JP/2/NEWS

JP/2/NEWS

Drive dozes 7 killed in W. Java

INDONESIA: Seven people died instantly and a four-year-old child was injured when their minivan collided head-on with a Fuso truck in Subang regency, West Java, on Saturday.

All the victims were brought to a public health center in Patok Besi in the regency.

Witnesses said the accident occurred when the minivan which was running at a high speed tried to pass another car, but collided with the oncoming truck on the north coast highway in Sentra village, Pamanukan district.

Kesaroh who drove the minivan was believed to be dozing at the wheel as he continued in the path of the truck even as it was trying to skid to a halt.

The dead victims were identified as Srinarni, Sugiarto, Kajio, Sumitro, Kesaroh and Karsuni while another one has yet to be identified.

They were on their trip to celebrate the Muslim Idul Fitri holiday in their village of Kebumen, Central Java. --JP

UN enters Iraqi military base

IRAQ: UN weapons inspectors paid a surprise visit Saturday to a small, sleepy military post north of Baghdad where they searched for evidence of weapons of mass destruction.

The weapons experts, as usual, kept their distance from pursuing journalists, who watched from beyond a fence, but it appeared the inspectors had been tipped that the Balad anti- aircraft unit might be harboring some forbidden biological or -- more likely -- chemical arms. The small military base some 80 kilometers from Baghdad, had no obvious production facilities.

The UN monitors checked ordinance crates that presumably held large shells, bombs or rockets. The sound of hammer on chisel could be heard as the crates were opened.

It was the third day of inspections under a UN Security Council mandate that gives Iraq a "final opportunity" to shut down its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs or face "serious consequences."

The United States has threatened war to disarm Iraq. -- AP

Australians protest attack on Iraq

AUSTRALIA: Several thousand people marched peacefully through Sydney on Saturday as part of a nationwide protest against any preemptive strike on Iraq by the United States and its allies.

Smaller protests were also held in other Australian cities, including the capital, Canberra.

Organizers had hoped to attract tens of thousands of marchers around the country, but it was apparent that the actual turnout was far less.

Families, many pushing baby carriages, walked with students and the elderly, some donning the body-enveloping burka as a sign of solidarity with Muslim women in Australia.

An Australian politician sparked national outrage last week with a call to ban Muslim women from wearing the traditional head-to-ankle gowns in public because they could be used to conceal weapons. -- Reuters

U.S. revokes Aleman's visa

NICARAGUA: The United States revoked the visa of former Nicaraguan president Arnoldo Aleman, who has been accused of corruption, a local television reported Friday, citing a U.S. embassy source.

The report was confirmed by Eliseo Nunez, a spokesman for the ruling Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC).

However, in Washington, the U.S. State Department could neither confirm nor deny the story.

Nicaragua's top prosecutor is seeking prison terms for Aleman and 10 of his associates and family members in relation to some US$96.7 million in government funds said to have disappeared during his presidency.

Aleman's personal fortune grew from an estimated $50,000 in 1989 to around $250 million in 2001, according to PLC members. -- AFP

Rafidah barks at security dogs

MALAYSIA: Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz blew her top at Australian security personnel for trying to use sniffer dogs to check her luggage during a visit to Sydney for a recent World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting, newspapers said on Saturday.

Rafidah said the Australians were insensitive in subjecting her to a screening using an animal considered haram, or forbidden in Islam, when they knew she was a Muslim.

The minister said she warded off two attempts by airport security to check her luggage with dogs after she arrived in Sydney on Nov. 14 for the meeting.

But on reaching her hotel, she found another canine team waiting.

"This time, I blew my top," the New Straits Times quoted her as saying. Cowed by the angry minister, whose sharp tongue has earned her the nickname "Madam Rapidfire" among some foreign media, the security officials eventually relented.

Australia has boosted security measures, particularly screening of visitors and issuance of travel visas, since the Oct. 12 bomb attacks in Bali, Indonesia, which killed more than 180 people, mostly Australians. -- Reuters

Kenya holds 12 over attacks

KENYA: Kenya said on Friday it was holding 12 foreigners over the deadly bomb and missile attacks on Israeli tourists in Kenya, and Washington branded al Qaeda and a Somali-based Islamist group as prime suspects.

U.S. officials said the top suspect for Thursday's bloodbath in which 15 people were killed was the Somali-based group Al- Itihad al-Islamiya, known also as AIAI or the Islamic Union.

The officials said it was a prominent radical Islamist group in the Horn of Africa that had links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, target of U.S. President George W. Bush's war on terror after the Sept. 11 attacks on the WTC towers and the Pentagon.

For the first time since Thursday's attacks, in which suicide bombers rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a Kenyan seaside hotel and missiles nearly hit an Israeli airliner with 261 aboard, Washington also pointed the finger at al Qaeda but stressed it was too early to be sure about who was responsible. -- Reuters

Official given death sentence

VIETNAM: A director of Vietnam's state food agency has been sentenced to death and seven other officials jailed for up to 20 years over a multi-million-dollar corruption scam, reported local media Saturday.

Truong Thi Thanh Huong, an An Giang-based director of the agency, was sentenced on Friday by a court in the southern city for creaming off around US$1 million, according to Thanh Nien newspaper.

Seven other defendants were jailed for between three and 20 years at the end of a two-week trial.

The court heard how, from 1996 to 1999, Huong and her accomplices filed false invoices and stashed some $2.5 million in the accounts of a bogus company they had set up, the newspaper reported.

Separately, an official for the state import-export agency was condemned to death by a court in Hanoi on Monday after being convicted of fraud. -- AFP