TANJUG - June 28th, 2002

BELGRADE , June 29 (Tanjug) - The Serbian government Communications Bureau said in a letter sent to Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica on Saturday that "after the public testimony of three generals, there is no longer any doubt that members of your office, with your knowledge and approval, tried to engage the Yugoslav Army in illegal activities" and activities dangerous for the state.

"In your open answer to a letter of the Serbian government, although you deny you ever demanded anything such in your first sentence, the further contents of the letter show that you deny your own claims. It is evident that this is your attempt to divert public attention from this illegal act to certain developments which could justify it," the letter said.

BELGRADE , June 28 (Tanjug) - According to the results of a recent census, the number of inhabitants in Serbia, without Kosovo-Metohija, decreased 64,541 from 1991, or 1 pct, so that the registered number of resident inhabitants is seven million 479,437, said on Friday assistant director of the Yugoslav Statistics Institute Miladin Kovacevic.

Kovacevic at the presentation of the publication "First results of census in munipalities and towns," published jointly by the Serbian and Yugoslav statistics institutes, said that 395,943 of our citizens were registered overseas, so that the total population of Serbia is seven million 875,380, a 0.67 pct increase from 1991.

Editor's commentary: And we all thought that no one can better Fidel Castro and his lies. As FS Net stated during infamous elections in 2000, Milosevic and his gangsters severely manipulated statistics and cheated badly. The same applies with Kostunica. There was 7,417,197 registered voters in Serbia at that time. Total number of all people in Serbia is currently 7,479,437. Serbia is therefore the only country in the world where number of voters is higher than the number of actual population. Anyone to argue about free and fair elections in Serbia?

PRAGUE, Jun 28, 2002 -- (dpa) In an unusual critique of another nation's affairs, Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman urged Thursday authorities in Belarus to "stop the prosecution" of two journalists accused of slandering President Aleksandr Lukashenko.

Zeman came to the defense of Nikolai Markevich and Pavel Mozheiko who, according to media monitors with the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe, were convicted in a Belarus criminal court Monday and sentenced to at least two years of "restricted freedom".

The journalists, working in Grodno for the independent newspaper Pagonya, allegedly insulted Lukashenko during his election campaign last September. The editor of another paper, Rabochy, reportedly faces similar charges.

In a statement, Zeman said he felt compelled to get involved in Belarus' affair because he was interviewed by Markevich last April in Minsk, while the Czech premier was attending a meeting of the Socialist International party.

Also during that trip to Minsk, Lukashenko refused to meet with Zeman after the Czech leader invited members of the Belarus opposition to the same event.

Zeman, who frequently criticizes Czech journalists, said the Belarus convictions violated "basic human and civil rights which belong to freedom of opinion and freedom of the press." He also said the Belarus journalists' work promotes honesty in politics and "freedom and democracy in their homeland".

In a statement from the OSCE office in Vienna, the agency's media representative Freimut Duve called the journalists' convictions "absolutely unacceptable in an OSCE participating state" and urged Belarus to scrap its media libel law.

MINSK, Jun 27, 2002 -- (RFE/RL) The June 24 conviction of "Pahonya" newspaper's Mikola Markevich and Pavel Mazheyka for libeling Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenko during the 2001 presidential campaign has drawn international condemnation, Belapan reported the next day.

The media representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Freimut Duve, said on June 26 that "journalists should not be prosecuted in a criminal court for what they write."

He added that such prosecution is unacceptable in any OSCE state.

Marek Butko, first secretary of the Polish Embassy in Belarus, also condemned the verdict and the trial, saying, "I cannot imagine such a trial and such a sentence in [Poland]. This means the suppression of freedom of speech."

The human rights organization Amnesty International said the journalists were prosecuted for "seeking the truth."

In a statement released on June 25, the organization said that "the sentencing of these journalists yet again revealed Belarus's inability to brook dissent and allow its small independent journalist community to give voice to widely shared concerns about the fate of a series of high-profile 'disappearances' in the country."

Amnesty also urged the Belarusian government to ensure that it fulfils its obligations under a number of human rights treaties, especially those concerning freedom of expression.

CRITICISM AT HOME

About 15 members of the opposition United Civic Party protested the convictions of Markevich and Mazheyka outside the Minsk headquarters of President Lukashenko on June 25, Belapan reported.

Party leader Anatol Lyabedzka condemned the sentences as politically motivated, saying: "It was not the judge who made the decision. The decision was made here, in this building [Lukashenko's headquarters]."

Lyabedzka added that Belarus is in danger of completely losing its independent media.

In a June 24 statement, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee also condemned the sentences, saying it viewed the trial as "the illegal persecution of journalists for an attempt to criticize one of the candidates running for the presidency in the fall of 2001.... The course of the trial showed that the judge did not intend to observe the universally recognized principles of justice, such as independence, impartiality, openness, the rule of law, the presumption of innocence, unlimited access to legal counsel, etc."

WASHINGTON, Jun 27, 2002 -- (RFE/RL) The latest CATO Institute Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) index currently available for 123 countries, and which measures the consistency of a country's policies and institutions with economic freedom, placed Ukraine at the bottom of the list along with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Guinea-Bissau, and Algeria.

The Russian Federation was two places ahead of Ukraine but behind Zimbabwe on the CATO list.

The key ingredients of economic freedom, according to CATO, are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete, and protection of person and property.

According to the report, "institutions and policies are consistent with economic freedom when they provide an infrastructure for voluntary exchange and protect individuals and their property from aggressors seeking to use violence, coercion, and fraud to seize things that do not belong to them."

CATO noted that legal and monetary mechanisms are important in that governments promote economic freedom when they provide a legal structure and law enforcement system that protects the property rights of owners and enforces contracts in an even-handed manner.

MOSCOW, Jun 26, 2002 -- (dpa) Russia's parliament opened the door Wednesday to private ownership of farmland, more than 70 years after the violent collectivization of peasant holdings under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

Despite resistance from the Communist faction in the State Duma in Moscow, most deputies backed a government bill in the third and final reading that legalizes sale and purchase of agricultural plots.

Foreigners may not buy land under the legislation but will be able to lease it for 49 years.

The bill was expected to pass the upper chamber, the Federation Council, without problem before President Vladimir Putin signs it into law.

Critics argue that the new law is too vague in its definition of types of land, especially in the case of border regions where plots may not be sold.

This condition was prompted by the situation in the sparsely populated Russian Far East, where authorities feared that hundreds of thousands of Chinese farmers would try to acquire property.

It was also not clear how much land individuals will be able to buy.

But agriculture experts predicted the law will boost economic growth in rural regions as landowners will be able to secure bank loans using their property as collateral.

Thousands of peasants were killed from 1928 onwards when Stalin sent in Red Army units to seize private holdings during the state collectivization drive.

Private ownership of farmland was theoretically reallowed under the Russian Constitution adopted after the 1991 Soviet collapse. But the strong Communist faction in the old parliament consistently blocked attempts to pass corresponding laws.

BEIJING, Jun 26, 2002 -- (dpa) Members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual group have interrupted at least three state television broadcasts with messages supporting their group, a rights center and a broadcast official said on Wednesday.

The group broadcast a banner saying "Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) is good" for 15 minutes last Sunday evening by interrupting the China Central Television (CCTV) channel CCTV3 in several areas around Laiyang county in the eastern province of Shandong, an official from the Laiyang television technical department said by telephone.

Falun Gong members also interrupted CCTV1 and CCTV5 satellite broadcasts to the Shandong coastal city of Yantai for 5 seconds, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

Shandong police and state security officers launched a major search for the people who interrupted the broadcasts, the center said.

In April, police arrested up to 23 Falun Gong members accused of interrupting cable television broadcasts in two cities in northeastern China.

Falun Gong said it had broadcast "footage revealing the state-sponsored persecution" of its members during the 40-50 minute interruptions.

It claims more than 400 followers have died at the hands of Chinese police and thousands have been sent to labor camps without trial since Falun Gong was banned in 1999.

Exiled Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi promotes a mixture of traditional qi gong breathing exercises and Taoist, Buddhist and other beliefs.

VIENNA/MINSK, Jun 24, 2002 -- (RFE/RL) Freimut Duve, the OSCE representative on freedom of the media, strongly criticized on June 20 a recent statement made by a presidential administration official in Belarus listing authors who should not be published and read in that country, the OSCE website reported.

"This list is something unheard of in Europe in years," Duve told the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna. "It represents a dramatic challenge and is unacceptable in an OSCE-participating state," he added.

In May, meeting with reporters in Minsk, Eduard Skobelev, the editor in chief of the presidential administration's news bulletin, urged state-controlled literary magazines not to publish writers critical of the government, listing among those he termed "politically retarded" such well-known Belarusian writers as Vasil Bykau, Ryhor Baradulin, Nil Hilevich, and Syahey Zakonnikau.

A court in Belarus has convicted two journalists of libelling President Lukashenko during last year's presidential election campaign.

The two men, Mikola Markevich and Pavel Mazheiko, were sentenced to serve up to two-and-a-half years in a detention camp.

The court in the western city of Grodno heard that their newspaper Pagonya published an article accusing the president of involvement in the disappearance of opposition politicians.

Full story here.

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- President Vojislav Kostunica fired the chief of Yugoslavia's army Monday, but the former ally of ousted strongman Slobodan Milosevic refused to step down, setting up a showdown that could threaten Yugoslavia's stability.

The split with Col. Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic further eroded the authority of Kostunica, who is embroiled in a power struggle with his main rival, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. Serbia is Yugoslavia's dominant republic.

Kostunica was forced to fire Pavkovic by presidential decree after Yugoslavia's Supreme Defense Council refused to support the general's dismissal.

In a statement carried by the Beta news agency, Kostunica said he replaced Pavkovic to ensure ``civilian control over the army'' and ``democracy,'' and ``because he (Pavkovic) believed that he is above the army and above the state.''

The general initially dismissed the decree as ``illegal and meaningless,'' but later qualified his stance, lessening chances of a violent confrontation.

Pavkovic said he would file a complaint to the Yugoslav federal parliament ``and seek legal protection'' -- indicating a challenge to Kostunica.

``He (Kostunica) has practically decided that my service ends as of tomorrow, as if I were the greatest scum in this state,'' Pavkovic complained.

But, pending a decision on whether his removal was legal, he said he would not oppose his replacement, Gen. Branko Krga, ``in performing his (new) duty.''

By refusing to accept Kostunica's decision, Pavkovic was clearly hoping that pressure by Djindjic and his other allies would allow him to keep his position.

The dispute between the president and the powerful general could lead to more instability in a country only slowly emerging from years of crisis.

Condemning the move, Djindjic said Kostunica would ``bear responsibility for the consequences of his decision, which has destabilized the reputation of the state.''

Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic, however, called Pavkovic's dismissal a ``good decision'' and ``only a beginning of changes in the Yugoslav Army.''

