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Official linked to CIA flights dies

By Times Wires
Published March 12, 2008

Manchester, England

A city police chief who led an investigation into charges that Britain cooperated with secret CIA flights to transport terrorism suspects without formal proceedings has been found dead, his deputy said Tuesday.

Manchester Chief Constable Michael Todd, 50, was found dead in Snowdonia, 240 miles northwest of London, Deputy Chief Constable Dave Whatton said. The body had not yet been formally identified but Whatton said he believed it was Todd. A coroner's inquest will investigate the cause of death.

In June, Todd's investigation concluded Britain did not allow the CIA to use its airports to secretly fly terrorism suspects to other countries. Last month, Britain admitted one of its outposts in the Indian Ocean was twice used by the United States as a refueling stop for the transfer of two suspects.

Croatian generals on trial for persecution

Three generals regarded as national heroes in Croatia went on trial Tuesday, accused of orchestrating the killing of at least 150 Serbs in a 1995 military campaign that unleashed widespread murder and pillage. Ante Gotovina, Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac are also accused of responsibility for the expulsion of up to 200,000 people in the offensive, known as "Operation Storm," to reclaim the Krajina region of southern Croatia from rebel Serbs.

BRUSSELS

Belgium announces Holocaust restitution

Belgium's banks and government sought Tuesday to make material amends for the Holocaust, announcing $170-million in restitution for the Jewish community and families of Holocaust survivors whose property and goods were looted by Nazis. Overall, $54-million will be paid to individual claimants, with the rest going to a Jewish trust to help the poor and keep the memory of World War II horrors alive. About 50,000 Jews lived in Belgium in the 1930s and about half died in the Holocaust.

Elsewhere

Kabul, Afghanistan: A tenth of Afghanistan is off limits to aid workers because attacks by Taliban insurgents make it too dangerous, a United Nations report says. Afghan officials disputed the report, saying only eight of Afghanistan's 364 districts were not in government control.

MOSCOW: Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's envoy to NATO, warned Tuesday against putting Georgia on track to join the alliance, saying that would deepen the divides within that former Soviet republic and bolster two separatist regions' bids for international recognition.

Ankara, Turkey: Turkey's government is planning a broad series of investments worth as much as $12-billion in the country's largely Kurdish southeast, in a new economic initiative intended to create jobs and draw young men away from militancy, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Snakes - including one 10-foot anaconda - are increasingly invading the eastern Amazon's largest city, driven from the rain forest by destruction of their natural habitat, the government's environmental protection agency said Tuesday.

[Last modified March 12, 2008, 01:21:22]