MIDDLE EAST

ISRAELI CABINET TO DECIDE WHETHER TO PERMIT PALESTINIAN VOTING

JERUSALEM – Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said yesterday the Cabinet would decide next week whether to allow Palestinian Arabs to vote in Jerusalem during Palestinian parliamentary elections. If the Cabinet approves the plan, it would resolve a dispute that threatened to derail the January 25 election.

– Associated Press

TURKEY SCRAMBLES TO CONTAIN DEADLY OUTBREAK

ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey raced to contain an outbreak of bird flu yesterday, destroying 300,000 fowl and blaring warnings from mosque loudspeakers, after preliminary tests showed at least 15 people have been infected with the deadly H5N1 strain. Jittery European governments stepped up border checks and hosed down Turkish trucks with disinfectant.

– Associated Press

SOUTH ASIA

DEATH TOLL SURPASSES 40 IN THIS WEEK’S VIOLENCE AT PAKISTAN BORDER

MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan – A battle between Pakistani security forces and suspected Islamic militants firing rockets and assault rifles left 21 dead yesterday in a tribal region near the Afghan border. The fighting was the latest in a spate of violence that has wracked the mountainous region in northwestern Pakistan, an area where fighters linked to the Al Qaeda terror network are believed to have taken refuge.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

TWO BRITONS TO STAND TRIAL FOR LEAKING BUSH MEMO

LONDON – A judge yesterday ordered two British men to stand trial on charges of leaking a government memo in which President Bush reportedly suggested to Prime Minister Blair bombing the headquarters of the Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera. Civil servant David Keogh, 49, and a lawmaker’s former researcher, Leo O’Connor, 42, were charged in November with breaching the Official Secrets Act. Both men are free on bail awaiting trial.

– Associated Press

BLAIR LAUNCHES ACTION PLAN FOR RESPECT

LONDON – Homeowners will be evicted and rehoused in government “sin bins” if they refuse to stop anti-social behavior, Prime Minister Blair said. Launching a barrage of measures to combat disrespectful behavior, he said the government was consulting on a new “house closure order” to bring relief to those suffering from the “misery” of nuisance neighbors. This included “noise, constant visitors at all hours, rubbish, and vandalism.”

The Home Office minister, Hazel Blears, confirmed the measures would apply to people with mortgages or who owned their homes outright, and would not be confined to government-subsidized housing.

– The Daily Telegraph

SPAIN ARRESTS 20 SUSPECTED RECRUITERS FOR IRAQ INSURGENCY

MADRID, Spain – Police yesterday arrested 20 people suspected of recruiting fighters and raising money for the Iraqi insurgency, the interior minister said. Police broke up two well-organized and interconnected cells, one based in Madrid and the other in the Barcelona-area town of Vilanova i la Geltru, Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso told a news conference.

– Associated Press

EASTERN EUROPE

THREE CHECHENS CHARGED WITH KILLING JOURNALIST PLEAD NOT GUILTY

MOSCOW – Three ethnic Chechens charged in connection with the 2004 slaying of Forbes magazine’s Russian edition, Paul Klebnikov, pleaded not guilty yesterday as their secret trial began in Moscow City Court. Prosecutors say the killing was ordered by a former separatist minister in Russia’s conflict-torn Chechnya, Khozh-Akhmed Nukhayev, who was the subject of a critical book by Klebnikov titled “Conversations with a Barbarian.” Mr. Nukhayev remains at large.

Kazbek Dukuzov and Musa Vakhayev are charged with the shooting. A third suspect, Fail Sadretdinov, faces charges of attempted murder and organizing the criminal group alleged to have killed Klebnikov.

– Associated Press

NORTH AMERICA

RADIO SAWA CREATOR RESIGNS FROM POST

WASHINGTON – The driving force behind the American government’s post-September 11, 2001, radio and television stations targeted to the Arab world will resign from his post at the broadcasting board of governors this week. Norm Pattiz, who founded the Westwood One radio empire, called his role in creating Radio Sawa and al-Hurra the “the highlight of my 35-year career in broadcasting.”

In 2002, Mr. Pattiz started Radio Sawa, which interspersed American and Arabic popular music with news broadcasts – effectively replacing the Voice of America’s Arabic service. In 2004 he launched a television station that broadcasts from a studio in northern Virginia to the Arab world, al-Hurra. He told The New York Sun that recent surveys showed that 35 million people tune into one of the two services once a week and that 70% of listeners and views find their programs “reliable and credible.” Mr. Pattiz said he recommended that his fellow broadcasting board governor and a former chief executive of Telemundo, Joaquin Blaya, take over the Middle East committee.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

SOUTH AMERICA

PERUVIAN ELECTION BOARD REJECTS JAILED FUJIMORI’S CANDIDACY

LIMA, Peru – Peru’s election board yesterday barred Alberto Fujimori from running in an April election as the jailed former president fought efforts by Peruvian prosecutors to have him extradited from Chile on charges of rights violations and corruption.

– Associated Press