SOUTHEAST ASIA

U.S. WITHDRAWING FROM TSUNAMI RELIEF

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia – The American military – the largest group helping tsunami survivors – will immediately start withdrawing troops from the relief efforts to feed and house more than 1 million refugees, the American Pacific commander said yesterday.

Aid organizations responded to the announcement by Admiral Thomas Fargo by pledging to shoulder a greater share of the burden to aid tsunami survivors.

American warships and helicopters “played a crucial role … they’re still playing that role,” said the head of a health assessment team from the United Nations, the U.S. military, and other groups, Rob Holden. “What we’re trying to do…is civilianize the humanitarian operations because we’re aware that we won’t have military assets forever.” Speaking in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Admiral Fargo said the American military “will start right now transferring functions to the appropriate host nations and international organizations.”

Admiral Fargo noted that the humanitarian missions in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and other countries affected by the December 26 tsunami have moved from the “immediate relief phase … toward rehabilitation and reconstruction.”

– Associated Press

BIRD FLU CLAIMS ANOTHER LIFE IN VIETNAM

HANOI, Vietnam – Vietnam today confirmed the seventh human death from bird flu in three weeks and neighboring Thailand recorded its first case among poultry this year as health experts expressed concern about a possible repeat of last year’s devastating outbreak.

About 330,000 birds have died or been slaughtered because of the virus in Vietnam this year, and the World Health Organization is worried infection could spread rapidly with the start of the February 9 Lunar New Year holiday. Chicken is the centerpiece of Vietnamese meals during the festivities known as Tet.

“Since Tet is a time when people are traveling and more poultry is going to the market … there is, of course, a high risk of the spread of the virus and infection,” said WHO’s representative in Vietnam, Hans Troedsson. Mr. Troedsson said there is an urgent need for more research to better understand some of the mysteries surrounding the disease, including the ways in which it is transmitted and why it tends to often affect younger people, especially children.

– Associated Press

SOUTH AMERICA

NEWBORN BABY A ‘GIANT’

A woman in northeastern Brazil has given birth to what one doctor called a “giant baby,” a boy weighing 16.7 pounds. Francisca Ramos dos Santos, 38, gave birth to the healthy boy named Ademilton on Tuesday at a hospital in Salvador, 2,300 miles northeast of Sao Paulo.

He was the largest baby born at the Albert Sabin Maternity Hospital in its 12-year history, the hospital said.

“Obviously the baby was born by caesarean section,” hospital director Rita Leal said.

Ademilton “could truly be considered a giant baby, for he was born weighing what a 6-month-old-baby normally weighs,” pediatrician Luiz Sena Azul told the Correio da Bahia newspaper.

The average weight for newborns in Brazil is 7.7 pounds for boys and 6.6 pounds for girls.

– Associated Press

EASTERN EUROPE

YUSHCHENKO INAUGURATION GETS GO-AHEAD

KIEV, Ukraine – Viktor Yushchenko will be sworn in Sunday as president of Ukraine, completing his “Orange Revolution” after weeks of political turmoil in which he defeated the Kremlin-backed candidate at the polls and survived a mysterious poisoning plot.

Lawmakers yesterday hurriedly scheduled the inauguration in a decision that came hours after Mr. Yushchenko cleared the last of a series of legal obstacles that had arisen since the December 26 election, including an appeal filed in the Supreme Court by loser Viktor Yanukovich. Mr. Yanukovich, the former prime minister, had been supported by the Kremlin over Mr. Yushchenko, who aims to bring Ukraine closer to the European Union and NATO.

– Associated Press

CENTRAL ASIA

AFGHAN WARLORD SURVIVES SUICIDE ATTACK

KABUL, Afghanistan – A suicide bomber blew himself up yesterday near an Afghan warlord who helped America defeat the Taliban, injuring more than 20 people but failing to harm the apparent target, officials said. A spokesman for the hard-line militia said it carried out the attack on Abdul Rashid Dostum to avenge the killing of Taliban prisoners during the American invasion thee years ago, although police said the attack carried the hallmark of Al Qaeda.

Meanwhile, a rare statement purportedly from fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar was released yesterday for the start of the Muslim festival Eid al-Adha. It did not mention the attack on Dostum but urged Afghans to make further sacrifices against American “imperialists.”

– Associated Press