Newsbits: Terrorism roundup, diplomacy, smuggling rings

[unixronin]

Iraq's newly-formed war crimes tribunal says Saddam may face the death penalty, but his trial is unlikely to start for at least a year.  Imposition of the death penalty would require the Iraqi government to lift the coalition-imposed moratorium on executions.

Pakistani tribesmen in a dispute with Pakistan petroleum over oilfield royalties have destroyed the terminal at Sui Airport in Baluchistan in a rocket attack, while Maoist rebels in Nepal killed 14 policemen and 4 civilians, and wounded at least 27, in an ambush.  An almost-identical attack five days ago killed 21 Nepalese police.

Meanwhile, Algerian army troops claim to have cornered and killed Nabil Sahraoui, who took over last year as leader of the militant Islamist terrorist group Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat and promptly declared support for al-Qaeda, along with several other top militants of the group including his likely successor Abdi Abdelaziz.  The GSPC, estimated to have around 500 fighters, is considered to be the only remaining major militant organization in Algeria.  It had confined itself primarily to military targets until Sahraoui took over.

al-Qaeda has suffered another blow in Saudi Arabia, where Saudi security forces killed Abdul Aziz bin Issa al-Muqrin and three associates in a shootout in Riyadh, and arrested twelve more.  al-Muqrin's group was responsible for the kidnapping and beheading of American engineer Paul Johnson, as well as the killing of a BBC cameraman earlier this month.  Saudi Arabia claims their campaign has "destroyed al-Quaeda's capabilities" in Saudi Arabia.

In Iraq, the US carried out an airstrike in Fallujah against a "known safehouse" of al-Qaeda officer Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, believed to be responsible for many recent attacks and the kidnapping and murder of Nick Berg.  At least 20 people were killed in the attack; Fallujah residents claim only innocent citizens were killed, including women and children.  The USAF aircrews, however, report having observed multiple secondary explosions of ammunition and explosives.

On the brighter side, India and Pakistan have agreed to set up a telephone hotline in efforts to avoid a nuclear conflict between the two nations, neither of which has the ability to recall or abort a nuclear missile launched in error.  India and Pakistan have also agreed to continue the moratorium on nuclear testing which they established in 1998.

The EU has reached an agreement on its first constitution; under the new voting rules, measures must have the backing of at least 15 EU states, representing at least 65% of the total population, in order to pass.  The new constitution, which must still be ratified by the separate EU governments, creates an EU president and EU foreign minister, and allows the UK to retain national vetos for foreign policy, defence and taxation.  The document sets out the powers of the national governments of the member states and the EU's various institutions, as well as a charter of fundamental rights and a detailed catalogue of how the union will conduct a wide range of internal and foreign policies.  France has repeatedly complained that the UK is being granted too many special privileges.

Voting is underway to elect a new government of the Republic of Georgia's autonomous Ajaria region.  A popular uprising last month forced out Aslan Abashidze, a former Soviet functionary who had run Ajaria for a decade backed by paramilitary forces in defiance of the Tbilisi government, even blowing up the bridges joining Ajaria to the rest of Georgia.

And in Israel, Yasser Arafat has told an Israeli newspaper that "any future peace agreement should preserve the Jewish character of the Israeli state", and pledged to control the Gaza Strip if Israel goes ahead with its planned withdrawal.

In other news:

China has executed the leader of a gang involved in buying, selling and smuggling baby girls; it is reported that over 42,000 women and children have been abducted in China in the last three years.

Another smuggling network has been exposed in the UK which is assisting members of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF Party, barred from entering the EU, to falsely gain asylum in the UK to escape the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe.