Today's other stories in brief
Suharto near death after organ failure
JAKARTA - Former President Suharto, who ruled Indonesia for more than three decades, has suffered multiple organ failure and is on a ventilator, doctors said.
Suharto (86), who stepped down in 1998 in the face of a student-led uprising, was losing consciousness and having difficulty breathing last night, according to Pertamina hospital in Jakarta. The doctors said Suharto's brain and other organs failed as his blood pressure fell.
"He is still in an unstable condition," said Muhammad Munawar, a member of the medical team treating the former general. "We cannot say how long" he can be kept alive. - (Reuters)
Lebanon delays presidential vote
BEIRUT - Lebanon has delayed its presidential vote in parliament again, this time to January 21st from today, the parliamentary speaker said in a statement.
The delay, the 12th since September, came despite efforts by the Arab League chief to get rival Lebanese leaders to agree an Arab plan to end the country's presidential crisis.
Lebanon has been without a head of state since November 23rd. - (Reuters)
Two arrested over tourist killings
BISSAU - Police in Guinea-Bissau yesterday arrested two Mauritanians suspected of involvement in the killing of four French tourists who were gunned down on Christmas Eve in Mauritania, the police chief said. Guinea-Bissau police had carried out the arrests at the request of French authorities. - (Reuters)
Seven coal miners killed in blast
KAZAKHSTAN - At least seven miners were killed yesterday when a blast ripped through a Kazakh coal mine owned by steel giant ArcelorMittal, emergency officials said.
Rescue workers battled an underground fire at the Abaiskaya mine in central Kazakhstan as they searched for more than 20 miners who were still missing, officials said. They refused to comment on the cause.
At least 12 other workers were injured in the explosion, which struck when 190 miners were working below ground. - (Reuters)
Farc not terrorists, says Chávez
CARACAS - Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez yesterday urged the international community to stop labelling Colombian guerrillas as terrorists, a day after rebels freed two high-profile women hostages.
Colombia's interior minister immediately denounced the call to meet a major rebel demand as "completely off-the-wall and disproportionate".
Mr Chávez, who brokered the rare hostage release, said rebel groups Farc and ELN "are not terrorist groups; they are armies, real armies that occupy space in Colombia". - (Reuters)
Guatemala to befriend China
GUATEMALA - Guatemala's president-elect Alvaro Colom said he sees Central America moving closer to China to benefit from the country's growing economic power, despite decades of loyalty to Taiwan.
But Mr Colom stopped short of saying he would follow the example of Costa Rica, which last year switched allegiance to China from Taiwan.
China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade island since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, is
recognised by more than 170 countries, while Taiwan has two dozen diplomatic allies left. "We are proposing a strategic Central American plan with mainland China," Mr Colom said. "But we will have a lot of work to do to not cause any international problems," said the centre-left former economy minister who takes office on Monday. - (Reuters)