■ China
Some construction OK'd
China has approved the resumption of 26 out of the 30 large construction projects that were suspended a month ago for failing to get environmental approval before they started. The State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) said the 26 projects have passed environmental impact assessments, but four projects remain suspended until impact reports have been approved. The four projects are the five-billion-dollar Xiluodu hydropower plant on the Yangtze River, two power plants at the Three Gorges project and another power plant in Inner Mongolia. SEPA ordered a halt to 30 large-scale construction projects nationwide on Jan. 18 for failing to file environmental impact statements.
■ South Korea
North warns the South
North Korea yesterday accused South Korean ships of violating its territorial waters and raising tensions on the divided peninsula. The communist North has repeatedly issued warnings over the disputed sea border, drawn by the UN at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. South Korean officials dismissed the North's allegations, calling them propaganda. No peace treaty was signed at the end of the conflict, leaving the two Koreas still technically at war.
■ India
Snow traps travelers
Some 4,000 travelers were trapped Saturday along a stretch of mountainous highway in Kashmir, as heavy snowfall blocked roads, breaking power lines and halting phone services across much of the Himalayan region. "A state of high alert has been declared," Jammu-Kashmir's Finance Minister Muzaffar Baig said the government feared shortages of basic supplies such as fuel and food because the blocked highway is the only route to bring goods into the valley. Ten highway workers trying to clear a road were hit by an avalanche of snow, but six were rescued so far. Travelers trapped on a road south of the city of Srinagar have taken shelter in villages and government offices.
■ Australia
Prince Charles plans visit
Australian taxpayers shouldn't be expected to foot the bill when Britain's Prince Charles visits next month, the opposition Labor Party's John Faulkner said. "Most people wouldn't invite themselves over for dinner and then expect their host to pay for the cab fare," Faulkner said. "Prince Charles has invited himself to Australia for a visit, and Australian taxpayers will pick up the bill," he said. The Queen is Australia's head of state, a position Charles would occupy were he to accede to the throne. Prime Minister John Howard said it was normal for the host country to meet the cost of an official visit. "We regard this sort of thing as an ill-mannered cheap shot," he said.
■ Hong Kong
Containers pirated
Thieves have stolen seven fully-laden shipping containers from a Hong Kong barge. The 6-meter containers were lifted off the vessel on Saturday night while it was moored in the city's terminal. Five men boarded the barge from their own vessel and overpowered the lone man keeping watch, aged 53, who was tied, gagged and hidden in a cabin while the robbers unloaded the containers. He was freed uninjured an hour later. Police said the containers held consignments of lighting accessories. Hong Kong's port is the busiest in the world. Insurance experts say containers are stolen for their scrap value.
■ Israel
Cabinet to vote on Gaza
Israel's Cabinet met yesterday in a pivotal session expected to give the go-ahead to evacuate Jewish settlers from occupied Gaza and for the first time remove settlements from land where Palestinians want a state. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to evacuate settlers starting in July has been called a possible step towards peace by both Israelis and Palestinians, buoyed by optimism after a Feb. 8 truce agreement.
■ United Kingdom
Four arrested for hunting
Police arrested four people and dozens of foxes were killed as hunters took to the muddy fields of England and Wales to test the limits of the government's ban on hunting with dogs. The pro-hunting Countryside Alliance said 91 foxes were killed in hunts around the country on Saturday, most of them shot -- which is legal -- or caught by hounds accidentally. Police in Wiltshire, western England, said they arrested four men whom officers found at 4am with four dogs and the carcass of a hare. The suspects, whose names were not released, were apprehended under the new law and then freed on bail.
■ Germany
Pope's remarks denounced
A German Jewish leader criticized the pope on Saturday for making an "unacceptable comparison" between abortion and the Nazi Holocaust in his new book. Paul Spiegel, the head of Germany's Central Council of Jews, told the Netzeitung daily that Pope John Paul II's comparison reflects similar "unacceptable" statements made by a Roman Catholic Cardinal Joachim Meisner in Cologne. In January, Meisner compared the Holocaust to the "millions of unborn children being murdered in our day" in a sermon. Such statements show that the Roman Catholic Church "has not understood or does not want to understand that there is a tremendous difference between factory-like genocide and what women do to their bodies," Spiegel told the daily.
