MIDDLE EAST

ISRAELI HIGH COURT APPROVES SECURITY BARRIER

JERUSALEM – Israel’s security barrier won the backing of the country’s High Court yesterday when it rejected a ruling last year by the International Court of Justice that the barrier was illegal. But in a subsidiary ruling, justices ordered a section of the barrier around the Jewish settlement of Alfei Menashe in the West Bank to be torn down, saying it had not been built with adequate consideration for the rights of Palestinian Arabs living in the area. Government sources said that the barrier would be completed by the end of the year, separating land in the West Bank that Israel claims as its own from Palestinian Arab land.

– The Daily Telegraph

EAST ASIA

NORTH KOREA NUCLEAR TALKS AT A ‘STANDOFF’

BEIJING – Talks on North Korea’s nuclear program were deadlocked yesterday as the communist nation stuck to its refusal to halt atomic bomb development until it receives a nuclear reactor to generate power. The American envoy said the North was isolating itself from the other five countries at the talks, which aren’t inclined to fund a reactor or give nuclear technology to a country that withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and kicked out international inspectors. “We’re in a bit of a standoff at this point,” Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

BRITAIN PROPOSES HOLDING TERROR SUSPECTS FOR THREE MONTHS

LONDON – The British government proposed sweeping new powers yesterday to hold terrorist suspects for three months without charge and crack down on extremist preachers who glorify atrocities.

But the hopes of the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, of winning cross-party support for the Terrorism Bill suffered a blow when he inadvertently revealed that he had doubts about the measures himself. A letter sent by computer to his opposition counterparts showed amendments and deletions. The leak disclosed that he had dropped some proposals and toughened others which had appeared in a draft prepared only hours before.

– The Daily Telegraph

GERMAN CONSERVATIVES SLAM DOOR ON TURKISH E.U. BID

BERLIN – Germany’s foreign minister accused the conservative opposition yesterday of taking a “dangerously blind and irresponsible” stance by slamming the door on Turkish hopes of joining the European Union.

Joschka Fischer’s salvo came as an organization of German-born Turks urged voters of Turkish descent to cast ballots in Sunday’s election, the first time in the roughly 45 years since Turkish workers began arriving in Germany that they are being treated as an important political bloc. They have traditionally supported Chancellor Schroeder’s Social Democrats. Opposition candidate Angela Merkel argues that bringing in the overwhelmingly Muslim and relatively poor Turkey would overstretch the European Union.

– Associated Press

CARIBBEAN

U.S. BUSINESSMAN ENTERS HAITIAN ELECTION

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – A crowded presidential field grew more diverse yesterday as a wealthy U.S. businessman registered his candidacy for the first election since President Aristide was ousted from power following a violent rebellion in February 2004. Dumarsais Simeus, who is the owner of a Texas-based food processing company but was born in Haiti, registered on the final day to become a presidential candidate.

– Associated Press

EASTERN EUROPE

ARREST WARRANT ISSUED FOR MILOSEVIC’S WIFE

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro – A judge ordered the arrest yesterday of the wife of a former Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, for failing to attend her corruption trial in Belgrade.

Mirjana Markovic, who was often accused of being the power behind the scenes during her husband’s autocratic rule in the 1990s, has been in self-imposed exile in Russia since 2003. A previous arrest warrant was revoked in June after her lawyer, Zdenko Tomanovic, promised she would attend the hearing.

– Associated Press

CENTRAL ASIA

VIOLENCE STRIKES AFGHANISTAN BEFORE ELECTION

KABUL, Afghanistan – Candidates in minivans with bullhorns wove through Kabul yesterday making final pitches for legislative elections. With campaigning forbidden after 6 a.m. Friday candidates met with people in the dusty heat.

Officials said 10 people were killed, and three Afghan journalists kidnapped and a female candidate wounded in the past day. Five candidates and four election workers have been killed ahead of the vote.

– Associated Press