WORLD NEWS

www.whittierdailynews.com246371153875,00.html Car crash kills 1, hurts 3 U.S. troops

A member of the U.S. military died from a head injury and three others were injured after a traffic accident on Saturday. The other three soldiers were in stable condition at a military medical facility at the al-Udeid U.S. airbase in Qatar.

The troops were stationed at Camp As Sayliyah, a base 15 miles outside Doha that would be used as operational headquarters for a war against Iraq. They were returning to their base at about 5:30 p.m. after conducting official business in Doha, said Army Capt. David Connolly.

The military would not release the victims' identities or their units. There were no other injuries in the accident, which was still under investigation Sunday night.

This is the second fatality the American military has suffered in the Gulf state of Qatar since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, U.S. officials said. In October 2001, Master Sgt. Evander Earl "Andy' Andrews died in a construction accident.

Czech president Havel ends his term

PRAGUE, Czech Republic

Vaclav Havel, the former dissident playwright who led the revolutionary movement that peacefully toppled communism here 13 years ago, marked the end of his final presidential term Sunday.

"I bid you farewell as your president,' Havel said at the end of his address on state television just hours before his term's expiration at midnight. "I remain with you as your fellow citizen.'

During the prerecorded five-minute speech, he thanked the Czech people for their support and asked their forgiveness for his mistakes. He also alluded to the dramatic events that have marked the nation's transition from communism to democracy since he first took power in 1989.

Chavez declares victory in Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela

President Hugo Chavez declared victory Sunday after his opponents agreed to ease a two-month national strike, but thousands of Venezuelans still lined up for a petition drive seeking his ouster.

Strike organizers, who began the protest Dec. 2 to pressure Chavez into accepting a referendum on his rule, said Friday they would ease the work stoppage, already waning, this week to protect businesses from bankruptcy.

However, the strike will continue in the vital oil industry, where production was cut from 3 million barrels a day to 150,000 at the height of the strike. Chavez said Sunday the government boosted production to 1.8 million barrels a day, but striking workers put the number at 1 million.

"Today is a victorious day,' the president said in his weekly television and radio program. "We have beaten once and for all a new destabilizing attempt, a new malevolent and criminal attempt to sink Venezuela.'

Rioters clash with police in Abidjan

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast

In their biggest protest since this West African nation's civil war began five months ago, hundreds of opposition supporters clashed with police on Sunday after the discovery of a body thought to be that of a key opposition figure.

Supporters of the opposition Rally of the Republicans said the body of Kamara Yerefe, a popular comedian known as "H,' was found in a Dumpster near an auto junkyard early Sunday. Yerefe, a northern Muslim, was a key political figure in the party.

Yerefe's family accused paramilitary police of assassinating him. A Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said agents of the internal security service had picked up Yerefe on Saturday night.

Police said the body had not been identified.

Rioters stormed through Abidjan's crowded Adjame neighborhood, erecting barricades and burning tires. Police fired tear gas and shots in the air to disperse the demonstrators, who set a bus ablaze in the middle of a highway.

Suspected radicals arrested in Greece

ATHENS, Greece

Three suspected members of a radical far-left group including the mayor of an Aegean Sea island were arrested in weekend raids by police, authorities said Sunday.

The raids were part of a major police effort to smash shadowy Greek terror groups ahead of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

The suspects, arrested Saturday and Sunday, were identified as Angeletos Kanas, the 52-year-old mayor of the Aegean Sea island of Kimolos, Constantine Agapiou, 56, a civil engineer and 49-year-old Irene Athanasaki.

Police spokesman Lefteris Economou said the three were accused of participation in a terrorist group, the Revolutionary Popular Struggle, or ELA, which has eluded authorities since it first appeared in 1975.

All three were being questioned at Greek police headquarters in central Athens and were to appear before a public prosecutor. Police also questioned more than a dozen people, none of whom were held.

ELA claimed responsibility for the murder of two police officers and more than 100 bomb attacks including many American commercial targets before it officially disbanded in 1995.

:- From wire reports