WORLD
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Tariq Aziz, once a close member of Saddam Hussein's inner circle, testified for the defense in Saddam Hussein's trial, saying the regime had to strike back with a crackdown on a Shiite town after a 1982 assassination attempt on the former Iraqi leader.
The 70-year-old Aziz, a former foreign minister and deputy prime minister, took the stand wearing checkered pajamas and looking pale. Aziz, who is in U.S. custody, has complained of health problems and his family has been pressing for him to be released temporarily for medical treatment.
Saddam and seven former members of his regime are on trial for alleged crimes against humanity in a crackdown on the Shiite town of Dujail after a 1982 assassination attempt on Saddam. Hundreds of Shiite men, women and children were arrested, some allegedly tortured to death, and 148 were sentenced to death for the shooting attack.
Aziz, who was deputy prime minister at the time of the events in Dujail and has been jailed since he surrendered to U.S. forces in April 2003, also hit both the main defense themes.
He said the Dujail attack was "part of a series of attacks and assassination attempts by this group (Dawa), including against me."
He said the arrests were in response to the assassination attempt. "If the head of state comes under attack, the state is required by law to take action. If the suspects are caught with weapons, it's only natural they should be arrested and put on trial," he said.
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea today abruptly canceled groundbreaking test runs of trains across its highly guarded border with South Korea, citing an atmosphere of confrontation.Thursday's scheduled test runs along rebuilt railroads would have been the first time trains crossed the Korean border in more than a half-century, and were a high-profile part of efforts at a detente between North and South Korea since a pivotal summit of their leaders in 2000.Train service between the Koreas was halted in June 1951.North Korean official Pak Jong Song informed the South today that "it is impossible to conduct the trial operation" as scheduled because of the failure of the two Koreas to reach a military agreement on the trains' operations, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said.In a message sent to his South Korean counterpart, Pak also criticized "pro-U.S., ultra-right conservative forces" in the South for burning the North Korean flag and "pushing the situation in Korea to an extreme phase of confrontation and war.""We will wait for an appropriate time to come for the trial train operation between the North and the South after a military guarantee is provided by the military authorities of both sides and the situation in the South returns to normal," said Pak, the head of the North's group on the rail and road issue.
BANGKOK, Thailand — More than 100 people were feared dead today as searchers recovered corpses from a sea of mud spawned by flash floods in northern Thailand, local officials said.Rescue teams in helicopters or on foot tried to reach thousands of people stranded in their houses, on trains and in open terrain devastated by floods from days of heavy rain across several northern provinces.Local officials said Tuesday that about 50 bodies had been recovered in three provinces. But Boonriang Chuchai-saengrat, chief health officer of Uttaradit province, said today more than 100 had perished in his province alone.He appealed to government authorities to set up a disaster identification center like one established following the Asian tsunami to record unclaimed bodies and temporarily bury corpses for identification later.
