MIDDLE EAST

SHARON TO TRANSFER POWER TO DEPUTY DURING HEART PROCEDURE

JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Sharon will hand over power to his deputy, Vice Premier Ehud Olmert, during a heart procedure this week, his office said yesterday, the first time an Israeli leader has agreed to give up his authority because of illness. Mr. Sharon’s office played down concerns about the 77-year-old leader’s health, saying the procedure to close a small hole in his heart, including a period when he will be under general anesthesia, will last only three hours. However, officials canceled Sunday’s weekly Cabinet meeting to give Mr. Sharon an extra day to recover.

– Associated Press

PALESTINIAN CAMPAIGN BEGINS; HAMAS: VOTE MUST BE HELD ON SCHEDULE

JERUSALEM – Palestinian Arab candidates held a parade led by an actor in a Mickey Mouse costume, sang about the return of Islam, and plastered the streets of the West Bank and Gaza with political posters as they kicked off their election campaign yesterday.

Leaders of the Islamic terrorist group Hamas insisted the parliamentary vote must take place January 25 despite an Israeli ban on voting in Jerusalem, shooting down Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’s suggestion that it be delayed. “Postponing the election will lead to a vacuum and to a dark future,” the top Hamas candidate, Ismail Haniyeh, told reporters in Gaza.

– Associated Press

SYRIAN OFFICIAL CONFIRMS RECEIVING U.N. REQUEST TO INTERVIEW ASSAD

DAMASCUS, Syria – Syria confirmed yesterday it had received a U.N. investigative panel’s request to interview President al-Assad and his foreign minister about the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri.

A Syrian official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation, said the Foreign Ministry on Sunday received the request to interview Mr.al-Assad and Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa. The official would not say how Damascus planned to respond.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

FOUR MISSING IN RINK; WORK HALTED FOR FEAR OF ANOTHER COLLAPSE

BAD REICHENHALL, Germany – Rescuers halted the search yesterday for four people buried under a fallen skating rink roof, as fears of another collapse forced officials to call in a special heavy crane to lift massive crossbeams from the wreckage.

With two loud cracks, the roof caved in Monday after a heavy snowfall with about 50 people inside, including many children. Eleven people were confirmed dead, including six children, and police said four more – a 40-year-old woman and two boys and a girl – were still under the rubble in the Alpine spa town of Bad Reichenhall.

Officials said they hadn’t given up hope, but the delay would mean a second straight night in freezing temperatures for anyone still left alive. Several hundred people gathered for a candlelight vigil for the dead and the missing at the town hall, and churches rang their bells for 20 minutes.

– Associated Press

SOUTH AMERICA

BOLIVIAN PRESIDENT-ELECT PRAISES CASTRO AND CHAVEZ

CARACAS, Venezuela – Bolivia’s president-elect, Evo Morales, fresh from a visit with Fidel Castro, launched a world tour yesterday by joining with Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez in a denunciation of free-market economics – a sign of the growing relationship among the three leftist leaders. The tour includes stops in Spain, France, Belgium, South Africa, China, and Brazil – but not Washington. Mr. Morales’s spokesman says he was not invited.

Arriving in Caracas aboard a specially arranged Cuban jetliner, Mr. Morales said he and Mr. Chavez were uniting in a “fight against neoliberalism and imperialism.”

– Associated Press

NORTH AMERICA

MEXICO OPENS INVESTIGATION INTO U.S. SHOOTING OF YOUNG MIGRANT

MEXICO CITY – Mexico took the unusual step of opening an investigation into the killing of a man officials said was shot while sneaking into California, using the death to again draw attention to a contentious American anti-immigration measure. The death of 18-year-old Guillermo Martinez came as Mexico’s government continued its vocal campaign against the bill approved by the House of Representatives last month.

– Associated Press