Russian Orthodox Church disapproves of Saddam's execution.

(From BBC Monitoring International Reports)

Text of report by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS

Moscow, 31 December: Saddam Husayn's execution will not contribute to peace in the Near and Middle East and, on the contrary, may give a new thrust to the global arms race, the Russian Orthodox Church believes. "I am afraid that Saddam Husayn's fate will encourage other leaders of the same ilk to make themselves safer by possessing weapons of mass destruction," deputy head of the External Relations Department of the Moscow Patriarchate, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, said today in an interview with ITAR-TASS.

According to Chaplin, "many other people with hands …