Weekly Round Up: Insane Hussein To Be Hanged, Bush Tells His New Man In Iraq "You Are Not Our Puppet" And Famous Painting Sold For Peanuts!

WOW! It’s been another chaotic week in the world of politics. The main focus of the week is the news that Saddam Hussein and his associates being sentenced to be hanged by an Iraqi judge, Meanwhile Nouri al-Maliki told US ambassador to Iraq, "I am a friend of the United States, but I am not America's man in Iraq." In response President Bush reaffirmed the world that al-Maliki was not Washington’s puppet. We also had the news that 101 US soldiers died in Iraq during the month of October and the Army Times, an influential military newspaper is to call for the resignation of his Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld putting more strain on George Bush and the Republican Party. And to finish the week we had the news of the Evangelist Rev. Ted Haggard (senior pastor of the megachurch) being sacked because he lied and had committed "sexually immoral conduct.

Here’s the rest of the news from around the world...

North America
1999 War Games Foresaw Problems in Iraq
The U.S. government conducted a series of secret war games in 1999 that anticipated an invasion of Iraq would require 400,000 troops, and even then chaos might ensue.

The documents came to light Saturday through a Freedom of Information Act request by the George Washington University's National Security Archive, an independent research institute and library.

"The conventional wisdom is the U.S. mistake in Iraq was not enough troops," said Thomas Blanton, the archive's director. "But the Desert Crossing war game in 1999 suggests we would have ended up with a failed state even with 400,000 troops on the ground."

There are currently about 144,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, down from a peak of about 160,000 in January.

US general says Abu Ghraib forced him out
The former top US commander in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, has blamed the Abu Ghraib prison scandal for his early retirement at the age of 55.
"That's the key reason, the sole reason, that I was forced to retire," Gen Sanchez told the Monitor, a Texas newspaper.

General Sanchez, the senior US military officer in Iraq in 2003-04, was effectively exonerated along with several other officers after a US Army investigation last year. But his early retirement after a 33-year career indicates that he had become an embarrassment to the top brass. "I was essentially not offered another position in either a three-star or four-star command," he said.

The only senior officer recommended for punishment after last year's investigation was Brigadier General Janis Karpinksi, who was in charge of Abu Ghraib at the time. She was formally relieved of her command and demoted to colonel.

Although Gen Sanchez was cleared of wrongdoing, human rights groups have strongly criticised him and senior administration officials over Abu Ghraib.

Human Rights Watch said Gen Sanchez approved illegal interrogation methods, including the use of guard dogs to frighten prisoners, which were then applied by soldiers at Abu Ghraib.

Ex-Chief at Software Maker Gets 12-Year Prison Term
The former chief executive of Computer Associates International was sentenced to 12 years in prison for orchestrating a huge accounting fraud at the world’s fifth-largest software maker.

Sanjay Kumar, 44, was also sentenced to 24 years of supervised release and an $8 million fine in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. Since pleading guilty to securities fraud and obstruction of justice charges, he faced 20 years in prison, though sentencing guidelines provided a maximum of lifetime imprisonment.

The presiding judge, I. Leo Glasser, described that as excessive. But Judge Glasser repeatedly rebuked Mr. Kumar for helping to inflate the company’s sales in 1999 and 2000.

Seven other Computer Associates executives have pleaded guilty to fraud charges as well. Stephen Richards, the company’s former top salesman, pleaded guilty in April alongside Mr. Kumar; he is to be sentenced on Nov. 14.

US voting machine firm: Probe will show no ties to Chavez
A US company that makes touch-screen voting machines said it requested a federal investigation to dispel what it called baseless rumors of ties to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is a frequent critic of the Bush administration.

Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. said it asked the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, to investigate it and its parent software company, the Smartmatic Corp. The request comes after news articles suggested improper ties.

"Sequoia and Smartmatic are not connected, owned or controlled by the Venezuelan government whatsoever," Jeff Bialos, a Washington attorney representing the two firms, said in a telephone interview.

