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World in brief
Compiled from Times wires Rebel leader likely killed in ChechnyaMOSCOW -- Russian forces in the capital of Chechnya killed the leader of guerrillas in the city, a top Russian officer said Friday, according to news reports. Murad Yusupkhadzhiyev was killed in a raid after forces were tipped that he was in Grozny, said reports citing Col. Ilya Shabalkin. The reports couldn't be confirmed. Also Friday, reports said guards in Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya, found a guerrilla arms cache near the border with Georgia that included a shoulder-fired antiaircraft missile system. Rebels last week shot down a Russian military helicopter in Ingushetia in an attack that broadened the war beyond Chechnya. Russia contends that rebels take shelter and rearm in the mountains of Georgia. Also...FIGHTERS EXTRADITED Georgia agreed on Friday to extradite five of 13 Chechen fighters detained near the Russian border in August, bowing to pressure from President Vladimir Putin that Georgia do more to crack down on Chechens in Georgian territory or face pre-emptive strikes by Russian forces. The five fighters, who were not identified, were whisked from the main detention center in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, Friday morning. President Eduard Shevardnadze said Friday night that the five had been extradited because "the crimes they committed in Russia are much more severe" than those they faced in Georgia for having crossed its border illegally while carrying arms. Ivory Coast truce tenuousYAMOUSSOUKRO, Ivory Coast -- West African peacemakers struggled to hold together a cease-fire deal Friday in divided Ivory Coast, while rebels accused loyalists of readying their long-threatened counterattack under cover of truce talks. One of the top mediators said the agreement would be signed today in the front-line town of Tiebissou, 20 miles north of the capital, Yamoussoukro. There was no immediate comment from the government. For the first time in the 16-day-old rebellion, loyalist troops could be seen on the move at front lines dividing the rebel-controlled north from loyalist south in Ivory Coast. Loyalist soldiers piled in the backs of pickup trucks and rolled out in numbers. French troops and French armored personnel carriers reinforced positions along the front line, poised to safeguard foreign nationals in this former French colony. At the front-line town of Tiebissou, residents of northern neighborhoods said the loyalist soldiers told them to pack up and move south -- warning there would be "stray bullets." "Everyone is terrorized," said Mathias Nguessan, who sells cold drinks in the town. "Even the chickens have fled. I hope the leaders find a solution. Otherwise, there will be no Ivory Coast left." Elsewhere...SHOTS FIRED AT GIRLS' SCHOOL: Gunmen sprayed bullets at a girls' Islamic school in eastern Pakistan on Friday and two men on a motorcycle hurled grenades at a Christian hospital in a remote corner of northwestern Pakistan. A 12-year-old girl was hurt when bullets shattered windows at the Jamia Mohammadia Binat-ul Islam school in Lahore. Nauree Sadiq, 12, was said to be in good condition after being treated and released from a Lahore hospital. In remote Bannu, near the western border with Afghanistan, two youths hurled a hand grenade at a Christian missionary hospital. There were no injuries. SUDAN PEACE TALKS NEAR: The Sudanese government and southern rebels have agreed to a cessation of hostilities and the resumption of peace talks to end a 19-year civil war, mediators said Friday. In an unsigned statement faxed to the Associated Press, the secretariat of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development said peace talks would resume Oct. 14.
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