Pavkovic was a staunch supporter of Milosevic in the past and led the Yugoslav army during its 1999 confrontation with NATO in Kosovo. But he also is known for letting pro-democracy protesters overthrow Milosevic in 2000.

His refusal then to use force against the democratic leaders, who make up the current government, helped the controversial general dodge sweeping changes that followed Milosevic's ouster.

Pavkovic is rumored to be of interest to the U.N. war crimes tribunal for his role in the Kosovo campaign. Milosevic currently is being tried by the tribunal for alleged war crimes committed there and in other Balkan wars.

Pavkovic also is seen as an obstacle to Yugoslavia's aspirations to join NATO's Partnership for Peace because he was part of Milosevic's innermost circle.

Kostunica acted Monday an hour after the Supreme Defense Council, of which he is a member, rejected his attempt to convince its members to fire Pavkovic, who has moved closer to Djindjic in recent months.

It was not immediately clear how the Supreme Defense Council, comprising the presidents of Serbia and Montenegro and senior defense officials, would react to Kostunica's unilateral move.

The Yugoslav constitution is unclear about where the ultimate power to remove military officers rests.

Earlier this month, the Djindjic faction in the coalition government in Serbia stripped 21 legislators loyal to Kostunica of their seats in Serbia's parliament, accusing them of absenteeism.

Serbia, home to more than 90 percent of Yugoslavia's people, effectively determines the country's policies. Kostunica's party condemned the move as a coup attempt and announced it would appeal the decision to the highest courts.

Pavkovic on Monday alleged that the country's political leadership was being pressured by U.S. officials, but did not give names.

The U.S Embassy in Belgrade declined to comment. While generally supporting democratic reforms in post-Milosevic Yugoslavia, there has been no public U.S. demand to fire the general.

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Moderates in Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist party voted to remove the former Yugoslav president as party leader on Sunday, a year after he was extradited on war crimes charges.

The moderates replaced him with a reform-minded official from their ranks, although they did give Milosevic the title of honorary president. The future of the Socialist Party of Serbia remained unclear despite the vote; Milosevic supporters did not attend its congress and dismissed the results.

The moderates chose Branislav Ivkovic as the new party leader. Ivkovic had been a close ally of Milosevic before he turned reformist after the former president was ousted two years ago. A year ago, Milosevic was extradited to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands

However, he remained the party's official leader and controlled party affairs by phone from his detention cell in the Netherlands, where he is on trial for atrocities committed in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.

Zivorad Igic, a key Milosevic loyalist, called the decisions at the congress in Belgrade Sunday ``outrageous and illegal.'' Igic said he and others loyal to Milosevic would not recognize those elected and would continue to act as the ``legal'' Socialist party.

Ivkovic had been a target of intra-party feuding that has shaken the party over the past months. He was attacked earlier this year by Milosevic for attempting to carve out a new party from the Socialists.

Milosevic loyalists tried to oust Ivkovic in April, but he resisted, calling for a special party meeting -- Sunday's congress -- to settle the issue.

About 1,500 delegates of some 2,000 present at the party congress voted for Ivkovic. Some 500 party members -- those most loyal to Milosevic -- were not present.

In what amounts to the day's most serious blow for Milosevic, moderates also filled the party's top posts with reform-minded officials.

After being sent to the U.N. court in June 2001, Milosevic nominated another party member, Mirko Marjanovic, to act as his deputy. Marjanovic's position within the party remained unclear after Sunday's vote.

Mihajlo Markovic, a party official who pushed for the change in leadership, opened the convention earlier in the day with harsh words for Milosevic.

``The Socialist party has lost its way,'' Markovic said. ``It was overwhelmed by dictatorial and authoritarian policies and corruption.''

After the vote, however, he struck a more conciliatory tone.

``He united people and the country,'' Markovic said. ``And now he defends them at The Hague.''

Milosevic helped found the Socialist Party of Serbia in 1990 from the remnants of Serbia's branch of the communist party, which had ruled Yugoslav for nearly five decades.

BELGRADE (Reuters) - A Serbian court jailed the former head of state television for nine-and-a-half years on Friday for failing to protect 16 workers who were killed when NATO bombed the TV station in 1999.

The court ruled that Dragoljub Milanovic had not ensured the safety of his staff, even though he knew the television building could be hit by NATO during its 1999 bombing campaign.

Families of the victims have accused the regime of then-president Slobodan Milosevic of deliberately sending the workers into mortal danger in order to score a cynical propaganda coup against NATO should they be killed.

Milanovic was sentenced to an additional six months jail for an unrelated financial infraction.

In the 78-day air war over Yugoslavia's repression of Kosovo Albanians, NATO declared the studios of Radio Television Serbia (RTS) a legitimate target on the grounds that its broadcasts were part of Milosevic's ``war machine.''

Milanovic was tried on charges of ``provoking general danger'' by failing to evacuate the building, which was hit by NATO on April 23, 1999.

``He failed to act according to regulations governing the safety of RTS even though he was aware this could provoke danger for the lives of the people because NATO aggression had already started,'' presiding judge Radmila Dragicevic-Dicic said.

When she finished reading the sentence, Milanovic stood up and said he had known in advance what the verdict would be and repeated his Thursday final statement that he was innocent and that documentary evidence against him was forged.

Chechnya, Jun 19, 2002 -- (RFE/RL) Russian troops have killed at least 13 residents of the village of Chechen-Aul in a search operation that began on June 13, according to chechenpress.com on June 18.

Seventeen people detained by Russian troops have vanished without a trace, the website reported.

Russian Colonel Igor Shabalkin told Interfax on June 17 the search was "one of the most productive" to be conducted recently.

He confirmed that 20 village residents have been detained and said large quantities of arms were confiscated.

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy admitted on Wednesday that he served as a communist secret service counter-intelligence officer over 20 years ago.

Moving to avert a political crisis over newspaper and opposition accusations that he had been a state spy, Medgyessy told parliament he had been a counter-espionage officer at the finance ministry from 1977 to 1982.

This was a delicate period for Hungary as the central European state tried to edge away from President Leonid Brezhnev's Soviet Union and open up to the West, secretly joining the International Monetary Fund in 1982 and sounding out European Union membership.

Medgyessy, who took office only last month after winning April elections, had threatened to resign if he did not have the confidence of his own Socialist Party and his junior coalition partner, the liberal Free Democrats.

The Socialist parliamentary group unanimously backed the premier at a meeting late on Tuesday, but Free Democrat deputies voted to accept Medgyessy's resignation, if it were offered.

The two groups were meeting again early on Wednesday.

Political turmoil could damage Hungary's EU bid just as it enters tough final negotiations to join the expanding bloc.

NEWSPAPER CAMPAIGN

The rightist daily Magyar Nemzet on Tuesday published a photocopy of a March 1978 contract in which then Interior Minister Andras Benkei promoted ``Comrade D-209'' -- alleged to be Medgyessy -- to the rank of first lieutenant in the country's spy-catching service.

Medgyessy, identified in the document by his date of birth and mother's maiden name, has called for it to be authenticated.

His spokesman said Medgyessy planned to sue the newspaper for libel after it published a second document on Wednesday.

``I helped prevent foreign spies from getting their hands on Hungarian secrets and ensure they should not be able to block our joining the IMF,'' he told a highly charged session of parliament.

``I would like to emphasize that a spy-catcher is not an agent, not an informant. Counter-intelligence and intelligence are ancient professions and serve the protection of the country.''

In a parliamentary debate on Tuesday, Medgyessy had skirted around opposition charges that he had been an officer in the secret services during the communist era, referring deputies to an interview he gave to another daily, Magyar Hirlap, just over a year ago.

He told that paper: ``There are situations in one's life when, in the interests of national sovereignty, it's necessary to take steps which protect the country's interests against foreign intelligence, be they (Russian secret service) KGB or Western ones.''

CLASSIFIED DATA

Medgyessy told parliament on Wednesday he would submit an emergency bill to release all classified secret service data relating to political figures.

``My aim is to create a clear situation in the issue of pre-1990 secret services, so that facts could not be used for political purposes,'' he said.

Hungary came under Soviet occupation in 1945 and was an unwilling host to the Soviet military until June 1991, when the last foreign troops left the country. In November 1956, the Soviets crushed a popular uprising led by communist reformer Imre Nagy.

Hungary's secret services remained under strong Soviet influence for decades and were as unpopular as former East Germany's infamous Stasi.

Medgyessy, 59, an economist, joined the Finance Ministry after graduating in 1966 and held various positions until 1987.

Six years ago, Poland's then Prime Minister Jozef Oleksy was forced to resign amid allegations he had been a KGB informer. A military prosecutor later cleared him of any wrongdoing.

HAVANA (AP) -- Nearly 99 percent of Cuba's registered voters signed a petition declaring the island nation's socialist system ``untouchable,'' Fidel Castro's government said Tuesday.

Pedro Ross Leal, head of the Confederation of Cuban Workers, told an evening government television program that preliminary results showed about 8.1 million of Cuba's 8.2 million registered voters signing the document.

Cuba's population is about 11 million.

Cuba's mass organizations, which are tied to the government and ruling Communist Party, began collecting signatures Saturday morning and stopped Tuesday at noon.

The document expressed support for a constitutional amendment declaring Cuba's economic, political and social system ``untouchable'' -- meaning it cannot be changed.

Signatures were gathered at more than 120,000 neighborhood sites nationwide, mostly by the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, local vigilance groups organized block by block.

Opposition leaders said the effort was in response to their own signature drive, known as the Varela Project.

Activists last month submitted more than 11,000 signatures to the National Assembly seeking a referendum asking voters whether they favor civil liberties such as freedom of speech and assembly, the right to own a business, electoral reform and amnesty for political prisoners.

But Castro said the government effort responded to a President Bush speech on May 20. Bush said he would not ease American trade or travel restrictions against the island unless Cuba embraces democratic reforms, including competitive elections.

Editor's commentary: Eight million signatures in 3 days!? We sure believe it! Until every signature is not displayed in public, authenticated, names and addresses verified, this moronic statement is absolutely worthless. You very well know how crooks do similar things in gangster movies, they put hundred dollar bills on top and underneath is paper. Thousand of Castro's lackeys sign one paper by themselves and then put empty paper underneath. Probability that every single Cuban is going to sign some document, regardless of what is offered, is scientifically proven to be zero. It is very interesting that with this Castro also wants to convince us that there are no illiterate people in Cuba. According to World Almanac for 2000, level of literacy in Cuba is 96%. This means that 4% of Cubans can't sign any document (this is not the same as voting by encircling candidate's name) and that is roughly 440,000 people or at least 328,000 voters. Castro claims that only 100,000 voters didn't sign his garbage document. How could they have signed anything if they are illiterate? Does he count cross as well? And there are news about some European socialist diplomats already accepting latest Castro's fraud who are supposed to put additional support for Fidel Castro. It really makes you wonder why would someone give up his constitutional right to change things? What needs to be done is to be even more vigilant than the old fart from Havana, there is need for more Varela projects, there is need to expose Castro and his lies more than ever. Until Washington, Cuban exiles and other who want to see freedom coming to Cuba keep being silent to scams like this one, Castro and his Moscow goons will continue to ruin Cuba and oppress Cubans. You can't just sit, do nothing and keep ignoring Castro. It is time for offensive, it is time to shut Castro's lying mouth once and for all.