The focus is on last year's acquisition of Sequoia by Smartmatic - a Boca Raton, Florida company owned by three Venezuelans - and whether Chavez's leftist government wields influence over their operations.

The probe's disclosure by the companies comes days before the Nov. 7 congressional elections, and amid growing concern about the reliability of electronic voting machines.

Russia, France overtake US as top arms sellers
The United States has ceded to Russia and France last year its role of the top arms supplier to the developing world as it failed to take full advantage of emerging markets and opportunities created by booming oil prices, according to a new congressional study.

The annual report by the Congressional Research Service showed the US share of the arms transfer market dropped from 35.4 percent to 20.5 percent between 2004 and 2005.

Russia's rise to the pinnacle of the world arms business was fueled by its booming trade with two emerging Asian giants -- Indian and China -- as well as Iran, a controversial client whose buying power was nonetheless greatly enhanced by high oil prices.

While noting that China's 2005 arms sales total was a modest 2.1 billion dollars, the report pointed out that Iran and North Korea were reportedly among clients receiving Chinese missile technology.

But although Russia is now the biggest weapons supplier to the developing world, the report also showed that the biggest arms dealer on the planet remains the United States. It made arms deals last year worth a total of $12.8bn and was involved in almost one third of all transactions.

Top exporters (Deals with governments in developing world)
* RUSSIA $7bn
* FRANCE $6.3bn
* UNITED STATES $6.2bn
* UNITED KINGDOM $2.8bn

Pollock's 'No. 5, 1948' commands record price for a painting
When Jackson Pollock, the troubled and alcoholic American painter, dribbled paint on to a bare board laid on the floor of his Long Island studio nearly 60 years ago, he may or may not have wondered what kind of money might one day be paid for it. If he did, he surely never would have dreamed in millions.

This week news emerged that one of the largest paintings Pollock completed - unromantically entitled No. 5, 1948 - has quietly changed hands for no less a sum than $140m (£73.35m).

The person alleged to have offloaded the picture, which measures 4ft by 8ft (1.2 by 2.4m), is David Geffen, a Los Angeles entertainment tycoon. The buyer, according to The New York Times, was Mexican, David Martinez, the founder of London-based Fintech Advisory Ltd, a financial house that specialises in buying Third World debt and which has a New York branch, has long been an avid art collector.

South America
U.S. involvement sparks dispute in Nicaragua race
The United States has kicked up a new storm in Nicaragua, one of its Cold War battlefields, over its efforts to derail former Marxist revolutionary Daniel Ortega's latest bid to return to power.

In the final stages of the today’s election race, a string of U.S. officials have publicly voiced concerns about Ortega, saying a victory for him could hit U.S. aid and investment.

Many Nicaraguans are fuming at what they say are blatant attempts to scare them away from voting for Ortega, whose Sandinista rebel army came to power in 1979 and fought U.S.-funded Contra rebels in a 1980s civil war.

"They're terrorizing people by saying aid and remittances will be cut off. But people have a right to elect whoever they want," said Mario Estrada, 44, a veteran of the revolution who was paralyzed at age 15 by a bullet in his spine.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack rejected accusations of U.S. meddling. "We're not trying to shade opinion or to try to take a position," McCormack said in Washington.

U.S. pressure played a key role in the 1990 election when Ortega was toppled from power by war-weary voters and it helped block his return in the past two presidential votes.

Interference in Nicaragua goes back long before Ortega. Some of the first U.S. boots to march here belonged to the ragtag mercenary army of illegal military adventurer William Walker, who briefly declared himself Nicaragua's president in 1856.

Washington deployed Marines here in the early 1900s and deposed unfriendly presidents.

"We threw rocks at William Walker - we should do the same now," people muttered. "They always interfere in our elections. They act as if we're illiterate."

Brazil's leftist president re-elected
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won a landslide victory giving him a powerful mandate to press his anti-poverty campaign, but corruption scandals dogging his leftist party and thinner support in Congress could mar his second term.

Silva's re-election to another four years Sunday reflected the support of tens of millions of poor Brazilians who rewarded him for easing poverty while improving the economy in Latin America's biggest nation.

