European Union seeking answers from the United States over the use of bases on the continent for secret prisoner transfers

A month-old investigation has reinforced allegations the CIA ran a network of secret prisons in Europe, abducted prisoners and transferred them between countries, a European human rights investigator said. Swiss senator Dick Marty, who is looking into the scandal for the 46-nation Council of Europe human rights watchdog, criticised the United States for failing to come clean over the allegations. But he said his main mandate was to look into the actions of European states and that it was hard to believe that certain governments and secret services in Europe had not co-operated with the CIA -- in breach of their human rights obligations. Pressure is growing on Washington and European governments to explain dozens of flights criss-crossing the continent by CIA planes, some suspected of delivering prisoners to jails in third countries where they may have been mistreated or tortured. "Legal proceedings in progress in certain countries seemed to indicate that individuals had been abducted and transferred to other countries without respect for any legal standards," Marty said in a written statement after briefing the Council of Europe's legal affairs and human rights committee in Paris. "The ... information gathered to date (has) reinforced the credibility of the allegations concerning the transfer and temporary detention of individuals, without any judicial involvement, in European countries." Marty said in the statement that his findings justified continuing an in-depth inquiry, but he declined to give any details at a news conference. He urged all member governments to co-operate fully with the investigation, adding that not all -- including his home country Switzerland -- appeared to be doing so. The European Union and at least eight member states said last month they were seeking answers from the United States over the use of bases on the continent for secret prisoner transfers, known as "renditions".

The Council of Europe has set governments a three-month deadline to reveal what they know about the mystery flights and about a Washington Post report saying the Central Intelligence Agency ran secret prisons in Eastern Europe. "I find it hard to believe these actions could have taken place without a degree of collaboration or passivity by governments or services operating under them. I am thinking of the secret services," Marty said. It was possible, he added, that the secret services had not informed their governments of any cooperation with the CIA. Marty said the United States had never formally denied the allegations and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had failed to reject them during a recent trip to Europe. "The rapporteur ... deplores the fact that no information or explanation had been provided on this point by Ms Rice during her visit to Europe," he said. Human Right Watch, an international watchdog, has named Poland and Romania as two countries where the CIA may have kept prisoners. Poland and Romania have denied the accusations. Marty said any prisoners held in Europe had now been moved elsewhere by the CIA, including to north Africa.- By Tom Hermitage.

 NEWS AT THE SECOND WEBSITE OF THE AGENCY http://www.internationalnewsagency.org

Thousands march in first anti-globalization protest before WTO summit

Photo: Indonesian women protesters march past a huge billboard during a protest by thousands of anti-globalization activists march Sunday.

HONG KONG- About 4,000 anti-globalization activists marched Sunday in the first mass protest against the World Trade Organization's summit in Hong Kong. The demonstrators, who have been coming from around the world ahead of the five-day WTO meeting that opens Tuesday, marched from Hong Kong's downtown Victoria Park to the government's main office...Full story

More than 100 dead in Nigerian jet crash. Plane carrying schoolchildren crashes in stormy weather. PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria- A Nigerian jetliner filled with schoolchildren going home for Christmas crashed Saturday while landing during a lightning storm in a delta oil port. At least 103 people were killed, officials said. A spokesman for Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo called the disaster "a national tragedy." Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Sam Adurogboye said early reports indicated seven people survived the crash of the Sosoliso Airlines' McDonnell Douglas DC-9. Flight 1145 left the capital Abuja. "They were breathing and were taken to the hospital...Full story

