DOHA, Qatar, Oct. 28--A defense lawyer for ousted Iraq president Saddam Hussein wrote to UN chief Kofi Annan Friday calling for the court trying him on charges of crimes against humanity to be moved to The Hague and its Iraqi judges replaced by foreign ones, AFP reported.
“We submit to you our request for your involvement and your good office in the present circumstances to call upon the US authority and the present government of Iraq to review the legal status of the present court and to reallocate the present court outside Iraq, i.e.
The Hague, Netherlands,“ said the letter to Annan from defense lawyer Najib al-Nawimi.
He called for the court to be given “independent and impartial international judges“ and also for pressure to be put on the Iraqi authorities and their US backers to recognize Saddam and his co-defendants as prisoners of war.

Palestinians carry the bodies of Islamic Jihad militants during their funeral in the Jabalya refugee camp, near Gaza Strip on Friday. (Reuters Photo)

JABALYA, Occupied Palestine, Oct. 28--Israel killed seven Palestinians, most of them militants, in a Gaza Strip air strike on Thursday, hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered a broad offensive in response to a suicide bombing, Reuters reported.
A missile blew apart a car carrying Islamic Jihad field commander Shadi Mhanna and three comrades in Jabalya refugee camp, witnesses said. Three bystanders also died in Israel’s bloodiest military action since it quit Gaza last month.
It was the deadliest such strike since March 2004, when Israeli missiles killed Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and seven others in Gaza.
Hopes that Israel’s recent pullout from Gaza could promote peace talks had been dented on Wednesday when an Islamic Jihad suicide bomber killed five people at an Israeli marketplace.
Sharon said there could be no advance towards peace for now because of the “absolute failure of the Palestinian Authority in the fight against terrorism“, and promised to launch a major military operation expected to focus on the occupied West Bank.
In related news, Israel’s Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz ruled out the chance of peace with the current Palestinian leadership amid escalating violence, a newspaper quoted him as saying on Friday.
“I doubt very much that one day we can reach a peace accord with the present leadership of the Palestinians. We must wait for the next generation,“ the hawkish minister was quoted as saying by the Yediot Aharonot daily.
“Furthermore, we could reach interim agreements and I don’t think that a Palestinian state will see the light of day in the coming years,“ he added.

An aerial view shows the USS Kitty Hawk, the oldest aircraft carrier in the US Navy, anchored at its home port in Yokosuka, southwest of Tokyo in this file photo. ( Reuters Photo)

WASHINGTON,
Oct. 28--The United States for the first time will base a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Japan starting in 2008, the US Navy said on Thursday, after the only country ever hit with atomic bombs dropped its
long-standing resistance to the move, Reuters reported.
The oldest aircraft carrier in the US Navy, the USS Kitty Hawk, is based in Japan in order to keep a nonnuclear-powered carrier there, but it is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2008. Keeping an aircraft carrier permanently based in Japan has been an enduring element of US security strategy in the Pacific.
Hiroyuki Hosoda, Japan’s top government spokesman, said, “We believe that the change (of the carriers) will lead to maintaining the solid presence of the US Navy and contribute to keeping Japan’s security and international peace into the future.“
The carrier announcement followed word out of Tokyo on Wednesday that Japan and the United States agreed on the relocation of a US military base on the southern island of Okinawa, clearing the way for a deal to reorganize the deployment of US forces throughout Japan.
The United States has about 50,000 military personnel in Japan. The dispute over the Futenma Marine Corps air base had been the main obstacle in realignment talks, part of a US global plan to make its military more flexible, and had threatened to undermine Tokyo’s relations with its most important ally.
The Navy said in a statement released by the Pentagon that one of its nine Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers will replace the conventionally powered Kitty Hawk in 2008. The Kitty Hawk is based in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo.
The move was part of the Navy’s long-term effort to routinely replace older ships deployed around the world with newer or more-capable ones, the Navy said. The Kitty Hawk was commissioned in 1961.
Lt. Herb Josey, a Navy spokesman, said the decision was a mutual agreement between the United States and Japan.
Hosoda said Tokyo had received assurances from Washington over the safety of basing a nuclear-powered vessel, adding that the carrier’s nuclear reactors will shut down when it is anchored at Yokosuka. He also said there will be no refueling or repair work done on the carrier’s reactors in Japan.

GENEVA, Oct. 28--The United Nations on Thursday paid out a further $654 million to people, companies and countries who demonstrated losses due to Iraq’s 1990-91 invasion and occupation of Kuwait, taking total payments to $20 billion, Reuters reported.
The UN Compensation Commission (UNCC) last month lifted the limit on its quarterly payments, previously $200 million, due to higher oil prices which have boosted its income derived from five percent of Iraqi oil sales.
“The present payments brings the overall amount of compensation made available to date by the UNCC to $20.05 billion,“ the Geneva-based fund said in a statement. The size of future quarterly payments will depend on its income, currently about $120 million per month, it added.
The UNCC, set up by the Security Council, completed ruling on $352 billion worth of claims last June, having approved total compensation of $52.5 billion over a decade--much to Kuwait.
The latest $654 million was paid to 15 governments, including $509 million to Kuwaiti individuals, companies and state entities. Jordan followed with $53.5 million and $26.9 million, respectively, according to a UN table.