Beaming as he wore a white T-shirt emblazoned with "It's Brazil's Victory," Silva promised to boost growth and reduce Brazil's wide gap between the rich and poor.

"We're going to do a lot better in my second term than we did in the first," Silva said following his victory over center-right rival Geraldo Alckmin, the former Sao Paulo state governor.

After repeatedly denying knowledge of corruption allegations that slammed his Workers' Party during the campaign, Silva acknowledged the party faces a tough road ahead and must regain the prestige it once enjoyed as Brazil's most ethical party.

New photos show Castro standing, talking
Photographs of Fidel Castro standing and talking on the phone were published last Sunday in Cuba's state-run media, a day after the ailing leader appeared in a video to dispel rumors he was on his deathbed.

The Communist Youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde dedicated its front page to the Cuban president, printing a blown-up picture of a pensive Castro with the title "Always fighting for something, and fighting with optimism!"

The 80-year-old Cuban leader, who temporarily ceded power to his brother Raul in July following intestinal surgery, had not been seen since mid-September when photographs of him receiving world leaders at a summit in Havana were released.

Castro, dressed in a red, white and blue track suit, said he was trying to help those currently in charge of the government as much as he could while he recovers.

Europe
British lawmakers reject Iraq probe
The proposal called for British lawmakers to hold an examination of policy in Iraq similar to the review in the United States being led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III.

Lawmakers voted 298-273 against the motion put forward by Welsh and Scottish nationalists, who had demanded a swift examination of the deteriorating security situation in Iraq.

A dozen members of Blair's Labour Party voted for the inquiry, in a further blow to his authority, already challenged by poor municipal election results, rifts within the party and a parliamentary defeat on anti-terror legislation.

The rebellion, however, was relatively small compared to others Blair has suffered.

Defense Secretary Des Browne said after the vote that there would eventually be an inquiry into the war, a promise that went further than other government officials' more noncommittal comments earlier in the day.

Menezes family 'horrified' by new police shooting
The family of the Brazilian electrician killed in London after being mistaken for a terrorist reacted with fury to reports that one of the police marksman involved in his death has shot dead another man.

The firearms officer involved in the latest shooting - of a suspected armed robber - was one of two men who shot Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Tube station in July last year. The two officers were cleared to return to full operational duties in July this year after the Crown Prosecution Service decided no individual officers should be charged.

In the latest incident, a team from Scotland Yard's CO19 firearms unit were supporting detectives as they tried to stop a raid on the Nationwide building society in New Romney, Kent, on Tuesday night. A 42-year-old man who allegedly opened fire on officers was shot during the operation and died later in hospital.

A spokeswoman for the family of Mr Menezes said the relatives had "expressed shock and disbelief at the news that officers involved in the killing of Jean Charles have killed again. Family members were horrified to learn that the same officers have been given a licence to kill again even before the investigative process into Jean's death is complete."

The Independent Police Complaints Commission has launched an investigation into the Romney shooting. Scotland Yard refused to confirm details of who was involved in the incident.

Berlusconi, British lawyer Mills to face trial for corruption
Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi faces trial in yet another corruption scandal, along with British lawyer David Mills, a Milan judge decided.

Fabio Paparella decided to try the flamboyant Berlusconi along with Mills, 61, over a 600,000 dollar (465,000 euro) payment the former premier made to the British lawyer allegedly in exchange for favourable evidence in two corruption trials.

The trial will begin on March 13 next year. The prosecutors say they can prove that the payment, made in 1997 by Berlusconi's family firm Fininvest, served to persuade Mills, the estranged husband of British Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, to give false evidence during two trials relating to Berlusconi's business dealings. Mills and Jowell officially separated in March.

Berlusconi already faces trial - also through Paparella's efforts - on charges of tax fraud, false accounting and misuse of company assets in July. That trial is to begin November 21.

Another 13 people were also sent for trial for fraud in connection with the purchase of film rights in the United States by Berlusconi's Mediaset broadcasting company.

