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WORLD NEWS BRIEFS
-- North Korea: The government on Friday threatened to
"square accounts" with the United States for the alleged
mass-killing of civilian refugees by U.S. soldiers during the
Korean War. American veterans and South Korean villagers
said they saw U.S. soldiers kill up to 400 civilians at No Gun Ri,
South Korea, early in the war. North Korea considers the United
States a sworn enemy and regularly churns out belligerent
anti-American statements. Experts say most of the rhetoric is
mere propaganda.
-- Indonesia: An Indonesian court today found Thursday the
youngest son of former President Suharto innocent of corruption
charges involving a multimillion dollar land deal. Hutomo
"Tommy" Mandala Putra, 37, had been the first member of
Indonesia's former first family to face trial for graft. A
three-judge
panel found Tommy had not broken any Indonesian criminal
laws.
-- Israel: A Palestinian talk show host who discussed sensitive
political topics on air has been released from detention without
charges. Maher Dasouki was released without charges Oct. 4
after three weeks in a Palestinian jail. His show, based in
Ramallah, is aired twice a week on the private Al-Nasr TV
station. Palestinian police arrested Dasouki one week after the
mother of a detainee held by the Palestinian police appeared on
the show, speaking out against the Palestinian Authority and its
leader, Yasser Arafat.
-- Turkey: The official death toll in Turkey's devastating
August
quake passed 17,000 on Thursday as more families registered
relatives they had hastily buried without notifying authorities.
The
government count reached 17,118 after authorities in
Adapazari, one of the worst-hit areas in the Aug. 17 quake,
were notified of about 1,200 previously unreported deaths. The
toll could rise further as similar registrations are conducted in
other areas, said Halis Coskun.
-- Tibet: A Tibetan carpenter who lowered China's flag in
Tibet's capital in protest against Chinese rule has died in the
hospital after police beat him during his arrest, a human rights
group reported Wednesday. Tashi Tsering died during the first
week of October, having never left the hospital in the more than
five weeks since his protest and arrest in Lhasa, the Tibetan
Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.
-- China: An engineer at a Chinese government-run aircraft
maker has been imprisoned for posting information about one
of China's newest fighter planes on the Internet, a human rights
group said Wednesday. Police arrested Guo Jian of the
Chengdu Aircraft Co. in July, the Hong Kong-based Information
Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China
said.
-- Thailand: Two more elephants have stepped on land mines
along Thailand's border with Myanmar, fast becoming one of the
world's most dangerous areas for the beasts. Animal authorities
reported the injuries nearly seven weeks after veterinarians
amputated the left front foot of logging elephant Motola after it
had been shredded in a mine blast. Though Thailand has
outlawed anti-personnel land mines and begun detonating those
that exist, some of its border areas with Myanmar and
Cambodia are still strewn with mines.
-- Afghanistan: The United Nations Security Council on Friday
gave Afghanistan's Taliban Islamic movement one more month
to deliver Osama bin Laden for trial in the twin U.S. embassy
bombings in Africa or face sanctions.
Jennifer Skordas, a former reporter for an English-language
newspaper in Tokyo, is on vacation.