Washington, D.C.

Bush administration cuts aid for U.N. family planning

The Bush administration will withhold $34 million that had been earmarked for U.N. family planning programs overseas. Instead, the money will go to international child survival and health programs of the U.S. Agency for International Development, officials said Monday.

Critics of the decision said it was driven by politics and vowed to fight to ensure funding for the U.N. program, and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was disappointed.

Thoraya Obaid, executive director of the U.N. fund, questioned why the administration cut off aid to all countries, when in the past, the fund has simply promised not to spend the money in China, which enforces a single-child family policy. A State Department fact-finding team recommended the administration maintain the earlier arrangement.

Afghanistan

President fires bodyguards, calls in American soldiers

President Hamid Karzai has sidelined his Afghan bodyguards and called in U.S. troops to replace them in a sign of rising security fears following the murder of an Afghan vice president, his aide said Monday.

Diplomats said the move followed “serious threats” against Karzai, some believed to have come from within his own Cabinet. The approximately 50 guards who were replaced were part of the 10,000-strong force of fighters loyal to Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld confirmed the move, calling it a “short-term” measure to ensure stability.

Virginia

Sept. 11 conspiracy suspect still competent, judge says

A federal judge in Alexandria said Monday she has seen no new evidence to question the mental competency of accused Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, who has pledged to plead guilty this week.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema earlier this month reopened the issue of Moussaoui’s competence to represent himself in the death penalty case. She ruled last month that he was mentally fit to be his own lawyer.

Brinkema still could revisit the issue at an arraignment Thursday if Moussaoui’s court-appointed standby lawyers can bolster their position that Moussaoui is mentally ill.

Moussaoui last week attempted to plead guilty to a revised indictment that now includes factors designed to permit use of the federal death penalty. Brinkema told him to consider the consequences of his actions for a week, but Moussaoui said he would not change his mind.