IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Pakistan

17 militants dead after clash

The bullet-riddled bodies of 17 suspected militants were found on Sunday in a Pakistani tribal region, witnesses and officials said. The dead bodies were found in Darra Adam Khel in the North West Frontier Province, where the security forces launched operation against the militants on Saturday.

Philippines

2 Chinese freed before raid

Philippine security forces rescued two Chinese nationals on Saturday who had been held captive for nearly four months by Islamic militants in Basilan.

Later about 70 Islamic militants raided a village on the same southern island in the Philippines, killing 11 people, displacing hundreds and torching houses, officials said.

Troops rushed to reinforce a civilian militia force defending Tubigan village, on the southern island of Basilan, from Abu Sayyaf militants avenging the death of a senior leader on nearby Jolo island, said army spokeswoman Lieutenant Steffani Cacho.

Colombia

Uribe barred from third term

A court blocked Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Friday from running for re-election, making his former defense minister the favorite to win a May presidential election.

The constitutional court ruling marked the start of a tough race to replace Uribe, who during his eight years in power became the country's most popular president for his US-backed war on leftist rebels and cocaine traffickers.

Juan Manuel Santos, a former Cabinet minister closely associated with Uribe's security success against Latin America's oldest insurgency, leads in opinion polls. After the ruling, he confirmed his intention to run for the presidency.

Haiti

2 missionaries' release likely

Two US missionaries will remain in jail in Haiti through at least Tuesday, while a judge takes testimony that is expected to clear them of child kidnapping charges.

Investigative judge Bernard Sainvil said late on Friday that before freeing Laura Silsby and Charisa Coulter he wanted witnesses that he had already examined in the Dominican Republic to give their testimony in Haiti.

Vietnam

Bird flu takes 1st 2010 victim

A Vietnamese woman who slaughtered and processed sick poultry has died from bird flu, the first fatality from the avian influenza virus this year in Vietnam, the Health Ministry said.

The 38-year-old woman died on Tuesday in a hospital in the southern Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap after fighting the H5N1 virus for 10 days, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

Israel

Police in clash at mosque

Israeli police entered the compound housing al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on Sunday after Palestinians threw stones at visitors to the holy site, and fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up protests.

The confrontation added to tension that is already running high after Israel's announcement of a plan to restore Jewish religious sites in the West Bank in a heritage project..

Palestinian officials said word had spread that religious Jews planned to enter the mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam. Judaism's Western Wall, a Jewish prayer site revered as the remains of a perimeter wall of the second biblical Temple, sits just below the compound.

West Bank

Purim prompts clampdown

Amid escalating violence in Hebron, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) were on high alert throughout the West Bank on the weekend out of fear that settlers, celebrating Purim, will clash with Palestinians.

On Saturday, the IDF clamped a closure on the territories for the duration of Purim which will end on Monday night in walled cities like Jerusalem. Additional forces will be deployed in defined "hot spots" to prevent friction between Palestinians and settlers.

Purim is a festival that commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people of the ancient Persian Empire from a plot to annihilate them.

Reuters-Xinhua

(China Daily 03/01/2010 page12)