EAST ASIA

S. KOREA URGES ATMOSPHERE OF CONFIDENCE AHEAD OF TALKS

BEIJING – South Korea yesterday urged delegates to six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear disarmament to create an atmosphere of trust as participants geared up for another round of negotiations in Beijing.

Tensions between America and North Korea were already building. The communist country criticized President Bush for calling North Korean leader Kim Jong Il a “tyrant,” saying the remark put the prospects of the talks in doubt.

North and South Korea, America, Japan, Russia, and China will participate in the fifth set of negotiations, scheduled to begin today.

They were expected to last three days before a recess to let diplomats attend an Asia-Pacific economic forum in South Korea.

– Associated Press

OCEANIA

PROSECUTOR: TERROR CELLS WERE COMPETING TO BE THE FIRST

SYDNEY – Two Islamic terrorist cells were competing to become the first to stage a major bombing in Australia, a prosecutor said yesterday after police arrested 17 suspects in a series of coordinated pre-dawn raids in two cities.

About 500 police arrested nine men in the southern city of Melbourne and eight in Sydney. Police said they expected more arrests in coming days. Federal police raided another Sydney home last night, but no arrests were reported.

One of the suspects, Abdulla Merhi, wanted to carry out attacks to avenge the war in Iraq, police said in a Melbourne court. Prime Minister Howard was a strong supporter of the American-led invasion of Iraq and has hundreds of troops in the country.

Norm Hazzard, who heads the state’s counterterrorism police unit, said the suspects were followers of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

EXPERTS DIVIDED OVER BIRD FLU

GENEVA – Experts were divided yesterday over whether the deadly bird flu strain ravaging farms in parts of Asia can be wiped out in poultry.

Veterinary experts at the U.N.’s agriculture agency said that given enough money, the virus can be eliminated from the global poultry population within a year.

However, a bird specialist at the World Organization for Animal Health, Alejandro Thiermann, said the close contact between poultry and wild birds in Asia means the most that can be hoped for is to contain the virus until it mutates to a milder form and disappears, or develops into a human strain capable of spreading globally.

– Associated Press

SOUTH AMERICA

CHAVEZ PROCLAIMS ‘KNOCKOUT’

CARACAS, Venezuela – President Chavez proclaimed a “knockout” victory in the Summit of the Americas after helping thwart an American-backed free trade zone, strengthening his position as Latin America’s most vocal rival of President Bush and as a maverick unafraid of irritating his neighbors.

The fiery leader was buoyed by the emergence of a five-nation bloc opposed to the trade pact and was cheered by thousands of anti-Bush protesters at the summit in Argentina. But some say it’s too soon for Mr. Chavez to declare victory, and that while he has begun to deliver on promises to share Venezuela’s oil wealth with the poor at home and abroad, his heavy spending on handout programs could leave him overextended.

– Associated Press

PERSIAN GULF

ATTACKERS ASSASSINATE LAWYER IN SADDAM TRIAL

BAGHDAD – Three masked gunmen in a speeding Opel assassinated a second lawyer in the Saddam Hussein trial yesterday, casting doubt on Iraq’s ability to try the case and leading a prominent war crimes prosecutor to urge moving the proceedings to another Arab country.

Adel al-Zubeidi, lawyer for former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, died when bullets were sprayed his car in a largely Sunni Arab neighborhood of western Baghdad. The shots also wounded Thamir al-Khuzaie, an attorney for another co-defendant, Saddam’s half brother Barazan Ibrahim.

The brazen daylight attack on a major avenue came three weeks after the kidnap-slaying of another defense lawyer, Saadoun al-Janabi.

– Associated Press