Ruling party in India seen seeking elections
HYDERABAD -- India's ruling party is expected to ask Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to dissolve Parliament and call for national elections as soon as March, a party spokesman said yesterday. Vajpayee, who is enjoying a surge in popularity, already was in campaign mode yesterday, attacking main political rival Sonia Gandhi of the Congress Party before thousands of supporters in the southern city of Hyderabad. Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party started its national executive committee meeting yesterday in Hyderabad. The Hindu nationalist party wants to call elections soon to capitalize on India's healthy economy and better ties with Pakistan. India holds national elections at least every five years. The current Parliament's term expires in October. (AP)
UNITED NATIONS
UN Afghanistan figure to turn to role on Iraq
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan this week will appoint Lakhdar Brahimi, a former foreign minister of Algiers and head of the UN mission in Afghanistan the past two years, as his senior adviser on the United Nations' role in Iraq's transition to self-rule, UN diplomats said. The decision to enlist Brahimi's support in fashioning the UN's Iraq policy underscores the organization's intention to step up planning for its return to Iraq. The United Nations withdrew most of its personnel from Iraq in November after terrorist attacks earlier in the year left about 25 UN associates and officials dead, including its top envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello of Brazil. The Bush administration has been pressing the organization to appoint a successor to Vieira de Mello and to return to the country as soon as possible. (Washington Post)SOUTH KOREA
US is urged to accept freeze offer on arms
SEOUL -- A day after showing an American delegation its "nuclear deterrent," North Korea marked the anniversary of its withdrawal from an international nuclear treaty by resolving to bolster its defenses against a possible US attack. Yet as the communist North kept up its typically harsh anti-American rhetoric yesterday, North Korea's official KCNA news agency also urged Washington to accept Pyongyang's offer of a freeze on its program as a first step toward resolving the crisis over its atomic weapons programs. The American delegates arrived in Seoul yesterday after a visit to the North in which officials reportedly showed them recently-reprocessed plutonium, the fuel for atomic bombs, to convey the extent of development and what might be curbed if the programs were suspended. (AP)BRITAIN
Woman sets record in solo hike to S. Pole
LONDON -- A British woman has completed her unaided solo hike to the South Pole in record time, organizers said yesterday. Fiona Thornewill, 37, arrived at the pole Saturday, having walked 700 miles in 42 days. Her expedition team said that meant she has broken the previous record of 44 days for an unaided individual or team for walking or skiing. Thornewill told her family she battled fierce winds, poor visibility, and rough terrain on the last day. "She's elated, really emotional. She can't believe she's done it," said her father-in-law, Roger Allton. Thornewill is the first British woman to walk solo and unaided to the South Pole. (AP)HAITI
Anti-Aristide march draws many thousands
PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Tens of thousands of Haitians marched in the largest such demonstration against embattled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide yesterday as political tensions across the country grew. The march began at a church outside of the capital with about 1,000 people carrying a banner calling for "Another Haiti." But the crowd swelled to tens of thousands as the protesters approached Port-au-Prince. No injuries were reported. Meanwhile, the body of district police commander Jeanty Edner was found yesterday morning on a street in north-coast Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest city, news reports said. He was shot in the chest, but the motive was not clear. (AP)