BEIJING (AP) -- The Beijing government is closing most of the Chinese capital's hugely popular Internet cafes, cutting off access to the World Wide Web for many residents after a fire killed 24 people in an unlicensed cyber cafe.

A city official said Monday that the move was motivated strictly by safety concerns, but the closures coincide with a nationwide crackdown on Internet cafes. Thousands of such businesses have been shut down over the past year for failing to install software to track which sites users visit.

The communist government has encouraged the use of the Internet to promote business and education but has also banned pornographic content and material deemed subversive, including Web sites run by foreign media and the banned Falun Gong spiritual group.

More than 30 million people use the Internet in China, but many families can't afford to buy computers. Most of the customers at the cyber cafe that burned down Sunday were students who took advantage of the low Internet access rates offered late at night.

A spokesman for the Beijing city government said Monday that the capital's 2,400 Internet cafes were ordered shut down on safety grounds. Only 200 will be allowed to reopen, said the spokesman, who would give only his surname, Fan.

``This is done purely to save people's lives and property,'' Fan said.

Stricter regulations are also being drafted for permit applications, state media reported.

The major cities of Shanghai and Tianjin and the populous provinces of Guangdong in the south and Shandong in the east also announced closures Monday of Internet cafes and mandatory safety checks, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Xinhua said Hong Kong, which enjoys wide-ranging autonomy from mainland regulations, planned to close improperly licensed Internet cafes and order others not to operate all night. Customers under age 16 are to be banned, the report said.

The steps were announced after the pre-dawn fire broke out Sunday at the 24-hour Lanjisu Cyber Cafe in Haidian, Beijing's university district. Neighbors were awakened by the screams of customers who were trapped behind a locked door and barred windows on the second floor of the two-story building.

Many of Beijing's cyber cafes are smoky and crowded, located in converted residential buildings or other spaces not equipped to handle large numbers of customers.

But cyber cafes are not the only businesses that could be described as fire traps, and Chinese authorities did not move against dance halls after a blaze at a disco in the central city of Luoyang killed 309 people in December 2000. Investigators blamed the high death toll in that fire on locked emergency exits.

Duncan Clark, a technology analyst for BDA China, a Beijing-based consulting firm, said the cafe closures reflect official concerns that Internet bars dodge restrictions on Web access and subversive material.

``Internet cafes have been condemned as dens of iniquity,'' Clark said.

However, he said effects of the harsh government response will likely be short-lived because such cafes are easy and cheap to open and demand among users is high.

In late 2000, China issued its first set of guidelines that required providers to track online chatrooms and bulletin boards and keep records of users' viewing times, addresses and telephone numbers.

Since January, Internet bars have been required to report attempts to open Web sites deemed subversive by the government, including those run by foreign media and the Falun Gong. Those that fail to install special software to track which sites users visit have been shut down.

The government is also eliciting the help of the masses in its cyber battle. In Shanghai, the police Internet office takes tips by e-mail on people who distribute banned information from the Web.

And the state-run Beijing Morning Post newspaper has set up a hot line for readers to report illegal Internet cafes, deemed ``hei wangba'' or ``black cyber cafes.''

On Monday, most Internet bars were closed, with notices on their padlocked doors citing the government order.

The cause of Sunday's blaze was under investigation.

The owner of the gutted cafe surrendered to police and is under investigation, said Liu Wei, a spokesman for Beijing's Public Security Bureau.

Liu wouldn't say what charges 36-year-old Zheng Wenjing might face.

The Internet cafe had been operating without a license since it opened about a month ago, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

A survivor, who was identified only by the surname Li, told the state-run newspaper Beijing Times that there were about 30 customers at the cafe, which could seat 100.

``It was around 3 a.m. when I smelled gasoline and saw thick smoke coming up from the bottom of the stairs,'' said Li, who went to the cafe with about 10 other students from Beijing Technology University.

``I told a cafe employee who went downstairs to check. He yelled that there was a fire and we all tried to escape,'' Li said.

Li said the fire had blocked the stairs and people began yelling for help through the windows, which were covered by iron grills. Neighbors managed to unscrew one grill and Li said he escaped with about seven other people.

Twenty people died at the scene and four others in the hospital, Xinhua reported. Twelve were in stable condition Monday, the agency said, and one was in critical condition.

State media called the blaze the deadliest in Beijing since 1949.

PARIS (Reuters) - France's center-right government looked forward to getting down to business Monday after winning a massive majority in parliamentary elections.

With all but 12 of the 577 constituencies declared, President Jacques Chirac's center-right allies took 392 seats. The Socialists and other leftists, who won just 173 seats, were left pondering how to respond to their crushing defeat.

The result hands the conservatives the power to deliver on Chirac's re-election campaign promises of extra resources for law and order and a pro-business program of reforms including a 30 percent cut in tax on personal and corporate income.

``Five years to change France,'' ran the front-page headline on Le Figaro, a pro-Chirac national daily.

The left vowed to work out where it had gone wrong.

``In the coming months, the Socialist Party must work out why this happened,'' Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande said on Europe 1 radio.

The parliamentary triumph ended five years of power sharing between a Socialist-led government and Chirac, whose role was reduced to that of a figurehead president during the awkward period of ``cohabitation.''

It also closed off two months of voting that started and ended with mass apathy -- with a brief interlude when millions hit the streets in protest after a shock score by the far right.

The anti-immigrant National Front failed to cash in on the shock score that catapulted leader Jean-Marie Le Pen into the presidential runoff against Chirac eight weeks earlier, ending up empty-handed as the nation returned to mainstream voting.

``Never in the past 34 years has the right wing scored such a victory,'' interim Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said on Sunday, drawing a parallel with a Gaullist conservative backlash after the May 1968 student riots.

But the size of the win left the French asking themselves whether they had given too much power to the right.

``This result puts too much power in one hand, I think,'' said Maurice Sebban, 52, a taxi driver who called himself a centrist. ``But then the left had power for five years and could have done what they liked -- and they didn't deliver.''

DOWN TO BUSINESS

Jean-Pierre Raffarin, prime minister of a stop-gap government after Chirac's re-election, promised to do all the 69-year-old president pledged -- crack down on crime, cut tax, ease labor regulations and overhaul the pension system.

Raffarin was due to offer his resignation to Chirac later on Monday morning in a symbolic act, though he was widely expected to be re-appointed after impressing voters with his common touch during his brief period at the head of the government.

He was set to name a similar, more permanent team Tuesday and replace Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, interim European affairs minister -- who is under judicial inquiry in connection with a suspected political funding scam -- party officials said.

Sunday's result capped off a disastrous run for the left, which began on April 21 with the failure of the party's candidate for the presidential election, Lionel Jospin, to qualify for a runoff against Chirac.

``This is a sad period, but one of reconstruction,'' Bertrand Delanoe, Socialist mayor of Paris, said on RTL radio. ``We'll try to reconstruct something the French people regard as relevant.''

LEFT STUNG

Socialist Laurent Fabius, a prime minister in the 1980s and finance minister in the Jospin government, could do little more than lament the outcome of the double elections.

``In May, the people of France voted No to the extreme right. Then they voted No to cohabitation. We will rebuild with a program that inspires people,'' he said Sunday.

There was no word from Jospin, who bowed out of politics in April after Le Pen beat him to the final presidential duel.

Martine Aubry, the daughter of one-time European Commission President Jacques Delors who championed the introduction of the 35-hour work week for the left, lost her seat in northern France Sunday and struggled to hold back tears on television.

Other victims included Robert Hue, who also ran for president on behalf of the ailing Communist party, which fared badly along with the ecologist Greens. Both parties had junior roles in the Socialist-led coalition that ruled from 1997.

An estimated 39 percent of voters stayed away from polling stations in Sunday's parliamentary runoff, a record abstention rate in the history of the Fifth Republic that was established by General De Gaulle in 1958.

Chechnya/Russia, Jun 14, 2002 -- (RFE/RL) Residents of the Chechen village of Mesker-Yurt on June 12 buried 24 victims of the Russian search operation conducted there between May 21 and June 11, chechenpress.com reported.

Most of the victims were young men who had been subjected to torture; none of them had participated in fighting against the Russian forces, the website said.

Before withdrawing from the village, Russian officers warned the inhabitants against lodging any official complaints about atrocities committed by Russian forces. "If you complain, we'll come back and finish you off," they were quoted as saying.

Russian officers also rejected the argument that they violated the procedures for conducting such search operations promulgated in March by Lieutenant General Vladimir Moltenskoi, commander of the joint federal forces in Chechnya. They said they do not answer to Moltenskoi and were acting on direct orders from Russian President Putin, according to the website.

BERLIN, Jun 14, 2002 -- (dpa) Police arrested two former top members of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats and an industrialist Thursday in a corruption scandal tarnishing the governing party in an election year.

Karl Wienand, the powerful federal parliamentary manager of the Social Democrats (SPD) from 1967 to 1973, was the picked up by police on suspicion of receiving 4.4 million marks (2.1 million dollars) in connection with huge garbage incinerator project in Cologne.

Wienand, who is 75, was convicted in 1996 of having been a key spy for former East Germany's Stasi secret police. He avoided prison only after being pardoned by Germany's president.

Also arrested in the scandal - in which it is alleged a total of 21.6 million marks of bribes flowed from 1994 to 1999 - was the former SPD head of Cologne's city council, Norbert Ruether and waste management executive Hellmut Trienekens.

At least 424,000 euros (401,000 dollars) in illicit funds flowed to the SPD and was covered up by issuing forged donations receipts. Ruether's resignation in March unleashed the scandal.

Last month Schroeder's SPD was fined 493,000 euros in connection with the affair by Berlin's parliamentary president, Wolfgang Thierse, himself an SPD member. Thierse warned that more fines were likely.

Coming after months of sagging opinion polls the arrests are a further blow to Schroeder's chances of winning a second term in the September 22 general election even though there are no indications that Schroeder or other top SPD leaders were involved.

An Allensbach poll Wednesday showed conservative challenger Edmund Stoiber's Christian Democratic alliance (CDU/CSU) at 39 percent, compared to just over 32 percent for Schroeder's SPD.

Stoiber's coalition partner of choice, the Free Democrats (FDP), are polling 12.4 percent, compared to 7 percent for the chancellor's Greens coalition partner.

THE HAGUE, Jun 13, 2002 -- (dpa) Shortly before NATO launched air strikes against Yugoslavia in the Kosovo conflict, former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic had implied that the Serbs wanted to resolve the problem by murdering Albanians, a former NATO general said Thursday.

