Reuters - July 28th, 2004

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) - Thousands of supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide poured from Haiti's slums on Wednesday to call for Aristide's return and to support John Kerry's bid for the U.S. presidency.

The demonstrators, marching under the gaze of dozens of riot police, said they believed Kerry, the Massachusetts senator who will accept the Democratic nomination for president on Thursday, will return Aristide to the troubled Caribbean nation if he is elected in November.

They said Aristide, who was forced into exile in February by a bloody rebellion and U.S. pressure, would not return if President Bush was re-elected. They noted Aristide has also been ousted in 1991, when Bush's father was president.

``In 1991, Bush ordered the coup against Aristide. His son, George W. Bush, followed in his father's steps. If he is re-elected Aristide will not come back,'' said Jean Senosier, 32, a resident of the slum of Bel-Air, an Aristide stronghold.

``If Kerry, a Democrat, is elected, we know he will return Aristide, just as President Bill Clinton did in 1994.''

Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest who became Haiti's first freely elected president in 1991, was exiled by an army coup for three years before being returned by U.S. military intervention in 1994.

He assumed the presidency for a second time in 2001 but was forced to flee the country on Feb. 29 in the face of an armed revolt in which more than 200 people were killed.

In a New York Times interview in March, Kerry said if he had been president he would have sent an international force to protect Aristide and criticized the Bush administration for talking about supporting democratically elected leaders while pushing Aristide from power.

Editor's commentary: These are probably the friends from abroad who Kerry mentioned couple of months ago. We wouldn't be surprised if Saddam's supporters also support his bid for presidency or Fidel Castro, Slobodan Milosevic, Lukashenko, Kim Jong Il and the rest of world terrorist garbage and criminals. If you want Milosevic and Saddam to stay behind bars and you don't want dictators and criminals to plunder your country then you can forget about Kerry for good.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iranian agents are negotiating with a Russian company to buy a substance that can boost nuclear explosions in atomic weapons, according to an intelligence agency report being circulated by diplomats.

But the Russian government, which monitors nuclear-related exports closely, denied any Russian companies were planning to supply Iran with the substance, known as deuterium gas.

The two-page report cited ``knowledgeable Russian sources'' for the information, which Washington will likely point to as more proof that Tehran wants to acquire nuclear weaponry.

``Iranian middlemen ... are in the advanced stages of negotiations in Russia to buy deuterium gas,'' the report said.

Iran denies wanting atomic arms and says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Deuterium is used as a tracer molecule in medicine and biochemistry and is used in heavy water reactors of the type Iran is building.

But it can also be combined with tritium and used as a ``booster'' in nuclear fusion bombs of the implosion type.

It is not illegal for Iran to purchase deuterium but it should be reported to the IAEA.

Diplomats say the suspicions surrounding Iran's nuclear program are so great that it would be wise for Tehran to exercise maximum transparency on all such ``dual-use'' purchases and declare them ahead of time to the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

``Iran has not declared this to the IAEA. Their cover story is that they want it for civilian purposes,'' said the diplomat who gave Reuters the report.

The report, which did not name the Russian firm, said purchase talks were in the final stages. It added that Iran had tried to produce deuterium-tritium gas -- with the help of Russian scientists -- but had so far failed.

MOSCOW DEFENDS COOPERATION WITH IRAN

Moscow has been criticized by Washington for building the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran, despite U.S. concerns that it is a cover for Iran to acquire know-how and import items that can be used for bombs.

Reacting to the report, the Russian Foreign ministry issued a statement saying that in its nuclear cooperation with Iran, Moscow strictly sticks to intergovernmental agreements which do not provide for supplies of the deuterium gas.

``The Russian side is not planning to carry out any such supplies,'' the statement said.

Anything concerning nuclear exports is under tight government control, including details of separate deals. The government has said it keeps the situation in the sector under control and rejected any idea of major nuclear smuggling.

Envoys linked to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said buying deuterium alone was not evidence of intent to acquire a weapons capability.

