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World News Quick Take

■ Pakistan
US changes country's status
The US will designate Pakistan a major non-NATO ally, a step that will make it easier for Pakistan to buy US military equipment, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday. Pakistan has for years run into difficulties in obtaining advanced weaponry and aircraft for its military from the US because of Washington's concerns about its nuclear arms programs. "We'll designate Pakistan as a major non-NATO ally for purposes of our future military-to-military relations," Powell told a news conference in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

■ Pakistan
New drive against militants
Pakistani forces launched a fresh offensive yesterday against suspected al-Qaeda fighters and their Pakistani tribesmen allies hiding out in a remote western area near the Afghan border. Earlier, army helicopters rattled overhead as authorities used loudspeakers to urge villagers out of the area where paramilitary troops and militants on Tuesday fought their bloodiest battle in Pakistan's new drive against militants. Sixteen soldiers and 24 rebels were killed in the fighting on Tuesday. The dead rebels included men believed to be foreigners loyal to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, an official said.

■ China
Web site closed down
China is targeting blogs -- diary-style personal pages for Internet users -- in its latest attempt to censor the increasing popularity of the Internet in the country, a rights group said yesterday. Two sites hosting blogs for thousands of people -- who express their views about news, themselves or anything they want -- have been shut down by the government, the Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders said. One of the blogs, "BlogBus.com," hosted more than 15,000 blogs that have now been made inaccessible, the group said in a statement. The site was shut down on March 11 for allowing a letter to be posted that was critical of the government.

■ China
Sea route to link islands
China says it plans to open a sea route linking one of its port cities to disputed East China Sea islands claimed by both the Chinese and the Taiwanese but controlled by Japan. The route will link the eastern city of Xiamen, in Fujian province, to the Diaoyu Islands. It will open at the end of March and will be a test for actual operations to begin in May, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The small, uninhabited islands are located between Japan's southern island of Okinawa and Taiwan. In 1895, Japan claimed the chain but China and Taiwan say the islands have been Chinese for centuries. The US administered them after World War II, but turned over control to Japan in 1972.

■ Venezuela
Court gives Chavez a boost
Pro-government magistrates in Venezuela's politically split Supreme Court sought on Wednesday to block a ruling by the court's Electoral Chamber that had opened the way for a possible referendum against President Hugo Chavez. Kicking off a fierce legal battle over the disputed referendum process, the court's Constitutional Chamber ordered the Electoral Chamber to halt all decisions on the recall vote that is sought by opponents of the leftist president.

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