Military

WAR ON TERRORISM

¨         French prosecutors took the first step toward charging five suspected Islamic militants with terrorism, including a man wanted for his alleged role in the 2001 assassination of an opposition leader in Afghanistan, Ahmed Shah Massood. They are suspected of having ties to the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, an Islamic insurgency movement in Algeria. The group is on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist organizations. (AP 280018 Nov 02)

IRAQ

¨         The United States is raising fears at the United Nations that Baghdad may be buying cheap electronic devices capable of knocking America's smart weapons off-track in the event of war on Iraq. U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte says Washington wants the UN oil-for-food program for Iraq tightened so it can block Baghdad from using money from its oil sales to buy the devices, known as Global Positioning System (GPS) jammers. The problem is that the system operates at low power levels, leaving it vulnerable to jamming. "A GPS jammer is just a radio transmitter that transmits on the same frequencies that GPS signals are coming in on," said Tim Brown, a senior analyst at GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington-based defense think tank. (Reuters 271842 GMT Nov 02)

¨         The United States has asked Hungary and other countries to let the Iraqi opposition train on their territory, U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said on Wednesday. "These discussions are preliminary and no decision has been made by the United States or any other government about where this training may take place," he added. A spokesman for the main Iraq opposition group, the Iraqi National Congress, said he did not know of the U.S. request. The State Department mentioned Hungary because the Hungarian authorities had announced the request in Budapest and said they would allow the training, an official said. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Under Secretary of State Marc Grossman will visit NATO headquarters in Brussels, then London and Ankara, between Sunday and Wednesday to coordinate the U.S. position on Iraq with those of its allies, a senior U.S. official added. (Reuters 272302 GMT Nov 02)

NATO

¨         Greece will reduce military spending by 2005, Defense Minister Papantoniou said Wednesday, following a major drive to keep pace with traditional rival Turkey. On Monday, the government awarded four contracts for military hardware worth more than two billion dollars. (AP 271634 Nov 02)

AFGHANISTAN

¨         The UN Security Council approved a yearlong extension of the international force in Kabul and welcomed a German-Dutch offer to take over its command Wednesday but Afghanistan expressed disappointment that troops will not be deployed to other cities to provide badly needed security. "We feel this is a great handicap," said Afghanistan's UN Ambassador Ravan Farhadi. He suggested that if countries like the United States, Britain, France and Germany didn't want to provide troops and money for an expanded force they should consider establishing a rapid deployment force in Kabul that could be sent to trouble-spots. "This would be more practical and less expensive," he added. (AP 272231 Nov 02)

BALKANS

¨         The UN tribunal asked NATO countries to respond to a request by a Serb general, Dragoljub Ojdanic, seeking copies of intercepted communications that might help his defense against charges of war crimes in Kosovo, the court said Wednesday. In its order issued on Tuesday, the court gave the countries three months to provide the intercepts or file written statements explaining why they refuse, in which case a hearing would be set to argue the issue. (AP 271510 Nov 02)

¨         The justice authorities of Macedonia (sic) have revoked the arrest warrants for a former rebel leader, Ali Ahmeti, and scores of other ethnic Albanian suspects sought in connection with last year's insurgency, an official said Wednesday in Skopje. "The Macedonian (sic) authorities no longer have any jurisdiction over Ahmeti in this matter," a spokesman for a Skopje district court said. "It is now up to The Hague tribunal to investigate and possibly indict Ahmeti." The spokesman for Ahmeti's party, welcomed the revocation of the warrants as "a step in establishing the rule of law" in Macedonia (sic). (AP 271451 Nov 02)