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China releases SARS doctor

BEIJING - Chinese military authorities have released the prominent surgeon who exposed China's SARS coverup and condemned the 1989 crackdown on democracy protesters, apparently bowing to the doctor's status as a local hero and to international pressure to free him.

The doctor, Jiang Yanyong, 72, returned home late Monday night after about 45 days in military custody, where he underwent political indoctrination sessions and was investigated for possible criminal activity. He is not expected to be charged.

Jiang, who is a senior Communist Party member and holds a rank corresponding to lieutenant general or major general in the West, is expected to be kept under surveillance and to be banned from making contact with outsiders.

Yet the decision to allow him to return home appears to amount to a rare victory for an individual who directly and repeatedly confronted China's Communist Party leaders. In a letter released in February, Jiang pressed government leaders to admit that the Tiananmen Square crackdown of June 1989, perhaps the single most sensitive political vulnerability for China's current generation of leaders, was wrong.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan and U.S. forces killed one militant and captured five Tuesday, including a brother-in-law of Taliban leader Mullah Omar. An American soldier reportedly was wounded in a separate attack.

Mullah Amanullah, brother-in-law of the fugitive Taliban leader, was detained near Deh Rawood, Omar's hometown in Uruzgan province, 250 miles southwest of the capital, Kabul, police chief Rozi Khan said.

It was not immediately known what role Amanullah held in the Taliban movement or whether he had any recent contact with Omar, who could have a large network of in-laws through his four wives.

The American soldier was shot and wounded in Arghandab, another district of Zabul, deputy police chief Ghulam Jailani said.

Also, the Pakistani army, backed by U.S. intelligence and surveillance, has stepped up its operations against supporters of al-Qaida in the area near the Afghan border in recent weeks, displacing thousands of Afghan refugees.

Some 200,000 Afghan refugees have been living in the remote border areas of Pakistan. In the last few weeks, about 25,000 people have poured back into Afghanistan, refugee officials said.

TORONTO - Ken Dryden, a former goaltending star for the Montreal Canadiens and member of hockey's Hall of Fame, was one of eight new ministers appointed Tuesday to the Cabinet of Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Dryden, who led Montreal to six Stanley Cup titles, was named minister of Social Development. His position oversees child care, an issue that Martin has said is a priority.

The new Public Works minister is Scott Brison, Canada's first openly gay Cabinet member.

Other new members include former British Columbia premier Ujjal Dosanjh, as Health minister; forestry executive David Emerson as Industry minister; and long-serving backbencher John Godfrey as Infrastructures and Cities minister, a new post.

BHOPAL, India - It will take at least three months to disburse hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation to victims of a 1984 gas leak in central India that killed 12,000 people and injured more than 20,000.

The gas leak at the Union Carbide plant in Madhya Pradesh state capital, Bhopal, was one of the world's worst industrial accidents.

U.S.-based Union Carbide paid $470-million in compensation under a settlement with the Indian government in 1989. But only part of that money was given to the victims, with the last payment made in 2000.

On Monday, the Supreme Court ordered the government to distribute the remaining $330-million to victims and relatives of the dead. The unspent money grew over the years because of interest and the rupee's depreciation.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's conservative-dominated Parliament approved a draft bill Tuesday that would allow abortion in the first four months of pregnancy if the woman's life is in danger or the fetus is malformed.

Before the vote, top lawmakers secured the support of Islamic religious leaders in Qom, an important step aimed at deflating some of the controversy the measure could stir in this highly religious society.

"Under the bill, abortion is allowed for two purposes: one to protect the life of mother and the other if the fetus is malformed," lawmaker Ali Baghbanian said in Parliament. The session was broadcast live on Tehran radio.

The bill does not allow abortions for unwanted pregnancies.

A further vote is required on the draft bill, but that is usually a formality.