They cautioned that the report appeared designed to win over nations who are not convinced Iran wants the atomic bomb.

The United States and others are pushing the IAEA to report Iran to the Security Council for possible punishment with economic sanctions for allegedly seeking nuclear weapons in defiance of its treaty obligations.

``Iran needs to know that they will suffer deeply if they get nuclear weapons,'' said the diplomat who provided the report. France, Germany and Britain have been negotiating with Iran to persuade it to cooperate fully with IAEA inspections to allay Western doubts and are resisting referring Tehran to the U.N.. A high-level meeting is expected in Paris on Thursday.

The U.N. has been investigating Iran's nuclear program for nearly two years to determine whether allegations that it has a secret atomic weapons program are false, as Tehran insists.

While it has found many instances where Iran concealed potentially weapons-related activities, the IAEA says it has no clear evidence that Tehran is trying to build the bomb. The United States and its allies say there is sufficient evidence and the agency is being too cautious.

Russian regulators have told Yukos to stop selling oil following its failure to pay a $3.4bn (£1.9bn) tax demand.

Bailiffs said sales were to cease from Yukos' main production units, which produce 20% of Russia's oil output.

The move, which could speed up the collapse of the firm, triggered a leap in oil prices to a new 21-year high of $39.25 a barrel in New York.

Russia's Micex exchange suspended trade in Yukos shares indefinitely after they plummeted 20% earlier in the day.

Full story here.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Torture equipment used by Saddam Hussein's slain son, Odai, to punish underperforming Iraqi athletes was displayed Saturday at a Baghdad sports stadium in advance of the opening of the Olympics next month in Athens.

Journalists were shown medieval-style torture equipment, including an ``iron maiden-like'' casket with metal spikes fixed to the inside that athletes had been forced into and chain whips with steel barbs the size of tennis balls attached to the end.

``During the old regime, Odai was looking for results and he wanted winners. He didn't like second place,'' Talib Mutan, an Iraqi Olympics Committee official, told Associated Press Television News.

``If the athletes didn't come in first, they were punished. And he would punish the people around the athletes, their managers and coaches included,'' Mutan said.

Odai, who ran the Olympic committee while his father ruled Iraq, and his younger brother Qusai were killed in a fierce gunbattle with U.S. forces a year ago in the northern city of Mosul.

Mutan said athletes who earned Odai's wrath were tortured in various ways, through beatings, sleep deprivation and being forced to walk barefoot over hot asphalt during Iraq's searing summer.

The official said suggestions had been made to display the torture equipment in a museum, but there had been no final decision.

The International Olympic Committee reinstated Iraq's national Olympic committee in February after it was suspended following the fall of Saddam's regime in 2003, enabling Iraqi athletes to compete at this year's Summer Games.

Russia has protested to Belarus about the closure of the Russian state television office in Minsk in retaliation for its coverage of an opposition rally in the Belarusian capital.

A spokesman for the Russian foreign ministry, Alexander Yakovenko, said that Russia TV's report on the demonstration did not constitute "serious grounds" for such a step.

The TV's correspondent said that between 2,000 and 5,000 people had taken part in a protest held earlier in the week to mark the 10th anniversary of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's rule. The Belarus interior ministry maintains that fewer than 200 people were involved.

The Russia TV report "flagrantly violated the principles of journalistic ethics as it distorted the number of people who took part in the unauthorised rally", a statement issued by the Belarusian foreign ministry said.

In July 2003, the authorities shut down the Minsk office of another Russian television channel, NTV, because of its criticism of the Belarusian leadership.

Full story here.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Reuters) - U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte took the unprecedented step Thursday of releasing surveillance photographs of a suspect who vanished from his home hours after Belgrade was asked to arrest him.

Former rebel Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic disappeared from his villa in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad July 13, around nine hours after The Hague tribunal handed over an arrest warrant and indictment to Belgrade.

