The transfer of sovereignty to Iraq's interim government on June 30 will include control of prisons and could lead to the handover of former president Saddam Hussein for trial by Iraqis, Britain's UN ambassador said. \nThe control of prisons has become a highly sensitive issue following revelations of physical and sexual abuse of Iraqi detainees by US soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. \nBritish ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said on Thursday: "It's totally consistent with the transfer of all sovereignty to this government that actually they will control the prisons." \nAsked whether that meant custody of Saddam would then be turned over to the interim government, the ambassador indicated it did. \n"I think we've always said that at some stage, and as soon as possible, Saddam Hussein should be handed over to the Iraqis for trial by Iraqis. And the sooner we can do that the better," Jones Parry said. \nSome UN Security Council members have expressed concern that prisoners aren't mentioned in the US-British draft resolution on the transfer of sovereignty currently being debated. China said it wanted the transfer of control spelled out in the draft because of the Abu Ghraib scandal. \nLast month, Iraqi war-crimes tribunal head Salem Chalabi said that Saddam would not be handed over to Iraqi authorities before June 30 and no trial would start before next year. \nChalabi said the US "has indicated that it is willing to hand over individuals in custody -- when indicted -- to the special Iraqi court dealing with those cases, if that court is ready to take them." \nChalabi said that it was "unlikely" that the tribunal would be ready to assume custody of the defendants before June 30. \nSaddam has been held in an undisclosed location since his capture by US forces and is being interrogated by the CIA and the FBI. The US has said it intends to hand him over to Iraqis for trial.
POLAND-GERMANY RIFT: Warsaw’s response to Berlin over a NATO system that would increase the alliance’s involvement in the war came as Kyiv accused Russia of war crimes Anti-missile systems that Germany offered to send to Poland should instead go to Ukraine, the Polish government said on Thursday, a proposal that is likely a nonstarter for Berlin because it would significantly ratchet up NATO involvement in Ukraine. Poland’s surprising response to Berlin’s offer was welcomed by Ukraine, which is desperate to protect its airspace as barrages of Russian missiles have knocked out power across the country. German Minister of Defense Christine Lambrecht said that use of NATO defense systems outside its territory needs to be agreed by all member states. “It is important to us that Poland can rely on allies
AWAITING EXTRADITION: Daniel Duggan has been classified as ‘extreme high risk,’ has not been allowed to use stationery and has been denied treatment, his lawyer said The lawyer for a former US military pilot arrested in Australia and facing possible extradition to the US said that his client was wrongly classified as an “extreme high-risk” prisoner, and he had asked the attorney-general to release him. Former US Marines pilot Daniel Edmund Duggan was arrested in New South Wales in October at the request of the US government, the same week the UK announced a crackdown on its former military pilots working to train Chinese military fliers. The US must lodge an extradition request for Duggan by Dec. 20 under a bilateral treaty, a Sydney court was told yesterday.
WARTIME DIPLOMACY: Zelenskiy met EU leaders and hosted the International Summit on Food Security, which included discussions on agricultural exports from Ukraine Fleeing shelling, civilians on Saturday streamed out of the southern Ukrainian city whose recapture they had celebrated just weeks earlier. The exodus from Kherson came as Ukraine solemnly remembered a Stalin-era famine and sought to ensure that Russia’s war in Ukraine does not deprive others worldwide of its vital food exports. A line of trucks, vans and cars, some towing trailers or ferrying out pets and other belongings, stretched 1km or more on the outskirts of the city of Kherson. Days of intensive shelling by Russian forces prompted a bittersweet exodus: Many civilians were happy that their city had been won back, but
MONEY-MAKING SCHEME: Some students said they were misled about study or work opportunities, or were not told that they were coming to a self-proclaimed republic Foreign students are big business in northern Cyprus, a tiny, breakaway statelet only recognized by Turkey, but some warn that university recruiters are selling “dreams” in the internationally and economically isolated territory. One Nigerian student, who asked to remain anonymous, said he expected to arrive in the country whose soccer teams compete in European tournaments. Instead, when he saw the currency was the embattled Turkish lira, he realized this was “not the Cyprus I thought it was.” The Mediterranean island is divided between the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus and a northern statelet established after Turkey launched a 1974 invasion in
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