6 suspected of aiding terrorism indicted
ROME -- An Italian judge indicted six men suspected of involvement in a group to recruit militants for suicide attacks on US-led forces in Iraq, news reports said yesterday. Abderrazak Mahdjoub, an Algerian, and five others will stand trial on Feb. 22 in Milan, the ANSA news agency said. They are accused of association with the aim of international terrorism, a charge introduced here after Sept. 11, 2001 to step up Italy's fight against suspected terrorists, said the agency. Mahdjoub was extradited from Germany in March. He had been arrested on Nov. 28 in Hamburg at the request of Italy. The Italian government has said Mahdjoub's arrest grew out of an investigation of a ring suspected of seeking recruits for a training camp run by the Islamic extremist group Ansar al-Islam, which is based in northern Iraq and has been linked by US authorities to Al Qaeda. (AP)
CANADA
Murder rate drops to a 30-year low
OTTAWA -- Canada's murder rate in 2003 dropped by 7 percent to a 30-year low, reflecting a sharp fall in the number of female fatalities, Statistics Canada said yesterday. The central statistics agency said the rate last year was 1.73 victims per 100,000 people. Canada has a population of 32,000,000. By contrast, preliminary figures released two weeks ago showed the US murder rate last year increased by 1.3 percent to 5.6 victims per 100,000, but stayed at levels similar to those in the late 1960s. (Reuters)
POLAND
Blast injures person in downtown Warsaw
WARSAW -- A bomb hidden in a briefcase went off in a building in a downtown Warsaw business district yesterday, shattering windows and injuring one person in what authorities suspect was a gangland-style act of vengeance. The bomb exploded at around 1 p.m. on a floor in a modern glass and stone building used by Kolmex, a Polish company that provides services and products to railway companies. Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, and the motive was unclear. ''We suspect that it wasn't terrorism, but rather a settling of accounts," said a police spokesman, Mariusz Sokolowski. Poland, a staunch supporter of the US-led war in Iraq was threatened with reprisal attacks in July in an online statement from a group calling itself Tawhid Islamic Group. (AP)
UNITED NATIONS
Thai foreign minister proposed as UN chief
Southeast Asian nations sought an early lead in the race to succeed UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, proposing Thailand's foreign minister as their candidate, diplomats said yesterday. Surakiart Sathirathai was endorsed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations at a gathering of ASEAN foreign ministers at UN headquarters, the diplomats said. Annan has completed just over half of his second five-year term as secretary general, which runs out at the end of 2006. He has made clear that he does not want a third term. But the jockeying to succeed him has begun, with Tehran putting forward the name of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. Shashi Tharoor, an Indian and the UN undersecretary general for public information, also has been mentioned as a candidate. (Reuters)
Vatican urges total ban on human cloning
The Vatican, in its first speech ever to the UN General Assembly, called yesterday for a total ban on human cloning and criticized the war in Iraq and unilateral responses to terrorism. Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, secretary of the Holy See's relations with states, spoke in broad terms and didn't mention the US-led coalition that invaded Iraq or the nations that have acted unilaterally against terrorists. He referred to Pope John Paul II's fervent opposition to the Iraq war. ''Everyone can see that it [military action] did not lead to a safer world, either inside or outside Iraq," he said as the assembly's two-week annual ministerial session neared an end. (AP)