Publication of the pictures, taken by the Hague's ``tracking team,'' further increases the pressure on Serbia's leaders to cooperate with The Hague.

Del Ponte warned Belgrade earlier this week that if Hadzic was not tracked down and arrested she would ask the tribunal to report the matter to the U.N. Security Council, raising the specter of economic sanctions.

Serbia is already under renewed pressure to track down wartime Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic and other suspects still at large.

The chief prosecutor's office, which has a ``tracking team'' to gather information on suspects, released three color photographs of Hadzic taken at his home the day he disappeared. One shows him in his garden, another leaving home with a bag.

It is the first time the prosecutor's office at the U.N's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has released photographs of a suspect taken by its tracking team, prosecution spokeswoman Florence Hartmann said.

``Due to the constant high number of fugitives at the ICTY the prosecution has a small team of trackers,'' Hartmann added.

The court does not have the power of arrest, relying on authorities in the Balkans and the NATO-led peacekeeping SFOR force in Bosnia to arrest war crimes suspects. Del Ponte said most of its 22 suspects at large are in Serbia and Montenegro.

Hadzic, a central figure in the breakaway Krajina Serb republic in Croatia during fighting between Serbs and Croats in Croatia in 1991-95, was charged with crimes against humanity in an indictment made public by the U.N. tribunal last week.

In 2002, the tribunal called on the Security Council to take action against Belgrade over its failure to track down, arrest and hand over suspects. The U.N. body, which is charged with responsibility for keeping world peace, has the power to impose trade sanctions.

Belgrade's failure to fully cooperate with The Hague court, which many Serbs see as biased, is also blocking efforts to build closer links with western Europe, including membership of NATO's forum for cooperation with non-members, the Partnership for Peace.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It sounds like an Iraq summer rerun: Weapons of mass destruction. Support for terrorism. Talk of U.N. Security Council action. Hints of a push for regime change. This time, however, the fuss is not over Iraq but about that country's next-door neighbor, Iran. Recent developments have been unsettling.

Iran's ruling mullahs recently announced resumption of activities that could lead to development of a uranium-based bomb, apparently violating commitments they made to three European countries last fall.

And now comes word that the bipartisan commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks has concluded that Iran gave al-Qaida hijackers safe passage through the country after training in Afghanistan.

A White House spokesman said Monday there was no evidence that Iran had prior knowledge of the 9/11 plot. The reported commission finding would appear to reinforce the administration's long-held view that Iran is the world's most active state sponsor of terror.

Amid the stepped up accusations, Iran has been projecting a benign image to the world. Rend al-Rahim Francke, Iraq's chief representative in Washington, told The Associated Press in an interview on Monday that Iran has played a positive role in the post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. She said Iranian authorities recently captured 200 Afghan fighters who were en route to Iraq.

Iran insists its nuclear program has nothing to do with weaponry but with meeting domestic electricity needs. The Bush administration is not buying it.

Shunning direct engagement with Iran for now, the administration is banking on international pressure to induce Iran to roll back its nuclear program.

The administration is pressing Britain, France and Germany to make Iran pay a high price for scuttling the counterproliferation deal they obtained last fall.

It also has been attempting to persuade fellow members of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency that it is time to refer Iran's nuclear activities to the U.N. Security Council.

John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control, told Congress last month that the Iranian program was a ``threat to international peace and security.'' He said Iran's hard-line Islamic regime, now 25 years old, clearly has a covert program to develop and stockpile chemical weapons and probably has an offensive biological weapons program.

Until about a year ago, the United States maintained a low-key dialogue with Iran, then decided it was a waste of time.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher says a renewed engagement is possible only under certain conditions.

``We're willing to sit down, if the president determines it's in our interest to do so, and if we think there's the opportunity for progress,'' Boucher said Monday.

But a Council on Foreign Relations task force issued a report contending that the administration must do more to avert another crisis in the Persian Gulf region.

