UNITED NATIONS

U.S. ASKS ANNAN TO SPEED UP COMPLETION OF OVERHAUL PLAN

The American government has asked Secretary-General Annan to put forward specific proposals by the middle of November to overhaul the scandal-tarnished management of the United Nations.

“If we fail to meet that target, we are concerned, and we’ve expressed this concern to the secretariat, that we may lose a full two years before many of these reform priorities can be implemented,” the American ambassador to the U.N., John Bolton, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday in Washington.

Diplomats will be shifting their attention by mid-December to work on the world body’s next budget, Mr. Bolton said.

– Bloomberg News

HEALTH

E.U. NATIONS DECLARE BIRD FLU A GLOBAL THREAT

LUXEMBOURG – European Union foreign ministers yesterday declared the spread of bird flu from Asia to Europe a global threat, as the Swiss manufacturer of one of the only available anti-flu drugs announced it was building a new American plant to increase production amid fears of a major outbreak.

Also yesterday, an Indian drug company said it was seeking a license from the pharmaceutical giant Roche to produce a generic version of the drug Tamiflu to make it more widely available.

The European ministers urged international cooperation to contain the virus and called on the E.U. Executive Commission to accelerate steps to draft stronger rules against bird flu, which in recent days has been discovered in Greece, Romania, and Turkey, leading to bans on poultry from those countries.

In the latest case, Romania announced yesterday that a swan with bird flu antibodies was discovered near the Ukrainian border. It was not immediately clear, however, if the swan was infected with deadly H5N1 bird flu strain that has swept poultry populations in large swaths of Asia since 2003, jumping to humans and killing 60 people and resulting in the deaths of tens of millions of birds.

– Associated Press

SOUTH ASIA

AID DELIVERY HURRIED AMID WARNINGS

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan – Pakistani and American military helicopters delivered aid at a brisk pace to the earthquake-stricken region of Kashmir yesterday amid warnings from the World Food Program that a half-million survivors have yet to receive desperately needed help.

Choppers landed under sunny skies in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan’s portion of the divided Kashmir region, bringing tents and other supplies, while relief workers set up field hospitals to treat thousands of stranded injured people.

Authorities warned that exposure and infections could drive the death toll up from 54,000 as the harsh Himalayan winter loomed. Landslides caused by the magnitude-7.6 earthquake October 8 cut off many roads, and they could take weeks to clear.

President Musharraf of Pakistan, visiting the earthquake-stricken region, said he would allow Kashmiris to cross the boundary with Indian-held territory to help in quake reconstruction efforts.

– Associated Press

EAST ASIA

RUMSFELD SAYS CHINA UNDERSTATES DEFENSE SPENDING BEIJING – Defense Secretary Rumsfeld yesterday accused China of understating the scope of its defense spending, and he said this is sowing suspicion about how China intends to use its growing military might.

Mr. Rumsfeld arrived in the Chinese capital for his first visit since he became President Bush’s defense chief in 2001. He was scheduled to meet today with President Hu, who also is chairman of the Central Military Commission, which runs the Chinese military.

In an interview aboard his plane en route from Washington, Mr. Rumsfeld questioned China’s motives in underreporting its defense spending. He mentioned no figures, but the Pentagon said last summer that China may be spending $90 billion on defense this year – three times the announced total.

“I think it’s interesting that other countries wonder why they would be increasing their defense effort at the pace they are and yet not acknowledging it,” Mr. Rumsfeld said. “That is as interesting as the fact that it’s increasing at the pace it is.”

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

IRA OBSERVING PEACE COMMITMENTS, REPORT SAYS

DUBLIN, Ireland – The Irish Republican Army has halted many of its underground activities – including bank robberies and vigilante attacks – and is broadly observing its July 28 peace declaration, two government officials who have read a confidential report told the Associated Press.

The assessment offers no firm conclusions, however, on whether the group has ended involvement in criminal rackets, which has emerged as a major new stumbling block in Northern Ireland’s peace process.

The report from the Independent Monitoring Commission, a panel formed by the British and Irish governments to assess the activities of the IRA and other outlawed groups, is to be published today.

The experts, who include a former CIA deputy director and an ex-commander of London’s Scotland Yard, reached broadly positive conclusions about the IRA’s recent activity, according to the officials. They spoke yesterday on condition of anonymity because they are barred legally from revealing the report’s contents in advance of publication.

However, both officials said the experts could not say for certain whether the IRA is withdrawing from many of its traditional criminal rackets, chiefly the cross-border smuggling of fuel and cigarettes. Such activity, they said, was pervasive, but difficult to pin on the IRA as an organization rather than on individual IRA members.

The experts’ assessment comes at a politically sensitive time in Northern Ireland peacemaking – and just four weeks after disarmament officials announced they had scrapped the IRA’s hidden weapons stockpiles, a goal of Northern Ireland’s 12-year-old peace process.

The British and Irish governments, which formed the Independent Monitoring Commission in 2003, say they will seek to revive power-sharing negotiations in Belfast if the IRA remains dormant through January, when the commission is scheduled to publish its next, more detailed report.

– Associated Press