Around the World

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

PAKISTAN

Troops Aid U.S., NATO

Pakistan sent troops armed with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns to escort trucks Monday along a major supply route for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, part of new security measures to combat insurgent attacks.

Pakistan stopped container trucks and oil tankers from using the Khyber Pass last week after dozens of suspected Taliban fighters hijacked trucks carrying Humvees bound for U.S.-led coalition forces.

Bomber Kills 4 at Post

A suicide car bomber struck an army post in northwest Pakistan on Monday, killing four security personnel and wounding three, and an artillery attack in the region killed at least five suspected insurgents, authorities said. The suicide attack occurred in Gashkor, in the Swat Valley. The artillery assault occurred in the Bajaur tribal region, where the military says it has killed 1,600 insurgents since August.

CHINA

Product Safety Urged

The consumer chiefs of the European Union and the United States called on China on Monday to crack down on unsafe products, especially toys, ahead of Christmas.

More than 20 million Chinese-made toys were recalled worldwide in 2007 because of unsafe features such as excessive levels of lead paint, and this year more products, including milk, seafood, toothpaste and furniture, have been determined to be risky.

Representatives from the E.U., the United States and China met in Brussels on Monday to sign a trilateral agreement aimed at enforcing product safety standards and exchanging information on food safety.

U.S. to Open FDA Offices

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will open three offices in China this week, the agency's first outside the United States, in an effort to improve the safety of exports headed to America. The offices will be in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai.

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Politkovskaya Trial to Be Open

A Russian court decided not to ban reporters from the trial of three men accused in the killing of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, allowing an open trial at which details of the much-criticized investigation will be made public. Politkovskaya, who was slain in her Moscow apartment building in 2006, reported on human rights abuses in Chechnya, embarrassing the Kremlin. Her killing sparked international outrage.

IAEA Questions Syria Evidence

Traces of uranium found at a Syrian site bombed by Israel last year were not sufficient evidence of nuclear activity there, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said. "There was uranium, but it does not mean there was a reactor," Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said at a news conference in Dubai. Syria's foreign minister, Walid al-Moualem, has said the uranium could have come from munitions used by Israel to bomb the site in September last year.

From News Services