``The urgency of the concerns surrounding Iran's policies mandates the United States to deal with the current regime rather than wait for it to fall,'' said the report, co-chaired by former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski and former CIA director Robert Gates.

Brzezinski told reporters on Monday that engagement with Iran would be a useful step even if it produced no results because it would mold greater international solidarity in opposition to Iran.

Gates said the U.S. military option against Iran must never be ruled out. But, he said, the costs of any such step would be exorbitant because key nuclear weapons sites are located in or near large civilian populations.

He added that a U.S. military attack would galvanize support for the Tehran government across the country. Iranian authorities, he said, could retaliate by destabilizing neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan, countries in which, he noted, the United States has an undeniable strategic stake.

TAMPA, Fla. - President Bush on Friday accused Fidel Castro of exploiting Cuba's children by encouraging a sex-tourism industry designed to draw cash to the impoverished nation, comments certain to resonate with Cuban-American voters in the swing state of Florida.

"The regime in Havana, already one of the worst violators of human rights in the world, is adding to its crimes. The dictator welcomes sex tourism," Bush said at a conference on "human trafficking" — forced labor, sex and military service.

Full story here.

A former Croatian Serb leader, Goran Hadzic, has been indicted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal for alleged crimes against humanity.

Mr Hadzic faces 14 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity including persecution, extermination, torture, deportation and wanton destruction for his involvement in atrocities committed by Serb troops in Croatia during the 1991-95 war.

The indictment also alleges that Mr Hadzic was responsible for the deportation of 20,000 people from the town of Vukovar after it was captured.

Mr Hadzic is reported to be living in Serbia, where Belgrade authorities are under pressure to hand over Serb war crimes suspects still at large, including wartime Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic.

Full story here.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Detained Russian oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky founded an organized criminal group that aimed to acquire shares in privatized companies fraudulently, a Russian prosecutor said in court Thursday.

Reading out an indictment against one of Khodorkovsky's co-defendants, state prosecutor Dmitry Shokhin referred to ``an organized criminal group, led by Mikhail Khodorkovsky'' that sought to acquire shares of major Russian companies by deception in the privatization period.

Khodorkovsky, main shareholder in the YUKOS oil giant and one of Russia's richest men, is charged with massive fraud and tax evasion.

Editor's commentary: This is another proof that Russia is sinking back to Stalin purges from '30s. Reformers are becoming criminals while KGB murderers are once again becoming big patriots who will save Russia with gulags, slave labor and stealing from those who have and keeping it for themselves. Khodorkovsky is not Bill Gates and his business practices might not be 100% clean but that is how big business works. Even worse, Khodorkovsky is not the one who was in charge of privatization but Russian government and Boris Yeltsin. Trying Khodorkovsky alone who just happened to be at the right time at the right place doesn't make any sense so the real reason is indictment of Boris Yeltsin and all those who got sick of USSR, Stalin, KGB, gulags, state terror and general misery. Putin and his people are nothing but hardcore fascists similar to Hitler's Nazis or Japanese militarists from '30s. They want to return to those "good" old days of totalitarianism once again. Problem with this way of thinking is that people already lived in Stalin and Hitler "paradise", they know what to expect regardless of Putin's goons who control all media and spread lies about millions of Russians shading tears for gulags and Stalin. The worst contradiction and total lack of intelligence in Putin and his fascist thugs is that they constantly glorify Peter the Great and other Russian reformers who opened Russia to the world while they continue to persecute all those reformers and businessmen like Khodorkovsky at the same time. Doublethink at worst! Problem with lying constantly to the people is that those who lie gradually start to believe in their own lies and therefore become alienated from the real world just like schizophrenics and we all know what happens with asylum run by lunatics. Was it Stalin and his leadership responsible for defeat of Germany in WWII or billions of dollars of aid sent from US and UK? What brand of tanks entered Berlin in 1945, Russian or American? Jailing Khodorkovsky will certainly not increase flow of money into Russia and without it another June 22nd will come faster than you think. Who will save you then?

