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Violence marred India’s annual Republic Day celebrations as blasts shook the insurgency-hit northeast and troops searching for rebels shot dead two civilians in the region, authorities said.
   Soldiers shot dead 10 villagers in the volatile northeast on Wednesday, mistaking some of them for militants, as guerrillas set off several bombs during the celebrations in the region.
   India is marking its founding as a republic in 1950 with military parades, flag-hoisting ceremonies and cultural shows across the country, where security has been tightened to try to curb violence that traditionally mars the day.
   In the northeast, soldiers fired on a crowd of about 5,000 people after they attacked the troops with knives, sticks and stones in the village of Hajo on the outskirts of Guwahati.
   Troops had gone there to hunt for guerrillas believed to be hiding there.
   ‘They thought the militants were in the crowd, but finally when local police identified the bodies, they turned out to be villagers. There were no militants among the victims,’ said police inspector-general, Khagen Sharma.
   Hundreds of policemen have since been sent to the village to prevent more violence, another police officer said.
   In the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, thousands of people in Srinagar, stayed at home in response to a strike called by Muslim separatists to mark Republic Day as a ‘black day’.
   Soldiers patrolled the city, where shops and businesses were closed. Sharpshooters watched from rooftops.
   ‘We have not accepted Indian occupation and will continue our fight for the right of self determination,’ said a statement by a hardline faction of the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference separatist alliance.
   Rebel groups in India often mark Republic Day with attacks and protests to press separatist demands or express anger at a central government they say ignores their needs.
   India’s mountainous northeast is home to hundreds of ethnic groups and dozens of rebel factions, some fighting for greater autonomy, some for an independent homeland.
   In Guwahati, suspected members of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom set off two bombs at a heavily guarded parade ground during Republic Day celebrations but no one was wounded in the blasts.
   Officials went ahead with a flag hoisting and parade ceremonies.
   Police blamed the attacks on the outlawed rebel group which had called for a boycott of Republic Day ceremonies in the oil- and tea-rich state of Assam in its campaign for an independent homeland.
   Elsewhere, two bombs exploded under a culvert in the neighbouring state of Manipur wounding seven people in a car who were on their way to attend a Republic Day ceremony. Police blamed the attack on the People’s Liberation Army which is fighting for secession.
   In the capital New Delhi, a parade showcasing the country’s military might, including nuclear-capable missiles, passed off peacefully under a blanket of security.

The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, has decided to resume political contacts with the Palestinian leadership and curtail its ‘targeted killings’ of militants, a senior official said.
   ‘These political contacts will resume very shortly in the form of phone conversations and meetings,’ a source close to Sharon said.
   Sharon had ordered a freeze to all contacts with the Palestinian Authority on January 14 after a suicide attack in which six Israelis were killed.
   Public radio said that the ties were most likely to resume first through one of Sharon’s chief advisors, Dov Weisglass, who has been a regular point of contact with Palestinian officials in the past.
   Palestinian police began deploying in southern Gaza on Wednesday to prevent attacks on Israelis under orders from the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, witnesses and security sources said.
   Palestinian forces were to complete the deployment of 2,000 troops throughout south Gaza in the next 24 hours under a deal sealed with Israeli commanders at a meeting held at the edge of a Gaza Jewish settlement, Palestinian security sources said.
   About 20 security police took up position at the Tuffah crossing near a Jewish settlement bloc that has been one of the bloodiest flashpoints in a four-year-old revolt by militants in Israeli-occupied territories.
   Dozens of settlers at the Neve Dekalim enclave scuffled with Israeli police at the site where Israeli and Palestinian officers met, their anger at a planned Gaza pullout intensified by the presence of armed Palestinians near their homes.
   Contacts were ordered frozen on January 14 after a suicide attack by Palestinian militants on the Karni border crossing between Gaza and Israel.
   The move cast a cloud over Mahmud Abbas’ inauguration the following day as Sharon warned the moderate former prime minister that he would not be considered a partner in the peace process if he did not act to prevent further such attacks.
   The source close to Sharon said that a second round of security contacts on Tuesday night had taken place in a ‘very positive’ atmosphere and should lead to the deployment of more Palestinian security forces in southern Gaza later in the day.
   ‘This operation is a little more complicated for there will be a necessity to have a tighter level of coordination in order to put an end to the smuggling of weapons in the tunnels between Egypt and Rafah,’ he added.
   Israel has staged a series of deadly offensives in the Rafah region which it said was aimed at putting an end to the smuggling of weapons from under the border with neighbouring Egypt.
   In addition, the source said the Israeli army would stop its policy of targeted killings of Palestinian militants in areas where Palestinian security forces operate effectively.
   ‘We will not launch any liquidation operations in the areas where the Palestinian police can ensure calm and security by preventing attacks by terrorist groups,’ the official said on condition of anonymity.
   ‘On the other hand, the Israeli army will continue to do everything possible to intercept anyone who is regarded as a ticking bomb, who is on the verge of carrying out an attacks if the Palestinians do nothing to arrest them,’ he added.

