The world in brief

— QUOTE OF THE DAY “Iraq should take legal action to get back this huge amount of money.” Sabah al-Saedi,

chairman of Iraq’s Parliamentary Integrity Committee,

on $8.7 billion in reconstruction funds for which the Pentagon cannot account Article, this page

Romania copter crash kills 7 aboard

BUCHAREST, Romania - All seven people aboard an Israeli military helicopter - one Romanian and six Israelis - were killed when it crashed into a mountain in central Romania, officials said Tuesday.

The helicopter, a Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion, crashed Monday during a military exercise in which crews are trained to fly at low altitudes. The joint exercises, which were due to end Thursday, were suspended after the crash.

Romanian search teams and Israeli representatives arrived at the crash site in a remote, mountainous area Tuesday morning.

The Israeli military said Romanian officials had found seven bodies near the crash site. According to protocol, the military cannot formally announce they are dead until officials from the Military Rabbinate reach the scene and confirm the identities of the bodies.

Court: Won’t extradite ex-top Bosnian

LONDON - A British judge has thwarted an attempt to force former Bosnian leader Ejup Ganic to stand trial for war crimes in Serbia, blasting Belgrade’s attempt gain his extradition as abusive and politically motivated.

Ganic’s release ends a five-month-long legal battle that reignited tensions between former Balkan foes who have been making fitful progress toward reconciliation after the end of the 1992-1995 Bosnian conflict.

Judge Timothy Workman said he believed that the extradition proceedings “are brought and are being used for political purposes, and as such amount to the abuse of process of this court.” He blocked the extradition and freed Ganic immediately.

Ganic’s son, Emir, said the family was traveling home and would be in Sarajevo, Bosnia’s capital, by today.

Serbian prosecutors said they would appeal, but it was unclear how such a move could be carried out, particularly since Ganic is leaving the country.

Ganic was alleged to have taken part in war crimes in the opening days of the bloody struggle, when Bosnia’s president had been captured and its capital was under siege. Serbian prosecutors say that Ganic, appointed acting president of Bosnia on May 2, 1992, personally commanded a series of attacks on illegal targets across the city, including an officers’ club, a military hospital and what the Serbs describe as a medical convoy making its way out of town.

2 Germans kidnapped in Darfur freed

BERLIN - Two German aid workers kidnapped five weeks ago in Sudan’s Darfur region were released without force Tuesday and are now safe and in good health, officials said.

The two German men were freed with the help of Sudanese security forces “peacefully and without any preconditions,” the governor of South Darfur state, Abdul Hameed Musa Kasha, told the official Sudan news agency.

But many questions remained, including which group seized the men and why.

The two had been working in Darfur’s south for Technisches Hilfswerk, a German state agency that does development work, when gunmen raided the agency’s office June 22 and abducted them.

Ibrahim Gambari, the joint special representative of the United Nations and the African Union in Darfur, said the two were picked up by helicopter in Kabkabiya, a town in North Darfur, before noon on Tuesday.

$1.1 billion pledged to aid Kyrgyzstan

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan - International donors pledged $1.1 billion in aid Tuesday to help Kyrgyzstan rebuild after months of political and ethnic violence.

The aid will be allotted over just 30 months - good news that is likely to boost the caretaker government working to stabilize the country before October parliamentary elections.

Aid earmarked for use this year is around $600 million and will go toward funding the public sector, helping economic recovery and building infrastructure.

Officials with donor organizations said they were confident the interim government would spend the funds properly, despite Kyrgyzstan’s having been criticized for corruption and a lack of transparency in the past.

President Roza Otunbayeva said control will be maintained over reconstruction programs, as a new constitution adopted in a July referendum had strengthened laws against corruption “and will help to destroy the schemes of grand larceny of people’s money that were devised by the previous regimes.”

Front Section, Pages 6 on 07/28/2010

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