Montenegro's parliament has voted to adopt a new flag, national anthem and national day, as part of a push for the republic's independence from Serbia.

Parliamentary speaker Ranko Krivokapic, said the road to Montenegro's independence was now irrevocable.

The flag approved by MPs to replace the current red, blue, and white flag will be red with a golden coat-of-arms depicting a two-headed eagle under a royal crown and carrying a shield with an engraved lion.

The national day of 13 July marks the date in 1878 when the Berlin Congress recognised Montenegro as the 27th independent state in the world.

Full story here.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Police seized vital computer servers during an eight hour raid on the Moscow headquarters of Russia's YUKOS oil firm on Saturday, the company said, a move that could halt a fifth of Russia's oil output.

Up to 40 plainclothes police entered the steel and glass office block in south central Moscow in the early afternoon and Interior Ministry special forces in gray fatigues and black berets stood guard and cordoned off the building.

``The investigative actions are being undertaken as part of a criminal case into fraud and tax evasion by entities controlled by YUKOS,'' a spokeswoman for the general prosecutor's office told Reuters.

Although it pumps more oil than Libya, YUKOS is in crisis: its founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky is on trial for fraud and tax evasion, it faces tax bills of almost $7 billion -- half to be paid within days -- and a court has frozen its bank accounts.

Many stock market dealers see YUKOS's troubles -- and its founder's trial -- as Kremlin punishment for Khodorkovsky's political ambitions. The firm's shares have lost more than half their value since early April this year.

YUKOS has already said its legal battles could disrupt its output of 1.72 million barrels a day, and spokesman Alexander Shadrin warned the seizure of computer servers in Saturday's raid could bring production to an abrupt halt.

``Our central dispatch unit responsible for oil production is in this building. Confiscating servers means damaging the coordination of production in our core regions (in Siberia). This means output may stop as soon as today,'' Shadrin said.

Despite YUKOS's massive output, a halt would be unlikely to affect Russia's status as the world's number two crude oil exporter. The national pipeline firm has said it could easily make up YUKOS's lost supplies from other producers.

MURKY DEALS

But the raid only deepens the uncertainty surrounding the future of YUKOS and Khodorkovsky. With the Kremlin widely seen as being behind the legal onslaught, analysts watch President Vladimir Putin closely for clues about the company's fate.

But besides saying last month that he had no interest in seeing YUKOS go bankrupt, Putin has given very few pointers. He spent Saturday at the horse races with fellow leaders from the ex-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States.

On Thursday, Putin and many of Russia's top businessmen met to discuss social responsibility of business, but they amazed observers by not even mentioning the YUKOS affair, which many see as the most important issue facing Putin's government.

Outside the YUKOS building, a passer-by who gave his name as Taimuraz Alexandrovich railed against the hypocrisy of attacking YUKOS and leaving the rest of the business elite to go free.

``So they're all OK but Khodorkovsky is not OK?'' he said, fuming under a black umbrella. ``What on earth is going on? What are we supposed to understand by this? What kind of idiots do they take us for?''

Putin's government has reassured investors by saying there are no plans to re-nationalize Russian industry, much of which was privatized in murky deals in the 1990s. But the question ``Who's next?'' is common in Moscow business circles.

YUKOS has until Wednesday night to pay a $3.4 billion tax demand for 2000 and it faces an almost identical bill for 2001. But with its accounts frozen, YUKOS cannot even sell off its assets to pay up.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Thousands of Shiite Muslims chanted ``Saddam must be executed'' following prayer services Friday, while Sunnis generally ignored his court appearance -- underscoring how differently each community views Saddam Hussein and his legacy.

About 2,000 worshippers at a mosque in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City responded to calls by the local preacher, Sheik Aws al-Khafaji, who fired up the crowd by proclaiming that Shiites ``demand that Saddam, the destructive one, be executed.''