Erroneous reports of plane crash in N.B. prompt search and media frenzy

POCOLOGAN, N.B.-A local resident's mistaken belief that a low-flying aircraft had crashed in the Bay of Fundy on Wednesday prompted an intense search of southwestern New Brunswick, followed by a flurry of urgent news reports that flashed around the world. A search-rescue mission was launched amid reports from radio stations that suggested a large, four-engine aircraft went down in flames near Pocologan, a coastal community about 40 kilometres west of Saint John. Claudia Babineau, of nearby Pennfield, later confirmed that she reported seeing a small, single-engine plane disappear behind a stand of trees. "It was going back and forth over the highway," she said in an interview from her home. "It went towards Fredericton, then turned around and went towards the water, but it was just at tree level and then disappeared, gone. I'm assuming it went into the water but (search and rescue officials) are saying no." "I'm pretty sure of what I saw, but if they can't find it there's not much I can do." Pat Jessup, spokeswoman for the military's Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax, said the centre received two phone calls from people claiming they saw a plane flying low over the bay. Capt. John Pulchny, a spokesman for Canadian Forces Base Greenwood, across the bay in Nova Scotia, suggested that a large, Hercules cargo aircraft on a training exercise probably dropped out of sight during a low-level pass, prompting concern among those onshore. "During search and rescue, the Hercs do fly fairly low, depending on the type of training or search they're doing, so it's possible," he said. Horace Young, operator of Young's Auto Body in Pennfield, said he heard the initial emergency calls on his police scanner. "A man and women sitting at their kitchen table watched (the plane) go in the water," he said in an interview. "They phoned the RCMP. We heard it over the scanner and the guy said he could pinpoint where it went down. . . .There's all kinds of ambulances and police and stuff out along the highway there by the water." The reports sparked a brief but intense media frenzy as word spread that an aircraft could have crashed in Canadian waters. As the military and the RCMP scrambled to confirm the reports, a coast guard cutter, a Cormorant helicopter and the Hercules were called in to help with the search. The search was called off a few hours after officials said they had failed to find any evidence of a crash and all military and civilian aircraft scheduled to be in the area had been accounted for. -By K. Bisett.

Iranian military plane hits tall building in Tehran suburbs

At least 128 die

Photo: An Iranian soldier stands guard in front of building in which an Iranian military transport plane crashed in Tehran Tuesday.

TEHRAN, Iran- An Iranian military transport plane crashed into a 10-storey apartment building while trying to make an emergency landing Tuesday, ripping open the top of the structure and igniting a huge fire. At least 128 people were killed - 34 from the building. The plane was carrying Iranian journalists to cover military maneuvers in the south, and all 94 people on the aircraft were killed. In addition to the 34 residents of the apartment building who were killed, 90 were injured, Tehran state radio said. Flames leaped from windows as panicked residents fled the Towhid residential complex, a series of high-rise apartment buildings for army personnel in the Azadi suburb of Tehran. Wreckage rained down, hitting a nearby gas station. Cars parked below were smashed by falling debris. At the foot of the blackened building, a pile of wreckage was in flames. Firefighters managed to put out the fire in the building, which was damaged and charred but still standing. Police cordoned off the area, preventing thousands of people from getting near the site. Many were screaming, afraid their relatives had been killed. ''It was like an earthquake,'' said Reza Sadeqi, a 25-year-old merchant, who saw the plane hit the building. He said he was thrown inside his shop by the force of the crash. ''I felt the heat of the fire caused by the crash. It was like being in hell,'' he said. The C-130 aircraft had just taken off from the nearby Mehrabad Airport en route to the southern port of Bandar Abbas. The plane experienced a technical problem and was returning to the airport for an emergency landing when it hit the building, state-run television said. Witness Iraj Mordin said the plane appeared to be circling the airport when its tail suddenly burst into flames, leaving a smoke trail as it plummeted. Mordin said he thought the plane was going to crash into a gas station and fled, but turned and saw it slam into what he thought was the building's eighth floor. The plane, which belonged to the army air force, carried 84 passengers and a crew of 10, state TV reported. All aboard were killed, the mayor of Tehran, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, told The Associated Press. In April, an Iranian military Boeing 707 with 157 people aboard skidded off a runway at Tehran airport and caught fire, killing three people. Last year, a Ukrainian-built aircraft carrying aerospace scientists crashed in central Iran, killing all 44 people aboard. In 2003, a Russian-made Ilyushin-76 carrying members of the elite Revolutionary Guards crashed in the mountains of southeastern Iran, killing 302 people. And in 1988, an Iran Air A300 Airbus was shot down by the USS Vincennes over the Persian Gulf, killing 290.- By Ali Dareini.

 

