World digest 8/4/03

Saudi man to meet with U.S. on Sept. 11 links

CAIRO, Egypt -- A Saudi man wanted for questioning by U.S. officials about his links to two Sept. 11 hijackers said Sunday he is ready to talk, but only in his homeland and in the presence of officials from his government.

In his first interview since his name was raised in a U.S. congressional report that questioned Saudi Arabia's commitment to the war on terror, Omar al-Bayoumi told Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television Sunday that he had done nothing wrong.

"I am ready to sit with American investigators, whether from the FBI or the CIA, in the presence of Saudi investigators and on Saudi land," he said.

The Saudi government said last week it had authorized FBI and CIA agents in Saudi Arabia to question al-Bayoumi after the congressional report recounted findings that he befriended and helped two of the hijackers, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, who helped crash an airliner into the Pentagon.

In the interview, al-Bayoumi said claims that he aided the two shortly after they arrived in the United States were "pure fabrication."

Search for Russian explosion victims halted

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia -- Rescuers combing the remains of a military hospital shattered by a truck bomb called off their search for victims Sunday, while relatives held funerals for some of the 50 people killed in the latest in a series of suicide attacks. Two people who sold the truck were detained as suspects, a Russian official said.

Overnight, rescuers with sniffer dogs pulled the body of a surgical nurse and at least four others from the rubble of the four-story brick building, bringing the death toll to 50 before the search was called off, said Lt. Col. Yuri Miroshnichenko, spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry in southern Russia. Sixty-four victims remained hospitalized, he said.

A truck packed with explosives crashed through the hospital gates Friday night. Authorities have said they believe one suicide attacker was in the Kamaz truck, which they said had been bought and sold several times in recent weeks.

Three buildings collapse, killing 14 in India

SURAT, India -- Three buildings in western India collapsed when a cooking gas cylinder exploded Sunday, killing at least 14 people and injuring 39, police said.

Many more people were trapped in the debris, and fire fighters, police and volunteers were helping in the rescue operations in the city of Surat in Gujarat state, police said.

"So far, we have taken out the bodies of 14 people. At least 39 others have been admitted to hospitals in the city, but we fear that around 70 others are still trapped inside the fallen buildings," V.K. Gupta, Surat's commissioner of police said.

Police said the blast brought down the three-story buildings, which were standing close together. Rescuers were using sniffer dogs to locate people trapped beneath concrete slabs and mounds of debris. Cranes were brought to the site to lift the slabs.

-- From wire reports