Similar calls were made by congregations at other Shiite mosques throughout the Iraqi capital, reflecting the depth of hatred for Saddam's former regime among the country's majority cultural community.

Al-Khafaji, who is loyal to militant cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, scoffed at the notion that Saddam would be forced to account for his alleged crimes, saying the trial is ``an American ploy to keep the Iraqis busy.''

``The evil American administration should also stand trial,'' he said.

At the Kazimiya mosque, in another Shiite area, hundreds chanted for al-Sadr and carried banners such as ``Death to the infidel Saddam at the hands of honorable Iraqis.''

Sheik Raed al-Kazimi said that ``the enemies'' are deceiving the Iraqi people by trying ``the despot Saddam by an illegitimate court.

``It's an outlandish issue, to incite strife,'' he said, adding that ``Saddam is neither a Muslim nor an Iraqi, because he attacked (Shiite) Islamic holy sites and killed Iraqis ... Saddam deserves execution.''

Although those comments may be extreme even within the Shiite community, they illustrate the hostility that many Iraqi Shiites still feel toward the deposed, Sunni-dominated regime because of its treatment of their community.

Those feelings were sharpened by the bloody 1991 suppression of a Shiite uprising -- one of the alleged crimes read Thursday to Saddam and others in the former leadership during their initial court appearance.

Saddam, a Sunni, was always suspicious of Shiites loyalty since his war with Iran in the 1980s.

Although many Sunni Muslims also opposed Saddam, he enjoyed greater support within that smaller, albeit more politically influential, community.

Most of the insurgents who continue to attack U.S. troops are believed to be Sunnis with ties to the former regime.

In Iraq's biggest Sunni mosque, Abu Hanifa, Saddam and his trial were not mentioned during the Friday sermon.

Instead, preacher Ahmed Taha asked the interim government ``to carry out deeds that prove that it is building, and is trying to win the hearts of the people.''

``We should not wait for good things to come from the occupiers, because occupation is evil and it could only breed evil,'' he said, referring to the Americans.

Many Sunnis believe they are still under military occupation even though sovereignty has been transferred to the new Iraqi government.

In Fallujah, a Sunni stronghold west of Baghdad where opposition to the Americans is strong, Sheik Ahmed al-Issawi told worshippers at the Al-Sadeeq mosque that the Americans humiliated Iraqis by showing Saddam on television before a court.

``We'd rather have Saddam back, as his oppression is better than the Americans' oppression,'' he said. ``Anyone who accepts showing Saddam this way on TV screens, has no zeal for Iraq and Islam.''

KUWAIT CITY (AP) -- Kuwait's information minister slammed Saddam Hussein for defending Iraq's 1990 invasion of the neighboring Gulf country during his Thursday court appearance in Baghdad and said the former Iraqi leader should be executed.

``The criminal still believes he is the president of Iraq,'' Mohammed Abul-Hassan told The Associated Press in Kuwait after watching the televised images of Saddam appearing in an Iraqi court. ``Just imagine if he was still ruling Iraq.''

Saddam is facing seven broad charges, including the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, which was occupied by Iraqi forces for seven months until being liberated by a U.S.-led coalition in the 1991 Gulf War. About 400 people, mostly Kuwaitis, were killed during the occupation and 600 people remain missing.

In his first public appearance since he was captured by U.S. forces in December, Saddam defended the invasion of Kuwait as being ``for the Iraqi people.''

Saddam also referred to the Kuwaitis as ``dogs,'' a comment that led to an admonishment from the judge for using that language in a court of law. Dogs are considered unclean by many Muslims.

Abul-Hassan, the Kuwaiti official, reacted angrily to Saddam's comments about Kuwait, adding that his punishment should ``certainly be execution.''

On Saddam's remarks about invading Kuwait, the minister said: ``He wants to prove to Iraqis that he is still defending an important issue. He showed the deep hatred he still has, but the judge was firm and he stopped him.''

The minister said bad language was ``expected'' of Saddam. ``This is how he was raised.''

