New York City

Panel lists companies that received Iraqi oil

The independent panel investigating alleged corruption in the multibillion-dollar U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq released the names of 248 companies on Thursday that received Iraqi oil and 3,545 companies that exported goods to Saddam Hussein’s government.

Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who was appointed in April by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to lead the inquiry, also said his probe had met some resistance in France and in Iraq.

Volcker told a news conference that some of the names on the list might be dummy or front corporations but that being on the list didn’t necessarily imply guilt.

Washington, D.C.

Poll finds reality gap among Bush supporters

A large majority of President Bush’s supporters continue to believe that Iraq either had weapons of mass destruction (47 percent) or a major program to develop them (25 percent), contrary to official findings, a survey taken this month found.

And three out of four Bush backers believe Saddam Hussein provided substantial support to al-Qaida or was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, while 56 percent said the Sept. 11 commission found such ties.

In reality, the commission found “no collaborative relationship” between Iraq and al-Qaeda.

The survey by the University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes, released Thursday, shows that the supporters of Bush and Sen. John Kerry see “separate realities” about Iraq and other foreign policy issues.

Afghanistan

Aide to Taliban leader seized for bomb attack

Security forces arrested a deputy of a top Taliban commander Thursday for a bomb attack that wounded three U.S. soldiers, and an American soldier died when an Air Force helicopter crashed on a mission to rescue an election worker.

Interim leader Hamid Karzai, meanwhile, nudged closer to victory in Afghanistan’s landmark presidential poll with nearly two-thirds of the vote counted — although his huge lead narrowed slightly as the third- and fourth-place candidates gained some ground.

The Oct. 9 election, hoped to usher in peace after two decades of war, was a setback to Taliban who failed to deliver on threats to derail the vote.

Austria

Diplomats: Iran unlikely to make nuclear deal

Iran is unlikely to accept European incentives aimed at getting it to suspend uranium enrichment, diplomats said Thursday, raising the prospect of a showdown next month between Tehran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency.

Envoys from Britain, France and Germany offered civilian nuclear technology and a trade deal to the Iranians in a private meeting at the French mission to international organizations in Vienna. But Western diplomats said they doubted Iran would back down easily.

Iran did not immediately respond to the incentives, which included the promise of lucrative trade, a light-water nuclear research reactor and the chance to buy nuclear fuel from the West.

Tokyo

Japan starts cleanup after deadly typhoon

Rescue workers and Japanese troops waded through sludge early today to search for victims of mudslides in Japan’s deadliest typhoon in over a decade that ripped across the country, killing 67 and leaving 21 missing.

Typhoon Tokage, the record eighth typhoon to hit Japan this year, unleashed towering waves and rapid mudslides that demolished homes and flooded dozens of communities when the storm slammed into western Japan Wednesday.

Tokage headed east into the Pacific Ocean Thursday after losing power, leaving clear blue skies in its wake and rescue workers combing the sea for victims feared washed away.

Spain

3 inmates questioned over new terror plot

Three Algerians who were considered close to the suspected ringleader of the Madrid train bombings are being questioned about an alleged suicide plot to blow up Spain’s National Court, officials said Thursday.

Spanish police said the three Algerians are among 10 prisoners who have been isolated from other inmates for questioning over a possible link to the alleged plot to kill judges investigating Islamic terrorists by blowing up the court.

In 2001, the court convicted the three Algerians of belonging to a terrorist group along with Allekema Lamari, the suspected ringleader of the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, which killed 191 people.

Ethiopia

Court sentences three to die for mass murder

A court has sentenced three former rebels to death for killing dozens of people while rebel factions jockeyed for power more than a decade ago, a government spokesman said.

The men were convicted for killings that occurred in 1992, a year after the ouster of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, said Zemedkun Teckle. A fourth man was sentenced to 20 years in prison for killing a woman.

Death sentences in Ethiopia usually are carried out by hanging. Iman Kelil Oumar, Beyan Ahmed Ousman and Asli Ahmed, however, must stay in jail until Ethiopia’s president agrees to their executions.

Washington, D.C.

Charges dropped against woman on cell phone

Charges were dropped Thursday against a pregnant woman arrested and forced to the ground by Metro Transit Police for allegedly talking too loudly on a cell phone.

“I’m happy that it’s over with,” Sakinah Aaron, the defendant, said of the incident that has raised questions about the conduct of the transit police force.

Aaron, 23, was arrested Sept. 9 at a subway station in the Maryland suburb of Wheaton and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Officials of the transit system had claimed that one of their officers heard Aaron yelling obscenities into a cell phone and said that when the officer told her to stop, she used similar language on him.

“We just felt that under the circumstances, this was the appropriate disposition at this time,” said Deputy Montgomery County, Md., State’s Attorney Katherine Winfree.

Gaza Strip

Israeli airstrike kills top Hamas military commander

An Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at a car traveling in the Gaza Strip late Thursday, killing a senior Hamas commander who was among the government’s most-wanted fugitives for years — the latest in a series of Israeli assassinations that have weakened the militant group.

Adnan al-Ghoul, a founder and the No. 2 figure of Hamas’ military wing, was killed along with a lower-ranking militant. The airstrike dealt another heavy blow to Hamas’ military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, which is responsible for attacks that have killed hundreds of Israelis during four years of fighting.

Missouri

Former employee opens fire at manufacturing plant

A former employee walked into an Earth City conveyor belt factory and opened fire Thursday while workers were changing shifts, at one point reloading his shotgun in a parking lot before re-entering the building.

Though witnesses reported hearing multiple shots, only one person was wounded in the shooting that began about 3 p.m. at Beltservice Corp., in an industrialized area west of St. Louis, police spokesman Mason Keller said. The man was grazed by a bullet and his injury was not serious, Keller said.

By evening, only the gunman was still in the building, which is near the training facility of the St. Louis Rams football team.

Philadelphia

Beer bellies put squeeze on sperm quality, study shows

Beer bellies may take a toll on men below the belt, not just around it.

Men who weigh too much are more likely to have poor sperm quality, research on 1,600 Danish men has found. Being too thin is a problem, too.

Women don’t get off the hook. Though it’s long been known that very overweight women have trouble conceiving naturally, a large new study confirms they also are less likely to become pregnant even when embryos are fertilized in lab dishes and placed in their wombs.

“Among the severely obese, we saw significantly reduced implantation and pregnancy rates,” said Dr. David Ryley of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.