A major epidemic in the areas hit by last month’s tsunami disaster is ‘very, very unlikely’ thanks to a global effort to help the victims, a top World Health Organisation official said.
   But dangers remained, with the UN Children’s Fund warning that hundreds of thousands of survivors living in makeshift camps risked catching water-borne diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea due to grim toilet facilities.
   UNICEF, however, delivered a different message, warning that heavy rains in the Aceh province of Indonesia in particular had flooded many low-lying camps forcing people to relocate, thus exposing them to a greater risk of sickness.
   ‘Hundreds of thousands of tsunami survivors living in temporary camps face a growing risk of water-borne disease due to flooding of toilets and inadequate numbers of toilets and bathing facilities,’ the agency said.
   In some areas of Aceh, only one person in 1,000 had access to a toilet, while in Sri Lanka, the other country that was worst hit by the tsunami, 35 per cent of people in temporary camps had access to safe sanitation, it noted.
   ‘Rain and over-crowding is making a bad situation worse,’ said UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy.
   ‘Emergency facilities are being over-stretched and construction of new toilets is not keeping up with the demand. Conditions are becoming miserable for families, leaving them little defence against disease.’
   Just after the tsunami was unleashed on December 26, as the death toll hit about 50,000 people, the WHO’s Nabarro had warned that the risk of epidemics threatened to kill more people than the tsunami itself.

Tamil Tiger rebels have recruited at least 40 child soldiers since tsunamis devastated Sri Lanka’s coastline and killed nearly 31,000 people, the United Nations children’s fund said.
   The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam had taken three children from a relief centre for survivors while others had been recruited from areas of the northeast held by the guerrillas, UNICEF said.
   ‘We have 40 cases of confirmed child recruitment since the tsunamis,’ the UNICEF spokesman, Geoffrey Keele, said. ‘We had hoped that with such a disaster the LTTE would have ended this practice. But unfortunately no.’
   A child as young as 13 was among the 22 boys and 18 girls recruited by the Tigers despite repeated international condemnation of the practice. Most of them were aged between 15 and 17.
   Keele said UNICEF was involved in extensive post-tsunami relief operations and had hoped the Tigers would stop taking children into their ranks.
   The UN agency had initially raised the question of 27 children with the Tigers but the figure later rose to 40. There was no immediate response from the rebels, he said.
   Tiger guerrillas were not immediately available for comment but have in the past denied recruiting children. They have said they are providing food and shelter to poor children.
   Troops and rebels have been observing a truce since February 2002 despite a breakdown in peace negotiations since April 2003.

Men and women in developing nations are marrying later, having fewer children and having them later in life, UN demographers reported on Tuesday.
   As a result of these trends, average fertility in poor countries has for the first time fallen below three children per woman, according to the latest data from the UN Population Division, which looked at 192 countries for its latest report on population trends.
   Fertility in the developing world today averages around 2.9 children per woman, the division reported.
   In 20 developing nations, fertility has fallen below 2.1 children per woman, the birth rate generally seen by population experts as replacement-level fertility.
   Nearly a quarter of all women aged 25 to 29 years old were single in the 1990s compared to 15 per cent in the 1970s, according to the new report. Among men in the same age group, 44 per cent
   were unmarried in the 1990s compared to 32 per cent two decades earlier, the report said.
   It did not give figures on the ages of first-time parents but said they were having children later than in the past.
   In a major shift, UN demographers had reported three years ago that fertility rates in much of Asia, Africa and Latin America had unexpectedly begun dropping, easing fears of a future global population explosion that would leave the world overcrowded and short of needed resources.
   In a sign the trend was accelerating, the demographers predicted two years ago that fertility in most of the developing world would fall below the replacement level before the end of the 21st century.
   In a related trend, use of contraceptives has jumped around the world, with 52 per cent of all women either married or in a long-term relationship using some kind of birth control in the 1990s, up from 38 per cent in the 1970s.
   In developing nations, the percentage of women in some sort of union using contraception rose to 40 per cent in the 1990s compared to 27 per cent in the 1970s, the report found.
   Government policies have played a key role in bringing down fertility rates, the report said. By 2001, 92 per cent of the world’s countries
   supported family planning and distributed contraceptives, it said.
   While 75 per cent of governments distributed them directly through government facilities, 17 per cent distributed them indirectly, through
   private organisations such as family planning associations, it found.

