UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced Monday that U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman is his choice to head the United Nations children's agency, which works in 158 countries to protect the rights of youngsters.
He said he will recommend to UNICEF's board that the 55-year-old lawyer, who grew up on a family farm in California's fertile San Joaquin Valley, replace Carol Bellamy in the spring. The board is meeting this week at U.N. headquarters.
Veneman was appointed the first female U.S. agriculture secretary by President Bush and resigned after his re-election without saying what she would do next. In recent weeks, U.N. diplomats let it be known that she was Bush's choice to replace Bellamy in the U.N. post that Americans have held since UNICEF was founded in December 1946.
Veneman started her career at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1986, working in its Foreign Agricultural Service. As agriculture secretary, she was a strong advocate of agricultural education and established a "Leaders of Tomorrow" initiative that included mentoring young adults.
Spain indicts 8 in 9/11 case
MADRID - A Spanish judge indicted eight people on terrorism charges Monday, saying they provided logistical help and false documents for suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks.
The indictment was released by Spain's leading terror investigator, Judge Baltasar Garzon.
It said the eight had provided logistics and counterfeit documents for suspects including Ramzi Binalshibh, an alleged would-be Sept. 11 hijacker who has been in U.S. custody since his 2002 capture in Pakistan. He is believed to have been the main contact between a group of Sept. 11 attackers in Hamburg, Germany, and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.
Binalshibh, who could not get into the United States to participate in the attacks but served as a key money man, reportedly is being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The eight indicted suspects were identified as Reda Zerroug, Redouane Zenimi, Samir Mahdjoub, Mohamed Ayat, Hedi Ben Youssef Boudhiba, Khaled Madani, Tahar Ezirouali and Spaniard Francisco Garcia Gomez.
All except Ayat and Garcia Gomez were charged with membership of a terrorist organization. Those two were charged with collaboration.
2 guilty in 1995 Bosnian massacre
THE HAGUE, Netherlands - A U.N. tribunal convicted and sentenced two former Bosnian Serb army commanders to lengthy prison terms Monday for their roles in the 1995 slaughter of thousands of Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica, Europe's worst massacre since World War II.
Col. Vidoje Blagojevic, 54, received an 18-year term for complicity in genocide and other war crimes. He was the wartime commander of the Bratunac brigade that took part in the killing of more than 7,000 Muslims near the eastern Bosnia city of Srebrenica.
Dragan Jokic, 47, a major in the Zvornik brigade who assumed command during a week of killing at the end of the 1992-1995 war, got a nine-year sentence. He was convicted of murder, extermination and persecution on racial grounds.
Both men were acquitted of allegations of command responsibility.
After unrest, Putin vows pension boost
MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin, seeking to assuage rising public anger, promised a moderate increase in pensions and blamed federal and local officials Monday for failing to properly implement Kremlin reforms that cut off benefits to millions of Russians.
Putin's first public comments since the unpopular change took effect came hours after lines of police blocked hundreds of protesters from retaking a major intersection in central St. Petersburg that thousands of pensioners had occupied over the weekend, bringing traffic to a halt. Demonstrators blocked major avenues and key highways in other cities.
200 hurt in Thailand subway crash
BANGKOK, Thailand - A subway train slammed into another one stopped at a station during morning rush hour Monday, injuring more than 200 people, six months after the subway system opened in the Thai capital, police and officials said.
The head of the transit authority, Praphat Jongsanguan, blamed human error for the accident. Subway service has been suspended for a week to allow authorities to investigate the accident.
