World Briefs

Kuwait said yesterday that fellow oil exporter Iraq is likely to report a budget surplus this year and should repay its debts.

"Iraq's debt to Kuwait is an old debt ... It has to be paid or Iraq has to pay its interest. These are the rights of the Kuwaiti people," state news agency KUNA quoted Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Sabah as saying in a television interview.

The debt, estimated at $15-16 billion, represents loans Kuwait made to Baghdad in the Saddam Hussein era, mostly during the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war.

Italy arrests five in anti-terrorism swoop in North

Italian police have arrested four Tunisians and a Moroccan on suspicion of recruiting Islamic fighters for Iraq and Afghanistan and are looking for a sixth man, also from Tunisia, they said yesterday.

They made the arrests in dawn raids in the Bologna, Ravenna and Como areas, said police in the university town of Bologna.

All six "are accused of criminal association with the aim of international terrorism, and two of them also of serious fraud to fund terrorism", Vincenzo Ciarambino of the Bologna crime squad told Reuters.

Interior Minister Roberto Marino said in a statement that the arrests "confirm that Islamic terrorism is deeply rooted in our territory and that we must keep our guard up against it".

Senegal sacks minister for $250 million overspend

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade has sacked Budget Minister Ibrahima Sarr for allowing government departments to overspend by 109 billion CFA francs ($252 million), a Finance Ministry official said.

Wade sacked a quarter of his ministers last year in a bid to cut costs in the face of a ballooning food import bill, but has been criticised by opponents for funding prestige projects such as a planned 50-metre bronze 'African Renaissance' statue.

The octogenarian president signed a decree sacking Sarr. The decree gave no reason for Sarr's sacking, which came just hours after Wade met resident International Monetary Fund representative Alex Segura. Details of their discussions were not made public.

Vietnam floods, landslides kill 61, dozens missing

Heavy rain and flash floods brought by tropical storm Kammuri killed at least 61 people and left dozens missing in northern Vietnam, officials said yesterday.

The mountainous province of Lao Cai, bordering China, was the most seriously hit area with 31 people killed by landslides and flash floods on Friday night and yesterday morning, provincial officials said.

"It is a very ugly scene up here with numerous villages completely isolated after local roads were washed away by the floods and landslides," a spokesman for Lao Cai's Storm and Flood Prevention Centre told Reuters by telephone.

20 Taliban killed in western Afghanistan

Afghan soldiers backed by international air support killed around 20 Taliban insurgents and wounded 14 more in western Farah province, the provincial police chief said yesterday.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan this year with around 2,500 people, including 1,000 civilians, killed so far this year in fighting between Taliban insurgents and foreign and Afghan forces, aid agencies say.

"The Taliban were gathering for a meeting in an area of Bala Boluk district," the provincial police chief, Khalilullah Rahmani, told Reuters.

"An air strike targeted the meeting and killed 20 of them," he said. Fourteen others were wounded.

Ailing Zambia president has been 'heavily sedated'

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, who suffered a second stroke in June, is heavily sedated and is expected to remain in a French military hospital for a long time, Health Minister Brian Chituwo said.

In a broadcast on state television, Chituwo said Mwanawasa remained in a "stable but heavily sedated" condition in the hospital to which he was flown after suffering a stroke during an African Union summit in Egypt.

Speculation that Mwanawasa, 59, may be unable to return to work has prompted demands that doctors examine him and decide whether he is fit to remain president.

If parliament decides he is incapacitated, Mwanawasa, who suffered a mild stroke in 2006, could be forced to step down. Vice-President Rupiah Banda would take over as acting president and elections would be called.

Support edges up for Turkey's ruling party

Support for Turkey's Islamist-rooted ruling AK Party has risen slightly after it escaped being closed in a Constitutional Court case, according to a poll published yesterday.

The poll, carried out by Metropoll, is one of the first since the court case and showed the party would win 41.9 per cent of votes if parliamentary elections were held today, compared to a figure of 40.4 per cent in a poll published by the same agency in June.

Although the party escaped closure, it was found guilty of being a focal point for Islamist activities by the court last week and had half its Treasury funding cut.

Of those polled, 73 per cent said they wanted to see the party change its policies, which analysts say provoked the closure case. The poll appears in the Vatan daily.