SOUTH ASIA

TWO MINE BLASTS KILL FOUR

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels exploded antipersonnel mines twice in eastern Sri Lanka yesterday, killing four people and injuring 25 others, the Defense Ministry said. Separately, three sailors and a police officer were wounded in a suspected rebel mine attack in the eastern town of Trincomalee, 140 miles northeast of Colombo, a navy spokesman, Commander D.K.P Dassanayake, said.

– Associated Press

EAST ASIA

CHINESE JOURNALIST STANDS TRIAL

FUZHOU, China – A veteran journalist stood trial yesterday for reporting a medical emergency, the final step in an unusually ferocious retaliation against a Communist Party official who gained national fame by publicly denouncing his superiors for condoning and covering up corruption. The ostensible charge in yesterday’s trial of Li Changqing, who worked as a reporter for the official Fuzhou Daily, was “fabricating and spreading false terroristic information,” by reporting on a dengue fever outbreak. But the real problem, according to Mr. Li, his family, his colleagues, and his lawyers, was his support of the whistle-blowing party secretary of suburban Lianjiang county, Huang Jingao.

– The Washington Post

CENTRAL ASIA

DUTCH GENERAL ATTACKS U.S. TACTICS IN AFGHANISTAN

Divisions within NATO over the “war on terror” burst into the open yesterday when the commander of Dutch forces launched an attack on the record of the American military in Afghanistan. General Dick Berlijn said that four years of “unnecessarily harsh” American combat operations had brought “little or no” benefit to the south of the country, other than the toppling of the Taliban. Holland’s government and parliament are locked in a debate over whether to send 1,200 Dutch troops to join a NATO mission of 6,000 troops in Afghanistan.

– The Daily Telegraph

WESTERN EUROPE

FRANCE SAID WILLING TO USE ITS NUCLEAR WEAPONS

PARIS – President Chirac gave a warning yesterday that France would use nuclear weapons against any state that carried out a terrorist attack against it. Without singling out any country, he said the French reserved the right to hit back hard at a hostile nation’s centers of power and its capacity to act.

– The Daily Telegraph

EASTERN EUROPE

SLOVAK MILITARY PLANE CRASHES

BUDAPEST, Hungary – A Slovak military plane returning from Kosovo crashed in a mountainous region of northeastern Hungary yesterday, killing at least 16 of the more than 40 people on board, officials said. At least one survivor was found at the site of the crash near the Slovak border, a spokesman for Hungary’s national disaster agency, Tibor Dobson, said. An Interior Ministry spokesman, Sandor Orodan, said the aircraft was carrying Slovak soldiers, but he did not elaborate.

– Associated Press

NORTH AMERICA

MEXICAN CANDIDATES LAUNCH CAMPAIGNS

METLATONOC, Mexico – Mexico’s top three presidential candidates kicked off the nation’s five-month presidential campaign yesterday, with leftist front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador traveling to one of the country’s poorest towns and promising to govern for the forgotten. His two main rivals, conservative Felipe Calderon and Roberto Madrazo, also focused on fighting poverty as they battle to replace President Fox, who is prohibited by law from seeking re-election.

– Associated Press

CENTRAL AFRICA

GABON’S PRESIDENT SWORN IN FOR ANOTHER TERM

LIBREVILLE, Gabon – Africa’s longest-serving leader, President Bongo of Gabon, was sworn in yesterday for another term as nearly a dozen of the continent’s current and former leaders looked on. Mr. Bongo, who has been in office for 38 years, won another seven-year term in November, getting 79% of the vote.

– Associated Press

SOUTHERN AFRICA

ARISTOCRATS WILL BE EVICTED FOR LIVING TOO CLOSE TO MUGABE

HARARE, Zimbabwe – Owners of property next to President Mugabe’s retirement mansion have received written warning that their houses will be confiscated by the state. The move represents the first time Zimbabwe’s elite, both black and white, have suffered first hand.

– The Daily Telegraph