BERLIN – German authorities hope to expel two suspects in the 9/11 attacks to Morocco next year if they are not convicted in Germany, a local official told the Monday issue of newsweekly Focus. The interior senator of the northern city of Hamburg, Udo Nagel, said Moroccan students Mounir Al Motassadeq and Abdel Ghani Mzoudi were still active in the Islamic extremist scene and should be deported in 2005. Both men have lived in Germany since the mid-1990s on student visas and were well-acquainted with the three suicide hijackers who were based in Hamburg, including presumed ringleader Muhammad Atta. PUTIN FIRES NORTH OSSETIA OFFICIALS

MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin sacked the interior minister of North Ossetia and the regional head of the FSB security service on September 11, one week after the Beslan hostage crisis, in which 339 hostages and 31 hostage-takers were killed. North Ossetians have demonstrated in Beslan, calling for President Alexander Dzasokhov to be dismissed because he refused to negotiate with the hostage-takers after they demanded that he step in. ILLEGAL GROUPS ELIGIBLE FOR CHECHEN BOUNTY

MOSCOW – Russia is prepared to work with members of armed groups in its search for Chechen rebel leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov, accused by Moscow of masterminding the school hostage siege in Beslan, the Interfax news agency reported on September 11. A spokesman for the FSB security service said “members of illegal armed groups” would be able to qualify for the $10 million reward Russia has placed on the heads of Basayev and Maskhadov. KUWAIT IDENTIFIES REMAINS OF 13 POWS

KUWAIT CITY – The remains of 12 Kuwaitis and a Saudi taken prisoner by Iraq during its 1990 to 1991 occupation of Kuwait have been identified, an official announced on Sunday. Fayez Al Enezi, who heads the team searching for POWs in Iraq, said the remains of the prisoners, who were civil servants, military personnel, and students, were found in mass graves and identified through DNA testing. The team has been searching for remains in Iraq since April 2003. Enezi said that 190 had so far been identified. KIDNAPPED TURKISH REPORTER RELEASED

ANKARA – A Turkish reporter abducted in Iraq has been released by her kidnappers, Anatolia news agency reported on September 11. Zeynep Tugrul, who works for the mass-circulation Sabah daily, was handed over to a politician from the Turkish-speaking Turkmen minority in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the report said. It was not clear who had abducted Tugrul and for what reason. IRANIAN HELD IN GUANTANAMO SENT HOME

TEHRAN – An Iranian captured by the US in Afghanistan in 2002 and sent to the Guantanamo detention center in Cuba before being sent back to Afghanistan was repatriated on Tuesday. Bakhtiar Bameri had been accused of fighting alongside Afghanistan’s Taliban militia, but claimed he was only there to buy stereo parts. The 25-year-old was described as being in poor health and was accompanied by a representative of the Red Cross and a doctor. COURT APPROVES HOLDING JEWISH WOMAN OVER ATTACKS

JERUSALEM – A court in Tel Aviv has upheld a decision to place a young Israeli woman in administrative detention on suspicion of involvement in Palestinian attacks. The ruling came in response to an appeal by Tali Fahima’s lawyer. Justice Uri Goren wrote that having examined confidential material on the case, he believed Fahima was “determined to carry out attacks against Israeli targets and to get hold of weapons from Palestinian terror activists.” Fahima is a close friend of Zakaria Zubeidi, who, as leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank town of Jenin, is one of the most wanted of all Palestinian militants. MADONNA MAKES SPIRITUAL RETREAT TO ISRAEL

JERUSALEM – The pop singer Madonna arrived in Israel on Wednesday for a three-day retreat to mark the Jewish New Year. The former Catholic pop singer is a keen follower of the ancient Jewish mystical tradition known as Kabala, recently taking the Jewish name of Esther. Jewish reporters were allowed to attend a blessing ceremony at a synagogue set up inside her Tel Aviv hotel, but they were told to dress in white and not write or take photographs on the site, in observance of the taboo against working on the holy day.

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PRAGUE – A man suspected of carrying out a grenade attack in August that injured 18 people in central Prague has been arrested in Israel, Czech police chief Jiri Kolar announced on Tuesday. The unidentified 27-year-old immigrant from the former Soviet Union is suspected of throwing a grenade under a parked car near a casino on Prague’s main road, injuring several tourists. The attack is thought to have been part of an overseas Israeli gang war. The targeted casino belonged at the time to an Israeli, Assi Abutbul. His father Felix was killed nearby on August 11, 2002, by a hit man on a bicycle who was never identified.