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© St. Petersburg Times, published December 10, 2002
Ukraine disposes of SS-24 missiles
KIEV, Ukraine -- U.S. weapons experts arrived in Ukraine on Monday for a four-day visit to monitor the former Soviet republic's progress in eliminating its disarmed SS-24 missiles.
The 10-member team from the U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction Program is charged with verifying Ukraine's disassembly and destruction of deactivated SS-24 missile components under the 1991 START treaty.
The missiles are stored in the southeastern city of Pavlohrad, some 300 miles from the capital, Kiev. Ukraine began destroying 54 intercontinental ballistic missiles at Pavlohrad in June 2000. About 30 have been dismantled.
Ukraine renounced nuclear weapons and has transferred its 1,300 nuclear warheads to Russia for destruction. Some of those warheads had armed the SS-24 missiles now being eliminated.
UNITED NATIONS -- The Security Council lifted 9-year-old sanctions against Angola's UNITA movement Monday, welcoming efforts by the government and the former rebel group to end the country's civil war.
The 15-member council voted unanimously to lift the sanctions, first imposed in 1993.
The civil war ended with the signing of a cease-fire on April 4, shortly after the army killed UNITA rebel leader Jonas Savimbi.
Tens of thousands of rebels have disarmed, and refugees driven by the fighting to neighboring countries are streaming back.
WARSAW, Poland -- A court Monday acquitted a Communist-era security official of abetting the 1984 murder of a pro-Solidarity priest.
Prosecutors had alleged that Wladyslaw Ciaston, once deputy head of the Interior Ministry's secret police, was an accessory in the abduction and killing of the Rev. Jerzy Popieluszko.
But Judge Ewa Grochowska-Szmitkowska said prosecutors failed to prove that Ciaston, 76, helped the murderers or knew about the plan to kill the priest.
The murder outraged predominantly Roman Catholic Poland and led the then-Communist regime to conduct a hasty trial in which four Security Service officers were convicted. All have since been released from prison.
MOSCOW -- Russia has told two Canadian diplomats to leave Russia because of "activities incompatible with their diplomatic status" -- usually a euphemism for espionage.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Vladimir Oshurkov said the move was in response to Canada's earlier demand that two Russian diplomats leave Canada "for no apparent reason."
In Canada, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said the two Russian diplomats left Ottawa "by mutual agreement" because of "activity in Canada inconsistent with their official status."
The Canadian statement said Russia then demanded the departure from Moscow of the two Canadian diplomats. It said the Canadian diplomats had done nothing wrong.
WASHINGTON -- The State Department announced plans Monday to distribute 25,000 books to Cuban children next year through the U.S. diplomatic mission on the island.
The project will be carried out with the Sabre Foundation, which distributes books and other education materials throughout the Third World.
Lorne Craner, who heads the State Department's human rights bureau, said the Cuban government has not been consulted about the project or the type of books that will be sent.
KRUGER NATIONAL PARK, South Africa -- The presidents of South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe signed a treaty Monday to create the world's largest wildlife reserve.
The Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park, to eventually include 14,000 square miles, will be years in the making. Roads and lodges must be built, land mines removed, poaching controlled, politics and financing negotiated, and more than 20,000 villagers living in the Mozambican section must be accommodated or relocated.
TOKYO -- The Japanese capital got its earliest blanket of snow in a decade Monday, snarling air, road and rail travel and causing accidents that injured more than 200 people.
The Meteorological Agency recorded 0.4 inch of slush on the ground across the city.
Public broadcaster NHK reported that 208 people in the Tokyo metropolitan area were injured in accidents due to the snow and the resulting slippery streets and sidewalks.
Dozens of domestic flights were delayed or canceled at Tokyo's Haneda airport, where crews worked all morning to clear runways of snow and ice.