World in brief

Koreas agree to military talks to ease tensions

SEOUL, South Korea - North and South Korea agreed Friday to hold high-level military talks to ease tensions between the nations, divided by the world's most heavily fortified border and embroiled in a standoff over the North's nuclear weapons development.

The agreement came at the end of four days of Cabinet-level meetings.

"South and North agreed to hold a military official meeting soon to ease military tension on the Korean peninsula," the two countries said in a joint statement. It gave no details of the planned talks.

The Koreas held talks between their defense ministers in September 2000, but failed to open a second round of talks.

During this week's talks, the Koreas also agreed to hold a new round of reunions in late March for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. The reunions will take place at a resort on North Korea's east coast.

The Koreas have hosted eight rounds of family reunions since a historic 2000 summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and then-South Korean President Kim Dae Jung.

On Friday, the countries also agreed to hold another round of Cabinet-level talks in the North's capital of Pyongyang on May 4-7.

MOSCOW - Vasily Shakhnovsky, a former senior executive of Russian oil giant Yukos, was convicted of tax evasion on Thursday and sentenced to a year's imprisonment, but the court suspended his sentence.

Shakhnovsky, 46, had faced up to 18 months in prison. The judge cited "changed circumstances," according to the Interfax news agency, including that Shakhnovsky was no longer a "danger to society" nor worked at Yukos.

The case against Shakhnovsky, who had a stake in Yukos estimated to be $1.3-billion, came just a week after the release of a Yukos refinery manager from pretrial detention.

Thursday's verdict was the first of a core shareholder at Yukos.

MIYUN, China - A lantern festival marking the end of China's Lunar New Year celebrations erupted into a stampede Thursday, killing at least 37 people and injuring 15, authorities said.

Many of the victims suffocated in the accident in Miyun County, a northern suburb of the Chinese capital, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Revelers had gathered for the annual Lantern Festival at popular Mihong Park when, at 7:45 p.m., someone tripped on a bridge in a crowded area and started a chain reaction, said Wu Kun of the Beijing city government.

JAKARTA, Indonesia - A magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit Indonesia's remote Papua province Friday, killing at least eight people and injuring 65, the government said.

The earthquake struck 44 miles east of the town of Nabire about 6:05 a.m, said Margiono, a seismologist with the Indonesian Geophysics and Meteorological Agency in the provincial capital of Jayapura. Margiono, like many Indonesians, uses a single name.

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations and the United States appealed for nearly $500-million Thursday to start rebuilding Liberia after a ruinous 14-year civil war, and a U.S. official predicted rich nations will come up with the money.

The two-day donors conference opened Thursday and the pledging session is scheduled for today. But two major pledges totaling 80 percent of the appeal have been disclosed.

The United States will promise $200-million, said Andrew Natsios, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The European Union is expected to pledge a similar amount including new money and some in the pipeline, an EU official said. Other countries from Africa, Asia and Europe are expected to contribute.

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