■ Russia
`Special gas' ends stand-off
Russian special forces yesterday launched an assault on a building in the Caucasus, killing suspected Islamic rebels with poison gas, Russian news agencies reported. The situation was confused yesterday several hours after special forces opened up with automatic fire on the first storey of the house in Nalchik, capital of the Kabardino-Balkaria republic, which borders war-torn Chechnya. According to Ria Novosti, the forces used a "special gas" and continued to fire at the building to distract the men holed up inside. They were waiting for the gas to disperse before inspecting the whole building, Interfax said.
■ Saudi Arabia
Women `heard' at meeting
Saudi women are being heard, but not seen, at the 6th Jeddah Economic Forum, one year after triggering a storm of conservative protests for taking center stage at the prestigious gathering. In keynote speeches at the forum's opening Saturday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz dwelled on the expanding economic role of women in their conservative countries, fielding questions from the female-designated area. Male participants could hear questions from women who sat behind a mirror-blind, segregating the sexes in compliance with the strict form of Sunni Islam applied in Saudi Arabia.
■ Brazil
Nun killer turns himself in
A man wanted in the killing of an American nun who tried to protect the Amazon rain forest and its poor residents from loggers and ranchers has surrendered to police, authorities said. Amair Freijoli da Cunha, known as Tato, was taken into custody Saturday after turning himself in to police in Altamira, a city about 130km from where 73-year-old Dorothy Stang was shot dead a week earlier, police said. Two purported gunmen and a rancher accused of ordering the slaying remained on the loose, police investigator Ana Indira Vaz said. Arrest warrants for Cunha and the three other suspects had been issued Monday.
■ Venezuela
`Bishop' nabbed with coke
A 67-year-old Spaniard disguised as a Roman Catholic bishop was arrested in a Venezuelan airport with nearly 9kg of cocaine under his cassock, authorities said on Saturday. Angel Velasco Padilla was arrested this week at Maiquetia international airport near the capital Caracas as he tried to board a flight to Spain. The suspect was carrying 7.9kg of cocaine in his belt plus 12 drug packets in his underwear, police said. Velasco told authorities he was a member of a Dutch archdiocese and had been in Venezuela for a week to attend a meeting.
■ United Kingdom
Briton involved in Iraq abuse
An official was involved in drafting the rules that allowed extreme interrogation methods to be used at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib detention center -- the heart of the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, a newspaper reported yesterday. The government has been forced to retract claims that no British military officer had seen or been involved with the document permitting prison guards to use such techniques as dogs, sleep deprivation and stress positions in breach of the Geneva Conventions, The Observer said.
■ Panama
Blacks reenact slave escape
Panamanian blacks descended from escaped African slaves re-enacted on Saturday the winning of their freedom in a pageant considered vital to preserving the identity of the tiny, impoverished community. In a medieval fort in Portobelo on Panama's Caribbean coast, the 1,000 "Congo" blacks, known as Congos, told the story of their ancestors' escape from slave masters 450 years ago. Men dressed as gaudy devils wielding whips and representing Spanish colonial masters entered the San Geronimo fort attempting to carry away beautiful women, or queens, who represent the enslaved Africans. Congos in jeans worn inside out fought back to the accompaniment of hypnotic drums until the devils were captured and baptized, symbolizing victory over Spanish slave owners.
■ Mexico
Bodies of Americans found
The bullet-riddled bodies of two US citizens have been found in the central Mexican state of Michoacan, US and Mexican authorities said Saturday. The Americans were among four bodies found on Friday near Tacambaro, about 240km west of Mexico City. Family members identified the US victims as Omar Chavez and Alejandro Munoz, of Dallas, said US Embassy spokeswoman Diana Page. Munoz was a US Army reservist. The bodies of Mexicans Mariano Perez and Delfino Perez also were recovered, said Ignacio Roque, spokesman for the Michoacan state attorney general's office.
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