Terrorist threatens U.S., allies in video seized by Indonesian police

JAKARTA, Indonesia- A masked man believed to be one of Asia's most wanted terrorists warned the United States, Britain and Australia in a video seized from his hide-out: "You will be the target of our next attack." Malaysian fugitive Noordin Mohamad Top is allegedly a key leader of the al-Qaida-linked group Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been accused of orchestrating at least four deadly bombings targeting westerners since 2002. "As long as you keep your troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and intimidate Muslim people, you will feel our intimidation and our terror," said the man in the video obtained Thursday by Associated Press Television News. "Our enemies are supporters of (U.S. President George W.) Bush and (British Prime Minister Tony) Blair." National police chief Gen. Sutanto said, judging from his accent, the man appeared to be Noordin, who is widely regarded as Jemaah Islamiyah's key strategist and recruiter. He has eluded police capture for more than three years by moving from one rented house to another in densely populated areas. Police got a tip last week that Noordin was hiding in Semarang, the capital of Central Java province, but he escaped before the anti-terror unit arrived, they said. He left the video behind, together with an hour-long recording of an Indonesian man, his face covered, giving a step-by-step bomb-making demonstration. In a near-simultaneous siege hundreds of kilometres away, another elite police unit killed Noordin's right-hand man, fellow Malaysian Azahari bin Husin. Azahari was believed to be Jemaah Islamiyah's top bomb-making expert and the discovery of more than 30 explosives in his hide-out raised concerns that the group may have been planning more terror strikes. The video added to those worries. "Our enemy is America, Australia, England and Italy," said the masked man, pointing his finger at the camera. "You will be the target of our next attack." Later, he singled out Australia - which last week arrested 18 Islamic terror suspects in co-ordinated pre-dawn raids in the cities of Melbourne and Sydney. Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, he said, calling them by name, "you are bringing all the Australian people to darkness and terrorizing the mujahedeen ... Remember that." Downer on Thursday said Australia would not be intimidated by a "fanatic" like Noordin. "We have to make it perfectly clear that whatever these people do, whatever threats they make, we have got the strength and courage to stand up to that," he told reporters in his hometown of Adelaide. Noordin and Azahari have been accused of direct involvement in at least four terror attacks in Indonesia: the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists; two strikes in Jakarta in 2003 and 2004 that took 22 lives; and the Oct. 1 suicide attacks on Bali that caused 20 more deaths. The three men who carried out last month's near simultaneous suicide attacks on crowded Bali restaurants also appeared in the video Thursday, saying they considered themselves holy warriors. "My brother and wife, God willing, when you see this recording I'll already be in heaven," said a man identified as bomber Muhammad Salik Firdaus. "Don't even think that people who kill in the way of God ever die," he said quietly, smiling and appearing relaxed as he sat on the floor with his legs crossed. "They are living." Another young man, identified as Misno, apologized to his parents, siblings and other relatives for mistakes he made and asked that they repay any of his debts. All three spoke in both Indonesian and Arabic, sometimes wearing red-white checkered scarves over their heads. It is believed to be the first time suicide bombers in Indonesia have made a video before launching an attack, said Bali police chief Maj. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika. Jemaah Islamiyah, which wants to establish an Islamic state spanning Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the southern Philippines, has been weakened by a regional crackdown in recent years. But terror experts warn it is still capable of carrying out attacks. In addition to Noordin, at least three other key members are at large. They are believed to be in the Philippines and Indonesia. Azahari's body, meanwhile, was flown back to Malaysia Thursday so that he could be buried in his hometown, family members said. Robin MacDonell.

Passengers describe pirate attack on cruise ship off Somalia's coast

MAHE, Seychelles- A Second World War veteran wielding a camera found himself facing a smiling attacker armed with a grenade launcher. Another holiday-goer escaped injury because she was in the bathtub, not the stateroom where an explosive landed. Passengers of the Seabourn Spirit luxury cruise ship described moments of panic and luck Monday after docking in the Seychelles after pirates in speedboats chased their vessel. None of the passengers, most of whom were Americans, was hurt. Dan McTeague, parliamentary secretary in charge of Canadians abroad, confirmed 18 Canadians were aboard. One crew member was slightly injured. Those familiar with the security situation off anarchic Somalia's coast said Saturday's attack fit the methods of pirates who have been hijacking cargo ships for ransom and loot, but marked a new boldness. Some passengers were lucky to escape with their lives, said Charles Forsdick of Durban, South Africa. A woman survived an explosion in her stateroom simply because she was taking a bath at the time. Others flung themselves to the floor to avoid bullets that were zipping through the ship, Forsdick told Associated Press Television News. "I tell you, it was a very frightening experience," war vet Charles Supple of Fiddletown, Calif., recalled by phone after the liner dropped anchor off Seychelles. The retired physician said he started to take a photograph of a pirate craft, and "the man with the bazooka aimed it right at me and I saw a big flash. "Needless to say, I dropped the camera and dived. The grenade struck two decks above and about four rooms further forward," Supple said. "I could tell the guy firing the bazooka was smiling." Mike Rogers of Vancouver was in his cabin at around 6 a.m. when the ship, on a 16-day trip from Egypt to Kenya, came under attack. "There were the sounds of the bullets hitting off the side of the ship, and there were boats trying to come alongside us," said Rogers. "And one lady in the cabin across from us had a rocket fired right through her cabin window and narrowly missed her." Barbara Donaldson of Cambridge, Ont., was about to take a morning walk around the deck when she heard an "incredible bang" above her. She said the ship's captain, Sven-Erik Pedersen, told passengers over the intercom to stay in their cabins and get on the floor, away from windows, because the ship was under attack by pirates. Donaldson locked herself in the bathroom and sat on the floor.

