Geneva

U.N. says listening device found at office

A secret listening device found at the Geneva offices of the United Nations was in a room adjoining a main conference hall, where it could have been used to eavesdrop on any private conversations, the global body said Friday.

Secretary of State Colin Powell and other foreign ministers of the U.N. Security Council discussed the situation in postwar Iraq in the main hall last year. It was not immediately clear who used the smaller room.

The eavesdropping equipment could be Russian or East European in origin and was made three to four years ago, one expert told Swiss television.

Workers found the device during renovation work this fall on the room, said Marie Heuze, spokeswoman for the U.N. office in Geneva.

Afghanistan

Soldiers storm jail, end bloody inmate standoff

Afghan troops stormed a notorious prison in a hail of gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades Friday, ending a 10-hour standoff that began when four inmates once suspected of belonging to al-Qaida tried to escape. Four inmates and four guards were killed in the day’s violence.

Explosions rocked the crumbling, overcrowded Pul-e Charkhi jail — which holds Taliban and al-Qaida suspects as well as common criminals — as troops launched the assault just after nightfall.

The standoff began in the morning when four inmates — three Pakistanis and an Iraqi — used razors to attack a guard leading them to morning prayers. They took his AK-47 rifle, then beat and stabbed him to death, said Abdul Salam Bakhshi, the prison warden.

A gunbattle ensued that killed three other guards and two of the would-be escapees.

Haiti

U.N. peacekeepers force way into Aristide estate

U.N. peacekeepers detonated an explosive device to force their way into the former residence of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and persuaded a group of ex-soldiers to leave unarmed, ending a two-day standoff.

Brazilian peacekeepers said the explosion was meant as a warning to the rebels, who put up no resistance. No one was reported injured.

The U.N. troops “had to resort to force but we rejoice that this operation was conducted without any loss of blood,” a statement from the U.N. mission in Haiti said late Friday.

Paris

Briton describes abuse at Guantanamo Bay

A Briton released from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay told Europe’s top human rights body Friday he was beaten, shackled, kept in a cramped cage and fed rotten food as part of “systematic abuse” in American custody.

Jamal al-Harith’s testimony before a Council of Europe panel came as part of an inquiry by the body into human rights abuses at the U.S. detention facility to be made public in a report due out early next year.

Reading from a 10-page statement, al-Harith described his two-year detention at Guantanamo Bay as a period of continual mistreatment that ranged from humiliation and 15-hour interrogations to physical abuse that he says left scars.

Burundi

Two U.N. peacekeepers laid off for misconduct

Two U.N. peacekeepers in Burundi have been suspended for alleged sexual misconduct, a problem that has plagued U.N. peacekeeping missions and shows no sign of abating despite a “zero-tolerance” policy.

The announcement Friday that the two soldiers are under investigation followed last month’s announcement that the United Nations is investigating 150 allegations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers in Congo, possibly the worst U.N. sex scandal in years.

The latest allegations stem from an incident last weekend in Muyinga in northeastern Burundi, U.N. associate spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The two peacekeepers — whose nationality was not disclosed — are part of a U.N. force helping to monitor a peace deal between the government and Hutu rebels to end Burundi’s 11-year war.

Germany

Doctors say stem cells from fat help heal skull

Surgeons in Germany say they used stem cells from a 7-year-old girl’s fat to help repair severe damage to her skull. It’s apparently the first time that researchers have generated bone in a person by using the fat-derived cells.

One expert called the work a landmark and said he considered it the first indication that any kind of stem cell had been harnessed to regenerate bone in a human.

He and others cautioned, however, that the report falls short of proving that the stem cells produced the new bone.

The new work is an example of using so-called “adult” stem cells, as opposed to the more controversial “embryonic” stem cells that are recovered from early embryos.

Moscow

Russia vows to proceed with Yukos auction

Russia pledged on Friday to proceed with an auction of oil giant Yukos’ key production subsidiary, saying a U.S. bankruptcy court order to delay the bidding for 10 days is irrelevant in Russia.

The expected winner of Sunday’s auction, the state-run Russian gas company Gazprom, however, may not be able to pay after a consortium of Western banks reportedly put on hold billions of dollars in credit it needs to fund its bid.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Letitia Clark granted Yukos’ request on Thursday for a temporary restraining order delaying for 10 days the auction of the Yukos unit, Yuganskneftegaz.

“The sale of Yuganskneftegaz is an internal matter for Russia,” Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies Friday.

Colombia

Authorities can’t find IRA-linked suspects

Colombian authorities revealed Friday they had lost track in June of three IRA-linked men, convicted this week of training Marxist rebels in terrorist tactics, after the men defied a court order to report to police.

The revelation left authorities struggling to explain how the three Irishmen had slipped from their grasp amid one of the most highly charged terrorism cases in Colombia in years.

A court on Thursday sentenced James Monaghan, Niall Connolly and Martin McCauley to 17 years or more in prison, overturning Judge Jairo Acosta’s acquittal of the trio in April on the terrorism-related charges.