■ IRAQ
Suicide blast injures 21
A suicide bomber detonated his explosives in front of a high school in Iraq's violent Diyala Province yesterday, wounding 21 people, police said. Students, teachers, bystanders and at least one policeman were among the wounded in the 8:30am attack in the provincial capital, Baqubah, a police officer said. The bomber's target was unclear. The school is next to the provincial governor's office and a municipal building. Meanwhile, in Baghdad's Shiite eastern Mashtal area, a roadside bombing wounded two policemen yesterday morning, a Baghdad police officer said.
■ UNITED STATES
Stone talks up Bush film
Oliver Stone, an Iraq war critic, is ready to put the life of US President George W. Bush on the big screen in a movie that he says will be fair and accurate. The Oscar-winning director has been quietly shopping a script for "Bush" -- a film focusing on Bush's life and presidency, the Daily Variety said. Stone, an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq, told the trade paper he was not looking to make an anti-Bush polemic. He said he wanted "a fair, true portrait of the man. How did Bush go from being an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world?"
■ CHILE
Activist passes 100-day fast
An indigenous-rights activist jailed for setting fire to a farm once owned by Mapuche Indians passed the 100-day mark of a prison hunger strike by urging colleagues to "continue to fight" for the recovery of their lands. "Let's keep advancing, more united than ever to defend our rights to land and freedom," Patricia Troncoso said in a letter dated Jan. 18, the 100th day of her fast, and released by other activists on Monday. "Each one of us has a responsibility, the responsibility of continuing to defend all those who generously fight to support the Mapuche Nation, communities and exploited poor people," she wrote from the southern hospital where prison officials sent her eight days ago as her health failed.
■ ECUADOR
Oil contracts under review
The government has begun renegotiating contracts with five international oil companies to boost state control over the country's crude, Oil and Mines Minister Galo Chiriboga said on Monday. The administration is seeking to renegotiate contracts that allow the state to pay firms a fee for their service, while making sure the government owns all the crude, Chiriboga said. Foreign companies currently own the oil they extract.The five companies with which officials are negotiating are: U.S-based City Oriente, Spain's Repsol YPF, Brazil's state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, French-owned Perenco SA, and the Chinese company Andes Petroleum Corp.
■ UNITED STATES
Army has fewer graduates
The rate of Army recruits with a high school diploma dropped last year, continuing a trend that has worsened since the start of the Iraq War, according to a report released yesterday. National Priorities Project, a research group that analyzes federal data, found that nearly 71 percent of Army recruits graduated from high school in the 2007 budget year. It based its findings on data it obtained from the Defense Department through a Freedom of Information Act request. All troops must have a high school diploma or an equivalent degree. The military prefers that they have a high school diploma because its studies have shown they are more likely to finish an enlistment term.
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