· 5th U.S. Fleet Seeks Action Over Piracy
WASHINGTON — America's 5th Fleet is appealing to the world's navies and law enforcement agencies to step up their response to a spike in incidents of piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. The call comes as the 5th Fleet is closely monitoring a pirated ship off the coast of Somalia carrying a cargo of 33 advanced Russian-made T-72 tanks, spare parts, and ammunition. The arms aboard the Faina, a Ukrainian vessel flying the flag of Belize, were reported to be bound for Kenya, though an...

· Russia Accuses U.N. Agency of Funding Georgian President
UNITED NATIONS — Russia's confrontation with the West is escalating, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accusing the U.N. Development Program of collaborating with the financier George Soros to fund Mikheil Saakashvili's rise to the Georgian presidency. Russia has long accused Mr. Soros of financing the 2003 Rose Revolution, and Mr. Saakashvili in particular. Yesterday, Mr. Lavrov called for an examination of the ties between Mr. Soros and the UNDP. "At the time, George Soros was sponsoring...

· IAEA Head Calls for Iran To End Its Nuclear Secrecy
VIENNA, Austria — A six-year probe has not ruled out the possibility that Iran may be running clandestine nuclear programs, the chief U.N. nuclear inspector said yesterday, urging Iran to reassure the world by ending its secretive ways. At the opening session of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 145-nation conference, the European Union also urged Tehran to cooperate fully with a U.N. probe that is trying to assess all of its past and present nuclear activities. "The international...

· 20,000 Flee Pakistan Clashes With Taliban
Islamabad, Pakistan — Fighting between the Pakistani military and pro-Taliban militants has forced 20,000 people to flee from Pakistan to war-torn Afghanistan. The United Nations said that an intensive military operation in the border tribal area of Bajaur had led to thousands of refugees crossing into the Afghan province of Kunar. "More than 3,900 families, or around 20,000 individuals, have fled fighting in Bajaur into Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan," the U.N. High Commission for...

· ANC Split Widens as Leader of S. African Province Resigns
Johannesburg — The leader of South Africa's richest province resigned yesterday, heightening speculation about a split in the ruling African National Congress. Mbhazima Shilowa, a supporter of the ousted President Mbeki, had been provincial premier of Gauteng, which includes Johannesburg and Pretoria, for almost 10 years. He said he had quit in protest at the ousting of Mr. Mbeki by the party executive. "I am resigning due to my convictions that while the ANC has the right to recall any of its...

· China Marks Olympics, Spacewalk for National Day
BEIJING — China kicked off its National Day celebrations yesterday by highlighting its hosting of the Beijing Olympics and the country's first spacewalk, two hard-won successes in a tumultuous year marked by natural disasters, ethnic unrest, and another food safety scandal. The spacewalk on Saturday boosted a wave of Chinese pride and patriotism stemming from the Olympics, which is still a big news story in the domestic press one month after it ended. China's Olympic heroes were honored in a...

· Al-Maliki: Security Pact Is in U.S., Iraqi Interest
BAGHDAD — Prime Minister al-Maliki said yesterday that the government is ready to compromise to reach a security accord with America because Iraq still needs American troops despite the drop in violence. In an interview with the Associated Press, Mr. Maliki said neither he nor Iraq's parliament will accept any pact that fails to serve the country's national interests. A poorly constructed plan would provoke so much discord in Iraq that it could threaten his government's survival, he said. Mr...

· Egypt Press Union To Appeal Journalist's Arrest
CAIRO, Egypt — The Egyptian Press Union said it will appeal the sentencing of opposition newspaper editor Ibrahim Eissa, who was convicted of publishing rumors about the health of President Mubarak. "We disapprove of sending journalists to prison and therefore are taking all measures to suspend this order," the deputy manager of the press union, Ahmed Anany, said by telephone yesterday from Cairo. The group represents more than 5,000 journalists. Mr. Eissa, editor of the independent daily...

· 11 Europeans Freed After Being Kidnapped in Egypt
Eleven European tourists and their eight Egyptian guides have been released and are being flown to Cairo after being taken hostage a week ago in a remote desert region of Egypt. The group, including five Germans, five Italians, and a Romanian, were reported to be in good health although there were conflicting reports that rescuers had exchanged gunfire with their captors. The group was kidnapped at Gilf al-Kebir, a mountainous, cave-riddled plateau used as the setting for the 1996 film "The...

· 12 Bodies Found Near Mexican School
TIJUANA, Mexico — The bodies of 11 men and one woman were found dumped in an empty lot next to a Tijuana elementary school yesterday morning, an hour before children were scheduled to arrive. City officials suspended classes after finding the victims, most of whom had been bound and tortured. Some were only partially clothed, a state police spokeswoman in Tijuana, Prisna Perez, said. Minutes after the grisly discovery, four other bodies were found in another empty lot in Tijuana, and two other...

