then vomiting of blood.
Encephalitis kills dozens of people each year in India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh. The best solution is vaccination. “We do not have the funds. We had a target to vaccinate 7 million children up to the age of 10, but we could vaccinate only 200,000 children,” the state director-general of health, O.P. Singh, said. The government is now seeking the help of UNICEF and the World Health Organization to help meet the target.
– Associated Press
NORTH AFRICA
AMERICA AIDS IN RELEASE OF MOROCCAN PRISONERS
AGADIR, Morocco – Hundreds of Moroccan soldiers held for decades in prisoner-of-war camps flew home yesterday after being freed by Western Sahara guerrillas under an American-mediated deal aimed at helping resolve a conflict over a vast expanse of mineral-rich desert.
Two American military-chartered airplanes brought the 404 men to a coastal city in southern Morocco, Agadir, a few hours after their release.
The guerrillas fought Morocco for years seeking independence of the Western Sahara region, and America expressed hope the POW release would provide momentum for a settlement of the three-decade-old dispute.
The White House said the release was “the product of quiet and intense diplomatic efforts among the United States, Morocco, and Algeria.” The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Lugar, a Republican of Indiana, oversaw the POWs release at the Polisario base in Tindouf.
– Associated Press
SOUTHERN AFRICA
ZIMBABWE MAY NATIONALIZE SEIZED LAND
HARARE, Zimbabwe – Legislation that would allow the nationalization of land seized from white Zimbabwean farmers was introduced yesterday by President Mugabe’s government.
Since 2000, more than 4,000 farms have been seized and the Constitutional Amendment Bill would allow the state to assume ownership immediately after a property has been listed for expropriation. This will make it impossible for white farmers to seek legal redress. The bill will also create a second upper chamber of parliament that critics say will be used political patronage.
The bill was introduced by the justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa, who has helped himself to at least two white-owned farms.
– The Daily Telegraph
WESTERN EUROPE
BRITISH ARMY UNVEILS ‘COMBAT UNDERWEAR’
The British army unveiled “combat underwear,” the first army-issue undergarments since the 1960s, designed to look after the – ahem – privates better than their civilian equivalents yesterday as part of its new range of desert clothing.
The pants have been made from an artificial anti-microbial fabric and have been treated to prevent infections. They are also seamless to reduce chafing. For now, the pants come only in men’s style, but servicewomen will be free to wear the pants until ladies’ briefs are developed.
The official army description of the pants reads: “The new operational underwear, which has been successfully trialed for comfort and design, is for wear in operations in hot desert and tropical conditions where regular adequate laundering may not be available. Anti-microbial capability inhibits bacterial and fungal infections common in such conditions as well as odor.”
Soldiers from the 23 Pioneer Regiment Royal Logistics Corps modeled new combat helmets, protection suits, flak jackets, and boots, all made from high-tech fabrics. Also on show were partly bulletproof sunglasses and water carriers with a tube straight into the mouth and filters so they can be filled with dirty water.
– The Daily Telegraph