The former general, Klaus Naumann, told the United Nations war crimes tribunal in the Hague that he had warned Milosevic of NATO intervention if Belgrade did not stop using force against Albanians in Kosovo.

Milosevic has been defending himself before the war crimes tribunal since February 12 against charges of crimes against humanity, breaches of the Geneva Convention and violations of the customs of war.

Naumann issued the warning to Milosevic in a meeting in Belgrade, the former general said. Milosevic replied: "We will do it as we did in Drenica in 1945/46."

Asked what had happened, Milosevic said: "We gathered (the Albanians) together and shot them."

Naumann said he had warned Milosevic of NATO intervention three times. "The clock is ticking. You have 48 hours. Then the dogs of war will be let loose," Naumann had said.

A new agreement with Milosevic had still averted NATO intervention, the former general said. But the Alliance launched its attacks in March 1999 when Yugoslavia blatantly violated the agreement, he added.

MOSCOW, Jun 13, 2002 -- (RFE/RL) Patriarch Aleksii II on June 11 called on the State Duma to affirm in the new land code the Russian Orthodox Church's ownership of lands currently being farmed by its monasteries, RIA-Novosti reported the same day.

The patriarch noted that monks farm the land not only for their own benefit, but to feed pilgrims and the poor, and that their ability to continue this practice should be codified.

He added that, because of their expertise and long experience, the clerics are a positive example of "assiduous relations with the land."

Prior to the 1917 revolution, the Orthodox Church was one of the largest landholders in the Russian Empire.

BEIJING, Jun 13, 2002 -- (dpa) Chinese security personnel entered South Korea's Beijing embassy and forcibly removed a North Korean man from the premises, a South Korean diplomat said on Thursday.

The man had managed to get into the visa section of the embassy with his son. The diplomat said the Chinese police had not asked for permission to enter.

The South Korean news agency Yonhap reported, that the incident evolved into a punch up. Chinese security personnel hit a South Korean male diplomat and a Chinese female employee of the embassy, while dragging the man away.

The diplomat suffered a 10-centimeter cut on his left leg and the local employee sustained an injury to her lips.

The embassy lodged a protest with China, claiming that the South Korean sovereignty had been violated.

After the man was dragged from the premises to a guard box outside the embassy, embassy staff for hours prevented the police from taking him away, a Kyodo news report said.

But the Chinese guards pushed their way past embassy staff and forcibly took him away when reinforcements arrived on the scene.

They also hit and kicked South Korean reporters during the incident, which was witnessed by a Kyodo News correspondent.

The incident follows that on Tuesday when nine North Koreans climbed over the embassy wall and is reminiscent of an incident last month when Chinese police entered the Japanese consulate premises and dragged out five North Korean refugees.

It brings to 18 the total number of North Koreans holed up in the embassy hoping for a passage to South Korea, while another two are waiting in the Canadian embassy.

A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry said all foreign diplomatic missions had been informed that they should hand over any North Koreans - whom the Chinese government do not regard as refugees - to the Chinese authorities.

Since March 38 North Korean refugees who have made it into diplomatic missions have been allowed to travel on to North Korea via a third country.

However, China has changed its stance demanding that North Koreans in diplomatic missions are handed over to Chinese authorities. However without any guarantees being given, the embassies are refusing hand over the refugees and negotiations have stalled.

An estimated 150 000 North Koreans are believed to be living in China illegally having fled their home country in the wake of famine and political persecution. China does not recognize them as refugees and repatriates North Koreans to their country, where they face torture and imprisonment.

BERLIN, Jun 12, 2002 -- (dpa) Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder indicated Tuesday that election battle lines with German industry had been drawn after a top business leader attacked his labor market and economic policies.

The president of Germany's Federation of Industry (BDI), Michael Rogowski, read out a litany of complaints aimed at Schroeder during a BDI congress with the chancellor seated in the front row.

Schroeder openly grimaced and shook his head during parts of the influential Rogowski's speech.

"Those who refuse to change will lose what it is they are trying to preserve," warned Rogowski.

Rogowski complained the Schroeder government had done nothing to slash Germany's jungle of regulations and that European Union (EU) directives were making things even worse.

German unemployment, currently almost four million or 9.5 percent, could be cut to three million just by deregulation, he said.

"Herr chancellor, none of your labor laws have created any jobs," said Rogowski, adding: "They are employment prevention laws."

On Monday, Rogowski praised Schroeder's conservative challenger, Edmund Stoiber, and said he saw scant chances for the chancellor's center-left government to win reelection.

A stony-faced Schroeder took the podium after Rogowski and admitted he lost the business vote in the run-up to Germany's September 22 election.

"On the basis of what you said yesterday and your speech today it's clear you have already decided who you support," said Schroeder.

Schroeder did not address criticism of Germany's labor laws but instead stressed his government's big tax cuts bill and noted his efforts to cut German debt and reduce budget deficits.

He noted that many German sectors, such are car manufacturing wanted protection from liberalization moves proposed by the EU and that his government was determined to deliver this.

"We don't want praise from you but these things should at least be respected," said Schroeder.

Schroeder trails Stoiber in all opinion polls but in the past week has begun to cut his challenger's lead and is now just four to five percentage points behind.

ROME, Jun 12, 2002 -- (RFE/RL) Italian law enforcement authorities announced that they have exposed a vast international network that was involved in laundering illegal funds from Russia, nns.ru and Western news agencies reported on June 11.

About 50 people in several European countries have been arrested during Operation Web, which was conducted jointly with law enforcement agencies from Germany, France, Switzerland, and the United States.

Italian officials added that the money-laundering pipeline, which was allegedly directed by Igor Berezovskii (no relation to the tycoon Boris Berezovskii), operated via falsified import-export deals and that many of those arrested are Russian citizens.

Authorities estimate that the network laundered about USD 3 billion between 1996 and 1998.

MINSK, Jun 12, 2002 -- (dpa) Belarus cut the cost of state-supplied energy to favored government companies Tuesday after Russia agreed to accept Belarussian goods in compensation, a government spokeswoman in Minsk said.

The announcement came on the heels of agreements signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarussian President Aleksander Lukashenko during a summit in St. Peterburg, Russia.

Putin made better organization of Russian energy exports West the centerpiece of discussions held with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma in Russia's northern capital.

Lukashenko, though also present in St. Petersburg, did not participate in the negotiations directly because of Lukashenkos pariah reputation as the leader of Europes last authoritarian state controlled by a powerful secret police.

Putin however met with Lukashenko separately on Tuesday to sign a series of agreement aimed at easing the movement of Russian energy exports across Belarus. Some 20 to 30 percent of Russias energy exports to Europe cross Belarussian territory.

Though in past demanding cash for energy delivered to Belarus, in future Moscow would accept Belarussian automotive machinery and processed sugar as compensation.

Belarus and Russia will in addition amend their import regulations to make goods moving between the countries subject to a single set of excise codes, Belarussian government Natalia Pitkeevich said.

Presently smuggling between the two countries is rampant, with black market shippers trading Belarussian agricultural goods sold at state-supported prices for cheap Russian fuel products.

Another feature of the agreement makes Lukashenko the only person under Russian law who may issue Belarussian energy import licenses - a condition which will give the former collective farm boss the ability to replace sometimes too-independent Belarussian energy barons with more loyal businessmen.

Benefits from the Russian energy agreement will affect some 40 state-run Belarussian industrial companies currently deeply in the red because they are unable to pay for Russian energy supplies.

The deal will not affect energy prices to Belarussian retail consumers, Pitkeevich said.

Editor's commentary: That's the way to do business! Barter economy like in communist times, like in Stone Ages, like in Mad Max 3 Barter Town. It is simply unbelievable that these people do not fell that something is wrong with the way their economies operate.

Deputies from Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica's party have walked out of the Serbian parliament in protest at the expulsion of 21 of their colleagues from the house for absenteeism.

It remains unclear whether the deputies who stormed out on Wednesday have permanently quit their positions, but the move is nonetheless seen as bringing the country's shaky coalition one step closer to collapse.

"The people of Serbia should know that the parliament as a legitimate institution no longer exists due to the illegal revoking of mandates from the deputies of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS)," said the party's deputy president, Dragan Marsicanin.

Full story here.

Editor's commentary: It is perfectly legal because voters didn't vote for parties within DOS. They encircled DOS, not DSS, DS or any other party member of DOS. Vuk Draskovic and his SPO did exactly the same thing to Djindjic's DS in 1997 when DS deputies were replaced. SPO, DS and Civic Alliance formed then coalition "Zajedno".

BEIJING, Jun 11, 2002 -- (dpa) Nine North Koreans climbed over the wall of South Korea's embassy in Beijing, bringing to 17 the total number of North Koreans holed up in the embassy hoping for a passage to South Korea, while another two are waiting in the Canadian embassy.

South Korean diplomats told Deutsche Presse-Agentur that the North Koreans had made it into the embassy despite increased security by Chinese police around diplomatic missions in the country.

Spokesman for China's foreign ministry Liu Jianchao refused to confirm the latest flight of North Korean refugees to foreign diplomatic missions, but said of the previous cases that they would be handled according to international and domestic law, while "humanitarian" considerations would be taken into account when dealing with the refugees.

He, however did not repeat earlier demands that the embassies hand over the North Koreans to Chinese authorities.

A family of five, including a 14-year old and a 17-year old, were among the nine who made it into the South Korean embassy on Tuesday.

A diplomat said the group climbed over the wall on the premises and smashed a window to get into the building.

Since March 38 North Korean refugees who have made it into diplomatic missions have been allowed to travel on to North Korea via a third country.

However, China has changed its stance demanding that North Koreans in diplomatic missions are handed over to Chinese authorities. However without any guarantees being given, the embassies are refusing hand over the refugees and negotiations have stalled.

An estimated 150 000 North Koreans are believed to be living in China illegally having fled their home country in the wake of famine and political persecution. China does not recognize them as refugees and repatriates North Koreans to their country, where they face torture and imprisonment.

ST. PETERSBURG, Jun 11, 2002 -- (dpa) The dispute between Russia and the European Union over the future status of Kaliningrad dominated Monday's fourth summit of the Baltic Sea states in St. Petersburg.

The event was to have focussed on crime prevention and EU expansion issues in general, but President Vladimir Putin pressed home Moscow's demands for a special transit corridor from the exclave to the rest of Russia, and exemptions from EU visa rules.

"We should find a solution for Kaliningrad like West Berlin and West Germany in the 1970s," he said.

Establishing such a route to the region located between Poland and Lithuania was not the best solution, Putin told the delegations from ten other countries. "But the other variants proposed now are even worse."

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said he found the idea of a transit corridor unacceptable, while Polish President Leszek Miller repeated assurances that the EU will make visa requirements for Russians as cheap and simple as possible.

"Russia should view Kaliningrad as a chance, not a problem," Miller said.

The exclave with its 900,000 Russian inhabitants will be surrounded by EU territory after Poland and Lithuania join the union in 2004.

