Somali Clans Consider Backing Government

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Clan leaders in the Somali capital considered switching sides and throwing their support to government forces, which advanced to within striking distance of this beleaguered city yesterday. In Mogadishu, fighters with the opposition Islamic courts movement were seen changing out of their uniforms into civilian clothes. Yesterday, Ethiopian and Somali government troops drove Islamic fighters out of Jowhar, the last major town on the northern road to Mogadishu.

— Associated Press

Taiwan Quake Cuts Communications

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Undersea fiber-optic cables were damaged by a powerful earthquake off the southern tip of Taiwan, causing the largest outage of telephone and Internet service in years. A magnitude-6.7 tremor hit offshore, near the southern Taiwanese town of Hengchun late Tuesday. Up to a dozen fiber-optic cables cross the ocean floor south of Taiwan, carrying traffic between China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, America, and the island itself. Taiwan lost almost all of its telephone capacity to Japan and mainland China.

— Associated Press

Captured Israeli Soldier Is Alive, Egypt Says

JERUSALEM — The Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian militants last June is still alive, Egypt’s foreign minister said yesterday during a visit to Jerusalem. Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Egypt is mediating between Israel and Hamas to win the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was captured last June by militants linked to the ruling Hamas faction. Corporal Shalit has not been seen or heard from since then.

— Associated Press

Fourth Anorexia Death Transfixes Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — While millions in Brazilians have long struggled for food, these days the nation is transfixed by another sort of starvation: anorexia among the well-off. The deaths of four young women in recent weeks from anorexia — a disorder characterized by an abnormal fear of becoming fat — have been splashed across the front pages of newspapers nationwide. The most recent victim was Beatriz Cristina Ferraz Lopes Bastos, a 23-year-old teacher who died Sunday.

— Associated Press

Yukos Co-Owner Linked To Death of Spy

MOSCOW — Leonid Nevzlin, a co-owner and former deputy head of OAO Yukos Oil Company, once Russia’s largest company, may have been involved in the death last month of Alexander Litvinenko, Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office said. Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence agent, died in London last month.

— Bloomberg News