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.
CENTRAL ASIA
AFGHAN PRESIDENT PREDICTS PEACEFUL ELECTION
KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghanistan’s president said yesterday he is optimistic that next month’s legislative elections will be peaceful, but ongoing pre-vote violence left one candidate dead and three American troops wounded.
President Karzai’s comments followed a major offensive by American-led coalition and Afghan troops against militants intent on subverting the September 18 polls. The operation has left hundreds of suspected rebels dead.
In southern Uruzgan province yesterday, gunmen ambushed a parliamentary candidate, Adiq Ullah, as he was driving, killing him and wounding two others in his vehicle, said provincial Governor Jan Mohammed Khan. He blamed the Taliban for the killing.
– Associated Press
PERSIAN GULF
IRAN REJECTS CONDITIONAL TALKS WITH EUROPEANS
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran yesterday rejected what it termed conditional negotiations with Europe over Tehran’s nuclear program and said it wanted instead to have talks with the U.N.’s international nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, said any future nuclear negotiations would not include America.
– Associated Press
EAST ASIA
NORTH KOREA SAYS NUCLEAR TALKS MUST BE POSTPONED
BEIJING – Thailand’s foreign minister said a North Korean official told him nuclear talks scheduled for this week will be postponed to mid- to late September, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported today.
Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon said yesterday that his North Korean counterpart, Paik Nam Sun, made the remark during a meeting in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, Xinhua reported. Mr. Kantathi was making an official visit to Pyongyang.
According to Mr. Kantathi, Mr. Paik blamed “lack of trust,” Xinhua said, without giving any details. Under North Korea’s secretive political system, such announcements often emerge second hand through visiting diplomats.
– Associated Press
SOUTHERN AFRICA
BRITISH AID MONEY MISSPENT IN MALAWI
The British government has wasted thousands of dollars of foreign aid on hotel bills and meals for consultants and even flying pens and paper from Washington to Africa, it was claimed yesterday.
A BBC investigation claimed that out of $5 million donated by the Department for International Development and earmarked to improve the parliamentary committee system in Malawi, more than $1 million was spent on accommodation and meals for an American consultancy agency, the National Democratic Institute.
– The Daily Telegraph
SOUTHEAST ASIA
THAILAND IN TALKS WITH INSURGENTS
BANGKOK, Thailand – The Thai government is in secret talks with separatists in the Muslim-majority south in an effort to end an insurgency that has claimed hundreds of lives.
A spokesman for the Pattani United Liberation Organization, or PULO, said the talks had taken place over four days in Lausanne, Switzerland, ending over the weekend. So far the violence has been almost entirely confined to the south, but if the Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, continues to be “stubborn,” PULO said it is prepared to mount attacks in Bangkok or tourist destinations such as Phuket or Pattaya.
– The Daily Telegraph
EASTERN EUROPE
TWO SENATORS HELD AT RUSSIAN AIRPORT
MOSCOW – Senators Lugar, a Republican of Indiana, and Obama, a Democrat of Illinois, who had been visiting storage sites for weapons of mass destruction, were held at an airport in the Ural Mountain city of Perm for several hours but were allowed to leave after talks between American and Russian officials. Spokesmen did not have information on the nature of the dispute that resulted in the senators’ being held.
Spokesmen also said Senator Hagel, a Republican of Nebraska, was delayed in departing from another Russian airport yesterday because of documentation problems.
– Associated Press