7 die as police battle suspected extremists
RUSSIA
ROSTOV-ON-DON -- Hundreds of security forces stormed an apartment building yesterday in southern Russia, killing seven suspected Islamic extremists linked to Chechen rebels and ending a two-day standoff. Black smoke billowed from the building in Nalchik, the regional capital of the province of Kabardino-Balkariya, near Chechnya, as police and Interior Ministry troops fired automatic weapons and hurled grenades. The gunmen returned fire, wounding two police officers, the Interior Ministry said. After a five-hour shootout, authorities found seven bodies, Interior Ministry spokesman Alexei Polyansky said. The ITAR-Tass news agency said the wife of one of the militants and their 8-month-old child were among those killed. Some police officials said up to four of the dead were women. Nikolai Shepel, Russia's deputy prosecutor general, denied that a child's body had been found. (AP)
UNITED STATES
Lawmakers urge Bush to ease N. Korea tone
WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan group of lawmakers who recently traveled to North Korea have written President Bush to urge him not to make provocative statements about the nation in next week's State of the Union address, on the grounds that it will hurt the prospects for resumed talks on North Korea's nuclear programs. US Representative Curt Weldon, Republican of Pennsylvania, who led the six-member delegation, said senior North Korean leaders had told him they were ready to return to the talks but would be listening closely to statements from top administration officials. North Korea has accused the Bush administration of having a "hostile policy," dating from Bush's State of the Union address in 2002. In that speech, he labeled North Korea as part of an "axis of evil." (
UNITED NATIONS
Mexico is criticized over unsolved killings
A UN panel accused Mexico yesterday of "grave and systematic" rights violations for failing to solve the killings of hundreds of women in the past decade near the Mexico-US border. The UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women said it was "greatly concerned at the fact that these serious and systematic violations of women's rights have continued for over 10 years." The panel, in a report, "notes with consternation that it has not yet been possible to eradicate them, to punish the guilty and to provide the families of the victims with the necessary assistance." The murder spree in Ciudad Juarez, an industrial sprawl bordering Texas where many US firms seeking to cut labor costs have set up "maquiladoras," or assembly plants, has generated international outrage but few convictions. (Reuters)
70 Nobel laureates cite support for Annan
Seventy Nobel laureates yesterday praised UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, facing questions about his role in the tainted Iraq oil-for-food program, for advancing world peace. "He has never failed to take a critical look at the UN to examine its weaknesses and recommend improvements," the prizewinners said in a statement released by the nonprofit New York-based Better World Campaign. Among the signers were world leaders Jimmy Carter of the United States, Mikhail Gorbachev of the former Soviet Union, F.W. de Klerk of South Africa, and South Korea's Kim Dae Jung. (Reuters)
AFGHANISTAN
Afghan soldier kills 5 comrades at US base
KABUL -- An Afghan soldier opened fire inside a US military base yesterday, killing five of his Afghan comrades before another soldier gunned him down to end a shooting that a commander attributed to mental problems. The US military said the soldier attacked fellow Afghan National Army troops in Helmand province. Elsewhere, Afghan police killed a suspected Taliban commander and captured his deputy in a shootout. (AP)
