CENTRAL AMERICA

POLICE FILES SHED LIGHT ON WAR ATROCITIES

GUATEMALA CITY – A trove of newly discovered police documents confirms Guatemala’s infamous National Police helped identify and kill leftists during the country’s 36-year civil war.

Amid the piles of molding files, 48 million in all, investigators have found lists of thousands of people, classified under the labels “disappeared,” “assassinated,” and “political detainee.”

Some files hold fingerprints of the dead. Many include pictures of corpses, some showing signs of torture, with their hands tied behind their backs or bullet holes in their heads. Gustavo Meono, leader of 20 investigators going through the files, said the evidence so far supports a U.N. truth commission’s finding that the National Police helped the military track down leftist activists and, in some cases, aided in their killing.

– Associated Press

SOUTH AMERICA

COURT STRIPS PINOCHET OF IMMUNITY

SANTIAGO, Chile – An appeals court stripped General Augusto Pinochet of his legal immunity yesterday, allowing him to face charges in the disappearances of dozens more dissidents during his rule.

The 90-year-old former dictator has already lost his immunity against indictment in the cases of nine vanished dissidents. He was indicted on those cases and put under house arrest two weeks ago.

– Associated Press

PERSIAN GULF

KIDNAPPERS OF ACTIVISTS EXTEND DEADLINE

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Al Jazeera television said yesterday that kidnappers who have threatened to kill four Christian peace activists have extended the deadline for America and Britain to meet their demand to free all Iraqi prisoners. The original deadline set by the group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness was Thursday. Al Jazeera said it was extended until Saturday. The station broadcast video showing two hostages wearing robes and shackled with chains. Norman Kember, 74, of London; Tom Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, Va., and the Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, were taken hostage in Baghdad two weeks ago.

– Associated Press

GUNMEN KILL THREE POLICE OFFICERS

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Gunmen killed three police officers yesterday when they burst into a hospital in the northern city of Kirkuk and freed a wounded man arrested for plotting to kill a judge in Saddam Hussein’s trial, police said.

– Associated Press

MIDDLE EAST

DELEGATES ACCEPT RED CROSS EMBLEM, PAVING WAY FOR ISRAEL TO JOIN

Delegates to an international conference accepted a new Red Cross emblem early today despite Syrian objections, paving the way for Israel to join the humanitarian movement after nearly six decades of exclusion.

The 192 signatories of the Geneva Conventions approved the new “red crystal” emblem by vote after last-ditch negotiations between Israel and Syria over Damascus’s demands for humanitarian access to Syrian citizens in the Golan Heights broke down.

– Associated Press

HANEGBI LEAVES LIKUD PARTY

JERUSALEM – The acting head of Israel’s Likud Party said yesterday he was bolting to join Prime Minister Sharon’s new centrist bloc, dealing another blow to the longtime ruling party ahead of March elections.

Tzachi Hanegbi, a nationalist and son of one of Likud’s founders, said he had lost faith in its current party leadership and believed Mr. Sharon is the best person to lead the country to peace with the Palestinians.

– Associated Press

NORTH AFRICA

AL-ZAWAHRI CALLS FOR ATTACKS ON OIL FACILITIES

CAIRO, Egypt – Al Qaeda’s deputy leader called for attacks against Gulf oil facilities and urged insurgent groups in Iraq to unite to drive out American forces, according to a videotape posted on the Internet yesterday.

The posting was a full version of a video by Al Qaeda no. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri issued on September 19, excerpts of which were broadcast by the Arab television network Al Jazeera at the time. The network aired more excerpts yesterday, originally presenting all the footage as new. Mr. al-Zawahri also said Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was alive and well and leading the holy war against the West.

– Associated Press

EAST ASIA

DIPLOMAT CALLS N. KOREA ‘CRIMINAL REGIME’

SEOUL, South Korea – America refused yesterday to withdraw financial sanctions on what it called North Korea’s “criminal regime,” accusing the government of arms dealing, drug sales, money-laundering, and counterfeiting.

“It’s up to North Korea to end the behavior that led to those sanctions,” American Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow told the National Press Club in Seoul. “This is a criminal regime, and we can’t somehow remove our sanctions as a political gesture.” His description of the North provoked strong criticism from a top South Korean official.

– Associated Press

CENTRAL ASIA

PRESIDENT DECLARED ELECTION WINNER

ALMATY, Kazakhstan – Kazakhstan’s president yesterday was officially declared the winner of last weekend’s election, while the opposition insisted the vote was manipulated.

President Nazarbayev, who has led the oil-rich Central Asian nation since the Soviet era, was re-elected with 91% of the vote, according to final results released by the Central Elections Commission. Mr. Nazarbayev’s closest challenger, Zharmakhan Tuyakbai, received less than 7%.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

THATCHER ADMITTED TO HOSPITAL

LONDON – Margaret Thatcher was admitted to a hospital yesterday after feeling faint.

Mrs. Thatcher, who governed Britain from 1979 to 1990, turned 80 in October and has grown frail in recent years following a series of small strokes. The Conservative Party said she would be kept in Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London overnight as a precaution, and doctors were confident she would be well enough to leave this morning.

– Associated Press