Alleged US plane incursion protested

CARACAS - Venezuela wants the US ambassador to explain a violation of its airspace by a US Navy plane, the country's foreign minister said yesterday. The US Navy plane was detected in Venezuelan airspace Saturday night near the Caribbean island of La Orchila, and questioned by the Caracas airport control tower, Defense Minister General Gustavo Rangel Briceno said. The Navy S-3 Viking, used for counter-narcotics missions, may have accidentally crossed into Venezuela's airspace while experiencing "intermittent navigational problems" on a training mission in international airspace, a US defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the issue's sensitivity. (AP)

BEIRUT - Talks between rival Lebanese factions teetered near collapse yesterday, as Arab League mediators in Qatar pressed the parties to resolve the political strife that erupted into bloody violence and pushed the country to the brink of a new civil war. The Doha-hosted talks followed Lebanon's worst internal fighting since the 1975-90 civil war, with clashes between progovernment groups and the Hezbollah-led opposition raging in the streets of Muslim west Beirut, the central mountains and the north. At least 67 people died. (AP)

KABUL - Two NATO soldiers were killed in separate attacks in southern Afghanistan yesterday, the alliance said. "One soldier was killed by enemy hostile action and another was killed in an improvised explosive device blast while supporting an Afghan National Police operation," the statement said. NATO did not disclose the nationalities of the dead soldiers or the locations of the attacks. Southern Afghanistan is the center of the Taliban-led insurgency. More than 1,200 people have died in insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan this year. (AP)