Reuters World News Highlights 1900 GMT Feb 25

www.forbes.com Reuters, 02.25.03, 2:00 PM ET

PARIS - The United States fired a diplomatic warning shot across France's bows in its struggle to win United Nations backing for a war against Iraq. The U.S. ambassador to Paris said his country would consider "very unfriendly" any French veto of a new U.S.-British resolution.

LONDON - British Prime Minister Tony Blair dismissed a Franco-German plan for peaceful disarmament of Iraq, saying it was "absurd" to think U.N. inspectors could find lethal weapons without Baghdad's full cooperation.

UNITED NATIONS - In a new sign of Iraqi cooperation with U.N. arms inspectors, Baghdad disclosed it had found documents relating to the disposal of weapons of mass destruction in 1991and to an R-400 bomb, chief inspector Hans Blix said.

ANKARA - Turkey said it was preparing to open ports and air bases to some 62,000 U.S. troops for a possible invasion of Iraq -- once it concludes a deal with Washington on financial support and military co-operation.

KUALA LUMPUR - Non-Aligned Movement leaders told the United States to give peace a chance in Iraq and U.N. Security Council members among them said they were in no rush to back a resolution that could lead to war.

WASHINGTON - Warplanes taking part in U.S.-British patrols attacked five missile sites in northern and southern Iraq, including a battlefield rocket launcher within range of American troops massed in Kuwait, the U.S. military said.

SEOUL - North Korea test-fired a missile and accused the United States of conducting spy flights, upstaging the inauguration of South Korea's new president attended by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

GAZA - A Palestinian teenager was killed by shrapnel and 11 people hurt in clashes with Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, hospital sources said, but a rare snowstorm kept violence in check in the West Bank.

URUMQI, China - Rescue workers with search dogs combed the rubble of flattened villages in near freezing weather in northwest China in hopes of finding survivors from an earthquake that killed at least 265 people.

BEIJING - Blasts caused by homemade explosives tore through cafeterias at China's top two universities within two hours of each other, injuring at least nine people, police and school authorities said. No one immediately claimed responsibility.

CARACAS - Two bombs tore into Spanish and Colombian diplomatic missions in Caracas injuring five people less than 48 hours after President Hugo Chavez accused the two nations of meddling in Venezuela's political crisis.

ATHENS - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said it was decision time for a deal to reunify Cyprus, split between ethnic Greek and Turkish communities for almost three decades.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - A gunman opened fire at an employment agency in Huntsville, Alabama, killing four people and wounding one other, authorities said.