The summit was attended by the leaders of Russia, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

Other topics at the meeting were prevention of drug trafficking through the Baltic region, and the spread of tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

Editor's commentary: What Russian enclave? Prussia is simply being occupied by Russian gangsters. The only solution is to give back Prussia to Prussians. One more Baltic republic won't make a difference.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban dissidents said on Tuesday that the communist government was moving to block their campaign for a referendum on reforms like guaranteeing freedom of expression and an amnesty for political prisoners.

In response to the call for a vote, groups allied with President Fidel Castro proposed on Monday amending the constitution to rule out any changes that would threaten the socialist workers state.

The pro-government worker, student and farm groups said their goal was to ``expressly set forth the will of the people that the economic, political and social system consecrated in the constitution of the republic is untouchable.''

Castro called for a ``giant march'' on Wednesday in Havana to back the proposals supporting his 1959 revolution.

Oswaldo Paya, a Christian Democrat who heads the dissident reform campaign called the Varela Project, expressed exasperation at the rival proposal.

``To say the political, economic and social system is 'untouchable' is the expression of a totalitarian mentality,'' he told Reuters.

``It is offensive that they speak in the name of the people when they don't even dare hold a referendum so that the people can express their will at the ballot box,'' he said.

Cuba's constitution allows for referendums if petitioners gather enough signatures.

A month ago Paya gave the National Assembly a petition with 11,020 signatures calling for a vote on whether Cubans favored civil liberties such as freedom of expression and assembly, the right to own a business, electoral reform and an amnesty for political prisoners.

Paya said his group will continue gathering signatures and press the government to publish the Varela Project document to allow public debate on reform.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- Slobodan Milosevic was ``the person in charge'' when Serb forces murdered and plundered in the province of Kosovo in 1999, an American diplomat said Tuesday at the former Yugoslav president's war crimes trial.

William Walker was the head of a Kosovo verification mission for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe when atrocities were committed in the disputed province. The U.S. Ambassador met Milosevic four times in the late 1990s.

During nearly 90 minutes of hearings at the U.N. court Tuesday, Walker depicted Milosevic as a dominating man with ultimate power. An apparently amused Milosevic sat back grinning while Walker told the court ``the meetings were dominated by him (Milosevic), all four of them.''

In evidence that could damage Milosevic's defense, Walker said the former president had ``knowledge of events in Kosovo,'' referring to the brutal Serb crackdown that led to the 78-day NATO bombing.

``His knowledge was in many respects quite detailed,'' Walker said. ``I never wavered in my opinion that I was dealing with the person who was in the maximum control of events in Kosovo, at least from the Serb side.''

U.N. prosecutors have charged Milosevic with five counts of war crimes in Kosovo for hundreds of murders and the expulsion of around 800,000 Kosovo Albanians. He faces another 61 counts of war crimes, including genocide, for alleged crimes in Croatia and Bosnia.

Walker also testified about the carnage he found in the village of Racak, where he said he saw a pile of bodies, many of them old men, shot in the head and eyes.

Milosevic's indictment said that on Jan. 15, 1999, Yugoslav forces entered the village and shot people who attempted to flee. The forces rounded up 25 men and took them to a nearby hill where they were slain, the indictment said.

Milosevic denies the men were executed by Serbs, saying they were casualties of clashes between government forces and rebel Kosovo Albanian fighters a day earlier. Walker said the men were not wearing uniforms, had no insignia on their clothes and had no guns or ammunition.

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Squads of armed Serbian police scoured Belgrade's known gangland hangouts in the hunt for killers of one of their top officers after reformist leaders vowed to end a string of unsolved assassinations.

Finding the assassins of Bosko Buha, a 42-year-old career officer with the rank of general in the Interior Ministry police, has become a test of the Serbian government's ability to tackle violent crime.

Buha was shot eight times by two unknown assailants in a riverside parking lot after leaving a restaurant with friends in the early hours of Monday morning.

A police spokeswoman Tuesday declined to say how the investigation was going, but security sources said squads of armed detectives had visited underworld haunts Monday evening, including a well-known restaurant.

The murder was a slap in the face for reformist leaders who made Buha the capital's police chief after they took power then promoted him to a senior Interior Ministry post.

Amid accusations nothing had changed since the unexplained assassinations which took place with increasing frequency under the regime of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, top government figures vowed this case would be different.

Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic said his men would not rest until Buha's killers were found. Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic said he was requesting regular updates on the case.

``Unlike in the previous murders, I expect the police to brief us about...the possible motive for the assassination of this officer,'' Djindjic told evening television.

``I don't think the killer is in limbo between the earth and the sky. I think he's among the people who had contacts with the victim, who were in some sort of relationship with him.''

COMPETING THEORIES, JOSTLING GANGS

Buha was due to be buried Wednesday. His picture was all over Tuesday's newspapers, along with speculation about who might have had him killed, including six-month-old comments by the victim himself about previous hits.

``These are professional killers...who left no tracks behind. These were so-called pyramid killings. They were modeled on Russian mafia hits,'' Buha said in a November newspaper interview about Belgrade underworld killings.

``The person who ordered the first killings then ordered the murder of the killers...''

He said the capital of two million people supported five rival organized crime groups with no overall godfather. They were all trying to become untouchable by bribing or blackmailing senior policemen and well-placed politicians as in the past.

``I was offered contacts with some people from the underworld,'' Buha admitted candidly in the interview.

Serbia's outspoken justice minister, Vladan Batic, Monday said Buha's killing was ``just an underworld showdown with a man who held top positions in the police for a long while.''

He did not say whether by that he meant Buha was a corrupt policeman who got too greedy or an implacable foe of the mafia.

Other commentators noted Buha had collaborated with Milosevic's political opponents in October 2000, ordering the riot squads of which he had command not to oppose the pro-democracy crowds who toppled the Yugoslav president.

This might have made him a target for political revenge.

Another report noted Buha had served with interior ministry police units in Kosovo in 1999 and alleged he had personal knowledge of the secret transport of Kosovo Albanians murdered by Serb forces during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

Magazine journalist Jovan Dulovic speculated that Buha may have been on the verge of agreeing to testify against Milosevic at his war crimes trial before the U.N. tribunal in The Hague.

MOSCOW, Jun 10, 2002 -- (RFE/RL) Citing the website utro.ru, chechenpress.com on June 6 reported that Russian troops have admitted to shelling the central mosque in the village of Mesker-Yurt, which has been the object of a search operation for over two weeks.

According to utro.ru, the troops claimed that two Chechen fighters were targeting Russian servicemen from the mosque; but chechenpress.com reported on May 30 that the entire male population of the village was being held captive in the building.

Interfax reported on June 6 that Mesker-Yurt is still cordoned off from the outside world.

Meanwhile, on June 7, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer described the treatment of Chechen civilians by Russian forces as "unacceptable," dpa reported.

Fischer said that Chechnya raises "great concerns" and Russia cannot be given a post-11 September "antiterrorism rebate" for its actions there.

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Unknown attackers shot dead a top Serbian interior ministry official, who was Belgrade's police chief during the rule of Slobodan Milosevic, early on Monday morning, a police source said.

The source told Reuters Bosko Buha, Serbia's deputy head of public security, was shot three times in the chest outside a Belgrade hotel. He was rushed to hospital but later died from his injuries, the source said.

State television RTS said at least two attackers had approached Buha at around 2:45 a.m. (0045 GMT) and opened fire as he was getting into his jeep.

Buha was head of the capital city's police force when Milosevic was Yugoslav president. He moved to his ministry post after reformers took power in October 2000.

Reformers often accused Milosevic-era security forces of close links to organized crime and of involvement in politically motivated crimes such as killings and harassment. But once in power, the reformers chose to retain many senior policemen.

Milosevic is standing trial at the U.N. war crimes tribunal over his role in the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Jacques Chirac's conservatives trounced the left to pave the way for a landslide election victory next week as Jean-Marie Le Pen's extreme right party ran out of steam in parliamentary voting on Sunday.

With an estimated 44 percent of first round votes in initial estimates, the center-right took a solid lead on the Socialists and their Communist and ecologist Greens party partners, who scored a total of just under 37 percent amid mass abstention.

The main opinion pollsters said the center-right could expect to win upwards of 380 seats in the National Assembly lower house of parliament, where 289 deputies is a majority.

``The action has begun. Now it must continue,'' said Nicolas Sarkozy, the tough-talking man who became interior minister in a center-right, interim cabinet which took over after Chirac's re-election on May 5 with a mission to crack down on crime.

Sunday's results set Chirac on course to become perhaps the most powerful president in decades, totally unhampered by the awkward power-sharing that dogged French leadership when he had to work with a left-wing coalition over the past five years.

It also set France on track to join a raft of countries that have swung right across Europe, though the retreat of the French far right appeared to at least stem the populist resurgence seen in countries like Austria and the Netherlands.

TUG-OF-WAR FOR LISTLESS VOTERS

More than one in three voters stayed away from the polling stations, echoing a record abstention rate in the opening round of the presidential election on April 21 that pitched Chirac into a shock runoff against hard-right, anti-immigrant Le Pen.

Parliamentary candidates from Le Pen's National Front and the extreme left lost steam. The Front's score dipped to about 11 percent from 15 percent in the 1997 election and pollsters saw it taking two seats at best, maybe none, on June 16.

Le Pen himself did not run for parliament after his defeat in the presidential runoff, which Chirac won with 82 percent as voters on the left voted for Chirac to shut Le Pen out.

National media flagged Sunday's outcome as the ``blue wave,'' comparing the momentum gained by Chirac after the trauma of his presidential battle to the ``red wave'' that swept late Socialist President Francois Mitterrand and the left to power in 1981.

For the shattered left, the only glimmer of hope lay in the abstention rate seen in Sunday's first round, around 36 percent.

Socialist Party boss Francois Hollande and heavyweights like former finance ministers Laurent Fabius and Dominique Strauss-Kahn appealed to left-wingers to mobilize on June 16, the second and final round.

``I want to make an extremely strong appeal to those who abstained today,'' said Fabius. ``Vote. It takes five minutes and then it's for five years.''

A visibly shaken Hollande warned left-wing voters against the apathy and resignation that led to Le Pen's breakthrough seven weeks earlier, forcing them to vote for Chirac.

``Nothing could be worse for the future of our country than a legislative election where one political camp wins by default out of neglect of civic responsibility,'' he said.

Most races for the 577 National Assembly seats are due to go to runoffs, but about 50 candidates sealed their fate on Sunday.

Among the most prominent defeats was the disqualification of Bruno Megret, far-right chief of the National Republican Movement which split off from Le Pen's National Front.

He did not get the minimum 12.5 percent to go through to the runoff in a southern constituency where the town halls of Vitrolles and Marignane are ruled by members of his party.

Ultimately, the national results seemed to have vindicated Chirac's ploy of rounding up almost all mainstream conservatives into one party and warning against another cohabitation with the left, whose vote was spread among half a dozen parties.

