Putin Accuses U.S. Of Double Standard
NEW DELHI -- Russian President Vladimir Putin sharply criticized the United States on Friday, accusing it of a double standard in fighting terrorism and questioning whether any election in Iraq can be democratic when fighting is raging in the country.
Putin, who has been angered by U.S. and European denunciations of the Ukrainian election as tainted by fraud, began a three-day visit to India with continued criticism of Washington, saying it sought a "dictatorship of international affairs."
"Even if dictatorship is wrapped up in a beautiful package of pseudo-democratic phraseology, it will not be in a position to solve systemic problems," Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying in a speech Friday night in New Delhi.
Putin, who has been critical of the United States for going to war without international approval, warned that the fighting in Iraq was threatening an election slated for Jan. 30. "All this will definitely call in question the possibility of holding honest and democratic elections in Iraq early next year," he said.
Putin and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed a joint declaration that called for ending "political expediency" in the global fight against terrorism. The declaration made no reference to any country.
But in an interview with a Hindu newspaper, Putin said the United States and European nations practiced double standards by allowing into their countries some Chechen rebels whom Moscow considers to be terrorists.
THE AMERICAS
• BOGOTA, Colombia -- Drug kingpin Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, wearing handcuffs and a bulletproof vest, flew late Friday aboard a U.S. government plane for trial in the United States, becoming the most powerful Colombian trafficker ever to be extradited to the United States.
"Every day judicial cooperation between our two countries is becoming more effective and more visible," Col. Oscar Naranjo, chief of Colombia's judicial police, told the Associated Press. "This means that the criminals will not find any sanctuary to evade justice."
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said: "Those who violate federal drug laws should never believe that drug trafficking from outside our borders puts them beyond the reach of justice. . . . Rodriguez Orejuela will now stand trial for his actions."
The extradition of Rodriguez Orejuela caps a 13-year investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Dean Boyd, a Washington spokesman for the agency.
AFRICA
• KINSHASA, Congo -- President Joseph Kabila accused Rwanda of trying to create a confrontation with Congo in an effort to disrupt Congolese efforts to secure the country and move toward 2005 elections.
It was Kabila's first public statement since Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame, began warning last week that his country would act against 8,000 to 10,000 Rwandan Hutu rebels taking shelter in eastern Congo.
