World briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 26, 2000

Asian leaders close summit on high note

SINGAPORE -- Southeast Asian leaders, brushing aside troubles ranging from beleaguered presidencies to violent street battles, announced ambitious plans Saturday to entice wary foreign investors back to the region.

The leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations closed their two-day summit Saturday by proposing an expanded Asian trade alliance, endorsing a plan to build a huge railroad from Singapore to China and signing a pact to catapult their region into the digital age.

Their counterparts from Japan, China and South Korea joined the ASEAN summit in Singapore. But they balked at a proposal to create a new East Asian trade alliance including ASEAN and China, Japan and South Korea.

Japan and China's huge economies could overshadow ASEAN, some said.

ASEAN members are Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Hussein wants to offer aid to Palestinians

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- President Saddam Hussein on Saturday said Iraq would ask the United Nations to let it use a portion of its oil-for-food money to help the Palestinians.

The statement came in a Cabinet meeting chaired by Saddam and attended by ministers and senior ruling Baath party members, broadcast on state-run television.

The oil-for-food program is an exception to broad U.N. sanctions imposed to punish Iraq for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, and allows Iraq to sell its oil provided the proceeds are used to buy humanitarian goods for its 22-million people.

Russia downplays arms sales to Iran

MOSCOW -- Russia has not yet signed any new arms contracts with Iran, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov insisted Saturday, playing down U.S. concern over Moscow's decision to resume weapons sales to Iran.

Ivanov also angrily criticized U.S. warnings that Washington could impose sanctions on Moscow if it resumes arms sales to Tehran.

The Russian Defense Ministry insists it will not supply any hardware capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction. But the White House opposes any arms sales to Iran and is trying to get Moscow to change its mind, threatening sanctions against Russia, a U.S. official said.

Cuba releases group of Britons

LONDON -- Seven Britons detained in Cuba on suspicion of carrying out a private "spy mission" have been released, the Foreign Office said Saturday.

The six men and one woman are now free to return to Britain, officials said. It was not immediately clear when they would leave Cuba. They were detained Oct. 9.

Fujimori denies corruption allegations

TOKYO -- Ousted Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori denied allegations that he abused his office to acquire illicit wealth and transferred the funds overseas, Japanese media reported Sunday.

Fujimori, speaking at a friend's seaside vacation home west of Tokyo, told Japan's leading newspapers in separate interviews that he is confident an investigation will find him innocent.

On Friday, Peruvian officials widened their probe of Fujimori's former spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos to investigate whether the president himself was involved in corruption.

Americans' bodies flown out of Austria

VIENNA, Austria -- The bodies of eight Americans killed in a cable car fire two weeks ago were flown home Saturday aboard a U.S. military aircraft, local media reported.

A contingent of the Austrian army provided an honor guard, and the coffins were flown from Salzburg Airport, about 100 miles west of the capital, Vienna, airport spokesman Richard Schano told the Austria Press Agency. He did not give the destination of the flight.

The Americans killed in the Nov. 11 accident -- including a family of four and a newly engaged couple -- were among 155 people who died when a fire engulfed a cable car traveling through a mountain tunnel at the Austrian resort of Kaprun.

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