``France has decided to give the president a majority,'' said Francois Fillon, interim social affairs minister and one of those elected outright on Sunday. ``This shows the best way to combat the extremes is through action,'' he said.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin, interim prime minister, promised to deliver on all Chirac had promised if the June 16 vote confirmed victory -- getting tough on crime, cutting tax and reducing costs and labor law constraints on business.

``The message this evening is favorable and gives confidence but we remain modest,'' said Raffarin, playing on his image as a humble servant of ``grass roots France.'' ``The French people are tired of polemics. They are asking for political efficiency.''

Projections for runoff results from pollsters Sofres, Ipsos and CSA, put Chirac's allies winning 380-440 seats, the left, 134-191 and the extreme right between zero and two seats.

Le Pen was left protesting over the voting system and the risk that his party was unlikely to make it to more than some 30 runoffs, compared to his prediction of up to 250 or even 300.

The ailing Communist Party, a pillar of the ``plural left'' government of defeated ex-prime minister Lionel Jospin, limped in at about 4.5 percent, a sharp drop from its 1997 first round score of 9.6 percent.

The ecologist Greens were running around 4.2 percent, a rise from the 3.6 percent they scored five years ago.

As the first round results rolled in, the extreme left was far behind its showing in the presidential contest, scoring less than three percent compared to over 10 percent on April 21.

High abstention, plus a record selection of 15 candidates on average per constituency, had been expected to aid the National Front, which won one seat in 1997.

Many voters who did go to the polls were unenthusiastic, not to mention those whose interest turned to the World Cup soccer championship and the Rolland Garros tennis finals.

``Quite honestly, I am sick of it and I didn't particularly follow the campaign. I have my convictions,'' said 56-year-old Annie Coudiere, who nonetheless turned up at a polling station in Paris for the vote, whose second-round runoff is next Sunday.

Financial markets were happier, even if skeptical about Chirac's ability to cut tax by 30 percent in coming years, on the basis that a landslide would be good for economic reform.

``This is the most favorable result markets could have expected as it gives a clear and coherent majority to the president and suggests the executive will have the means to govern,'' said Valerie Plagnol, chief economist at CIC bank.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Hundreds of drunken soccer fans rampaged through Moscow Sunday after Russia's defeat in the World Cup finals, leaving one man reported dead and a trail of destruction in the worst city center violence in a decade.

Russians fans angered by their team's 1-0 defeat by Japan in Yokohama torched cars, smashed shops and battled police for 90 minutes just 100 yards from the Kremlin. Even before the game, four Japanese students were attacked in Moscow.

Doctors said the dead Russian was stabbed as mass brawls erupted on Manezh Square where some 3,000 boisterous supporters had watched the game in Japan on a giant outdoor screen.

A policeman was critically ill with stab wounds and 11 officers in total were also hurt, and more than 100 people were hurt, with 30 taken to hospital, Russian news agencies said.

Moscow's top police officer General Vladimir Pronin said he had no concrete proof of any fatality but hospital officials quoted by television confirmed the death. They also said a 17-year-old youth had been rushed to hospital after trying to slash his wrists in despair following Russia's defeat.

Drunken youths attacked the four Japanese students near the venue of the world-renowned Tchaikovsky classical music competition. They had to be rescued by embassy staff after seeking shelter in a nearby cafe, Japanese journalists said.

As with most soccer-related violence elsewhere in the world, alcohol appeared to have played a big part in fueling the riot. Russia has notoriously lax drinking laws and many of the mainly young supporters drank beer throughout the game.

CARS TORCHED

Black smoke billowed from seven torched cars outside the landmark Moskva Hotel and the State Duma parliament building, in scenes not witnessed in Moscow since the storming of the previous parliament in 1993 and which would have been unthinkable in the days of the Soviet police state.

The disturbances were the worst soccer-related violence to hit Russia since 2000, when two teenagers died in separate incidents after club matches.

President Vladimir Putin, a sports fan who has put an accent on law and order in his two years in power, was away from Moscow in the second city of St. Petersburg when the riots took place. There was no immediate reaction from his closest aides.

Angry fans attacked cars and vans parked near the Moskva Hotel, smashing windshields and overturning others. Some 20 vehicles were damaged, said police, including expensive foreign imports. Many Russians do not fully insure their vehicles.

The rioters hurled bottles, sticks and other missiles at the police. Broken glass and plastic bottles, as well as poles that during the match had held the Russian tricolor aloft, littered the main thoroughfare that abuts Manezh Square.

Interfax news agency said one drunken fan in a car had run down three pedestrians. Their condition was not known.

VIOLENCE CONDEMNED

A plume of smoke rose over some of Moscow's historic sites, as overstretched riot police moved in to disperse the crowds, and firefighters doused burning vehicles.

First aid teams were attacked as they bandaged bleeding bystanders caught up in the violence.

Some 300-400 hooligans streamed up the main Tverskaya (formerly Gorky) Street, smashing shop windows and looting expensive boutiques. Some attacked a Japanese restaurant there, one of dozens that have flourished in recent years. Police later stepped up security at Japan's nearby embassy.

``I don't like everything that is happening here. People gathered to watch and now there is this disorder. This isn't right,'' said one fan, Alexei.

Alexei Volin, the deputy head of the Russian government administration, told the RIA news agency the violence ''discredits millions of normal people who supported the national team'' and said the troublemakers should be punished.

Police spokesman Sergei Shevtsov told Interfax 60 people had been detained and the public prosecutor's office launched an investigation under the penal code's ``hooliganism'' article.

The violence could yet have political fallout. Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov flew back to Moscow from St. Petersburg and demanded a report from the capital's police chief Pronin.

Gryzlov later ordered an internal probe into police handling of the riot, ministry sources told Interfax. Witnesses said police had been totally unprepared for trouble. Pronin said 7,000 to 8,000 fans had turned up instead of the expected 500.

A senior figure in Gryzlov's pro-Kremlin Unity party hinted that senior heads could roll at the city's police force.

Thursday, parliament had given an initial reading to a so-called ``anti-skinhead'' bill to crackdown on extremism, whose legal definition under the new law will include ``hooliganism.''

The disturbances are certain to intensify the debate over widespread beer advertising, which some legislators want banned for fear of rising youth consumption.

Police said hooligans who had spent much of the match drinking had started the unrest. But some fans blamed heavy-handed policing for triggering the violence.

There were no reports of trouble at three other sites around the capital where the game was shown but future broadcasts have been scrapped by city fathers. Russia now need success against Belgium Friday to reach the next round of the World Cup.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- A hard-line Iranian body has rejected a parliamentary bill banning torture to obtain prisoner confessions, according to press reports Sunday.

The Guardian Council, a 12-member constitutional watchdog, rejected the bill as unconstitutional and contrary to Islamic sharia law.

The bill proposes to ban the solitary confinement of detainees and torture -- either physical or psychological -- to obtain confessions, the daily Nowruz newspaper reported.

The reformist-dominated parliament passed the bill last month.

Lawmakers presenting the bill and Guardian Council members were unavailable for comment.

Several reformist writers and students have complained of suffering physical and psychological torture by judicial officials during detention.

Passing the bill would have fulfilled a key promise of reformists, who are keen to promote the rule of law and protect individual and political freedoms.

The Guardian Council comprises hard-line six clerics appointed by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and six lawyers selected by parliament from a list presented by the judiciary's head, who Khamenei also appoints.

NAZARETH, Colombia (AP) -- In this village nestled in the misty Sumapaz highlands, Saturday is payday: Businessmen arrive to make their regular extortion payments to rebels, while families of hostages try to ransom their loved ones.

Here, among the few houses at the foot of a mountain 2 1/2 hours south of Bogota, state authority is nonexistent, and yet there's a sort of crude order to everything, including a store selling equipment for the trek to the hostage handover point.

The atmosphere is tense. People trickle in by car to pay ransom or extortion demands. Journalists sometimes drop by, but no one wants to be quoted by name, and picture-taking is forbidden. Rebels prowl through the village, and aren't always disciplined.

On one recent Saturday, A rebel in charge of the radio that communicates with his comrades in camps outside town was drunk by 10 a.m. He pulled out a pistol and threatened to shoot a man who had brought food for the rebels, accusing him of being an informant. The drunken rebel was detained by his comrades, delivered back to camp and replaced by another radio operator.

Two hours later, around noon, two brothers in their 30s drove in, their Mazda dusty from the unpaved road. They were hoping to return to Bogota with their father, a 67-year-old middle-class businessman kidnapped by criminals four months ago and ``sold'' to the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

The brothers, who requested anonymity, said they had already paid two ransoms worth a total of $100,000 and had been given to understand that they could have their father back. ``We're hoping that today will be the final day of this torture,'' the older one told a reporter who happened to be visiting Nazareth.

Wearing jeans, and a parka against the chill, he tugged on a pair of rubber boots before hiking up the mountain to collect his dad.

A FARC man assigned to escort him to the rendezvous had selected the boots for him from a small warehouse in a house. It offers boots in all sizes, along with sweat pants, rain ponchos and gloves.

Some 3,000 people were taken hostage last year, most by the FARC. They range from the country's richest businessmen to humble merchants barely able to support their families.

The businessmen who come to Nazareth and other villages call the extortion payments ``vacunas'' -- vaccines.

At 1 p.m. a bearded man arrived in a jeep. He counted out a wad of 50,000 pesos ($22) to a FARC representative. Afterward he said he had been paying extortion for three years because ``there is no state to protect us if we say 'no' to them.''

The Bush administration, which supports the Colombian military in counternarcotics operations, says it now wants to do something about the plague of abductions. It has asked Congress to approve $25 million to train Colombian anti-kidnapping police.

But the trade in hostages -- and the anguish, the months and even years spent in captivity, and the inevitable deaths -- is a monumental problem in Colombia.

Col. Carlos Arevalo, director of the army's anti-kidnapping unit, estimates the FARC earns $150 million a year from ransom payments. The rebels also finance their 38-year war against the government through drug trafficking and extortion. A smaller rebel group -- the National Liberation Army -- also does kidnappings, as do common criminals.

The Sumapaz highlands have been a FARC bastion for years, even though the Colombian army a year ago built a base to the south to clear the rebels out.

``They've been here since the days of my father,'' a 45-year-old peasant said of the rebels. ``But now you feel them more. You feel them in everything.''

At 1 p.m., it was time for the older brother to set out to get his father. He stuffed a bottle of whiskey and several packs of cigarettes into a plastic bag -- an offering to the rebel commander waiting on the mountain above.

The younger brother anxiously waited behind, smoking cigarettes and pacing between his car and a food store where three FARC men were lounging.

Only a half-hour later, a message came over the rebels' radio, dashing the brothers' hopes: ``We need to get more money out of this old man. He's not leaving today.''

BEOGRAD - Yugoslav airliner JAT announced today new airline, Moscow-Tivat to satisfy increasing demand of Russian tourists to spend their vacation on Montenegro Riviera. First flight is expected on Tuesday, June 11th.

