PERSIAN GULF

LAWYER RECANTS STATEMENT THAT SADDAM PLANNED HUNGER STRIKE

AMMAN, Jordan – The chief lawyer representing Saddam Hussein said yesterday he was wrong in reporting that the former Iraqi leader and seven co-defendants would begin a hunger strike to protest the “illegality” of the court hearing their case.

Khalil al-Dulaimi had initially reported that the hunger strike would begin today, saying he received the information through sources at the detention center where Saddam and the other defendants were being held.

“I checked and I was told that the sources were not credible and that there will be no hunger strike on Monday,” al-Dulaimi told The Associated Press. He declined to provide other details, saying he will issue a written statement later.

Mr. al-Dulaimi said all eight defendants would still boycott the resumption of their trial today in Baghdad.

– Associated Press

MIDDLE EAST

ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER URGES STRICT STANCE ON HAMAS

JERUSALEM – Israel’s foreign minister yesterday criticized Russia’s invitation for Hamas leaders to visit Moscow for talks, urging the international community to stand firm in rejecting the terrorist group despite its victory in Palestinian elections.

But Israeli officials said they did not plan a harsh response to the invitation, preferring instead to work to persuade Russian President Putin to maintain international pressure on Hamas.

The invitation last week was Russia’s latest effort to assert itself in Middle East peacemaking. It runs counter to the stand recently taken by the so-called Quartet of Mideast peace negotiators, comprising Russia, America, the European Union, and the U.N. The Quartet, which backs the “road map” peace plan, insisted it would not deal with a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, and threatened to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in desperately needed aid to the cash-strapped government unless the group recognized Israel and renounced violence.

Hamas has carried out scores of deadly attacks against Israelis in recent years, calling for the destruction of the Jewish state and its replacement with an Islamic nation. It is listed as a terror organization by the European Union and America.

Hamas leaders said they plan to travel to Moscow later this month.

In the northern West Bank village of Nebe Elias, Hebrew graffiti scrawled on a mosque that equated the Prophet Muhammad with a pig led to a protest and clashes with Israeli troops that left three Palestinian Arabs and an Israeli woman injured.

Also yesterday, Israel reopened the vital Erez crossing between Gaza and Israel, the military said. The crossing, used by Palestinian Arab workers to reach jobs in Israel, was closed after armed Palestinians attacked it on Thursday.

– Associated Press

WEST AFRICA

NIGERIA IGNORES BIRD FLU PRECAUTIONS AS TWO SICK CHILDREN ARE TESTED

LAGOS, NIGERIA – Nigeria ignored international recommendations for stopping bird flu, keeping poultry markets open yesterday and letting people move their birds around most of the country unrestricted.

Officials were awaiting word on whether the virus already had infected people in Africa’s most populous country. Test results were pending on two sick children near a farm where the H5N1 strain was first detected among poultry. Their families also were being tested. Indonesia said yesterday that the World Health Organization had confirmed that two women there had died from the H5N1 bird flu strain. The two deaths are expected to bring Indonesia’s official human death toll from the virus to 18. A European Union laboratory was testing samples to determine if the strain that killed a swan in Slovenia near the Austrian border was H5N1.

Yesterday, Slovenian authorities imposed strict controls in the area. Poultry there will be isolated, tested for the virus and killed if infected. Italy and Greece put similar measures in place Saturday after the H5N1 strain was found for the first time inside the European Union. Austria’s southern border province of Carinthia on Sunday also introduced strict controls of livestock and food from Slovenia.

– Associated Press