Soon, the captain told the passengers to leave their cabins and go to the dining room in the centre of the ship. Donaldson said some people cried quietly and one woman paced around, exhorting the other passengers to pray. But most people were quiet and surprisingly calm. "Nobody lost it, but there were a lot of frightened people," Donaldson said Sunday night on the phone from the ship in the Indian Ocean. The pirates came "within feet" of the liner but didn't manage to board it, she added. Bob Meagher of Sydney said he got out of bed and went to the door of his cabin shortly before 6 a.m. after hearing a commotion outside. "I saw a white-hulled boat with men in it waving various things and shooting at the ship - at that stage it appeared to be rifle fire," he told Australian radio. "My wife said 'look, they're loading a bazooka', which we later discovered was called an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) launcher. "There was a flash of flame and then a huge boom - a terrible boom sound," he said, adding the grenade hit about three metres from him and his wife. Meagher and others praised the ship's captain and crew for the way they handled the attack and for keeping passengers calm. The gunmen never got close enough to board the cruise ship, but one member of the 161-member crew was injured by shrapnel, according to the Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp. The liner escaped by shifting to high speed and changing course. The liner had been bound for Mombasa, Kenya, at the end of a 16-day voyage from Alexandria, Egypt. Instead, passengers were to continue from the Seychelles to Singapore, company officials said. Some of the passengers who planned to tour Mombasa, however, will fly there Tuesday aboard a chartered plane. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told Australia radio Monday that the attackers might have been terrorists. But others said the attack bore the hallmarks of pirates who have become increasingly active off Somalia, which has no navy and has not had an effective central government since 1991. Even before the cruise ship attack, Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi Gedi had called on neighbouring countries to send warships to patrol his 3,000-kilometre coastline, Africa's longest. As if to underscore his country's lawlessness, Gedi escaped an apparent assassination attempt in his capital Sunday. In its latest piracy report, the British-based International Maritime Bureau said in a report released Monday that the risk of violent hijackings off Somalia's coastline was increasing. It said 19 attacks occurred between January and September, compared with just one last year. The bureau advised ships to remain at least 240 km from Somalia's eastern coast. Armed pirates in speedboats frequently fire on ships passing near Somalia, seeking to hijack them and hold the crew for ransom, the bureau said. Somalia lies along key shipping lanes linking the Mediterranean with the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. Somali pirates are trained fighters with maritime knowledge, identifying targets by listening to the international radio channel used by ships at sea, said Andrew Mwangura, head of the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Program. -By Bishar Al Touni

Speedboats are traffickers' tool of choice to smuggle cocaine from Colombia

TUMACO, Colombia- Slicing through slate-grey waters along the shores of Colombia, a coast guard vessel slips into a mangrove-fringed inlet, on the hunt for speedboats loaded with two or three tonnes of cocaine and ready to tear full-tilt to coastlines hundreds of kilometres away. Missions like this one along the perilous shores of southwest Colombia are vital as authorities grapple with the latest twist in the clandestine world of drug smuggling. Cocaine traffickers have largely abandoned planes for boats to smuggle cocaine from Colombia to Central America and Mexico for onward shipment to the United States, according to interviews with officials and a review of government reports by The Associated Press. One UN document estimates 90 per cent of smuggled cocaine now moves by sea to North America. The transport of choice: so-called "go-fasts," whose crews are the equivalent of the rumrunners of the Prohibition era - only these modern-day outlaws have global positioning systems, satellite telephones and custom-made 800-horsepower fibreglass boats that can do 80 km/h. Traffickers have set up a seamless cocaine delivery system that stretches thousands of kilometres from the coca fields of Colombia, the world's main producer, to the cities of the United States, the world's top consumer. After the coca is processed in jungle labs into cocaine, the drugs are loaded onto go-fasts, eventually to cross the U.S.-Mexico border hidden in tractor-trailers and other vehicles. Each cocaine-laden vehicle is a proverbial needle in a haystack for U.S. Customs inspectors who are coping with thousands of trucks that carry Mexican exports across the 3,060-kilometre border each day. Launching from Colombia's isolated Pacific coast and the more populated Caribbean shores, the go-fasts transport well over 220 tonnes of cocaine a year, most of it bound for the United States, according to UN reports. Maritime cocaine seizures have correspondingly skyrocketed. Ninety per cent of smuggled cocaine now moves by sea, most by go-fasts, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said in its latest report. More than three-quarters of the 386 tonnes of cocaine destined for North America - most from Colombia - passed through Central America and Mexico in 2003, the report said. The Colombian military, often operating with other countries, seized more than 100 tonnes from January to mid-October, compared with 85 tonnes in all of 2004, then a record, according to Admiral Jairo Pena, commander of the Pacific fleet. Since each load is worth millions of dollars, crews often scuttle the go-fast, its equipment and $36,000 US outboard engines after delivery and take commercial flights home, say Colombian and U.S. authorities. "For them, it's not a great expense," said Vice-Admiral Guillermo Barrera, the Colombian navy's chief of operations.