Editor's commentary: Uh-oh! As we remember, just before VJ shelling of Dubrovnik, many Russian tourists (KGB agents) visited this pearl of Adriatic suddenly. It seems that Moscow continues with pressure on Djukanovic to step down and thus preserve collapsed FRY. With tons of weapons and suitcases full of forged money, these tourists will quickly change political opinion of Montenegrins this summer. It is better for Djukanovic to quickly have consultations with Liberal Party in order to make Montenegro independent soon. It is now or never, especially for him and his party. There are rumors that Russia is pushing for vice president of Djukanovic's DPS, Marovic who is supposed to replace Djukanovic and enter coalition government with SNP. Recent Marovic's statements are identical to SNP (Montenegrin Stalinist Party and Milosevic's lackeys) and Ivanov's statements regarding future of Montenegro. Djukanovic must realize that he doesn't have three more years to prolong Montengrin independence so it is time to act now.

KRAGUJEVAC - Car maker Zastava signed contract with American company Global to export cars to America.

TANJUG - June 8th, 2002

KRAGUJEVAC - A commercial contract signed between the US company Global and Zastava of Kragujevac, central Serbia, does not specify the quantity of cars to be exported, but Zastava expects that it would export at least 30,000 cars to the US market per year, Zastava Manager General Zoran Radojevic told Tanjug.

This quantity will grow as Zastava's production grows, he said and added that exports would start once the factory had received an attestation of compliance to US standards.

Editor's commentary: It seems that Yugo is coming again to U.S. after previous debacle. Serbs definitely prefer German cars over domestic garbage from Zatava so it make us wonder who is going to buy Zastava garbage in America. Real story behind this is that his is just another money laundering operation to collect more money for Milosevic's defense in Hague and help his cronies regain power in Serbia. Various communist and anarchist elements in America are ready to pay up to $50,000 for one Yugo in order to help Milosevic and his criminals. Don't buy anything from Zastava until transition in Serbia is complete or transition may never complete. Choice is yours.

MOSCOW, Jun 7, 2002 -- (dpa) There was widespread speculation in Russia on Friday about the origin of a cache of air-to-ground missiles discovered close to the Moscow airport used by President Putin and members of the Russian government.

The weapons, which can only be fired from military helicopters, were discovered Thursday at a cemetery near the Vnukovo airport, the Itar-Tass news agency said, citing an armaments expert.

Local media speculated that they may have been stored for a possible attack on the Russian leadership.

Chechnya/Russia, Jun 7, 2002 -- (RFE/RL) The Chechen Supreme Court on June 5 overturned the March acquittal by a Moscow district court of two Russian Interior Ministry officers charged with negligence that resulted in the deaths of 22 servicemen in an ambush in Grozny in March 2000, Russian agencies reported.

The Chechen court ordered further investigation into the case.

The Russian Prosecutor-General's Office had immediately challenged the acquittal.

MINSK, Jun 7, 2002 -- (RFE/RL) The European Union criticized on June 5 the treatment by Belarus of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe mission in Minsk, including the Belarussian government's refusals to renew the visas of a number of OSCE officials, AFP reported the same day.

Two acting heads of the mission have left Belarus since April 15, and a human-rights officer was recalled on June 4, leaving only one international officer at the mission.

The EU rotating presidency, currently held by Spain, said on June 5 that the OSCE has a fundamental role to play in Belarus in supporting democratic consolidation and economic and social progress.

The EU urged Belarus to accept a new head of the mission and to remove obstacles hindering relations between the former Soviet republic and the OSCE.

The Belarussian government has justified its actions by accusing OSCE officials of supporting the opposition.

Opposition Parties Urge Government to Change Tune in Relation to Osce

Belarus's Consultative Council of Opposition Parties, which unites the country's eight most prominent opposition parties, demanded that the government stop its "attacks" on OSCE officers serving at the Minsk mission, Belapan reported on June 5.

The council said that the OSCE has done a great deal to improve the country's relations with the international community and to promote dialogue between the government and the opposition, adding that the government should respect the OSCE mandate that it once approved.

"The presence of the OSCE AMG [Advisory and Monitoring Group] in Belarus offered citizens certain guarantees of protection from the despotism of the authorities and fueled hopes for a civilized solution to the political crisis and for a gradual integration of Belarus into the European community," the council said.

Mass Grave Found at Site of Latest Russian Sweep in Chechnya

Chechnya, Jun 6, 2002 -- (RFE/RL) The bodies of some 25 people, including two women, were found on June 4 in a mass grave between the villages of Tsotan-Yurt and Mesker-Yurt, chechenpress.com reported on June 5 quoting Chechen human rights activists. The victims had been shot.

Mesker-Yurt remains cordoned off by Russian troops who launched a search operation there last week for Chechen fighters.

Ali Alavdinov, deputy premier in the pro-Moscow Chechen government and a native of Mesker-Yurt, condemned the killings as a crime against humanity.

KLAGENFURT, Jun 5, 2002 -- (dpa) Austria's most prominent right-wing politician Joerg Haider voiced anger Tuesday at having his invitation withdrawn to Wednesday's "Europaforum" in Berlin because of his criticism of German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.

In Klagenfurt, the capital of Carinthia Province of which he is governor, Haider's spokesman accused Europaforum co-organizer "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) of "submissiveness" to Fischer.

Spokesman Karl Heinz Petritz said Haider's description of Fischer Monday night as a "sympathizer" of the German terrorist Red Army Faction (RAF) was "not invective, but a statement of fact". Haider could not, and would not, have any respect for Fischer.

Under leftist pressure, the FAZ had ignored the basic right of freedom of opinion and prevented an "interesting and open exchange of opinions about Europe", said Haider's spokesman.

At the Europaforum on Wednesday, former Freedom Party (FP) leader Haider was to have answered questions about "The rise of right-wing populism: what is bothering the Europeans about Europe?"

On hearing Haider was to appear, Fischer canceled his own scheduled appearance at the forum. This prompted Haider to retort that "I prefer anyway not to come to an appointment in which someone is taking part who has open sympathies for terrorism". On Tuesday it seemed likely that Fischer would attend again now that Haider was no longer coming.

In Berlin, other participants are to include head of the German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Angela Merkel. Before Haider had his invitation withdrawn, she already said she would appreciate not having to meet with him.

Another event with Haider's participation in the German city of Frankfurt this week was canceled altogether following protests.

The son of former Mafia boss Salvatore "Toto" Riina has been arrested in a police swoop on Corleone, the Sicilian town that featured prominently in the Mafia film The Godfather.

Giuseppe Salvatore Riina was among some 20 people taken into custody, including several prominent businessmen from the Sicilian capital Palermo.

Police say the 25-year-old was involved in establishing Mafia-controlled companies to launder money from protection rackets, drug-trafficking and tenders for public building contracts on the island.

Giuseppe is one of four Riina children, and the second to be arrested for following in his father's footsteps.

Full story here.

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- A Colombian mayor on his way to a meeting for mayors threatened by rebels was killed Wednesday, and a municipal lobbying group blamed the country's main rebel group. In another town, rebels ordered the mayor and the entire town council to leave town or face attack.

Fourteen mayors have been killed since the beginning of last year and another 16 have been kidnapped, said Gilberto Toro, president of a municipal lobbying group called the Federation of Municipalities. Twenty more have fled their towns because of threats, he said.

The latest attack came Wednesday, when Luis Carlos Caro Pacheco, mayor of Solita, a town in southern Caqueta state, was killed, according to a Caqueta government official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Toro blamed the country's main rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the FARC, for the killing.

In San Vicente del Caguan, a major southern town, the FARC ordered the mayor, town council and police chief to leave town or face attack.

``For your physical integrity, we need you to leave town, otherwise you will be considered a military target,'' the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, said in a letter to town officials in San Vicente de Caguan. The letter was released to local reporters by the FARC.

Five mayors of other towns in Colombia have submitted resignation letters after receiving threats from the FARC.

It was not immediately clear why the mayors were being targeted, but there were unconfirmed reports that the leftist FARC had accused some mayors of being allied with a right-wing paramilitary group.

San Vicente del Caguan is the main town inside a vast swath of the south that was granted to the FARC during peace talks with the government. When three years of talks failed in February, government troops retook control of San Vicente and the four other towns inside the zone. But rebels are still present in rural areas.

One of the city council members in San Vicente spoke to RCN Radio Wednesday and confirmed the threats.

``Some of the city council members have honestly decided to leave because there are no guarantees to continue our work,'' he said on condition of anonymity. ``We have families and we have to be responsible to them first.''

The Roman Catholic bishop of San Vicente said the atmosphere was tense.

``If they threaten a mayor, the whole town is threatened,'' Bishop Francisco Jose Munera told The Associated Press by telephone.

San Vicente Mayor Nestor Ramirez declined to comment.

The rebels and paramilitaries are present in more than 600 Colombian towns and cities, according to the defense ministry.

Roughly 3,500 people die every year in Colombia's 38-year civil war, which pits the FARC and a smaller rebel group against an illegal paramilitary army and government troops.

PRAGUE (Reuters) - A leading Czech official has once again insisted that Mohammed Atta, one of the suspected hijackers involved in the September 11 attacks on the United States, met an Iraqi agent in Prague just months before crashing a plane into the World Trade Center.

The weekly Prague Post was to report in its June 5 edition that Hynek Kmonicek, Czech envoy to the United Nations, had affirmed that a disputed meeting between Atta and Iraqi agent Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani took place in April 2001.

The meeting, which several Czech officials have claimed took place and U.S. intelligence agencies recently cast doubt upon, would be the only piece of evidence linking Iraq with the September 11 attacks.

``The meeting took place,'' the paper quotes Kmonicek as saying during an interview in New York.

Atta was an Egyptian suspected of flying one of the two planes into New York's World Trade Center.

The Prague Post, an English-language weekly, added in a statement that Kmonicek had said he personally ordered the expulsion of al-Ani from the Czech Republic in April 2001.

The agent, listed as second consul at the Iraqi embassy in Prague, was under surveillance by Czech intelligence authorities and subsequently expelled for ``engaging in activities beyond his diplomatic duties,'' a phrase usually taken to mean spying.

Revelations of Atta's Prague connection first surfaced one month after the attacks when Czech Interior Minister Stanislav Gross said Atta had met al-Ani in Prague in April 2001.

He said officials knew of only two visits by Atta, who once lived in neighboring Germany. The other occurred while Atta was in transit at the airport in the spring of 2000.

No hard evidence has emerged linking Iraq to the attacks on the United States, and Iraqi officials have denied any involvement in the plot or in the deadly release of anthrax bacteria in the United States.

They have accused Washington of fabricating the anthrax attacks as a pretext to broaden its anti-terrorism campaign to include more countries.

The United States has named Saudi-born Osama bin Laden as its chief suspect in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. No link between the attacks and the anthrax incidents has been established.