Diego Maradona

HAVANA, Oct. 28--Argentine soccer hero Diego Maradona promised Cuban President Fidel Castro on Thursday he would be at the front of an anti-Bush march in Argentina next week, Reuters reported.
US President George W. Bush will attend a summit of leaders from all countries from the Americas--except Cuba--in Mar del Plata, Argentina, Nov. 4-5.
“I think Bush is a murderer. ... I’m going to head the march against him stepping foot on Argentine soil,“ Maradona said, appearing on Cuban television with Castro. “I promised the ’Comandante’ that I would do it and I will,“ the 44-year-old football legend said, referring to Castro.
“For me he is a god,“ Maradona said of the 79-year-old left-wing Cuban leader, whom he considers a friend and a father figure who helped him kick drugs.
Maradona was in Havana to interview Castro for his weekly television show in Argentina, which has brought the fallen star back to the limelight after years battling cocaine addiction.
He thanked Cuba for giving him a haven for almost four years at a health farm where he still has a house and plans to rest when his television contract ends next year.
Maradona, one of the finest soccer players of all times, captained Argentina to World Cup victory in 1986, but drug abuse undermined his career and health.
Following an operation this year to staple his stomach and cut his ballooning weight, a much slimmer Maradona launched a new career in August as television host. His first guest was Brazilian soccer great Pele.
The Castro interview is “icing on the cake“ for his top-rated show, Maradona said. “I was missing the greatest one, and now I have him.“

TOKYO, Oct. 28--South Korea’s foreign minister told Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday to stop visiting a Shinto war shrine seen by critics as a symbol of Tokyo’s past militarism, slamming the trips as deplorable, Reuters reported.
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon also told Koizumi that his pilgrimages to the Yasukuni shrine, where convicted war criminals are honored alongside Japan’s war dead, would threaten regional order.
“I conveyed our government’s position that the prime minister’s visits to the Yasukuni shrine are deplorable and he should stop visiting the shrine,“ Ban told reporters after holding talks with Koizumi.
South Korea, North Korea and China all protested over last week’s visit by Koizumi to the Tokyo shrine, seeing it as his refusal to repent for the country’s militarist past.
“Visits to the Yasukuni shrine by Prime Minister Koizumi are unfavorable not only for cooperative ties between South Korea and Japan but also for order and the future of East Asia,“ Ban said.
Visits by government figures to Yasukuni are guaranteed to enrage Japan’s neighbors. Older Koreans have bitter memories of Japan’s brutal 1910-1945 colonial rule, while Chinese have not forgotten its 1931-45 invasion and occupation of parts of China.
During the years it controlled the Korean peninsula, Imperial Japan forced Koreans to take Japanese names, banned the use of the Korean language and drafted tens of thousands of Korean women to provide sex for its army.
“Japan and South Korea are close to each other and our relations must develop in a forward-looking way,“ Ban said. “In order to develop in such a way, political leaders should recognize history correctly and cooperate.“
Ban said Koizumi had explained Japan’s position on his shrine visits.
Koizumi has repeatedly said he visits the shrine to pray for peace and honor the dead, not to glorify militarism.
A group of more than 100 Japanese parliamentarians visited the shrine last week after Koizumi. Ban’s initial reaction to Koizumi’s visit had been to say he thought it inappropriate to go ahead with his trip to Japan. He later reversed that position, but said on Wednesday that Seoul was considering scaling back ties with Tokyo.
Ban had urged Japan on Thursday to build an alternative shrine to separate war dead from convicted criminals.

BEIJING, Oct. 28--Chinese President Hu Jintao got a bear hug from North Korean leader Kim Jong-il after arriving in North Korea on Friday on a visit that underscores China’s role in persuading Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear programs, Reuters reported.
The trip, ahead of a new round of six-party talks, follows a flurry of Chinese diplomatic overtures in North Korea--Vice-Premier Wu Yi met Kim earlier this month and Li Bin, a Chinese diplomat responsible for Korean affairs, went last week.
“Hu ... voiced his belief that under Kim’s leadership, the DPRK people will score greater accomplishment in exploring a development path suited to its own conditions and building a strong and prosperous country,“ Xinhua news agency said of his statement delivered at Pyongyang airport.
Thousands of people lined the streets, dancing, singing and chanting slogans to greet Hu’s motorcade as it wove through the capital. It was his first visit there as president.
The United States has piled pressure on China to try to use its position as North Korea’s closest ally and key aid provider to keep it at the table and ensure some results at the next round of six-party nuclear talks.
“Hu Jintao’s visit is in part to encourage a breakthrough at this very important moment,“ said Shi Yinhong of the People’s University of China. “China wants North Korea to show more flexibility.“
The visit greases the wheels for North Korea to make concessions at the fifth round of nuclear talks likely to open in Beijing on Nov. 8. The challenge now is to begin implementing a landmark joint statement agreed at the last session in September.
North Korea agreed in the blueprint document to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs and rejoin the Non-Proliferation Treaty in exchange for aid and better ties with Washington and Tokyo, but questions remain over the timing of concessions.
There are also disagreements between the six parties--North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and host China--over Pyongyang’s demands for a light-water reactor to generate atomic energy.

CAIRO, Egypt, Oct. 28--Egypt’s electoral commission published overnight on Friday the final list of the more than 5,400 candidates who will compete in the November elections, AFP quoted local media as reporting.
The state-owned Al-Akhbar newspaper said a total of 5,414 candidates would vie for the 444 parliamentary seats up for grabs in the country’s 222 constituencies.
The opposition fielded 4,970 hopefuls, including party candidates and independents.
President Hosni Mubarak’s ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) is the only party to have picked out the full 444 candidates but it could face a stiffer challenge than in the past, both from the opposition and from NDP renegades who have decided to stand as independents.
The NDP currently controls 402 out of the 454 seats in parliament, where 10 MPs are appointed directly by the president.
Unlike in previous elections, very few of the 5,488 hopefuls whose applications the electoral commission spent a week reviewing were rejected.
The three-phase election will kick off just after the Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of Ramadan with polling in Cairo and some other central provinces on November 9. The vote will end a month later.