Cases related to Berlusconi's business dealings have landed him in court for eight separate trials on charges including corruption, tax fraud, false accounting and illegally financing political parties.

Among the most serious charges against him were allegations of bribing judges in business deals.

German troops 'had WWII symbol'
A German magazine has published a photograph showing a wartime symbol on a vehicle allegedly used by German troops bound for Afghanistan.

The defence ministry is investigating the photograph, published on Thursday in the weekly magazine Stern.

It follows the recent scandal of photographs of German soldiers posing with human skulls and skeletons.

Now a new photograph in Stern shows a vehicle with a palm tree and an iron cross painted onto it. The symbol is reminiscent of that used by the German Wehrmacht commander General Erwin Rommel - the "Desert Fox" - in North Africa during World War II.

The defence ministry has promised another investigation. The recent scandals have sparked a fierce debate in Germany about whether the army here is ready to take on a greater role abroad.

Report: Former Nazi convicted in Italy
An Italian military tribunal on Friday convicted an 86-year-old former Nazi officer in absentia in the 1944 killings of 10 civilians, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

ANSA said that Heinrich Nordhorn, who lives in Germany and didn't attend the war crimes trial in La Spezia, was sentenced to life imprisonment for involvement in the hanging of 10 Italians in retaliation for attacks near Forli which had wounded two Germans, one of them fatally.

Courts were closed Friday night in La Spezia, a port city in northern Italy, and lawyers for civilian groups which attached a civil lawsuit to the criminal case could not immediately be reached for comment.

Ten citizens from Forli were killed "without need and without any justified motive" by a platoon led by Nordhorm, ANSA quoted the military court as ruling.

An Italian civilian who was forced by the Germans to witness the hangings was among those testifying at the trial, the report said. The hangings occurred during German occupation of Italy during World War II.

Serb war criminal is given asylum in Britain
A Serb convicted of war crimes is living in Britain after being granted asylum by the Home Office, it emerged.

Milan Spanovic, 44, is wanted in Croatia, where he was convicted in his absence in 1993 for taking part in an "ethnic cleansing" attack on a village. But since 1998, the married father of three has been living in a council house in suburban Carshalton, Surrey.

Despite the existence of an international warrant for his arrest, he was granted indefinite leave to remain by the Home Office four years ago.

Interpol was only alerted that Mr Spanovic was in Britain five months ago when an officer at Sutton police station ran a routine computer check on him after he was cautioned for shoplifting at a department store in Sutton shopping centre.

He now faces extradition to Croatia to serve a 20-year prison term, but his case raises fresh questions about the checks applied by officials for asylum in Britain.

Mr Spanovic applied for asylum immediately on his arrival in Britain in 1998. The Croatian government claims to have issued an arrest warrant in 1995 and to have renewed it in February 2004.

Observers: Serbs OK new constitution
Serbian voters have approved a new constitution reasserting Serbia's claim over the breakaway Kosovo province, independent observers and Serbia's prime minister.

The Belgrade-based Center for Free Elections and Democracy said their sample count after polls closed in the two-day vote indicated that 96 percent of those who participated in the referendum supported the draft charter.

At least 50 percent of the country's 6.6 million voters had to participate for the results to be valid and the group estimated turnout at 53.3 percent.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica congratulated the country on its new constitution. "This is a great moment for Serbia," Kostunica told Serbian television. "This is a historic moment, a beginning of a new era for Serbia."

The referendum had been strongly condemned by the ethnic Albanians, who have long boycotted any ballot under Serb auspices.

Western diplomats have warned that only the international negotiations can decide on Kosovo's future, but Belgrade politicians claim adopting the new constitution would bolster their position in the talks.

Serbia's opposition Liberal Party claimed there was "massive fraud" at polling stations in the final hours of voting, with individuals allegedly voting several times and without identification papers.

Thousands of Students "Join Sex Trade to Fund Degrees"
Increasing numbers of young women in France are turning to sex work to help pay the bills while they are at university, according to one of the country's leading students' unions.

According to the SUD-Etudiant union, 40,000 students in France - or nearly 2 per cent - fund their studies through the sex trade.

