NORTH AMERICA

CANADIAN GOVERNMENT TOPPLED IN NO-CONFIDENCE VOTE

TORONTO – A corruption scandal forced a vote of no-confidence yesterday that toppled Prime Minister Martin’s minority government, triggering an election campaign during the Christmas holidays. Canada’s three opposition parties voted against Mr. Martin’s government, claiming his Liberal Party no longer has the moral authority to lead the nation. The loss means an election for all 308 seats in the lower House of Commons, likely on January 23.

– Associated Press

CENTRAL AMERICA

ZELAYA WINS HONDURAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Manuel Zelaya, an opposition candidate who promised to battle government corruption and push for life sentences for violent criminals, was declared Honduras’s president-elect yesterday. His opponent, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, however, refused to concede, with a party spokesman, Gilberto Goldstein, saying the votes had not yet been counted in full.

– Associated Press

SOUTH AMERICA

SPAIN TO SELL MILITARY PLANES, BOATS TO VENEZUELA

CARACAS, Venezuela – Spain agreed yesterday to sell 12 military planes and eight patrol boats to Venezuela in a $2 billion deal. The American ambassador to Spain, Eduardo Aguirre, said last week that Washington had concerns about the sale because the planes and boats carry American parts and technology, adding that “in the long run we hope the sale won’t go ahead.”

– Associated Press

MIDDLE EAST

FATAH CANCELS GAZA PRIMARY ELECTION AFTER VIOLENCE

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip – The ruling Fatah Party canceled its primary in Gaza at the end of a full day of voting yesterday after gunmen disrupted at least a dozen polling places, firing in the air and stealing some ballot boxes. The violence underscored Palestinian Arab leader Mahmoud Abbas’s inability to maintain order in the Gaza Strip, or even in his own party, as Fatah tries to fight off a strong challenge from the Islamic Hamas group in the January 25 parliamentary elections.

– Associated Press

SYRIA TRIES TO DISCREDIT U.N. INVESTIGATION

BEIRUT, Lebanon – Syria sought to discredit a U.N. probe into the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister yesterday, after a man who purported to be a crucial witness, Husam Taher Husam, claimed that he gave false testimony implicating Damascus. The probe’s finding that Syria must have known about – and may have been involved in – Rafik Hariri’s February 14 assassination has “completely collapsed” because of the revelation, a spokesman for the Syrian inquiry into Hariri’s murder, Ibrahim Daraji, said.

– Associated Press

SOUTH ASIA

HINDUS ARE URGED TO GO FORTH AND MULTIPLY

NEW DELHI, India – A Hindu ideologue has angered secular parties in India by urging Hindu women to have at least three children to stop Muslims outnumbering them in some areas. The leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh group, K.S. Sudarshan, has been accused of playing on sectarian divisions.

His words, condemned as “the politics of scare and silliness” by moderates, aim to strike a chord with the Hindu masses, who comprise 80% of India’s population of more than 1.1 billion. They echo popular fears that India is facing an “immigration crisis” from Muslims crossing illegally from Bangladesh.

– The Daily Telegraph

EAST ASIA

RELATIVES DEMAND ENTRY TO CHINESE MINE AFTER EXPLOSION KILLS 134

QITAIHE, China – Anxious relatives demanded to be allowed into the Dongfeng Coal Mine yesterday after an explosion killed at least 134 miners and left 15 others missing, adding to a soaring death toll in China’s mines despite a safety crackdown.

– Associated Press

WATER DECLARED SAFE IN CHINESE CITY

HARBIN, China – Water tainted by a toxic chemical spill upstream from this city was declared safe for drinking today, five days after supplies to 3.8 million people were shut down. The spill was a disaster for President Hu’s government and cast a harsh light on the environmental costs of China’s breakneck development, prompting Mr. Hu’s government to apologize to China’s public and to Russia, where a city downstream is bracing for the arrival of the 50-mile-long benzene slick.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

E.U. JUSTICE CHIEF: U.S. NEEDS TIME TO RESPOND TO REPORTS OF CIA JAILS

BERLIN – America has told the European Union it needs more time to respond to press reports that the CIA set up secret jails in some European nations and transported terror suspects by covert flights, the top E.U. justice official said yesterday. Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini also warned that that any of the 25 bloc nations found to have operated secret CIA prisons could have their E.U. voting rights suspended.

– Associated Press

E.U., ISRAEL, ARAB NATIONS AGREE ON ANTI-TERRORISM CODE OF CONDUCT

BARCELONA, Spain – Europe, Israel, and its Arab neighbors endorsed an anti-terrorism code of conduct yesterday after a two-day summit, overcoming Arab insistence on language allowing for such violence by those “under foreign occupation.” Also, divisions between Israel and Arab states over the Middle East peace process led Britain to drop its “Common Vision” campaign to more directly link E.U. aid to the Arab world to the region’s reforms. Still, participants praised the anti-terrorism code, which reiterates the “total condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and our determination to eradicate it.”

– Associated Press