World in brief

Putin shakes up security team, fires top soldier

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday fired the nation's top soldier, who was blamed by the defense minister for resisting reform, in a security shakeup that included the dismissals of top officials of the Interior Ministry and the KGB successor agency.

The dismissal of Gen. Anatoly Kvashnin, the armed forces' chief of general staff, was expected after last month's brazen attack by militants on police and government facilities in Ingushetia, a region that borders Chechnya.

Putin also dismissed the head of Interior Ministry forces, Gen. Vyacheslav Tikhomirov; the deputy director of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, Anatoly Yezhkov; and the commander of the North Caucasus military district, which includes Chechnya and Ingushetia, Mikhail Labunets.

Kvashnin's replacement is Col.-Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, the Defense Ministry's main figure in arms control negotiations, including the 2002 pact under which the United States and Russia agreed to cut their nuclear warhead arsenals by two-thirds.

Although Baluyevsky was a strong critic of the U.S.-led war on Iraq and of U.S. plans to build a missile defense shield, he is seen as well-inclined toward the West.

NORFOLK, Va. - Family members of seven of the 17 sailors killed in the bombing of the USS Cole are suing Sudan for more than $100-million, contending the African nation financed, trained and harbored the terrorists responsible for the attack.

"Those widows and children very much need" the money, said John Clodfelter, whose son Kenneth was killed in the Oct. 12, 2000, attack.

The lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in Norfolk. The destroyer is based at Norfolk Naval Station.

Suicide bombers pulled an explosive-packed boat alongside the Cole as the ship refueled in the Yemen port of Aden, blasting a large hole in its side. The attack was blamed on Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network.

WASHINGTON - The United States might be willing to defer prosecution of a former U.S. soldier accused of defecting to North Korea nearly 40 years ago but is not willing to give up on seeking his return from Japan to face charges.

The former soldier, Charles Jenkins, 64, was resting in a Tokyo hospital while many Japanese hoped the United States would be lenient in its desertion case against him so he may resettle there with his Japanese wife.

Richard Boucher of the State Department said "we are considerate of the humanitarian situation" and of Jenkins' medical condition. So, Boucher said, "while we do expect to present a legal request for custody at the appropriate time, we won't be doing that right away."

HOUSE VOTES TO RESTRICT VIETNAM AID: The U.S. House of Representatives voted 323-45 Monday to restrict U.S. aid to Vietnam if that country fails to improve what lawmakers said was a deplorable human rights record.

Under the measure, U.S. nonhumanitarian aid to Vietnam would be capped at levels of this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, unless the president certified substantial progress by Vietnam in releasing political and religious prisoners and respecting religious freedom. Certification would be renewable annually.

U.S. aid to Vietnam in 2004 is almost $40-million, with money going to projects including removal of land mines left from the Vietnam War, disaster relief and food and health programs.

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