The union says jobs taken by female students include hostess work and freelancing for escort agencies - as well as pavement prostitution. Many, it says, use secure payment sites on the internet through which they offer webcam striptease.

"As a rule, student prostitution is an individual and occasional activity," said a spokeswoman for the Office Central de la Répression de la Traite des Etres Humains, an anti-slavery group. "It is discreet, difficult to track and not a crime in itself."

The students' union admits the phenomenon is hard to quantify. But when its members carried out a sample survey at Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, they concluded that 545 out of 30,000 students had at some point worked in the sex industry.

Police are sceptical about the figures quoted by the student union. They say there are many more prostitutes pretending to be French students than there are students selling sex in pursuit of their degrees.

Middle East
Iran fires missiles in gulf war games
Iran has started military exercises in the Arabian gulf just days after six other nations, including the United States, held a series of exercises in the same area.

Iranian state television reported on Thursday: "Dozens of missiles were fired including Shahab-2 and Shahab-3 missiles. The missiles had ranges from 300km up to 2,000km."

The television station said that the military manoeuvres, named Great Prophet Two, would last until November 11 and include drills in the gulf and Sea of Oman, and would be a show of defensive strength.

General Yahya Rahim Safavi, commander of the Revolutionary Guards, was quoted as saying: "The war games are aimed at demonstrating the deterrent power of the [Iranian Revolutionary] guards against possible threats."

Safavi said the drills were not a threat to Iran's neighbours.

"Our neighbours are our friends," he said. "The guards just want to prove that they ready to resist in any threatening situation."

Mystery of Israel's secret uranium bomb
Did Israel use a secret new uranium-based weapon in southern Lebanon this summer in the 34-day assault that cost more than 1,300 Lebanese lives, most of them civilians?

We know that the Israelis used American "bunker-buster" bombs on Hizbollah's Beirut headquarters. We know that they drenched southern Lebanon with cluster bombs in the last 72 hours of the war, leaving tens of thousands of bomblets which are still killing Lebanese civilians every week. And we now know - after it first categorically denied using such munitions - that the Israeli army also used phosphorous bombs, weapons which are supposed to be restricted under the third protocol of the Geneva Conventions, which neither Israel nor the United States have signed.

But scientific evidence gathered from at least two bomb craters in Khiam and At-Tiri, the scene of fierce fighting between Hizbollah guerrillas and Israeli troops last July and August, suggests that uranium-based munitions may now also be included in Israel's weapons inventory - and were used against targets in Lebanon.

Enriched uranium is produced from natural uranium ore and is used as fuel for nuclear reactors. A waste product of the enrichment process is depleted uranium, it is an extremely hard metal used in anti-tank missiles for penetrating armour. Depleted uranium is less radioactive than natural uranium, which is less radioactive than enriched uranium.

Israel has a poor reputation for telling the truth about its use of weapons in Lebanon. In 1982, it denied using phosphorous munitions on civilian areas - until journalists discovered dying and dead civilians whose wounds caught fire when exposed to air.

Asked by The Independent if the Israeli army had been using uranium-based munitions in Lebanon this summer, Mark Regev, the Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, said: "Israel does not use any weaponry which is not authorised by international law or international conventions."

White House Sees Signs of Plot in Lebanon
In an unusual statement, the White House said it was “increasingly concerned by mounting evidence that the Syrian and Iranian governments, Hezbollah and their Lebanese allies are preparing plans to topple Lebanon’s democratically elected government.”

In the White House statement, issued by President Bush’s press secretary, Tony Snow, the administration said there were “indications” that Syria was trying to block passage of a statute by the Lebanese Parliament that would cooperate with an international tribunal being put together to try those accused of involvement in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. In a warning to Syria, the statement said the tribunal would be established “no matter what happens in Lebanon.”

Syrian intelligence officials, including close family members of President Bashar al-Assad, have been implicated in the attack. Syria has denied being involved in the attack in February 2005, which ultimately led to protests that forced Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon after nearly three decades.