The historic agreement between Taiwan and China to allow direct flights over the Lunar New Year does not mean negotiations between the rival sides have resumed, Beijing made clear.
   The charter flights which begin on January 29 will be the first direct ones between mainland China and Taiwan since 1949, not counting the defection of military aircraft or highjacked airplanes.
   ‘The Lunar New Year chartered flights are to fully show consideration for the interests of Taiwan compatriots and to make their return home convenient, safe and comfortable,’ said China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Li Weiyi.
   ‘In no way does it mean that cross-strait negotiations have resumed.’
   He further called on Taiwan to accept Beijing’s version of the ‘one China policy,’ while accusing the Taiwan president, Chen Shui-bian, of fomenting independence activities.
   In 2004, Chen ‘twisted the will of the Taiwan people, incited hostile sentiments on the mainland and did his utmost to challenge the fact that the mainland and Taiwan belong to one China,’ Li said.
   ‘Taiwan independences pose a threat to peace and stability across the straits and in the Asia-Pacific region,’ he added, referring to Beijing’s insistence that ‘Taiwan independence means war.’

The Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said he wants his country to have a stronger and better equipped military to be able to deal with events such as the tsunami disaster.
   Indonesia’s armed forces, frequently criticised for human rights abuses despite losing much of the power they once wielded under former dictator Suharto, struggled to cope in the tsunami aftermath, relying on foreign help.
   ‘We are being challenged to build stronger armed forces,’ Yudhoyono was quoted as saying by the state Antara news agency.
   ‘If we had a stronger military, we could have done a lot more,’ he added.
   Foreign military warships and aircraft proved crucial in efforts to bring aid to survivors of the December 26 disaster stranded on remote coastlines, although fiercely independent Indonesia has encouraged them to leave swiftly.

Already under heavy the US pressure, the elections in Iraq pose a strategic headache for Damascus and could bolster a pro-Western enemy or decentralise a neighbour capable of destabilising Syria.
   Given Syria’s deep hostility to the massive US military presence along its eastern border, analysts fear Sunday’s elections could sever the already strained ties between Damascus and Baghdad.
   Washington and the interim Iraqi government have repeatedly accused Syria and its regional ally, Iran, of allowing guerrillas to cross into Iraq in a bid to block the emergence of a pro-American regime.
   Damascus has routinely denied the charges, but internal power games within the last remaining Baathist regime after the fall of Saddam Hussein and its reluctance to toe the US line have produced a deeply confused Iraq policy.
   ‘The situation in Iraq threatens Syria, not only because of the presence of American troops, but also because of the consequences of this war,’ the president, Bashar al-Assad, announced on Tuesday in Moscow.
   The 2003 US-led invasion to remove Saddam dramatically altered Middle East geopolitics. Hand-in-hand with economic sanctions on Syria for purportedly bankrolling terrorism, Damascus has fast emerged as the region’s new victim.

