Ship passengers panic off Batam
Passengers on the KM Kelud panicked during a stop in Batam, Riau Islands province, on Friday night when they learned the ship, bound from Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta to Medan in North Sumatra, was carrying 6,000 passengers, far more than the maximum 2,600 passengers the craft is officially allowed to carry. The sale of fake tickets was blamed for the large number of passengers being carried on the ship. The KM Kelud's captain, Nunung Wisnu, however, said the ship would depart for Medan as planned because it was able to take up to five times the officially allowed number of passengers. -- JP
Tamil Tiger attack kills 15 sailors
Suspected Tamil rebels exploded a bomb near a navy convoy in Sri Lanka on Friday, killing at least 15 sailors and wounding 15 more, a defense ministry official said, as the guerrillas warned of more attacks. The carnage in the northwestern district of Mannar was the worst since the rebels and the government agreed to an Oslo-brokered cease-fire in February 2002, officials said. The head of the Norwegian-led truce monitors, Hagrup Haukland, said the situation in the island-nation was "alarming" and the cease-fire that went into effect in February 2002 was in "jeopardy". --AFP
Court issues EU arrest warrant for CIA agents
A Milan court has issued a European Union arrest warrant for 22 CIA agents suspected of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric from Italy's financial capital in 2003, prosecutor Armando Spataro said on Friday. The case is one of several investigations into whether U.S. intelligence agents used Europe to illegally transfer militant suspects to third countries for interrogation. The renditions have led to tension between Washington and the European Union. Milan magistrates suspect a CIA team grabbed Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr off a Milan street and flew him for interrogation to Egypt, where he said he was tortured. --Reuters
Dutchman gets 15 years for aiding Iraq war crimes
A Dutch court sentenced on Friday former chemicals trader Frans van Anraat to 15 years in jail for aiding war crimes by selling chemicals the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein used for deadly gas attacks on Kurdish villages. Earlier, the court said that although they felt it was proven that former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein committed genocide against the Kurds in the 1980s, Van Anraat was acquitted of genocide charges because he did not know the Iraqi regime's genocidal intentions. The move marks the first time a court has ruled the Iraqi dictator committed genocide in Iraq with the 1988 massacre of Kurds in the town of Halabja. --AFP