Jerusalem

Payments for settlers to move out approved

Israeli Cabinet ministers on Tuesday approved payment of advances to Jewish settlers willing to leave their homes in the Gaza Strip and in four West Bank settlements, setting in motion the first practical steps in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s withdrawal plan.

Sharon’s Security Cabinet approved outlines of a compensation package that includes incentives for settlers willing to leave voluntarily and advances for settlers ready to move now, officials said.

Settlers could receive about $200,000 to $350,000 per family, depending on the size of their home, how long they lived in their settlement and where they agree to move, according to the outline.

The full compensation program must be approved by parliament, with the first of three votes by the legislature set for Nov. 3.

Russia

Chechen charged in school massacre

Russian prosecutors charged a Chechen man with terrorism and murder in the deadly hostage-taking at a school in southern Russia, the Interfax news agency reported Tuesday.

The man, identified as Nurpashi Kulayev, was charged with nine counts, including kidnapping and banditry, General Prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov said.

The three-day siege in Beslan ended in chaos that left at least 330 people dead, including 171 children, Ustinov said.

Kulayev said on Russian state television that he and other hostage takers were told the goal of the raid was “to unleash a war on the whole of the Caucasus.”

Ustinov said that authorities found the bodies of 30 hostage-takers. “According to the victims, the attackers weren’t more than 32 people,” Ustinov was quoted as saying, adding that information that some of the captors managed to flee had not been confirmed.

United Nations

Death rates rising in Sudanese region

Between 6,000 and 10,000 people are dying from disease and violence each month in Sudan’s Darfur region as heavy rains and a marauding militia hinder U.N. efforts to respond to one of Africa’s worst humanitarian crises, according to a survey of mortality rates by the United Nations’ World Health Organization.

The latest U.N. figures demonstrate that survival rates have worsened in Darfur over the past three months as the United Nations struggles to provide food to nearly 1 million displaced people in more than 120 camps throughout Darfur. The main killers are preventable diseases such as diarrhea, which accounted for nearly a quarter of the deaths, and a wave of violence that has plagued the region since civil war began in February 2003.

The United States is pressing the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution this week threatening to consider oil industry sanctions against Khartoum if it does not crack down on the militia.