· Afghan Policeman Fires on U.S. Troops, Killing One
KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan policeman opened fire on American troops at a police station, killing an American soldier and wounding three, officials said yesterday. An American commander said American forces in the station in eastern Afghanistan then killed the policeman. "Initial reports suggest that a rogue ANP [Afghan police] official turned on our forces and shot and killed one of our soldiers, the commander of Task Force Currahee in eastern Afghanistan, Colonel John "Pete" Johnson, said...

· Bin Laden's Son Makes Return to Pakistan
WASHINGTON — Al Qaeda is consolidating its leadership in the territory under its control in Pakistan. Osama bin Laden's son and heir apparent, Sa'ad bin Laden, has returned to Pakistan from his safe haven in Iran, according to messages posted on a Qaeda jihad Web forum known as al-Hesbah. An organization that tracks and translates discussions on such forums, the SITE Institute, provided its subscribers with a summary of messages describing what it said was an escape by Sa'ad bin Laden from an...

· Ex-CIA Man Casts Doubt on Hmong Trial
A former CIA operative who advised a venerable Hmong leader, General Vang Pao, on a plan to put military pressure on Laos is expressing doubts that the aging general played a role in a plot against the Laotian regime, as American prosecutors alleged in an indictment last year. "My assessment is he's an old man. There's just no way. He's not full of piss and vinegar," the ex-CIA officer, Michael Spak, told The New York Sun yesterday. "The younger people surrounding him might be a different story...

· Obama's Man on the Middle East
Senator Obama's leading voice on Middle East policy, Dennis Ross, is one of America's most talented, creative, and clear-eyed diplomats, tirelessly seeking paradigm-shifting ideas, breakthroughs, and new openings to achieve his goals. And as he told a small group of pro-Israeli Obama donors, activists, and reporters at the United Nations, the goal is peace. Mr. Ross, who climbed the ladder at Foggy Bottom from the days of President Reagan until the end of the Clinton administration and is most...

· Financial Crisis Casts Pall on U.N. Poverty Goals
UNITED NATIONS — Members of the Black Eyed Peas performed, Bill Gates donated money, and Mayor Bloomberg hosted a party for world leaders, all in the name of eradicating half of the world's poverty by the middle of the next decade. But as leaders from the wealthy countries kept a wary eye on the financial markets, some said it was unrealistic — unfair even — to ask them to funnel money to the poor during a financial crisis. Having dedicated this year's U.N. General Assembly session to fighting...

· Bomb Threat Clears U.S. Embassy in Brussels
BRUSSELS, Belgium — Belgian police have evacuated the American embassy in Brussels after a caller told them there was a bomb in the building. Police on the scene said no bomb had gone off by 2245 GMT deadline tonight the caller gave them but that they would check the embassy for any explosives before giving the all-clear. The American complex in the Belgian capital houses both the American embassy to Belgium and the American diplomatic mission to the European Union, which has its headquarters...

· Pirates Seize Ukrainian Ship Off Somalia
KIEV, Ukraine — The Foreign Ministry says pirates have seized a Ukrainian-operated ship off Somalia. The ministry says the Faina was sailing with 21 people on board under the Belize flag, though it is operated by Ukrainian managing company Tomax Team Inc. The ministry says in a statement that the ship's captain reported being surrounded by three boats of armed men yesterday afternoon. The ship's passengers include 17 Ukrainian citizens including the captain, as well as three Russians and one...

· Egypt: Kidnapped European Tourists Released
CAIRO, Egypt — A kidnapped 19-member European tour group was freed today and the 11 tourists and eight Egyptian guides and drivers are in good health and on their way to Cairo, Egypt's state news agency and television reported. The group, which includes five Germans, five Italians, and a Romanian, disappeared Sept. 19 while on a desert safari trip in a remote corner of southwestern Egypt. Their abductors took them to Sudan, then to Libya, but their final whereabouts were unclear. Italian news...

· Olmert Says Attack on Settlement Critic Threatens Democracy
Jerusalem — Prime Minister Olmert blamed an attack on an outspoken critic of Jewish settlement in the West Bank on what may be a newly formed Jewish underground and said the violence threatened the country's democracy. "An evil wind of extremism, hatred, violence, malice, of unlawfulness, of lack of restraint, of disregard for the state has swept through certain sectors of the Israeli society and is threatening Israeli democracy," Mr. Olmert told his Cabinet yesterday. Police have not yet found...

· As U.N. Nuclear Watchdog Convenes, Iran, Israel Collisions Loom
VIENNA, Austria — A meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog's 145 member nations this week could turn into a showdown between the West and the developing world, as Iran and Syria bid for more influence within the agency, and Islamic nations express anger over Israel's nuclear program. The International Atomic Energy Agency's general conference, starting tomorrow, has traditionally been an annual chance for member countries to plan general nuclear policies that range from strengthening...