At the official Kuwait News Agency, editors gathered to watch the images of Saddam in court.

``This is important for us as Kuwaitis, and it is especially important for his supporters in the Arab world because they will get to know the crimes he committed,'' editor Tarek Bou Haimad said.

He added, however, that nothing would ease the pain caused by Saddam's invasion of Kuwait except by ``seeing him hanging from the gallows, preferably after a fair trial.''

Abdul-Wahab al-Omar, a 26-year-old civil servant, was shopping while news broke of Saddam's court appearance and was not interested in watching the former Iraqi leader learn of the charges against him.

``To us, what happened has happened and the (Kuwaiti) war prisoners are dead,'' he said. ``A trial will not avenge them even if he is executed.''

Al-Omar gave his own view on what kind of justice Saddam should face for the crimes he is charged with.

``He should be dangled alive in Safat Square (Kuwait City) and Kuwaitis should be able to go spit in his face,'' he said.

A glance of some of the major crimes allegedly committed during Saddam Hussein's rule:

• July 16, 1979: Shortly after Saddam seizes power, 15 top party leaders who allegedly conspired against him are executed by firing squad.
• 1980: Iraqi forces invade neighboring Iran on Sept. 22, sparking eight-year war that leaves an estimated 1 million dead. Chemical attacks against Iran kill as many as 5,000.
• 1983: Government launches campaign against members of Kurdish Barzani tribe for helping Iran launch offensive in northern Iraq. Estimated 8,000 killed, many buried in mass graves.
• 1986-88: Scorched-earth offensive known as ``Anfal'' that includes chemical attacks on Kurds. Estimated 180,000 Kurds killed, many buried in mass graves in south.
• 1988: Chemical weapon attack against Kurdish town of Halabja kills an estimated 5,000 civilians on March 28.
• 1990: Saddam orders invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2; Iraqi forces fire Scud missiles at Israel and Saudi Arabia; Iraqi soldiers allegedly torture, summarily execute hundreds of Kuwaitis and set Kuwaiti oil wells ablaze.
• 1991: Some 60,000 people are believed killed when Saddam violently crushes rebellions by Shiite Muslims in the south and Kurds in the north at close of Gulf War.
• 1992: Draining of marshes in southern Iraq, driving population known as Marsh Arabs from homes and wiping out way of life. Tens of thousands killed.
• 1996: Two of Saddam's sons-in-law are killed Feb. 20 after they return from Jordan, where they fled in Jordan and exposed the campaign to hide banned weapons from the United Nations.

HONG KONG (AP) -- Angered by Beijing's decision ruling out full democracy in Hong Kong, hundreds of thousands of people marched Thursday to demand the right to choose their leader.

``We don't want to be subservient to the central government,'' said Ben Kwok, a 40-year-old factory owner, as the crowd clogged streets and turned much of downtown Hong Kong into a sprawling but peaceful protest zone.

Organizers claimed 530,000 people had marched -- a turnout that would put the rally on par with one that jolted the Chinese and Hong Kong governments exactly a year earlier. Police offered a lower estimate, saying about 200,000 people were there by midway through the five-hour demonstration.

Numbers aside, Hong Kong's people made it clear they are unhappy with the way they have been governed in the seven years since Britain returned this former colony to China, and they want to make changes on their own.

Worried about the march, China ruled in April that Hong Kong citizens cannot directly choose their next leader in 2007 or all lawmakers in 2008. Having laid down the law, Beijing then sought to make nice with several conciliatory gestures -- including sending a religious relic, one of Buddha's fingers, to the territory for a temporary display a month ago.

But the demonstrators are sticking with their demands, even though political experts see little chance China will change its mind.

``Why do we say it's impossible when politics is the achievement of the impossible?'' asked Lee Cheuk-yan, a unionist and opposition lawmaker. ``We feel that with such a high turnout, the Beijing government has to listen to the voice of the people of Hong Kong.''

