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Russia's radar called too old for U.S. use

By Times Wires
Published September 19, 2007

GABALA, Azerbaijan

A Russian-operated radar station that Moscow is offering to share to counter potential missile threats from nations including Iran has technology that apparently is too old to be useful, a top U.S. general said Tuesday after a visit. Experts visited the radar station in Azerbaijan amid tensions over U.S. plans to install elements of a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. Brig. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly, deputy director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, said the experts indicated that the installation it was too old to defend against a potential threat from Iran - Washington's main argument for building the European system. Russia has dismissed thos U.S. arguments.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden

Artist defies death threat of Al-Qaida

A Swedish artist displayed a cartoon of the prophet Mohammed to a seminar in Stockholm on Tuesday despite a death threat from al-Qaida in Iraq. "Nobody has really seen this image and it has just become more and more impossible to show it, so I thought that ordinary people should be given the possibility to see it live," Lars Vilks told a seminar. The sketch depicts Mohammed's head on a dog's body. Dogs are considered unclean by conservative Muslims and Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet for fear it could lead to idolatry.

KABUL, Afghanistan

Kidnapping leader is believed killed

U.S. air strikes targeting a meeting of Taliban leaders killed a high-ranking commander involved in the kidnappings of 23 South Koreans two months ago, Afghan officials said Tuesday. Mullah Abdullah Jan, a Taliban commander, was among 12 killed in the strike on a housing compound overnight, said provincial police chief Gen. Ali Shah Ahmadzai. Jan was the fifth Taliban commander allegedly involved in the abductions who has been reported killed in recent days. There have been several military operations in Ghazni since the release of the last of the captives on Aug. 30. Two were killed.

Elsewhere

Monks protest: Hundreds of defiant monks marched past cheering crowns in Yangon, Myanmar, on Tuesday after being barred from Myanmar's most important Buddhist temple, witnesses said. The march was part of antigovernment protests that began Aug. 19 after authorities raised fuel prices by as much as 500 percent.

Ebola outbreak: International medical personnel and supplies are being airlifted to a remote region of central Congo to combat what threatens to become the world's most serious outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in years. Only nine cases have been confirmed but authorities suspect the virus has killed 168 people and sickened 375 others.

Chiquita outrage: Colombia's interior minister slammed a U.S. judge's approval of a $25-million fine for Chiquita Brands International Inc., saying Tuesday the company was able to get off cheap for making payments to a militia responsible for killing thousands of Colombians.Rights groups said Chiquita should be barred from ever doing business in Colombia.

Lights out in Canada: Nearly two-thirds of Saskatchewan's residents - about 264,000 people - lost power Tuesday after a storm in the U.S. took down electric lines that feed the central Canadian province. The power was out from about 4 a.m. to 10 a.m.

[Last modified September 19, 2007, 00:25:56]