Japan: 10 days given to file counts against sergeant
An Okinawan judge gave prosecutors 10 days on Saturday to file charges against a detained U.S. Air Force sergeant accused of raping a Japanese woman on the southern island of Okinawa. Air Force Staff Sgt. Timothy Woodland, who has denied the allegations, was turned over to Japanese authorities Friday.
Mexico: Officials report finding illegal espionage ring
Mexico’s attorney general’s office said Saturday that it had uncovered an illegal espionage network in the capital that spied on public officials through phone taps, hidden cameras and bugs. Authorities said they placed 11 people under house arrest while an investigation continues. They did not release the names of the suspects or the presumed targets, and said they had not determined who was behind the network or why. Espionage allegations have abounded for years in Mexico.
Russia: Team will try to raise sunken submarine
Eleven months after the Russian nuclear-powered submarine Kursk sank in the Arctic Ocean, an international team is to begin this week an attempt to raise it without triggering its torpedoes or spilling radiation from its reactors. Divers will race against the calendar and the onset of winter weather to recover the Kursk by late September. After two unexplained explosions sank the sub in August, killling the 118-man crew, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised their families that the bodies would be recovered.
United Nations: Report: Poor may suffer from opposition to crops
Opposition in richer countries to genetically modified crops may set back the ability of the poorest nations to feed growing populations, according to a new U.N. survey. The Human Development Report 2001 asserts that “farming communities in developing countries are more likely to focus on potentially higher yields and greater nutritional value, and on the reduced need to spray pesticides that can damage the soil and sicken farmers.”
Croatia: Leaders focusing on war crimes indictments
Croatia’s government met in an emergency session Saturday on how to deal with the first indictments from the U.N. war crimes tribunal against its citizens, charging them with wartime atrocities against Serbs. There is little alternative for Prime Minister Ivica Racan but to act on the indictments, which call for the extradition of the suspects for trial at The Hague, Netherlands, or brace for international isolation, perhaps even sanctions. That leaves his government in a tight spot, facing likely protests from nationalists and other Croats who hail Croat military leaders for defending the country from 1991 Serb assaults.
France: Deadly accident at concert investigated
French authorities launched a judicial investigation Saturday into a deadly accident that killed 11 people Friday night at a Yiddish music concert near Strasbourg, in the Alsace region of France. Tornadolike winds sent a huge tree crashing down on spectators. About 85 others were injured. Rescuers cut through the tree’s leafy branches to get to victims trapped beneath a tarp.
