CENTRAL ASIA

U.S. COMMANDER: BIN LADEN MAY BE IN AFGHANISTAN

KABUL, Afghanistan – Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders could be hiding in eastern Afghanistan, the commander of American forces along a key stretch of the Pakistani border said yesterday.

Colonel Gary Cheek, who controls American forces in 16 Afghan provinces, also said Taliban leaders appear to be losing control of a stubborn insurgency, three years after their ouster for harboring the Al Qaeda leader.

Forces loyal to Taliban commanders such as Jalaluddin Haqqani and to renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar still attack American forces near the mountainous Pakistani frontier, and Colonel Cheek said the rebel leaders could also be present in his area of responsibility.

“Leaders like Hekmatyar, Haqqani, bin Laden could possibly be in our region, but any information we have on them would be very close-hold for operational reasons,” Colonel Cheek said via e-mail. American officials insist there is no let-up in the hunt for the Al Qaeda leader, who is believed to have escaped Afghan and American forces near the Tora Bora cave complex in eastern Afghanistan in late 2001.

– Associated Press

EASTERN EUROPE

YUSHCHENKO DECLARED WINNER OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

KIEV, Ukraine – Ukraine’s Election Commission late yesterday declared Western-leaning reformer Viktor Yushchenko the winner of the presidential election over Kremlin-favored Viktor Yanukovich, whose camp immediately vowed to appeal the results to the Supreme Court.

The commission announced that the final official tally of the December 26 vote -which was a rerun of the November 21 election that was annulled because of fraud – showed Mr. Yushchenko with 51.99% of the votes and Mr. Yanukovich with 44.2%. Mr. Yanukovich, who stepped down as prime minister last week, had been declared the winner of the November 21 election, and he has vowed to use all possible legal avenues to overturn the revote.

The Supreme Court earlier yesterday rejected eight complaints by Mr. Yanukovich’s campaign. But his representative on the elections commission, Nestor Shufrich, said after the commission’s announcement: “We will appeal to the Supreme Court tomorrow for sure.”

The commission’s statement yesterday must be accepted by the high court and published in two official newspapers before Mr. Yushchenko can be inaugurated. That could leave Mr. Yanukovich’s camp a window for filing more legal actions. Ivan Kruchok, the deputy head of the printing house for both newspapers, said “the decree will not be published tonight, and we did not receive its text.”

– Associated Press

MIDDLE EAST

PARLIAMENT APPROVES SHARON’S PRO-PULLOUT GOVERNMENT

Prime Minister Sharon’s new government took office yesterday after a close parliamentary vote, providing a Cabinet majority in favor of his plan to remove all 21 settlements from the Gaza Strip and four from the West Bank. At the end of a 3 1/2-hour debate, parliament narrowly approved the new coalition by a 58-56 vote, with six abstentions. After the vote, new ministers took their oaths and the government assumed power. However, Mr. Sharon had to depend on the support of dovish opposition members, because some of his own Likud Party representatives withheld their backing because they reject the pullout plan. Mr. Sharon lost his parliamentary majority last summer when pro-settler parties left his government over the plan to evacuate all 21 Jewish settlements from Gaza and four from the West Bank.

The new government, with 66 of the 120 seats in Parliament, includes the dovish Labor Party, with its leader, Shimon Peres, as Mr. Sharon’s second vice premier, alongside Ehud Olmert of Mr. Sharon’s Likud Party. The other new member is United Torah Judaism, a small ultra-Orthodox faction.

To bring down the government, the opposition must muster 61 votes of the 120 members of Parliament. With a pledge by Yahad, a dovish party with six seats, to prop up the government as long as it works toward pulling out of Gaza, Mr. Sharon’s new team appears solidly in power. Yahad veteran Yossi Sarid referred to Mr. Sharon’s own admonition to new Palestinian Arab leader Mahmoud Abbas, saying: “You will be judged by your actions, just as you say about the Palestinians.”

– Associated Press

CARIBBEAN

CUBA RE-ESTABLISHES FORMAL TIES WITH EUROPE

HAVANA – Cuba said yesterday it was resuming formal ties with all of Europe, ending a deep freeze in relations following a 2003 crackdown on dissidents and the firing-squad executions of three men who tried to hijack a ferry. The foreign minister, Felipe Perez Roque, told journalists that official contacts had resumed with the Havana-based ambassadors of the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, and the Netherlands, as well as with the European Union mission.

“Cuba has re-established official contacts now with all of the E.U. countries,” Mr. Perez Roque said. Although diplomatic ties with the European countries were never severed, high-level contacts between Cuba and many E.U. members were limited for more than 1 1/2 years. Last week, Cuba re-established contacts with eight other European nations: France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Austria, Greece, Portugal, and Sweden. Cuba earlier had resumed formal contact with Spain, Belgium, and Hungary.

– Associated Press