UPI News Update

Marines join hunt for Omar

WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- An undisclosed number of Marines were en route to Baghram, an area north of Kandahar, Monday where U.S. intelligence believes elusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar may be hiding, according to senior defense officials. The reports on Omar's location are more consistent than the conflicting reports about Osama bin Laden, the official said. Marines will join U.S. Special Forces and the Afghan troops of Pashtun commander Gul Agha Shirzai.

Army to replace Marines in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Army soldiers from the 101st Airborne (Air Assault) Division will replace the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit in Kandahar, Afghanistan, U.S. Central Command said Monday. The Army soldiers will come from Fort Campbell, Ky., relieving about 1,000 Marines who are home-based in Camp Pendleton, Calif. Marines are detaining 180 al Qaida and Taliban prisoners, 164 of them in Kandahar. Eight, including American Taliban fighter John Walker, are aboard the USS Peleliu. One is in American control at Mazar-i-Sharif and seven are at the Bagram airfield north of Kabul.

Court convicts would-be Iranian spy

TEL AVIV, Israel, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The Tel Aviv District Court Monday convicted an Australian citizen of offering to spy for Iran. Mark Idan, 37, who served in the Israeli army and later left Israel, did not actually spy because the Iranians rejected his offer. The three judges accepted his plea bargain and will next decide whether to endorse an agreement between the prosecution and the defense and sentence him to two years in prison. Idan arrived in Israel in 1987 as a volunteer in a kibbutz, married, changed his name of Mark Anthony Titoni to a Hebrew name, served in the Israeli army and later in its reserve forces. He later divorced, left Israel and was arrested in October when he returned for a visit.

Israel, Palestinian leaders seek deal

TEL AVIV, Israel, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A plan was introduced Monday to have Israel's president address the Palestinian Legislative Council and launch an expanded cease-fire. Under the plan, Moshe Katsav would ask for a yearlong cease-fire, Palestinian legislators would accept it and the Israeli government would endorse it, according to one of the initiators, former Israeli-Arab legislator Abdul Wahab Darawshe, told United Press International.

Shoe-bomb, hijack suspects linked

BOSTON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The shoe-bomb suspect who allegedly tried to blow up an American Airlines jetliner over the Atlantic has been linked by British intelligence to an indicted co-conspirator in the Sept. 11 attacks, according to media reports Monday. Islamic convert Richard C. Reid was monitored by British intelligence talking on the telephone last year with hijack suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, The Observer reported. Reid, 28, is being held without bail outside Boston pending trial on charges of assault and interfering with the crew aboard American Airlines Flight 63. Crewmembers and other passengers foiled Reid's alleged attempt to set off plastic explosives packed inside his sneakers on a Dec. 22 flight from Paris to Miami. Moussaoui, a French national of Moroccan heritage, has been in federal custody since his arrest Aug. 17 after raising the suspicions of officials at a flight school in Minnesota. U.S. officials believe Moussaoui was to have been the 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Interim president quits in Argentina

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Argentina struggled to pull out of a political and economic tailspin Monday after the country's interim president resigned due to lack of political support following the latest round of violent protests against the government. The country's politicians grappled to reach consensus on how the country would fill a power vacuum after two presidents resigned in just more than a week's time in the midst of a deepening economic crisis. Interim President Adolfo Rodriguez Saa announced his resignation on Sunday a little over a week after president Fernando de la Rua quit following civil unrest that left nearly 30 dead, which was directed at austerity measures.

All but 1 U.K. area free of foot-and-mouth

LONDON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Britain's foot-and-mouth epidemic appears to be over and the government on Monday declared all but one of England's counties free of the disease that has ravaged the countryside since February. Three of the four remaining areas of the country hit by foot-and-mouth -- Cumbria, County Durham and North Yorkshire, all in the north of England -- were ruled disease-free as of midnight Sunday by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. A Defra spokesman said only evidence that a pair of sheep in Northumberland may have been exposed to the virus prevented the government from declaring the whole of the United Kingdom free of foot-and-mouth. As a precaution, the spokesman said, a flock of 2,100 sheep in the region would be destroyed, although he insisted "there is no evidence of active disease."

Islamic center vandalized

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Police Monday were seeking vandals who ransacked an Islamic Center during the weekend, breaking water pipes and scattering copies of the Koran throughout the building and parking lot. The Masjidka Islamic Center had received numerous telephone threats and letters since Sept. 11 but the damage, which collapsed part of the first-floor ceiling, was the worst vandalism in the more than 20 years the religious center has been open. "We have been violated in a place of worship. The sacred Koran was thrown everywhere," Ahmad al Akhas, president of the Ohio Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations told the Columbus Dispatch.

China bucks global decline with strong GDP

BEIJING, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- This has been a good year for China, which successfully gained membership to the World Trade Organization and normalized trade relations with the United States. China also proved unscathed by the global economic downturn, with its gross domestic product growth rate pegged to reach 7.3 percent in 2001, according to official government statistics. The trend goes against the trend of industrialized nations, as the United States and Japan both faced recession while Europe remained in the economic doldrums this year. Nevertheless, the figure is lower by 0.7 percentage points than last year's GDP, and the country expects 2002 to be a tougher year.

Stocks ease in end of year trading

NEW YORK, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Stock prices on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market were lower in lackluster end of year trading early Monday afternoon amid a lack of market moving news. The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average, which rose 5.68 points Friday, was down 46.43 points to 10,090.56. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index, which gained 10.84 points in the previous session, was down 12.31 points to 1,974.95.

San Diego Charges fire Mike Riley

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The San Diego Chargers on Monday fired head coach Mike Riley and all but one member of his coaching staff. Riley, 48, coached the Chargers for three seasons and compiled a record of 14-34. The only assistant who wasn't fired was offensive coordinator Norv Turner, who has three years left on his contract. Riley will be paid for the final two years of his contract, a total $1.5 million.