Malaysia, which chairs the world’s biggest grouping of Muslim countries, has warned that the United States will stand alone in the world if it attacks Iran.
   The world community, including allies of the United States, is opposed to any such action by the superpower, the prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, said on his return from a trip to Paris late Tuesday.
   ‘Europe does not agree, the United States’ close ally Britain does not agree, and I believe no one else will agree,’ said Abdullah, who chairs the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference.
   ‘The Islamic world will definitely not agree to an attack on Iran,’ he said.
   ‘Talks should instead be held and made a priority, rather than military action.’
   The US president, George W Bush – who once lumped Iran in an ‘axis of evil’ with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and North Korea – said last week he could not rule out using force if Tehran failed to rein in its nuclear plans.
   Iran, which denies wishing to acquire a nuclear bomb, in November, announced the suspension of its nuclear enrichment programme following protracted talks with Britain, France and Germany.
   In mid-December, the three countries again took up talks with Tehran to try to conclude a long-term deal whereby the Iranians would definitively give up any ambitions of producing a nuclear weapon.
   The Iranian president, Mohammad Khatami, responding to comments by a senior US official that Iran tops the list of world trouble spots, said on Wednesday the United States was the country which most endangered global peace.
   Tensions between Tehran and Washington, which broke diplomatic ties in 1980, have heightened in recent days as US officials have taken an increasingly tough line on the Islamic state.
   ‘You look around the world at potential trouble spots, Iran is right at the top of the list,’ the vice president, Dick Cheney, said last week on the day George W Bush was sworn in for a second four-year term as president.
   Khatami, speaking to reporters after a meeting with Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, responded in kind.
   ‘We say that America is at the top of the list of countries which are endangering world peace and security and we hope that one day they come to their senses,’ he said, adding he thought a change in US policy was very unlikely.
   Iranian officials have been quick to stress that Tehran would respond vigorously to any military attack by the United States or Israel, which Cheney said may decide to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Democrats doled out harsh criticism of Condoleezza Rice for her role in crafting US policy in Iraq as the US Senate weighed her nomination for secretary of state.
   One day ahead of what lawmakers concede will be Rice’s nearly certain confirmation to the post, Democrats insisted that to rubberstamp her promotion from White House national security adviser to chief US diplomat would be to tacitly endorse a failed US foreign and security policy.
   ‘There is no doubt that Dr Rice has impressive credentials. Her life story is very moving and she has extensive experience in foreign policy,’ Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy said.
   ‘But this nomination is different because of the war in Iraq. Dr Rice was a key member of the national security team that developed and justified the rationale for war that has been a catastrophic failure – a continuing quagmire.’
   ‘In these circumstances, she should not be promoted to secretary of state,’ Kennedy said.
   Rice, 50, was overwhelmingly approved last week by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to succeed the outgoing secretary of state, Colin Powell, after two days of tough questioning that covered a wide array of foreign policy issues.
   Several Democrats accused her of misleading the US public on Iraq’s nuclear threat, fudging the state of readiness of Iraqi security forces and failing to take a stand on the use of torture against terror suspects.
   Senator Barbara Boxer, the most outspoken critic of Rice’s nomination, repeated earlier criticism of what she said were conflicting – if not outright deceptive – statements by Rice in the weeks leading up to the Iraq war.
   ‘This is a secretary of state nominee in a time of war–I’m asking her to correct the record on her own statements, and she has not done that,’ Boxer told CNN television shortly before the floor debate began.
   The California Democrat said the human toll of the Iraq war alone made Rice’s nomination deserving of intense scrutiny.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said it was ‘very worried’ about plans by the Conservative Party to limit admission of asylum seekers to 15,000 a year.
   Conservative leader Michael Howard announced Monday that Britain would pull out of the 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees and impose an annual quota on people claiming political asylum if his Conservative Party took power.
   ‘We would be very worried if a country like Britain was to withdraw, this could be extremely counterproductive, it could produce a domino effect, it would send an extraordinary message to developing countries that host hundreds of thousands of refugees on their soil,’ the spokesman, Rupert Colville, said.
   ‘We are very concerned that any attempt to undermine the convention in this way might have a really damaging effect on the whole worldwide system of asylum and this would be very counterproductive,’ he added. ‘We find it a rather alarming plan.’
   In addition to wanting to scrap Britain’s international obligations on asylum and introduce limits on the number of refugees allowed in, Howard also suggested introducing an Australian-style points system for economic migrants.
   Colville was especially critical of Howard’s proposal for quotas.
   ‘If you take 15,000 people, what about the 15,001st who knocks on the door who’s fleeing a modern-day Adolf Hitler and you say sorry the quota’s full,’ he said.
   He deplored the fact that the 1951 convention was ‘increasingly being used as a scapegoat for problems in domestic asylum systems, that it is being used as a political football.’
   He said the numbers of asylum seekers had fallen by more than half in two years in Britain but added: ‘unfortunately the heat in the debate has not fallen in tandem with that.’

