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Russian envoy meets with anti-U.S. cleric

By wire services
Published June 14, 2005

NAJAF, Iraq - Russia's ambassador to Iraq flew to this southern city Monday for talks with radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the Russian Embassy said.

Ambassador Vladimir Chamov was making the first visit by a Russian envoy to Sadr's office since the U.S.-led war started in Iraq two years ago, embassy protocol chief Ivan Zhurba said. Zhurba had no details on the purpose of the talks.

Sadr, who opposes the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, has recently taken on a higher public profile after emerging from months of hiding following clashes last year between U.S. troops and his militiamen in Baghdad's impoverished Sadr City and Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States did not ask the Russians to take any message to the meeting, noting that the United States wants to bring all Iraqis who have renounced violence into the peace process.

The talks come amid a raging insurgency that has killed more than 940 people since Iraq's new Shiite-led government was announced April 28.

KIEV, Ukraine - Authorities arrested the former head of Ukraine's peacekeeping troops in Iraq on charges of smuggling, prosecutors said Monday.

The allegations against Maj. Gen. Serhiy Savchenko stemmed from his time as head of the forces, the Prosecutor General's Office said in a statement.

No one could be reached to comment at the Prosecutor General's Office.

In February, Ukrainian authorities said they had detained several soldiers on leave from Iraq on charges of smuggling $300,000 in cash. Ukrainian media have reported allegations that money intended for operations in Iraq has been illegally diverted, and prosecutors were investigating.

PARIS - France, which denied it paid a ransom to win the release of French journalist held in Iraq, refused Monday to give any details that led to winning freedom for the reporter and her Iraqi guide after five months of captivity.

Florence Aubenas and Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi, who were freed Sunday, had been missing since Jan. 5, when they were seen leaving Aubenas' hotel in Baghdad. French officials have never identified the kidnappers, although authorities in both France and Iraq suggested they were probably seeking money rather than pressing a political agenda.

Despite mounting calls for the government to explain how the releases were achieved, Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy refused to identify the captors, because he said they are still holding other people.

"I can say absolutely nothing about that," Douste-Blazy said on RTL radio. "There are still some hostages in the place of detention where Florence and Hussein were a few hours ago."

Government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope said France paid no ransom.

"There was absolutely no request for money," Cope said on Europe-1 radio.

[Last modified June 14, 2005, 01:27:13]