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7 Guantanamo detainees are back home

By TIMES WIRES
Published December 17, 2006

Seven Afghans freed after up to five years of detention at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay arrived in Kabul on Saturday, desperate to get back to their home villages.

The long-bearded men, who all proclaim their innocence, arrived at the offices of the Afghan Commission for Peace and Reconciliation to receive an official guarantee of freedom from the Afghan government.

Most of them were from Helmand, a southern province that has become the most volatile in Afghanistan.

"We had to eat, pray and go to the toilet in the same cell that was 2 meters long and 2 meters wide," said Haji Alef Muhammad, 62.

Another prisoner, Abdul Rahman, 38, said he was an unwilling fighter for the Taliban.

IRAN

Iran open to sharing nuclear technology

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday his country was ready to transfer nuclear technology to neighboring countries, nearly a week after Arab states on the Persian Gulf announced plans to consider a joint nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad told a top Kuwaiti envoy he welcomed the decision by the Islamic republic's Arab Gulf neighbors to pursue peaceful nuclear technology, state-run television said.

ITALY

Patient's bid to die rejected by judge

An Italian judge rejected a paralyzed man's request to be removed from a respirator, ruling that the law does not permit the denial of lifesaving care and urging lawmakers to confront the issue.

Piergiorgio Welby, whose body has been devastated by muscular dystrophy and has been confined to bed for years, had pleaded repeatedly to be allowed to die of his disease, and his case has divided politicians and doctors in Italy.

RUSSIA

Despite police effort, 2,000 protest Putin

Russian authorities pulled hundreds of opposition activists off buses and trains and detained them along with scores of others on Saturday ahead of a rare antigovernment rally in Moscow, organizers said.

The police action did not prevent more than 2,000 people from gathering in a central square, where leftist and liberal groups demanded that Russian President Vladimir Putin stop what they called Russia's retreat from democracy.

"In 15 months political power will be changed," said Mikhail Kasyanov, a former prime minister who is now an opposition leader, referring to the March 2008 presidential election.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Tiny country takes tiny democratic step

Hand-picked voters chose members of a government advisory panel Saturday in this tiny oil-rich country's first election, the Arab world's latest tentative step toward democracy.

Saturday was the first of a three-day vote for 20 open seats on the Federal National Council, an advisory body seen as an eventual precursor to a national parliament. About 450 candidates were running, including 65 women.

The government hedged against the likelihood of revolutionary change by hand-picking the 6,700 people allowed to vote over the three days.

It also has balanced the 20 elected members of the panel with 20 appointed members.

Elsewhere

IRAN: Early returns showed hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's conservative opponents leading in elections for local councils and a powerful clerical body, widely considered a test of popular approval for the hard-line leader.

SPAIN: Spain suspended the flying license of Air Madrid airline Saturday, hours after the troubled carrier announced it was halting operations, leaving thousands of passengers stranded in Spain and abroad. Air Madrid officials did not give figures, but Spanish National Radio said up to 300,000 ticket-holders could be affected.

[Last modified December 17, 2006, 00:16:24]