KWANGJU, South Korea (Reuters) - Falun Gong demonstrators protested against a Chinese crackdown on their spiritual movement on Tuesday in full view of thousands of Chinese soccer fans attending their team's World Cup debut.

About 15 South Korean practitioners held up red and yellow banners saying ``Falun Gong is good...China should stop its persecution'' at a traffic intersection a few hundred yards from the entrance to Kwangju's World Cup stadium.

The banners, in Korean, were clearly visible to Chinese supporters heading to the ground for China's opening group C match against Costa Rica in coaches that stopped at the traffic lights.

Many of the supporters waved back at the protesters or took souvenir photos. Some, apparently unaware of what they were accepting, got off the coaches to take plastic sunshades and hand-held fans that the demonstrators were giving out for free.

The giveaways carried Falun Gong symbols and, in Chinese, the slogan ``Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance. Falun Gong is good.''

South Korean police allowed the group to demonstrate but moved on another three Falun Gong protesters who had unfurled a large yellow banner along the route that China's soccer team took to the stadium before the team bus passed by.

China outlawed Falun Gong, which blends meditation exercises and mystical elements drawn from Taoism and Buddhism, in 1999 and labeled it an evil cult after more than 10,000 adherents gathered in front of Beijing's leadership compound.

The government has said its crackdown has virtually wiped out the group in China, but sporadic protests still occur there.

Between 25,000 and 40,000 Chinese fans are expected to visit South Korea to follow group C matches against Costa Rica, Brazil and Turkey in China's first World Cup finals.

A spokesman for the official ticket distributor in China said last week that authorities had ordered travel agencies to watch out for Falun Gong followers among fans traveling to the tournament, who are also being screened by Chinese police.

Sung Gwan-hae, a 46-year-old South Korean Falun Gong practitioner, said he had come from the capital Seoul to join Tuesday's protest.

He said about 200 Falun Gong followers, in distinctive yellow T-shirts, were spread out around the stadium.

``This is China's first game at the World Cup so we are letting them know that Falun Gong is good and Chinese persecution is wrong,'' he said.

MOSCOW, Jun 4, 2002 -- (RFE/RL) Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the deputy Duma speaker and head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) told journalists in Moscow on 31 May that Russia should return to Japan the disputed Kurile Islands in exchange for "big investments in the Russian economy," Russian news agencies reported on 31 May.

Speaking before an official trip to Tokyo, Zhirinovsky claimed that Japan has about USD 100 billion worth of free capital that "can work on the Russian market," and that he will discuss his proposal and other options for resolving the Kurile problem with senior officials in the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

Zhirinovsky's remarks are noteworthy because he often launches trial balloons prior to foreign-policy shifts. For example, last December he signaled important changes in Russia's policy toward the United States.

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Yasser Arafat has offered Cabinet posts to Hamas and other militant groups involved in suicide attacks against Israelis as part of a government reshuffle he plans to announce in coming days, Palestinians said Sunday. While three other radical groups have turned down the Palestinian leader's offer, saying they don't want to belong to a government that's willing to negotiate with Israel, Hamas is still weighing the proposal, the group said.

It would mark the first time in his eight years as chairman of the Palestinian Authority that Arafat formally brought Hamas into government -- a move likely to be strongly opposed by Israel and the United States, which both regard Hamas as a terrorist group.

In Israel, a Hamas-Arafat alliance would be interpreted as an indication that the Palestinians are determined to continue the violent conflict.

From Arafat's perspective, having radical groups inside the government could make them easier to control. It was not clear whether Arafat was making compliance with his call for an end to suicide attacks a condition of Hamas entering the government.

``We are still consulting with our colleagues inside and outside the homeland and our final response will be declared before the end of this week,'' Hamas spokesman Ismail Hania said of Arafat's proposal.

Of the more than 60 suicide attacks by Palestinians in the current Mideast conflict, Hamas' military wing has carried out more than any other group, including the deadliest attacks. The group has rejected Arafat's call to halt them.

After 20 months of Mideast fighting that has left Palestinian institutions and their economy in shambles, Arafat has come under strong pressure to restructure the Palestinian government. But his definition of reform is likely to differ sharply from what his critics, including the United States and Israel, hope to see.

``The question is whether the Palestinians are taking this seriously,'' said Danny Seaman, an Israeli government spokesman. Referring to an alliance with Hamas, Seaman said, ``If this is the direction that Arafat takes, he shouldn't be surprised at the attitude that Israel takes in response.''

In negotiations with leading Palestinian factions over the past few weeks, Arafat has been looking at reducing his current 32-member Cabinet to 18 or 19 posts, and bringing in a number of new faces, aides say. The Cabinet has to date had limited power, generally falling in line with decisions by Arafat.

It was not clear how many or which posts Hamas would receive.

``President Arafat is conducting serious and intensive consultations with Palestinian factions and academics in order to establish a new government,'' said Ahmed Qureia, the speaker of parliament. ``We hope the Palestinian Authority will declare the new government very soon.''

During more than three decades as the Palestinian leader, Arafat has always preferred to rule by consensus and is again looking to bring other factions into the government, such as Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

Hamas gains influence among Palestinians not only from its attacks on Israelis, but also from its network of schools, clinics and welfare offices. The group has become the main welfare provider at a time when more than half the 3 million Palestinians live in poverty.

The Islamic Jihad and two secular leftist groups -- the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- have declared their refusal to be in the government following offers by Arafat.

Western diplomats have descended on the region in recent days, and all have stressed the importance of Palestinian reforms. But their definition places a heavy emphasis on revamping the security services to prevent attacks against Israel.

Arafat played host to U.S. Middle East envoy William Burns and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana in recent days, and CIA Director George Tenet is expected in the region Monday. He is scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Monday evening.

Tenet held talks Sunday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the first stop on a six-nation Mideast tour to gauge Arab support for changes in the Palestinian Authority.

Diplomats are also pushing to organize an international conference on the Mideast crisis, possibly in the latter part of July, but the ongoing fighting is making it difficult to set an agenda, officials said.

Sharon has said repeatedly that the violence must stop before peace negotiations can resume, and that talk of a Palestinian state now is premature. Still, Sharon and other Israeli leaders have supported the conference idea.

``We're trying to make a concentrated effort to bring the conference ... into being as soon as possible,'' said Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.

He cautioned, however, that any major breakthroughs in Mideast peacemaking would have to come from an agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians, not the conference. ``Borders, dates and states must result from an agreement,'' he said when asked about setting a date for establishing a Palestinian state.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops searched house to house for suspected militants for a third day in Nablus, the largest West Bank city. More than 60 suspects have been arrested in the roundup in the city proper and in the city's Balata refugee camp, the latest of Israel's frequent incursions into the West Bank.

On Sunday, troops uncovered a large weapons workshop in the house of Mahmoud Titi, a militant leader killed by Israeli tank fire there on May 22, the army said. The workshop contained hundreds of pipe bombs, anti-tank missiles and chemicals for making bombs, the army said, adding that the workshop was blown up in a controlled explosion.

The army also said a Palestinian man disguised as a woman was arrested during the sweep in Balata.

Israeli troops have shown a pattern in recent weeks of entering West Bank cities or villages, usually for short periods to make arrests of suspected militants, and then withdrawing. But Nablus was a larger operation with dozens of armored vehicles involved.

Balata refugee camp is a stronghold of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militia that has carried out many deadly attacks, and which is linked to Arafat's Fatah movement.

HOLGUIN, Cuba (AP) -- In a blistering speech before hundreds of thousands of people in a drenching rain Saturday, President Fidel Castro said the democracy President Bush wants to see in Cuba would be a corrupt and unfair system that ignores the poor.

``For Mr. W, democracy only exists where money solves everything and where those who can afford a $25,000-a-plate dinner -- an insult to the billions of people living in the poor, hungry and underdeveloped world -- are the ones called to solve the problems of society and the world,'' Castro said in his continuing attack on Bush's hard line policies toward the island.

``Don't be a fool, Mr. W,'' Castro said. ``Show some respect for the minds of people who are capable of thinking...Show some respect for others and for yourself.''

Castro's early morning address is part of Cuba's answer to Bush's May 20 speeches in Washington and Miami, promising trade sanctions against Cuba would not be lifted until all political prisoners are freed, independently monitored elections are allowed and a series of other conditions are accepted for a ``new government that is fully democratic.''

A week ago, Castro made a similar speech answering Bush's declarations, telling the American people that they should never fear an attack by Cuba and can always count on this communist country's support in the war against terrorism.

Saturday's speech in this eastern provincial capital 500 miles east of Havana was aimed directly at Bush.

``None of our leaders is a millionaire like the President of the United States, whose monthly wage is almost twice that of all the members of the (Cuban) Council of State and the Council of Ministers in a year,'' Castro told several hundred thousand people from across rural Holguin province and neighboring Las Tunas and Granma provinces.

``None can be included in the long list of Mr. W's neoliberal friends in Latin America who are Olympic champions of misappropriation and theft since the few who do not steal from the public coffers and state taxes steal from the poor and the hungry,'' he said.

``The criminal blockade he has promised to tighten will only multiply the honor and glory of our people,'' Castro declared of Bush's stated intention to not only maintain but tighten U.S. restrictions on trade and travel with Cuba.

Castro contrasted Bush with the late American President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

``It was a long time ago when a man spoke from his wheelchair with a soft voice and a persuasive accent. He spoke as a president of the United States of America and he inspired respect ... He did not speak like a showoff or a thug,'' Castro said.

Editor's commentary: What's wrong with dictator who wants his people to be poor? According to Castro that is perfectly OK. While babies and old were dying in Cuba because of lack of milk, thousands of gallons of Cuban milk were sent to Vietnam to help communist dictator Ho Chi Minh. While there is always enough money for the latest Russian fighter jets and tanks, there is never enough money for food and medicine. Just looking at Castro and his 300 pounds of fat is enough to realize that he is never hungry while his dazzling palace is shining with tons of gold. People who pay $25,000 per plate donate millions of dollars to charities to help extinguish poverty, cure diseases and educate people. Does anyone remember Fidel giving 50 pounds of his stolen gold from Cuban people and foreign capital to some charity? He truly enjoys spending people's money but when his own money is in question then there is no need to "waste" it on poor and needy. It is much better spent on expensive jewelry and mink coats for his mistresses.

What does Castro mean by mentioning "people who think"? Think what? How to secure their dictatorship and exploit and enslave people? They don't need any respect, they need to be arrested and tried for crimes against people. And what about Castro's network of spies in U.S.? That network is a serious thing that should be feared. Criminal blockade is against criminals in power in Cuba who stole all foreign capital and enslaved and oppressed Cuban people for more than 40 years. One of bitter legacies of F.D. Roosevelt was rise of Stalinism and World Communism. His successor Truman sold out China to Stalin and Mao while humiliating Americans in Korea. No wonder why Fidel has so many kindly words for socialist F.D. Roosevelt.