Four Algerian militants killed: Security forces

Algiers: Security forces in Algeria said yesterday they had killed four armed Islamist militants overnight near Msila, 250km southeast of Algiers.

Acting on a tip-off, they intercepted the four men as they were driving towards Msila, said a security official. They belonged to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), said the source.

The group emerged from the Algerian fundamentalist Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat and sees itself as the north African wing of Osama bin Laden’s network.

Over the last few weeks, security sources and the press have reported the deaths of around 20 armed Islamist activists in several parts of Algeria, as well as the arrest or surrender of several others.

Human rights advocate killed in Honduras

Tegucigalpa - A human rights activist who worked on behalf of the rights of homosexuals has been killed in the nation's capital, reports said Wednesday. Walter Trochez, who worked for the human rights center Ciprodeh, was killed in the open on a street and buried on Tuesday. The background to the killing was unclear.

The National Resistance Movement that has worked against the coup that ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya said Wednesday that Trochez had been detained by police two weeks ago because he demanded the return of Zelaya to power.

New Israeli law will give transplant priority to donor cardholders

Tel Aviv - Israel is to implement a new law in January 2010 whereby people prepared to sign organ donor cards receive priority if in need of an organ transplant, The Lancet medical journal has reported. The law also allows for increased priority to be given to first- degree relatives of those who have signed donor cards, first-degree relatives of those who have died and donated organs, and to live donors of a kidney, liver lobe or lung lobe who have donated for as- yet-undesignated recipients.

Only 10 per cent of Israeli adults hold donor cards, a figure much lower than the more-than-30-per-cent average in many Western countries.

In addition, the Lancet pointed out, the consent rate for organ donation in Israel - defined as the proportion of actual donors out of the total number of medically eligible brain-dead donors - has consistently been 45 per cent during the past decade, far fewer than the 70 to 90 per cent consent rate in the West.

US applauds Brazil court decision on child's release

Washington - The United States Wednesday welcomed the decision by a Brazilian appeals court to return a young American boy to his father in the United States, a years-old case that has garnered frequent headlines. The child in question is Sean Goldman, 8, who was taken by his Brazilian mother to Brazil about five years ago. She divorced her American husband, David Goldman, while in Brazil, remarried there and then died during the birth of a second child, leaving the child with his stepfather in Brazil.

David Goldman has been trying since then to regain custody, but the Brazilian courts have consistently decided for the stepfather.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she was "pleased" to hear that the Brazilian Appellate Court in Rio de Janeiro had upheld a lower court decision that Sean should be reunited with his father, David, in New Jersey.

"We appreciate the assistance and cooperation of the government of Brazil in upholding its obligations under the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction," Clinton said in a statement. "It is my hope that this long legal process is now complete and that the Goldman family will be reunited quickly. "

US President Barack Obama in March was to have pressed Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva about the boy's release, and the US House of Representatives has passed a resolution unanimously calling on Brazilian authorities to return Sean to his native country.

Colombian military says 11 rebels were killed

Bogota - The Colombian military Wednesday said it had killed 11 rebels, including a top commander, in an air attack in northwestern Colombia. The Government Secretary of the province Antioquia, Andres Rendon, identified the dead leader as Ruben Garcia, alias Danilo, a commander in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

There was no confirmation from independent sources.

President Alvaro Uribe, who is in Copenhagen at the climate change summit, congratulated the police and military for "the killing of 11 FARC rebels."

FARC, the largest and oldest rebel group of the South American country, have been fighting against the state for 45 years with no end in sight.

Nepal Maoists agree to release thousands of child soldiers

Kathmandu - Nepal's former Maoist rebels on Wednesday agreed to release nearly 3,000 former child soldiers who have been living in United Nations camps for the past three years. The release of minors is a key component of the peace accord signed between the government and the Maoist rebels just over three years ago.

"This is a historic step in Nepal's peace process," said Karen Landgren, chief of the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN). "We hope that it will encourage other steps to unblock the current political stalemate."

The minors will be released starting on December 27. The process will be completed over 40 days, said Radhika Coomaraswamy, the special representative of the UN secretary general for children and armed conflict.

"Today, the minors who have spent the last three years in Maoist army cantonment with their lives on hold will finally be able to take the next step towards a more positive future," Coomaraswamy said.

Once released, the children will be able to choose between various training programs supported by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). They include general education, vocational or business training.

The UN will also monitor the children to make sure they do not return to violence or are recruited by other groups.

The peace process between between the Maoists and other political parties had been at an impasse during the past six months.

Another 1,000 Maoist combatants remain in the camps.

"I believe the agreement will open the door for all Maoist combatants to leave the Maoist camps," said peace minister Rakam Chemjong.

Nearly 14,000 people died in Nepal's communist insurgency which formally ended in November 2006.

Moldovan leader orders removal of barbed wire at Romanian border

Chisinau - Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat on Wednesday ordered barbed wire removed from the former Soviet republic's border with Romania, the Infotag news agency reported. "It is a shame to maintain barbed wire up against a friendly nation in the 21st century, when borders of all Europe should be transparent and people move freely," Filat said.

The Moldovan prime minister, a senior member of Moldova's newly installed pro-Europe ruling coalition, made the remarks at a ceremony in the capital Chisinau while formally appointing a new commander of Moldova's border troops.

Moldova's border troops command should have a plan for dismounting and carrying away all barbed wire stretching along a 450-kilometer common border with Romania "by the end of the week," Filat said.

Moldovan voters in July parliamentary elections gave a narrow majority to a four-party alliance of pro-Europe parties.

Leaders of the alliance, called "The Coalition for European Integration," have pushed for rapid Moldovan integration into EU economies and better relations with Moldova's western neighbors, particularly Romania.

Relations between Chisinau and Bucharest were strained during Communist control of Moldova's government from 2000 until the middle of this year. Moldova's Communist Party, now in the opposition, supports close Moldovan relations with Russia, Moldova's largest trading partner.