Kazakhstan reveals intentions to invest in Israeli oil refinery in Haifa
The government of Kazakhstan is looking into buying shares of the Haifa Oil Refineries in an effort to diversify their economic involvement around the world and to strengthen their economy.

Deputy Prime Minister of the large Asian republic Karim Masimov said that the step could have very positive economic benefits mainly due to their intention to connect to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. The pipeline, known as the CTB pipeline crosses the Caucuses from Azerbaijan on the coast of the Caspian Sea through Georgia to the Turkish coast and supplies oil to Israel, indirectly using Kazakh oil from the pipeline.

Massimov said that the intention to connect to the pipeline and transporting oil to the region could have additional positive benefits if they will have refining capabilities at the other end of the pipeline. Massimov therefore revealed their intentions to invest in the Israeli refining facility.

Massimov also indicated their intentions to invest in other fields, and not only rely on the oil industry. "One of the decisions of the Kazakh government is to diversify its economy and not rely only on oil. This is why it is very important for us to develop our high-tech industry," Masimov said.

Asia
Moroccan wins first place in Iran Holocaust cartoon contest
Iran awarded a Moroccan artist Wednesday the top prize in an exhibition of cartoons on the Holocaust that has received international condemnation, including from UN chief Kofi Annan.

Meant to be a response to the Danish cartoons of Islam's Prophet Mohammed that sparked rage among Muslims around the world, the exhibit appears inspired by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's tirades calling for Israel to be destroyed.

Tehran has several times announced plans to host a conference to examine the scientific evidence supporting the validity of the Holocaust, dismissing it as exaggerated. Its most recent announcement came in September during Annan's visit to the Iranian capital, where he said he discussed the cartoon show with officials.

Abdollah Derkaoui received $12,000 for his work depicting an Israeli crane piling large cement blocks on Israel's security wall and gradually obscuring Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. A picture of Nazi Germany's Auschwitz concentration camp appears on the wall.

Carlos Latuff from Brazil and A. Chard from France jointly won the second prize of $8,000 and Iran's Shahram Rezai received $5,000 for third place.

The Tehran daily Hamshahri, a co-sponsor of the exhibition, said it wanted to test the West's tolerance for drawings about the Nazi killing of 6 million Jews in World War II. The entries on display came from nations including United States, Indonesia and Turkey.

Pakistan gunships kill 80 at religious school
Pakistani helicopter gunships have destroyed an Islamic school allegedly used as an Al-Qaeda-linked training camp near the Afghan border, killing up to 80 suspected militants.

Local leaders however insisted that most of the dead were teenage students, many of whom were "reduced to bits and pieces", and protests erupted against the Pakistani government and its ally the United States.

The airstrike that targeted a madrassa in the troubled Bajaur tribal agency was one of the biggest ever in Pakistan's frontier region, where many Al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents have sought sanctuary since 2001.

A local Taliban commander known as Maulvi Liaqat, who ran the madrassa and was wanted by the authorities for sheltering insurgents, was among the dead, a senior security official and witnesses said.

Witnesses said at least three army helicopters had hovered over the madrassa in Chingai, near Khar, the main town in Bajaur agency. Then they heard a huge explosion before the choppers flew off.

Most of the occupants were asleep while some had awoken for pre-dawn prayers, they said.

Tourists still flock to Korean DMZ
More than half a century of fragile peace between North and South Korea has produced one of the world's most unusual tourist attractions.

As global leaders struggle to strike a balance between punishing the communist-led North for its Oct. 9 nuclear test and engaging the volatile state in arms talks, hundreds of tourists are still flocking to the front lines each week hoping for a glimpse across the last Cold War frontier.

Littered with land mines and encased in razor wire, the 156-mile-long Demilitarized Zone between the rival Koreas is among the most popular sights for overseas visitors to South Korea.

At least 10 companies offer daily bus trips to the DMZ from the capital, Seoul, offering 24-hour phone reservation lines, free hotel pickups and customized tours in English, Japanese and Korean.

