PERSIAN GULF

CNN: OFFICIAL SAYS IRAQI FORCES RELEASED ZARQAWI LAST YEAR

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraqi security forces caught terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi but released him because they didn’t realize who he was, the deputy interior minister said yesterday, according to CNN. The deputy interior minister, Hussein Kamal, said the Jordanian-born leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq was in custody sometime last year, but he wouldn’t provide further details, CNN reported. The report could not be confirmed, but an American official said in Washington that American intelligence believed it was plausible. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in compliance with office policy. There have been several reports of missed opportunities to capture Mr. al-Zarqawi, including an April 28 raid by American forces.

– Associated Press

MIDDLE EAST

FATAH SPLIT WEAKENS PALESTINIAN PARTY

HADARIM PRISON, Israel – Young Palestinian Arab activists from the Fatah Party rejected a call for unity yesterday, determined to form their own party for January parliamentary elections. In another blow to Fatah, Hamas swept to victory in elections in Nablus, according to official results announced early Friday.

– Associated Press

CENTER FOR CONSTUTIONAL RIGHTS FILES COMPLAINT AGAINST ISRAELI

The center for constitutional rights yesterday filed a formal complaint with the U.S. district court in the District of Columbia charging a former Israeli lieutenant general, Moshe Ya’alon, with crimes against humanity for his role in the Israeli military’s shelling of a U.N. compound in Kfar Qana, Lebanon, during a battle with Hezbollah in April 1996. The bombardment killed 100 people. At the time, the State Department accused Hezbollah of hiding among civilians. The suit charges that Mr. Ya’alon knew at the time that the compound was a U.N. facility harboring refugees. Mr. Ya’alon is currently a military fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Staff Reporter of the Sun

EAST AFRICA

PROTESTERS KILLED AND 40,000 JAILED

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – Ethiopia’s prime minister, Meles Zenawi, has smashed his opponents with the biggest crackdown in the continent’s recent history, jailing 40,000 people. The entire leadership of Ethiopia’s main opposition party has been locked up. Mr. Meles has closed five newspapers and jailed their editors, while police have killed about 80 demonstrators.

– The Daily Telegraph

WESTERN EUROPE

FRANCE SEIZES ARMS OF GROUP ALLEGEDLY LINKED TO AL QAEDA IN IRAQ

PARIS – French counterterrorism agents seized weapons yesterday in a probe of suspected Islamic militants who officials said use robberies to fund terror groups – possibly including Al Qaeda in Iraq. Police seized the arms cache in in Clichy-sous-Bois just north of Paris.

– Associated Press

REMAINS OF NAZI-ERA JEWS FOUND IN GERMAN MASS GRAVE REBURIED

STUTTGART, Germany – Remains believed to be of 34 Jews who died doing slave labor for the Nazis were re-interred with full religious rites yesterday at the American Army airfield where their mass grave was discovered.

– Associated Press

EAST ASIA

KOREAN CLONING PIONEER ADMITTED FAKING STEM CELL RESULTS

SEOUL, South Korea – A doctor who provided human eggs for research by cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-suk said yesterday that the scientist agreed to withdraw a paper because most of the stem cells produced for the article were faked. Roh Sung-il, told KBS television that Mr. Hwang had agreed to ask the journal Science to withdraw the paper.

– Associated Press