Investigators probing allegations of impropriety in the United Nations’ Iraqi oil-for-food programme questioned the secretary general, Kofi Annan, about his involvement twice last year and again Tuesday, a UN spokesman said.
   Annan met with former Fed Chairman, Paul Volcker and his investigators November 9 and again December 3, spokesman Fred Eckhard said. A third meeting took place Tuesday afternoon, but Volcker, who spoke to reporters as he left the United Nations, would not give details.
   Volcker’s panel had been expected to release a preliminary report in late January, but he said Tuesday it would come out in early February. ‘We’re going to have a report shortly,’ he said. ‘All I can tell you is waiting for the report to come out.’
   The Independent Inquiry Committee is investigating whether UN administrators took bribes and allowed Saddam Hussein to skim money from the oil-for-food programme. Begun in December 1996, the programme allowed Saddam’s regime to sell unlimited quantities of oil on condition the money went primarily to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian goods for Iraqis and pay reparations to victims of the 1991 Gulf War.
   Tuesday was the first time UN officials confirmed Annan had met with Volcker’s panel, though it had been expected.
   ‘The secretary-general is part of the investigation, is a subject like anyone else involved in oil-for-food at the secretariat,’ Eckhard said.
   One element of the investigation is Annan’s son Kojo, who worked in Africa for a Swiss company that had a contract under the oil-for-food programme. Kojo Annan, who denies any involvement in wrongdoing, received payments for more than four years after his job ended.

The British prime minister, Tony Blair, faces the threat of an election pact between Fathers 4 Justice, UKIP and the Countryside Alliance.
   The fathers’ rights group behind a series of high-profile stunts is in talks with the anti-European Union party about how to maximise their showing in the poll expected on May 5.
   And there has been initial contact with the pro-hunting lobby that could mean a co-ordinated campaign of direct action against Labour in the run-up to the contest, founder Matt O’Connor said.
   ‘There is the possibility of an alliance of groups coming together and forming a strategy to impact on Labour,’ O’Connor said.
   ‘Any one of these parties or groupings does not necessarily have the muscle on their own.
   ‘But if we see the Countryside Alliance, UKIP and Fathers 4 Justice working together it becomes a very different animal - and an animal with teeth.’
   Usually dressed as superheroes, Fathers 4 Justice campaigners have gained notoriety for stunts including scaling Buckingham Palace.
   One member even handcuffed himself to Children’s Minister Margaret Hodge.

The number of AIDS patients receiving life-extending drugs in poor countries has jumped to 700,000 from 440,000 six months ago, UN agencies said on Wednesday, but warned much more needed to be done.
   The figure only amounted to 12 per cent of the estimated 5.8 million adults needing antiretroviral therapy in developing and transitional countries, they said.
   Enormous barriers remained, including a $2-billion funding gap, to reaching a target of three million people by the end of 2005, according to the ‘Progress Report’ on the UN initiative known as ‘Three by Five.’ About 38 million people worldwide, including 25 million in sub-Saharan Africa, are living with HIV/AIDS.
   Compiled by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), which set the goal on World AIDS Day 2003, the report was being presented to the annual gathering of world and business leaders at the Swiss resort of Davos.
   Patients receive drugs through national programs, aid agencies, the private sector, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the US president’s Emergency Plan for AIDS relief, the World Bank and other partners.

China ignores
peace overture
from Taiwan
China ignored incoming Taiwan Prime Minister Frank Hsieh’s pledge to seek reconciliation with the mainland, noting his appointment but refusing to comment. Hsieh was appointed yesterday after former premier Yu Shyi-kun and his cabinet resigned en masse following the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s defeat in December’s parliamentary election. ‘I will form a cabinet of stability to seek domestic political stability, cross-strait peace and greater benefits for the people through talks and negotiations with the goal of seeking co-existence and reconciliation,’ Hsieh said. ‘As President Chen Shui-bian has said... we have to stand united in order to start negotiations with the other side (China) and solve the cross-strait issues.’

Seven Pakistanis
shot dead
Seven people were shot dead in a tribal area of northwest Pakistan on Wednesday when two clans decided to settle scores in the middle of a crowded bazaar, officials said. The police said four pedestrians were caught in the crossfire and three of the tribesmen also died when a land dispute turned violent in Mir Ali district near Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan. The two tribes quarrelled late Tuesday over the plot of farmland in Aapy village and ‘after exchanging hot words they agreed to show their power in Mir Ali’s main bazaar on Wednesday,’ local official Mohammad Jamil said. The groups met at the appointed time and opened fire on each other.