The Pacific coast of southwest Colombia, running along the edge of coca-growing Narino state, is a drug smugglers' dream. Peasant farmers inland harvest the green leaves of the coca bush in plantations controlled by the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or their paramilitary foes. The leaves are converted into coca paste and then purified in clandestine labs into cocaine, which is hidden near the coast. The coast, penetrated by few roads, is bisected by inland waterways, allowing traffickers to sail near the shore for more than 160 kilometres without having to reveal themselves in the open sea. Raids in the area this year provide a glimpse into the scale of operations: -In March, the coast guard seized several go-fasts and even a small submarine that were being built at a clandestine jungle factory. -Two months later, the coast guard netted 16.5 tonnes of cocaine and five go-fasts in a raid at the mouth of the Mira River, located some 30 kilometres southwest of Tumaco, Narino's biggest coastal town. -On Sept. 10, rebels ambushed a boat on the Mira River carrying a government drug-raiding party, killing three marines and two officials from the district attorney's office. "This is lawless country," said Coast Guard Lieut. Santiago Vasquez as he surveyed the coast - a green carpet of jungle broken by soaring sand-coloured boulders. Pelicans resting on the ocean swells took flight as Vasquez's patrol boat sped past. When his boat nosed into an inlet during a recent mission, its wake caused half-submerged mangroves to sway and dance. Vasquez's men, armed with Israeli-made Galil assault rifles, saw nothing but a dense green thicket. No go-fasts here. Later, they patrolled the bay that fronts Tumaco - where two men were shot dead execution-style on the main street the previous evening - and spotted a wooden launch carrying a load of 200-litre barrels. Go-fasts use a lot of gas. Even with two dozen 200-litre plastic barrels of fuel on board, they often need to refuel at sea en route to Central America and Mexico. "A go-fast is a gas tank used to transport cocaine," Barrera said, adding that some go-fasts rendezvous with fishing boats at sea and transfer their loads of cocaine. A blue light atop the cabin of Vasquez's patrol boat was flicked on, police-car style, as the coast guard vessel approached the launch, piloted by a scowling man wearing a T-shirt, jeans and blue cap. A coast guardsman in a bulletproof vest under his lifejacket boarded the launch. The barrels were empty, but the man lacked registration papers. The coast guard impounded the boat, parking it at their base in Tumaco alongside two confiscated go-fasts and a fishing boat recently seized with three tonnes of cocaine aboard. "Obviously that guy was headed out to get fuel for a go-fast operation," Vasquez said. "We have just delivered an indirect blow to drug trafficking." -By Andrew Slesky.

NATO Rules Out Strong Role in Middle East

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Oct. 12 he ruled out any prominent role for the alliance in the Middle East in the near future, but left the door open for partnerships with states in the region. "NATO is not going to be actively involved in the many problems facing this region," the chief of the 26-member alliance told reporters in Cairo after a meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit. NATO has for some time been seeking stronger ties in the region, notably through its so-called Mediterranean dialogue which aims to boost ties with Mediterranean-rim countries including Israel. The military alliance insists, however, that it has no designs to become a  political actor in the Middle East. De Hoop Scheffer explained that NATO had no intention of imposing anything on the region, but wanted dialogue and understanding. Egyptian officials said De Hoop Scheffer's discussions with Abul Gheit also covered developments in the region and the need to eliminate all weapons of mass destruction. Abul Gheit said they also discussed the situation in the Palestinian territories, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. He added that they also discussed how NATO can help in the effort to clear mines planted during World War II. The NATO chief arrived in Cairo earlier in the day at the start of a two-day visit to Egypt. He was scheduled to hold talks on Thursday with Egyptian Defense Minister Hussein al-Tantawi.
 

