World briefs 7A

PLO treasurer accuses Arafat of corruption

JERUSALEM-- A former treasurer of the Palestine Liberation Organization, who fled to London last week, accused Yasser Arafat of transferring millions of dollars of international donations into a personal account, according to interviews published Sunday in Israeli newspapers.

The ex-treasurer, Jawad Ghussein, 71, alleged that Arafat moved up to $8 million to his personal account every month and was aware of the widespread corruption, the newspaper accounts said.

In interviews from London, Ghussein spoke to Haaretz and Yediot Ahronot, two leading Israeli dailies. Ghussein claimed he had documents to support his claims, though none were cited in the newspaper articles. The reports did not say over what years the alleged transfers took place.

Bus crashes take lives in Turkey, Russia, Nigeria

ANKARA, Turkey -- A series of bus crashes -- two caused by faulty brakes -- left 82 people dead and dozens of others injured in Turkey, Russia and Nigeria, officials and media said Sunday.

In Turkey, a bus carrying pilgrims returning from a religious festival went off a highway and overturned Sunday, killing 29 passengers, officials said. The crash sparked a chain-reaction collision that injured at least 30 other people.

In Nigeria, a bus carrying college students collided with a car, killing 30 people and triggering a multi-vehicle pileup on a highway near the city of Ibadan in southwest Nigeria, Radio Nigeria reported Sunday. About a dozen vehicles slammed into each other after a car lost control on Saturday, Radio Nigeria reported.

In central Russia, a bus packed with passengers careered off a road and into a deep ditch Sunday, killing 23 people and injuring 36 others, officials said. Four of the injured were in serious condition, officials said.

Threat of invasion won't get Iraq to cooperate

LONDON -- Threats of invasion will not persuade Saddam Hussein to allow weapons inspectors to return to Iraq, the head of the United Nations' monitoring team said on Sunday.

Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said his team was eager to contribute to a "non-belligerent solution" to the current standoff but added that could be difficult if Saddam thought a military strike was inevitable.

"If the Iraqis conclude that an invasion by someone is inevitable then they might conclude that it is not very meaningful to have inspections," he told the British Broadcasting Corp.

Extremists planned to blow up six churches

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The head of a gang of pro-al-Qaida Islamic militants claimed responsibility for two recent deadly attacks on Christian churches and said the group had planned to blow up at least six churches, high-ranking officials said Sunday.

Saifu-ur-Rehman, alleged leader of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi movement, told investigators that the group was planning to blow up at least six churches in cities throughout Pakistan's eastern Punjab province.

Authorities say the attacks have been aimed at Westerners and Christians by militants opposed to the Pakistan government's support of the U.S.-backed war in neighboring Afghanistan.

Floods kill 24 in India; death toll rises to 935

PATNA, India -- Deadly snakes slithered in floodwaters as 24 people in eastern India died from bites, drowning or being crushed by crumbling houses as rain and raging floods wreaked havoc in South Asia, officials said Sunday.

The latest deaths in India's Bihar state mean 935 people in Bangladesh, India and Nepal have died since the monsoon season began in June. About 23 million people in the neighboring nations have been displaced.

In China, the death toll from summer storms approached 1,000 as torrential rains trigger landslides and floods, particularly in the central and southern provinces.

The India deaths, which occurred over the past three days in far-flung areas, raise the toll in Bihar to 300.

-- From wire reports