Malaysian TV runs anti-terror campaign
A coalition of non-governmental organisations in mainly-Muslim Malaysia, headed by a son of the former premier, Mahathir Mohamad, is running a series of television advertisements denouncing terrorism as un-Islamic. ‘Violence dishonours faith,’ say the clips, produced by the coalition known as Peace Malaysia, which was set up in January 2003 ahead of the US invasion of Iraq. A baby boy is featured in one of the segments aired on private television channel TV3 during primetime news bulletins. It shows him growing up and graduating from university, turning to militant activities and dying in conflict. Islam tells its believers not to kill children, women, the elderly and people in places of religious worship during combat, says another advertisement.

India to launch
two lunar missions
by 2015
If India’s first lunar mission scheduled for 2007 is successful, it will launch another one by 2015, the head of the country’s space programme has said. ‘ISRO will undertake more lunar missions if the first one turns out to be successful. In fact, we propose to launch two lunar missions before 2015,’ P Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, said on Tuesday. He said preparations were on track for the first mission called Chandrayan-I or Moon Vehicle I. ‘We have completed all design activities and we our now in the process of building special instruments,’ Nair told reporters.
— AP

No Cyprus troop pullout without
deal: Turky
A top Turkish general has said Turkey would not withdraw any troops from Cyprus until a comprehensive settlement has been reached on the divided island. Pulling back some of the 30,000 troops Turkey keeps in the northern third of Cyprus are seen as a goodwill gesture to revive a UN peace process to reunite the island before Turkey begins European Union accession talks in October. However, the influential military and other parts of Turkey’s conservative establishment could prove reluctant to cede ground after the last UN-brokered effort collapsed in April when Greek Cypriots rejected a UN plan in a public referendum.
— AP

More autonomy offered to Georgian separatists
The Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili, on Tuesday unveiled a peace plan his government has drafted granting more autonomy to the separatist republic of South Ossetia.’ Our plan calls for a constitutional guarantee of this autonomy, a status that includes the right for a local government elected freely and directly that would include an executive branch and a parliament,’ Saakashvili said in a speech before parliamentarians of the Council of Europe. However, he did not raise the issue of Abkhazia, another separatist republic, saying that ‘would be of no use’. ‘They walked out of the negotiations and we no longer have an interlocutor to pursue negotiations,’ he said, adding that situation was unacceptable.
— AP

Families to visit Guantanamo four
The four Britons freed from US custody in Guantanamo Bay are expected to be allowed a visit by one relative. Moazzam Begg, Martin Mubanga, Feroz Abbasi and Richard Belmar were held for three years, accused of al-Qaeda links. Begg’s father, Azmat, said he had been told he could see his son for 20 minutes and would say he was ‘a hero’. The men are being held at London’s Paddington Green police station, where they are expected to be questioned by UK anti-terror officers. But Louise Christian, the lawyer representing Abbasi and Mubanga, said the families would be reunited with the men away from the station. Before being driven by police from Birmingham to London, Azmat Begg said he was concerned for his son Moazzam’s mental state and was looking forward to giving him a hug.
— AP

African envoy seized in Moscow
Moscow-based students from the African state of Guinea Bissau are holding their country’s ambassador hostage in a dispute over unpaid student grants. Russian television showed footage of up to 100 students in the embassy, who said they would continue their protest until all debts owed to them were paid. They said the 200-odd Guinea Bissau students in Russia had not received their $60-a-month stipends for a year. Diplomat Rogerio Herbert said the students’ demands had been passed on. The Soviet authorities invited large numbers of Third World students to study free in the USSR, as a means of winning influence abroad.
— Reuters

5 killed in Mexican helicopters crash
Five Mexican soldiers were killed and three wounded Tuesday when two military helicopters collided in flight near Mexico City, military authorities said. The two Russian-made MI-17 helicopters were on a training flight around 11:20am when they collided as both were descending towards the Santa Lucia military base, officials said. Witnesses told local media that both aircraft caught fire before hitting the ground. Officials said the cause of the crash was still under investigation. It was the third crash of a Mexican military helicopter in less than four months.
— AP