Photo: Natwar Singh says he is shocked by the UN charge.

Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh has been stripped of his post after allegations that he benefited from the UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq. The government said Mr Singh would stay in the cabinet. Premier Manmohan Singh assumes his role pending an inquiry. Natwar Singh and the main party in India's ruling coalition, Congress, were both named in a UN report into the scandal. Both deny any wrongdoing. India's opposition has renewed calls for Mr Singh to be sacked outright. Natwar Singh is a close ally of Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi and as a former ambassador to Pakistan used his contacts to push forward the two countries' peace process. Natwar Singh's removal from the post of foreign minister while his alleged misdealing is investigated came at his own request, according to a government statement. The new minister without portfolio was summoned to an hour-long meeting with the premier on Monday and left without making any comment. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is taking over the foreign minister's portfolio ahead of a regional summit in Bangladesh this weekend, his spokesman said. The government has been deeply embarrassed by the UN report revelations and has moved quickly to contain any political fallout. Its decision to remove Natwar Singh is an uncharacteristically swift response to what is one of the biggest crises it has faced since coming to power, our correspondent says. Many observers had said the foreign minister's position had become untenable. India's main opposition BJP party had demanded his resignation, saying he was unfit to stay in office. It is still pressing for him to leave the cabinet. "He has embarrassed the government. By continuing as minister without portfolio he has earned himself a price for silence," BJP spokesman Arun Jaitley told NDTV television.

Claims dismissed: The UN report, published last Thursday, was written by the former US Federal Reserve chairman, Paul Volcker. It said more than 2,000 firms made illegal payments to Saddam Hussein's government. Under the UN programme, Saddam Hussein's government could sell oil as long as the proceeds were used to buy humanitarian goods. Natwar Singh, who held senior diplomatic posts in previous governments, was not in office in 2001 when he is alleged to have profited from Iraq oil-for-food deal. On Saturday, Mr Singh told the NDTV television channel that the charges had no basis. "I am dismissing [the Volcker report] here on behalf of the Congress Party and as the foreign minister of India." On Monday, the government said a retired Supreme Court judge, RS Pathak, would head the judicial inquiry. Former Indian UN official, Virendra Dayal, has also been appointed to gather information about the charges.
 

The son of a Jewish dressmaker, Harold Pinter wins Nobel literature prize

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- British playwright Harold Pinter, known for his distinctive juxtaposition of the brutal and the banal in such works as The Caretaker and The Room, won the 2005 Nobel Prize in literature Thursday.. Read the full article

German bishop whose homilies denounced Hitler's regime and condemned anti-Semitism beatified at Vatican

VATICAN CITY- A German bishop whose homilies boldly condemned anti-Semitism and other policies of Hitler's Nazi regime was beatified Sunday in a ceremony at St. Peter's Basilica, moving him a step closer to possible sainthood...

South Asia quake kills more than 30,000; Pakistani president appeals for help.

BALAKOT, Pakistan- Villagers desperate to find survivors dug with bare hands Sunday through the debris of a collapsed school where children had been heard crying beneath the rubble after a massive earthquake killed more than 20,000. Pakistani officials said the death toll could go higher, and a provincial official in Kashmir said more than 30,000 died in that province alone. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf called Saturday's magnitude-7.7 earthquake the country's worst on record ...

Suicide bomber wounds four Britons in attack in southern Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A suspected Taliban suicide attacker rammed a car laden with explosives into an armoured vehicle carrying British government officials Sunday in southern Afghanistan, wounding four of them, a U.S.-led coalition commander said. The assault, coming three weeks after landmark legislative elections, underscored the terrorist threat still facing Afghanistan as it slowly moves toward democracy. It also added to fears that insurgents here are copying tactics used in Iraq...

Bird's-eye view of Katrina's fury

Almost two weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck the US Gulf coast, Lesly Curwin accompanies an aerial reconnaissance mission to assess the damage.

 

The Blackhawk helicopter lifted off in a clatter from Baton Rouge airport, flown by pilots of the Texas National Guard.

We flew a hundred miles south towards the ghost city of New Orleans, its downtown skyline shimmering through the morning mist. Lines of green oily water criss-crossed much of the city. Warehouses, car parks, power plants, highways were inundated by the filthy waters. But there were signs below of the gigantic operation to restore the city to life. Chinook helicopters dumped huge sandbags on to the breaches in the concrete defences which failed to protect the city...