Military

WAR ON TERRORISM

¨         The latest audiotape statement attributed to Osama bin Laden is not authentic, according to a report by a Swiss research institute aired on French television late Thursday. The Lausanne-based Dalle Molle Institute for Perceptual Artificial Intelligence, IDIAP, said it was 95 percent certain the tape does not feature the voice of the long-absent terrorist leader. The review of the tape was commissioned by France-2 television and its findings were presented by the institute's director, Professor Herve Bourlard, in a TV report. (AP 290025 Nov 02)

¨         The al-Qaida terrorist network has suffered serious losses, but appears to be regrouping, a Russian official said Thursday. "Someone has apparently poured mighty resources into al-Qaida, allowing it to regain the cadres, improve intelligence," Deputy Foreign Minister Anatoly Safonov was quoted as saying by ITAR-Tass news agency. "It has not been shattered," Safonov added, according to the Interfax news agency. The Russian news agencies that interviewed Safonov did not link his comments to any particular event. (AP 282006 Nov 02)

IRAQ

¨         British newspapers said on Friday that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had ordered hundreds of his staff to hide components of weapons of mass destruction in their homes to avoid detection by UN weapons inspectors. The Times and the Independent newspapers carried similar stories citing unnamed British government sources and Iraqi intelligence reports. The newspapers quoted them as saying Saddam had ordered scientists, civil servants and even farmers to hide key weapons components and chemicals -- or face severe penalties if they refused.  The Times also said Prime Minister Blair and President Bush took the concealment claims so seriously that they were considering making personal appeals to Iraqi officials to tell the inspectors what was going on. A spokesman for Blair's Downing Street office told the Reuters news agency that he would not comment on speculation of an appeal by the leaders. (Reuters 290212 GMT Nov 02)

AFGHANISTAN

¨         European interior ministers on Thursday backed a disputed plan to return unwanted Afghans to their war-torn homeland by force if necessary, diplomats said. The plan, to be carried out in early 2003, is part of a European Union clampdown on illegal migration endorsed by EU leaders after electoral gains by anti-immigration parties. "It concerns first of all voluntary return. That is what we prefer, but by that I also indicate that we can never rule out forced return...because then we would never get voluntary return," Danish Immigration Minister Bertel Haarder said. He added that the EU aimed to start the programme by April next year and would return some 1,500 Afghans a month. Diplomats have said in total some 100,000 Afghans would be affected by the plan. (Reuters 281854 GMT Nov 02)

BALKANS

¨         Serbian and Montenegrin leaders finally agreed on Thursday on how to reshape their Yugoslav federation into a loose union, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana announced. "I can tell you that we have agreed today a total consensus and a total agreement," Solana said. President Kostunica described the outcome as "one of those compromises in which everyone gains something and no one gains everything." (Reuters 281751 GMT Nov 02)

¨         A district court ruled Thursday that Croatia's wartime army chief Janko Bobetko cannot be extradited to the UN war crimes tribunal because the retired general is too ill to stand trial. In a statement issued to the media, the Zagreb court said that a team of Croatian medical experts had diagnosed 83-year-old Bobetko "unfit to participate in court proceedings" and that "subjecting the patient to stress could significantly worsen his health, possibly even fatally." (AP 281556 Nov 02)

OTHER NEWS

¨         A poll released Thursday found that a majority of Palestinians want their police to crack down on militants attacking Israel - a shift that coincides with unprecedented criticism from a top Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, of two years of violence against Israel. The latest poll shows Palestinians still strongly favor attacks against Israeli settlers and soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza but that 56 percent favor steps by the Palestinian Authority to stop attacks in Israel. Commenting on the poll and criticisms, political analyst Akiva Eldar wrote in the Israeli daily Haaretz that "Arafat might have begun to understand that if he doesn't take matters into his own hands, they'll be taken away from him." (AP 282048 Nov 02)