PERSIAN GULF

FOUR U.S. SOLDIERS KILLED; FIVE CHARGED WITH HARMING DETAINEES

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A suicide bomber blew up his vehicle at a checkpoint south of Baghdad yesterday and killed four American soldiers assigned to the Army’s Task Force Baghdad. The names of the four soldiers who died in the suicide attack were not released. The American command also announced that five soldiers from the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment were charged on Saturday with assault, maltreatment, and dereliction of duty during a September 7 incident “in which three detainees were allegedly punched and kicked while awaiting movement to a detention facility.” All five were reassigned to administrative duties, the statement said.

The suicide attack came as American and Iraqi troops battled Al Qaeda-led militants for a third day in a town on the Syrian border, Husaybah. One Marine has died there, the American command said yesterday. Earlier yesterday, the military said an American soldier died Sunday in a roadside bombing near Tikrit.

– Associated Press

MIDDLE EAST

ISRAELI PARLIAMENT REJECTS SHARON APPOINTMENTS

JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Sharon failed to win parliamentary approval for his nomination of three new Cabinet ministers in a vote yesterday. The 60-54 vote dealt a blow to Mr. Sharon, but did not put his government in immediate jeopardy.

Likud hard-liners objected to his plan to promote loyalists in what they said was a political payoff. Mr. Sharon had asked parliament to confirm the acting finance minister, Ehud Olmert, and appoint two other supporters to the trade and immigrant-absorption portfolios.

– Associated Press

SOUTH AMERICA

FUJIMORI ARRESTED IN CHILE

SANTIAGO, Chile – A former Peruvian president, Alberto Fujimori, was arrested yesterday on charges involving corruption and massacres as he tried to return to Peru to run for re-election after five years in exile in Japan. Mr. Fujimori, target of an international arrest warrant, now faces extradition from Chile to Peru.

– Associated Press

EAST ASIA

PROTESTERS AND POMP AWAITING CHINESE PRESIDENT

BEIJING – Queen Elizabeth will today welcome the Chinese leader Hu Jintao on his first state visit to Britain. After Princess Anne and her husband have met Mr. Hu and his wife at Heathrow, the queen will greet them on Horse Guards, before accompanying them in a carriage procession up the Mall to Buckingham Palace. Mr. Hu will stay at the palace for two days. The visit has been criticized by human rights groups and Free Tibet campaigners, who have promised to dog his visit with protests.

– The Daily Telegraph

SOUTHEAST ASIA

BURMESE GENERALS ABANDON RANGOON

BANGKOK, Thailand – Burma’s secretive military junta has begun the rushed relocation of key government ministries. The generals ordered the first group of civil servants to an unfinished complex outside Pyinmana, 230 miles north of Rangoon, on Friday, the regime’s information minister, Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan, said. Analysts have said the move was possibly prompted by fears of an invasion by America, which has branded Burma “an outpost of tyranny.”

– The Daily Telegraph

SOUTH ASIA

POLICE DISPERSE DEMONSTRATORS AT AID-EXCHANGE WITH INDIA

Pakistani police fired tear gas to disperse Kashmiri villagers trying to cross into Indian territory illegally, marring an unprecedented frontier ceremony by the South Asian nuclear rivals to exchange earthquake aid. No one was hurt.

U.N. agencies, meanwhile, announced a shortfall of $42.4 million for relief aid in the month of November, warning the death toll could surge as the onset of winter cuts off communities.

– Associated Press

CENTRAL ASIA

AZERBAIJAN OPPOSITION REJECTS ELECTION RESULTS, CALLS FOR RALLY

BAKU, Azerbaijan – Azerbaijan’s opposition promised yesterday to overturn results of what it said was a fraudulent election, and it called on citizens to rally to its side. President Aliev’s New Azerbaijan Party won the most seats by far, according to initial results.

An observer mission by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly and other organizations cited problems with Sunday’s parliamentary election including irregularities in the vote count. It did not endorse the main opposition coalition’s call for a rematch in four-fifths of Azerbaijan’s electoral districts.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

GLOBAL HUMAN FLU PANDEMIC COULD CAUSE ‘INCALCULABLE’ SUFFERING

GENEVA – The magnitude of suffering caused by the next human flu pandemic will be “incalculable” if the world is unprepared, the chief of the U.N. health agency said yesterday. At the first major international coordination meeting on bird flu, a senior World Bank economist said a pandemic could cause world gross domestic product to drop by 2% or more. That would amount to about $800 billion in losses over a year, Milan Brahmbhatt said.

– Associated Press