■ Guam
Former leader indicted
Former two-term Governor Carl Gutierrez has been indicted for allegedly using US$64,000 worth of government materials and personnel to build his two-story cliffside ranch. Gutierrez and former Department of Administration Director Clifford Guzman also were indicted on charges of authorizing the use of government funds to pay for thousands of private streetlights. Gutierrez, 62, served as governor from January 1995 to January last year. He and Guzman, 50, were summoned to appear in Guam Superior Court on Jan. 29.
■ Pakistan
Constitution amended
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf yesterday approved a constitutional amendment that endorses his right to stay on as leader until 2007 and paves the way for him to seek a vote of confidence on his presidency from lawmakers, officials said. The bill, which has already been adopted by the parliament, will now become part of the country's 1973 constitution, they said. The amendment was part of a deal struck last week between the ruling coalition and the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of six Islamic parties, to end a power tussle between the government and the opposition which had deadlocked parliament for more than a year.
■ The Philippines
Police kill kidnappers
Philippine police killed four suspected kidnappers of a 2-year-old boy after a car chase yesterday, officials said. The men were killed in a brief but fierce firefight in Mabitac town in the province of Laguna, south of Manila, a day after soldiers and police rescued their captive, a businessman's 2-year-old son, said Angelo Reyes, head of an anti-kidnapping force. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who has made a crackdown on kidnappings a priority, praised the rescuers of Gian Jethro Chua, who was recovered in Laguna early on Tuesday.
■ Afghanistan
US winds up operation
US forces have wound up the largest combat operation here in more than a year, a monthlong operation involving 2,000 troops across the south and east of Afghanistan. More than 100 people were detained during the operation and 10 suspected Islamic militants killed, Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Hilferty, the US military spokesman, said on Tuesday in a statement at Bagram airbase north of Kabul. He did not mention the 15 children and three adults killed in two separate bombing raids during the operation. The two raids are under investigation and findings have not been released.
■ China
Two jailed for subversion
A Chinese court sentenced an American and a New Zealander to up to five years in jail yesterday on charges of plotting to explode balloons by remote control above Tiananmen Square and scatter pro-democracy leaflets. The Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court handed a five-year prison sentence to Chinese-born New Zealand businessman Sun Gang, 44, and a three-and-a-half-year term to Taiwan-born US national Lan Yupeng, the official Xinhua news agency said. The court ruled the men should be deported, Xinhua said, adding that they were also fined unspecified amounts on charges of inciting subversion.
■ United States
Ashcroft out of probe
US Attorney General John Ashcroft on Tuesday stepped aside from the politically charged investigation into the leak of an undercover CIA officer's name in the build-up to the Iraq war, as the Justice Department named a special prosecutor to lead the probe. Deputy Attorney General James Comey said Ashcroft decided "in an abundance of caution" to step aside from the investigation. Comey named the US attorney in Chicago, Patrick Fitzgerald, to lead the investigation into who disclosed the identity of a CIA officer whose husband had challenged President George W. Bush's claims about Iraq's weapons threat.
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