Colorful brochures scattered in hotel lobbies and tourist information kiosks across the capital promise "a real eye-opening experience" that will "leave you with a dramatic sense of the tremendous tragedy of separated families, the division of the peninsula and the hopes for reunification."

Technically still at war since their 1950-53 war ended in a cease-fire rather than a peace treaty, the two Koreas are strictly separated by the 2 1/2 mile-wide strip that is often called the world's most heavily fortified border.

"There is no other country in the world where people with the same nationality are divided, aiming guns at each other. So this makes it a unique sightseeing destination," said Choi Suk-bum, a spokesman for the Korea Tourism Organization, the South's main tourism body.

On a trip this week, some two dozen American, Canadian and European tourists handed over about $42 each to make the 33-mile journey north from Seoul.

The Korea Tourism Organization says it does not keep statistics on how many foreigners attend the DMZ tour each year. But one of the more popular companies, Korea Travel Bureau, estimates it takes as many as 12,000 visitors to the zone annually.

Africa
Egypt moves 5,000 troops near Gaza border
Egypt moved 5,000 more security forces near the Gaza Strip border on last Saturday after an Israeli report said Israel may bomb tunnels used for smuggling weapons into Palestinian territories, an Egyptian official said.

"They requested reinforcements after the Israeli report and also citing fears of Palestinian militants breaching the border wall between the Gaza Strip and Egypt," the official told Reuters in Cairo.

The 5,000 Egyptians were members of the police's central security force. They joined about 750 border guards already deployed along the area known as the Philadelphi Corridor, fearing the possible operation's impact on civilians living on the Egyptian side of the border.

The Israeli daily newspaper Maariv reported on Friday that precision-guided weapons would be used to penetrate deep underground in the hope of destroying the tunnel network that the Jewish state says riddles the area, which is 14 km (8.6 miles) long and approximately 100 metres (330 feet) wide.

The decision to use "smart" bombs may be a substitute to reoccupying the entire region, the newspaper said. Israel says it has been unable to control weapons smuggling into Gaza since it withdrew its forces from the coastal strip last year.

"We are following the situation with extreme concern and we have not received any warnings from the Israeli side about this operation," one Egyptian official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

An Israeli military source said later on Saturday: "Anything that will take place along the Philadelphi Corridor will be reported to the Egyptian authorities in advance."

A Palestinian security official in Gaza denied reports of further Egyptian forces being deployed along the border line itself.

Egyptian security and border officials said the possible Israeli operation could threaten around 20,000 civilians who live close to the border.

"There are schools, banks, markets and residential buildings close to the border with Gaza, which makes the use of such bombs more dangerous," one official said.

Several Egyptian civilians were killed and many wounded from cross-border bomb shrapnel during Israeli attacks on the Palestinian border town of Rafah before the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Nearly all on Nigerian jet feared dead
A Nigerian airliner with 104 people on board slammed into the ground moments after takeoff last Sunday — the third deadly crash of a passenger plane in less than a year in this West African nation known for its notoriously unsafe air industry. Six people survived, and the rest were believed dead.

Among those killed was the man regarded as the spiritual leader of Nigeria's Muslims, and thousands of people gathered at a regional airport to receive his body.

The Boeing 737 crashed one minute after taking off from Abuja airport, said Sam Adurogboye, an Aviation Ministry spokesman. President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered an immediate investigation into the cause of the crash, his spokeswoman Remi Oyo said.

Rescue workers found debris from the smashed plane, body parts and luggage strewn over an area the size of a football field. The plane went down inside the sprawling airport compound about two miles from the runway. Smoke rose from the aircraft's mangled and smoldering fuselage. Its tail hung from a tree.

Adurogboye said 104 passengers and crew had been aboard the doomed flight, and he knew of six survivors who had been taken to a hospital. "Obviously the rest are feared dead," he said.

The plane was bound for the northwest city of Sokoto, about 500 miles northwest of Abuja, state radio said, adding that it had gone down during a storm. Witnesses said there was a rainstorm around the time the aircraft took off, but rains later subsided, giving way to overcast skies.

