■ Russia
Rebels kill seven soldiers
Rebel attacks killed seven Russian soldiers in Chechnya and four others died when trying to defuse a land mine, officials said Wednesday. Six of the soldiers died as Russian military positions came under fire a total of 19 times over the previous 24 hours, said an official in the Kremlin-backed Chechen administration. Another was killed in clash with rebels near the village of Chiri-Yurt, at the edge of the foothills of the mountains where rebels take shelter, the official said on condition of anonymity. The official and Russian news reports said four sappers were killed when a land mine they were trying to defuse exploded in the Shatoi region deep in the mountains.
■ Guatemala
New president takes office
Landowner and businessman Oscar Berger took office as Guatemala's new president on Wednesday, ending four years of controversial rule by the party led by former dictator Efrain Rios Montt. Berger promised to create jobs and increase investment while tackling the rampant corruption that critics say characterized the rule of the outgoing Guatemalan Republican Front in the Central American nation. "We need to eliminate from public institutions any suspicion of impunity and corruption," he said at the inauguration ceremony.
■ Iraq
Troop suicides jump
The top health official in the Pentagon said there were at least 21 suicides last year among troops serving in Iraq. The official, Dr. William Winkenwerder, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said 18 of the deaths were Army soldiers. He said the rate was a slight increase over past years. "We don't see any trend there, in looking at these cases, that tells us that there's more that we might be doing -- something different that we might be doing -- to prevent what we've seen," Winkenwerder said.
■ United Kingdom
Teen told not to say `grass'
He cannot mention the green stuff which is a feature of gardens everywhere. If he does, he could face up to five years in custody. Zachary Tutin, a 14-year-old from Manchester in northern England, has been made the subject of an anti-social-behavior order which prohibits him from using the word "grass," after he repeatedly abused his neighbors, claiming that they were police informers. The order bans him from saying grass at any time in England and Wales until 2010. But grass has a number of meanings. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as: "Herbage of which the blades or leaves and stalks are eaten by cattle, sheep, horses, etc," and "low-growing plants blanketing the ground," as well as "marijuana, esp as smoked. slang (orig US)," in addition to "a police informer."
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