Moscow: Court rejects appeals in theater hostage raid

A court on Monday rejected three appeals from relatives of victims of a hostage standoff at a Moscow theater — the latest setback to efforts seeking damages from the city government.

Lawyer Igor Trunov had appealed on behalf of the plaintiffs, whose lawsuits were rejected by a district court on Jan. 23. Trunov, who represents more than 100 survivors and relatives of victims, said he expects 21 more appeals will be rejected when they are considered today.

“We weren’t surprised,” he said, adding that the plaintiffs plan to appeal and also ask the European Court of Human Rights to consider their cases.

Heavily armed Chechen rebels seized a crowded theater during a popular musical on Oct. 23, taking about 800 people hostage for three days. A total of 129 hostages died, the vast majority from the effects of a narcotic gas used by Russian special forces to knock out the attackers before storming the theater.

Pakistan: Peace overture made to nuclear rival India

Pakistan made a major peace overture to nuclear rival India on Monday, proposing visits between their leaders in an effort to ease decades-long tensions over the disputed Kashmir region.

Pakistan Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali called Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and asked “to resolve outstanding issues through dialogue,” according to Pakistan Television.

Jamali also said Pakistan officials are willing to visit India and invited Indian officials to visit Pakistan “in the cause of peace,” the report said.

Jamali made his offer after Vajpayee last week proposed talks between the two nations while visiting the troubled Indian-Kashmir capital of Srinagar. It also comes weeks before a top Bush administration official visits the region in an effort to ease ongoing tensions.

Canada: Two plead innocent in 1985 bombing

Two Sikh men accused of bombing an Air India flight in 1985, killing all 329 people on board, pleaded innocent Monday as their trial began under heavy security in a specially built courtroom in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Ajaib Singh Bagri, 53, and Ripudaman Singh Malik, 56, sat behind bulletproof glass for the trial almost 18 years after the Boeing 747 exploded off the coast of Ireland in the worst terrorist bombing of a commercial aircraft.

Calling Bagri a “militant Sikh terrorist,” prosecutor Robert Wright said in his opening statement the bombing was revenge by Sikh separatists for the 1984 raid by Indian forces on the Golden Temple at Amritsar, the religion’s holiest site.

“Their motive was so strongly felt that they were prepared to murder hundreds of innocent people,” Wright said.

Air India Flight 182 from Montreal to New Delhi exploded over the Atlantic on June 23, 1985. Most of the victims were Canadian.

Guatemala City: Separated twin recovers from brain infection

The conjoined twin who suffered a brain infection months after she was separated from her sister is responding well to antibiotics and is expected to recover, a medical source said Monday.

Maria Teresa Quiej Alvarez was hospitalized two weeks ago after doctors discovered that a valve inserted in her skull to keep fluid from putting pressure on her brain had become infected.

Doctors removed the valve and inserted a new device to drain fluid that could possibly cause death.

Maria Teresa and her sister Maria de Jesus captured the world’s attention when a team of U.S. doctors separated the pair in a 23-hour operation at Mattel Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles on Aug. 6.

The twins, now 21 months old, returned on Jan. 13 to Guatemala City.