Libya gets first Boeing airliner in 30 years
A Boeing jetliner will be delivered to Libya for the first time in 30 years after the privately owned Buraq Air airline bought six of the US-made aircraft.

In February last year the company signed a contract with Boeing to buy six 737-800s for 366 million dollars, its chairman Mohammed Abedel Aziz said. The price of the contract includes aircrew training and maintenance.

A second aircraft will be delivered in mid-November, Elies said, without saying when the airline expects the final four aircraft to enter service.

Buraq Air, Libya's first private airline, was established in 2001. It currently owns six aircraft with seven more on lease, and operates services between the interior and the main coastal cities of Tripoli and Benghazi.

Washington severed ties with Libya in 1981 and began imposing sanctions two years after radical students ransacked the US embassy in Tripoli.

An alleged Libyan-backed attack on a Berlin disco popular with Americans in 1986 spurred the US to launch air raids against the Libyan capital, killing 41 people.

Libya in 2003 accepted responsibility for the 1988 bombing of a US Pan Am jet over the Scottish town of Lockerbie that killed 270 people, and agreed to pay families of victims 10 million dollars each in compensation.

Australasia
Australia shuns Kyoto, targets China and India in pollution row
Australia pointed an accusing finger at China and India as major polluters as it refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change despite a major new report warning of impending catastrophe.

Australia and the United States are the only two countries to have failed to ratify the agreement, which imposes targets for reducing emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

Prime Minister John Howard led strong government defiance of renewed pressure to ratify Kyoto in a rowdy session of parliament, saying China and India were major polluters who would not be curbed by Kyoto.

Australia, rich in the fossil fuels such as coal which are blamed for global warming, is the world's worst polluter on a per capita basis, but is responsible for a tiny fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions.

"The United States is not a member of Kyoto and if you add the US, India and China together you have virtually half the world's greenhouse gas emissions," Howard told parliament.

Despite refusing to ratify the agreement, Australia was doing better than most industrialised countries in meeting the targets set by Kyoto, he said.

Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane said Australia would be "the only country in the world without nuclear energy that will reach the Kyoto target".

Australia had committed two billion Australian dollars (1.5 billion US) to lower greenhouse gas emissions and had last week announced major environmental projects, including a huge solar power station, he said.

NSW trio face terror charges
Three Australians with suspected links to al-Qaeda are facing terrorism charges in Yemen over an alleged plot to smuggle arms to Somalia.

The men were among a group of eight foreigners arrested on October 16 by Yemeni security forces, according to a Yemeni website, www.26sep.net.

The others are a Dane, a Briton, a German, a fourth European of undisclosed nationality, and a Somali.

"Preliminary investigations indicate that they are linked to al-Qaeda," the website said.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer confirmed that two of the three men were Australian-born, while a third citizen was born in Poland.

Earlier reports of a fourth Australian being involved were incorrect, he said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the three men were all from NSW.

"Amongst those who have been arrested are three Australians who were among a group, there were not four as has been suggested," Mr Downer said.

"Two of those Australians were born in Australia and one of them born in Poland, who became an Australian citizen during the 1980s.

"We don't have any confirmation of the official charges but we understand the men were detained on terrorist charges including attempting to smuggle arms to Somalia.

"These are very serious charges and the government, of course, would be deeply concerned if they turned out to be true."

Reuters reported Yemeni government sources as saying that all eight had converted to Islam earlier this year and received religious instruction in Yemen.

Australian government review gives nod to nuclear power
The Australian government has announced it would not force a nuclear industry upon a public opposed to it, after the prime minister's handpicked taskforce claimed the sector would be viable in 15 years.

Australia's industry and resources minister Ian Macfarlane promised a public debate on nuclear energy would follow the publication of a government review he said showed the commercial viability of the controversial industry.

"We want to see debate that is based in understanding and knowledge not a debate based on scare tactics," Macfarlane told the Australian Associated Press, previewing the findings of the taskforce headed by former Telstra head Ziggy Switkowski.

"We are seeing reports like the Switkowski report which will indicate that nuclear energy will be competitive with low emission coal within 15 years."