Agents raid press event held by South Koreans
BEIJING -- Chinese security agents broke up a news conference by a group of four visiting South Korean legislators yesterday, pushing some reporters out of a hotel conference room and attempting to forcibly evict the four lawmakers, who wanted to talk about the plight of North Korean refugees in China. The agents, who apparently did not identify themselves but were believed to be members of the state security apparatus, raided the room, turned off the lights, cut the microphones, ejected some of the 40 reporters in attendance, and then locked the doors. (Chicago Tribune)
United Nations
Security Council urges Haiti elections, aid
The UN Security Council called on Haiti's transitional government yesterday to ensure free elections this year and urged international donors to deliver the $1 billion in aid they promised for the western hemisphere's poorest country. UN envoy Juan Gabriel Valdes said Haiti has received only about 10 percent of the money pledged at a donors conference in July, but expressed hope that this would change. (AP)
RUSSIA
Study sounds alarm on HIV/AIDS spread
MOSCOW -- HIV/AIDS is spreading at a devastating pace in Russia, with a new study showing an estimated 1 million people infected -- three times the number officially reported -- US and Russian specialists said yesterday. A recently released report by Murray Feshbach and Cristina Galvin of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars urged Russian authorities to take aggressive steps to fight the epidemic. The study was sponsored by the US Agency for International Development. According to official statistics, Russia has some 300,000 HIV-positive people. But Feshbach, as well as Russian specialists, said the true number is closer to 1 million. (AP)
GERMANY
22 are held in raids on extremist network
BERLIN -- German police took 22 suspects into custody during nationwide raids on a network of Muslim extremists that turned up militant Islamic propaganda and forged passports, investigators said. Authorities said the roundup at mosques and homes in five German states included supporters of Ansar al-Islam, a group with links to Al Qaeda and Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is fighting US-led forces in Iraq. Police arrested 11 people on warrants and detained 11 others in a coordinated crackdown on a network that raised money, produced fake passports, and recruited people for jihad, or Islamic holy war, Munich prosecutors said(AP)
FRANCE
Le Pen downplays Nazi occupation
PARIS -- The Nazi occupation of France was not particularly brutal, French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen was quoted as saying. The comments by the National Front leader were published in the small extreme-right newspaper Rivarol. ''In France at least, the German occupation was not particularly inhuman, even if there were a few blunders," he was quoted as saying. Such things were ''inevitable" in a country of 220,000 square miles, he said. Le Pen's office confirmed the interview had taken place but said it could not verify the exact comments. (AP)
NEW YORK
Swiss banks to release WWII-era records
NEW YORK -- Swiss banks today will publish on the Internet the records of thousands of World War II-era accounts that may belong to victims of the Nazis, a lawyer for the victims said. The publication is the result of a settlement reached in June between the banks and Nazi victims. The agreement could allow the victims or their descendants to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in unclaimed funds. (AP)
