SOUTHEAST ASIA

THAI LEADER CLAIMS RE-ELECTION VICTORY

BANGKOK, Thailand – Prime Minister Thaksin claimed victory in yesterday’s elections in what appeared to be a massive mandate for a second term, propelled by strong support from Thailand’s rural poor and his adroit handling of the tsunami disaster. With more than half the votes counted, the Election Commission projected Mr. Thaksin’s Thai Rak Thai party had captured 374 of 500 parliamentary seats, while the rival Democrat party managed 91. Official results were not expected until later in the week.

“The numbers are more than enough to establish a one-party government,” Mr. Thaksin declared yesterday after it became clear that he had won an unprecedented second term. He said today that he hopes to form a new government by early March. The Democrat party all but conceded defeat before balloting began, but had hoped to gain enough votes with its potential allies to mount censure motions and stop amendments to the 1997 constitution, the fruit of decades of sometimes bloody struggle against dictatorial regimes. Wassana Permlab, chief of the Election Commission, said more than 70% of the 44.8 million eligible voters cast ballots, surpassing the 69% in the 2001 election. Voting is mandatory in Thailand.

– Associated Press

WEST AFRICA

TOGO ENDORSES INSTALLATION OF LATE PRESIDENT’S SON AS LEADER

Togo’s Parliament hastily amended the constitution yesterday to put a legal veneer on the military’s appointment of 39-year-old Faure Gnassingbe to replace his deceased father as president, voiding the need for new elections until 2008.The military, within hours of the announcement of Gnassingbe Eyadema’s death on Saturday, named his son president, contravening the country’s constitution which called for the speaker of Parliament to succeed the head of state until elections could be held in 60 days. The extraordinary session of the 81-member national assembly, dominated by Eyadema’s ruling Togo People’s Rally party, overwhelmingly approved Mr. Gnassingbe as speaker of Parliament by a vote of 67 to 14. It then passed a constitutional amendment letting him fulfill his father’s term, which expires in 2008.

– Associated Press

CENTRAL ASIA

NATO, POLICE FAIL TO REACH WRECKAGE OF AFGHAN AIRLINER

Thick cloud cover and deep snow kept NATO helicopters, police, and even a seasoned local hunter from reaching the wreckage of an Afghan commercial airliner yesterday, three days after it hit a mountain, killing all 104 people on board. Two of the passengers were identified as employees of an American engineering firm rebuilding a key Afghan highway, another as an Afghan general. Fog, freezing temperatures, and up to 8 feet of snow thwarted efforts to reach the crash site of the Kam Air Boeing 737-200, which was found Saturday about 20 miles east of Kabul. The American Embassy in Kabul said there was no hope for the 96 passengers and eight crew – victims of Afghanistan’s deadliest air disaster. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said in a statement that “104 people perished in this crash, among them fellow American citizens who were helping to build a better Afghanistan.”

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

18 KILLED AT SPANISH HOSTEL BY GAS LEAK

TODOLELLA, Spain – Eighteen people gathered in a mountain hostel in eastern Spain for a birthday party died in their sleep from an apparent gas leak, officials said yesterday. The victims – ages 20 to 40 – were part of a larger group of about 50 people who had converged on the hostel for the party Saturday night. Most went home. But some decided to stay and slept in one of several large rooms at the hostel. To keep themselves warm at night, they turned on a butane gas heater in the room, according to Valencia regional emergency workers. An apparent gas leak, or bad combustion from the heater, killed the revelers.

– Associated Press