MIDDLE EAST

JORDAN MOUNTS POLITICAL, SECURITY SHAKE-UP

AMMAN, Jordan – Jordan named Major General Mohammed al-Thahabi, to replace the country’s top intelligence operative, General Samih Asfoura, and approved a new Cabinet yesterday. The new Cabinet, called for by King Abdullah II following the November 9 attacks that killed 60 people in Amman, won a parliamentary vote of confidence. Prime Minister al-Bakhit and his 23 ministers received 86 votes of support from the 110-member parliament. Twenty voted against it, one lawmaker abstained and three were absent.

– Associated Press

SHARON RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL AFTER STROKE

JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Sharon left the hospital yesterday, saying he is in a hurry and fit enough to get back to work after suffering a mild stroke. His illness raised questions about his ability to lead his new party, Kadima, into March elections, and then lead the country if elected to a third term. Yesterday, the prime minister shrugged off those concerns. “Now I have to rush back to work,” he told reporters as he left Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital.

– Associated Press

1985 TWA HIJACKER RETURNS TO LEBANON A FREE MAN

BEIRUT, Lebanon – A hijacker in a terrorist act that riveted America – the 1985 seizure of a TWA jet in which an American Navy diver was killed – has returned home to Lebanon, paroled by Germany after serving 19 years of a life sentence. America said yesterday it wants Lebanon to turn over Mohammed Ali Hamadi for trial in the killing of the diver, Robert Dean Stethem.

“We have demonstrated over the years that when we believe an individual is responsible for the murder of innocent American civilians, that we will track them down and that we will bring them to justice in the United States,” a State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said. He said America is talking with the Lebanese government about Mr. Hamadi, but America does not have an extradition treaty with Lebanon.

– Associated Press

EASTERN EUROPE

RUSSIAN CITY BRACES FOR HEATING, WATER CUTOFF AS TOXIC SLICK NEARS

KHABAROVSK, Russia – Residents of this Far East city stocked up on water yesterday in the hours before the arrival of a toxic slick of chemicals that could force authorities to shut off water and central heating in subzero temperatures. With the chemicals that spilled last month from a factory explosion upriver in China expected to reach Khabarovsk by today, the regional governor, Viktor Ishaev, said hot water supplies might have to be suspended for as long as seven days and cold water for three days.

– Associated Press

CENTRAL AFRICA

CONGO ‘RE-EVALUATING’ DAMAGES OWED BY UGANDA

KINSHASA, Congo – Congo once estimated it was owed $10 billion by Uganda for an invasion in the 1990s, but it said yesterday it is reassessing the figure now that the world court has ruled the incursion unlawful and for the first time ordered an African country to pay reparations.

Information Minister Henri Mova-Sakanyi said yesterday that before Monday’s ruling by the International Court of Justice, Congo had estimated damages from Uganda’s invasion at $10 billion. “We are re-evaluating the damages,” he said, adding he had no idea whether Congo would in the end ask for more or less. He said the re-evaluation was standard procedure before making a formal request in The Hague.

– Associated Press

SOUTH AMERICA

MORALES PLEDGES TO CONTROL COCA PRODUCTION

LA PAZ, Bolivia – Bolivia’s soon-to-be president, Evo Morales, a coca farmer under pressure to crack down on cocaine, pledged yesterday to keep controls on coca but said he will study expanding the area where it can be legally grown. Mr. Morales also called on America to work with him to develop better ways of ending drug trafficking while preserving the traditional market for coca in his Andean nation, where people have chewed the plant to stave off hunger and used it as a medicine for thousands of years.

– Associated Press