PERSIAN GULF

NEW PHOTOS OF ABU GHRAIB ABUSE THREATEN TO ENFLAME ANGER IN IRAQ

BAGHDAD, Iraq – New images showing Iraqis abused by American guards at Abu Ghraib prison three years ago threatened yesterday to enflame public anger already running high over footage of British soldiers beating youths in southern Iraq. Images of naked prisoners, some bloodied and lying on the floor, were taken about the same time as earlier photos that triggered a worldwide scandal and led to military trials and prison sentences for several lower-ranking American soldiers.

Many of the pictures broadcast yesterday by Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service, including some that appear to show corpses, were more graphic than those previously published. One of the video clips depicted a group of naked men with bags over their heads standing together and masturbating. The network said they were forced to participate.

Some key Iraqi officials urged their countrymen to react calmly since the pictures were old and the offenders had been punished.

– Associated Press

CARIBBEAN

U.N. POLICE IN HAITI SENT TO RECOVER ELECTION MATERIAL FOUND AT DUMP

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – U.N. police rushed yesterday to recover official voting bags, marked ballots, and other election materials found in a garbage dump. Supporters of presidential candidate Rene Preval marched through the capital, claiming fraud.

Associated Press journalists saw thousands of ballots, some marked for Mr. Preval, deep in the dump along with a vote tally sheet and four bags meant to carry returns from the February 7 elections. With 90% of the returns counted, Mr. Preval was just short of the majority needed for a first-round victory. Local TV Tuesday night showed the discarded ballots at the dump. AP journalists who went to the fly-infested site yesterday morning found the voting bags among the thousands of ballots, some marked, some blank. Three of the bags were signed by presidents of local election bureaus. The discovery troubled U.N. officials because the bags were not supposed to be thrown out.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

‘THE ROAD TO GUANTANAMO’ TIPPED TO WIN AT BERLIN

“The Road to Guantanamo” has its premiere at the 56th Berlin International Film Festival Tuesday, and, according to the BBC, is the critics’ pick to take home gold – the Golden Bear, that is. Director Michael Winterbottom has already once won the top prize at Berlin in 2003, for “In This World,” which chronicled two Afghan refugees’ journey to Britain.

“The Road to Guantanamo,” co-directed by Mat Whitecross, tells the story of several British Muslims held for two years at an American detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before being released without charge. The movie is billed as a docudrama of the travails of the men known as the “Tipton Three,” after their town in Britain, and contains footage shot in Central and South Asia as well as interviews.

“There are still 500 people in Guantanamo, a lot of them have been there for years, virtually no one has received a trial and no one has been found guilty,” Mr. Winterbottom told Reuters. He told the BBC, “I don’t think the film is Anti-American in any general sense.”

The top prize at the festival, the Golden Bear, is set to be awarded on Sunday. Among Mr. Winterbottom’s other directing credits are “24 Hour Party People,” “Wonderland,” and “Jude,” which starred Kate Winslet and Christopher Eccleston and won the Michael Powell prize at Edinburgh Film Festival.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

BRITISH LAWMAKERS VOTE TO BAN GLORIFYING TERRORISM

LONDON – British lawmakers voted yesterday to ban glorifying terrorism, giving Prime Minister Tony Blair a badly needed victory on a measure he said was key to preventing future attacks.

The House of Commons approved the ban 315-277, sending it back to the House of Lords, which had struck down the term “glorification” earlier this year, saying it was dangerously vague. The two chambers must reach agreement for the measure to become law. Blair said the vote sent a “signal of strength” and would help authorities counter those who espouse violence.

“That signal of strength is vital in circumstances where the threat that we face is not just from the individual acts of terrorism but the people who celebrate it, who try and entice other people or recruit other people into doing it,” he said.

He said the bill would allow authorities to prosecute demonstrators such as those he said carried placards espousing violence during recent London protests against a Danish newspaper’s publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

– Associated Press

EUROPE TAKES GUARD AGAINST BIRD FLU AS NUMBER OF DEAD SWANS GROWS

GENEVA – European governments are bolstering their guard against bird flu, faced with a growing number of dead swans and the risk that migratory birds – which begin returning north next month – could bring the disease from Africa.

Concerns about the disease, and its possible threat to humans, have mounted.

“Avian influenza is a big threat,” the U.N.’s top bird flu specialist, Dr. David Nabarro, said yesterday. “It is spreading throughout the world.”

Song birds are expected to start arriving in southern Europe from Africa in two weeks. They are judged to be less likely carriers of bird flu than ducks and other water fowl because song birds fly longer distances and tend to stay away from wetlands, where the disease is more prevalent. The migration period is heaviest in March and April, but runs into May for some species.

France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Sweden all took steps yesterday to try to prevent the spread of the deadly H5N1 strain, ordering that domestic fowl be kept in screened, ventilated buildings, where they are less likely to come in contact with wild birds. Britain and the Netherlands have yet to record bird flu outbreaks, but ordered similar precautions.

– Associated Press