Briefly

Ukraine

Pullout from Iraq to begin this month

Ukraine’s top security body decided Tuesday to withdraw the nation’s troops from Iraq, and officials said the pullout would start this month and be completed by October.

The National Security and Defense Council, headed by President Viktor Yushchenko, made the widely expected decision to withdraw Ukraine’s 1,650-strong contingent.

Ukraine, which has lost 17 soldiers in Iraq, strongly opposed the U.S.-led war but later agreed to send a large contingent to serve under Polish command.

The deployment in Iraq is deeply unpopular among Ukrainians, and one of former President Leonid Kuchma’s last orders was to bring the troops home. In January, eight soldiers died in an explosion that Ukrainian defense officials described as a terrorist attack.

Toronto

White supremacist deported, faces charges

A white supremacist was deported to his native Germany Tuesday and taken into custody by authorities in Frankfurt, where he faces charges of denying the Holocaust and inciting hatred, immigration officials said.

Ernst Zundel, 65, author of “The Hitler We Loved and Why,” arrived in Frankfurt and was turned over to German authorities, said Helen Leslie, a spokeswoman for Canadian Border Services Agency.

Zundel’s attorney, Peter Lindsay, told The Associated Press his client was taken Tuesday morning from his Toronto jail, where he was held for two years while authorities determined whether he posed a security risk.

Federal Court Justice Pierre Blais ruled last week that Zundel’s activities were a threat to national security.