SHEDDING LIGHT: A letter signed by 128 members of the Tiananmen Mother's group called for a public accounting, restitution and the prosecution of those responsible
Relatives of victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre called on the National People's Congress to open a new investigation and allow publication of accounts of the crackdown, they said yesterday.

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Japan cut short its controversial annual whaling expedition in the Antarctic Ocean yesterday after its mother ship was badly damaged by fire, officials said.

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New Zealand military forces in Afghanistan were reported yesterday to have complained about the treatment of prisoners they handed over to the US.

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STILL WAITING: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has not received a response from the Sudanese president to his January request to deploy 22,000 UN troops in Darfur
The Sudanese government is refusing to allow UN peacekeepers in Darfur because it knows the troops would hunt down war crimes suspects for the International Criminal Court (ICC), a top Sudanese opposition leader says.

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A former Sudanese minister accused of war crimes in Darfur by the International Criminal Court (ICC) has dismissed the allegations as false and politically motivated.

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Former US vice president Al Gore knows a thing or two about the vicissitudes of public life. Six years ago he was virtually written off as a has-been vice president after he won the popular vote only to lose the 2000 race for the White House.

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Israeli troops shot and killed three militants from the Islamic Jihad militant group in the West Bank town of Jenin yesterday, while forces raided the nearby city of Nablus for the second time this week.

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DISCLOSURE: Human Rights Watch said it has compiled a report about 16 terror suspects locked up in secret jails and wants to know the fate of all detained since 2001
A human rights group is asking US President George W. Bush to disclose the fates of all terror suspects held since 2001, including at least 16 it believes have been locked up in secret CIA facilities.

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Canada's parliament voted on Tuesday not to extend two measures that were passed as part of a sweeping package of anti-terrorism laws weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US.

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COVER-UP: Their non-profit office was stormed by three assailants who apparently wanted to protect the Brazilian accountant accused of stealing money from them
Three French nationals working with a nonprofit group that helps poor Brazilian children were stabbed to death on Tuesday in the organization's headquarters by assailants who apparently wanted to protect a Brazilian accountant accused of stealing money from the group. One of the victims was decapitated.

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Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro broke a month of public silence on Tuesday, speaking by phone to his closest ally, Hugo Chavez, on the Venezuelan president's daily radio show and saying he felt "more energetic."

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■ China
Gusty winds derail train
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