The United States said it respected the people's right to seek political reforms.

``It is up to the Hong Kong people and the government of Hong Kong to determine the pace and scope of democratization,'' Susan N. Stevenson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. consulate, said by telephone.

The crowd appeared less intense Thursday than it did a year ago, when Hong Kongers protested an anti-subversion bill many viewed as a threat to civil liberties. Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa was shaken and withdrew the bill in an unprecedented political retreat.

Ordinary Hong Kong people, emboldened by that success, then set their sights on achieving full democracy. Tung was chosen by an 800-member committee, though Hong Kong citizens directly elect some legislators.

Rank-and-file voters will pick 30 of 60 lawmakers in September, stirring fears in Beijing that Hong Kong could end up with a legislature that will not back Tung. The other lawmakers are picked by special-interest groups that tend to side with the government.

Tung told reporters late Thursday he had listened to the people's complaints and understood their hopes for full democracy. Tung held out no prospects for quick change, however, saying any political reforms must be ``gradual and orderly'' as China has insisted. He did not take questions.

Marchers filled all four lanes of one major thoroughfare, peacefully chanting slogans, holding up signs and waving inflatable Tung dolls as they made their way to the fenced-off Hong Kong government headquarters.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said in Beijing that her government is ``resolutely opposed to foreign interference'' and added that Hong Kong's political system gives its citizens ``real and unprecedented democracy.''

The march came on the seventh anniversary of Hong Kong's handover and overshadowed official commemorations. Apparently hoping to avoid embarrassment, China did not send any ranking leaders to the ceremonies this year.

ULAN BATOR (Reuters) - Mongolia's opposition, angry about being denied air time during disputed elections, took over state television briefly on Thursday and demanded on air that the election results be recognized.

After the broadcast was over, democratic leaders came out of the building and urged the hundreds of supporters, demonstrating peacefully outside, to go home, a witness said. The crowd dispersed without incident.

The ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Partyand the Motherland Democratic Coalition (MDC) were neck and neck in Sunday's election with 36 seats each, according to preliminary results, but the coalition claimed victory with the support of three independents.

``We plan to speak to the people later tonight through direct broadcasts by the television,'' said fiery opposition MP Gundalai before the broadcast.

``Because we haven't been allowed to do so officially, we had to storm the building.''

A senior MPRP source told Reuters the party had wanted a debate with the MDC, but this was not possible because of their ``agitated state of mind.''

``They went live on air with their allegations about the election, but we have allegations of our own,'' he said. ``It's a war of words.''

One witness said there were at least 300 people outside the building but there was no violence.

They started leaving after the broadcast was over, the witness said, adding that during the broadcast the MDC had appealed for equal air time for all political parties.

She said the MDC had called a meeting for Friday afternoon at 2 p.m. (0500 GMT).

Former finance minister Puntsagiin Tsagaan said from inside the studio the government was sending ``troops and secret police.'' But the witness said there was no evidence that happened.

Shortly after the broadcast the situation appeared to have calmed for the night.

``The incident was without any violence and people left the building,'' said opposition MP Oyun.

Tjalling Halbertsma, adviser to the MPRP chairman, said the ruling party was surprised by the opposition action before the official results of the election had been announced.

Mongolia went to the polls on Sunday but the deadlocked results have been disputed and new voting ordered at three polling stations on Saturday. The democratic coalition has claimed victory and urged the MPRP to concede.

Ahead of the new round of voting, both sides have held rallies of party faithful. State media have focused publicity on the MPRP rallies, observers said.

The MPRP held 72 of parliament's 76 seats before Sunday's poll and had been confident of victory in the vast but sparsely populated country, landlocked between Russia and China, before the opposition's surprise showing.

The MPRP said it would accept the outcome of the polls. The MDC, for its part, had demanded the MPRP accept what it said was the ``people's choice.''

The MPRP governed the country, about half the size of Western Europe, for most of the 20th century, mostly under one-party rule as a Soviet satellite.