PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Haiti's electoral board on Friday again postponed the first elections since the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, saying it needs more time to organize the vote in the impoverished country.
The nine-member Provisional Electoral Council set a new date of Jan. 8 for presidential and legislative elections, followed by a Feb. 15 runoff.
Council members said they would be unable to set up polling sites by Dec. 27 - the election date announced last week by interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue - because of crumbling infrastructure and a lack of trained election workers in the poorest nation in the Americas.
"Our main responsibility was to make sure that the vote did not turn to a fiasco," council member Patrick Fequiere told the Associated Press.
The postponement marks the fourth date Haitian authorities have set for elections to replace the interim government installed after a rebellion forced Aristide into exile in February 2004.
Tens of thousands march in Italy to protest budget
ROME - Tens of thousands of demonstrators thronged major Italian cities Friday to protest billions in planned government budget cuts, rallying in support of a general strike that snarled transportation and closed down public offices across the country.
The strike - the second against a budget in as many years - shut down post offices, banks and public offices for all or part of the day. School employees walked out for an hour, and hospitals only guaranteed emergency services. Speaking in Sicily, Premier Silvio Berlusconi dismissed the demonstrations, saying the strike was "absolutely useless and part of a stale rite that has no effect," according to comments reported by the news agency ANSA.
Italy's national carrier Alitalia said it was canceling 230 flights - 105 national and 125 international - and trains and ferries were also expected to be canceled or delayed.
Syria agrees to let its officials be questioned
CAIRO - Heading off a direct confrontation with the U.N. Security Council, Syria has agreed to allow five officials to leave Damascus to be questioned in Vienna by the prosecutor investigating the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri.
The announcement of a deal between Syrian officials and the prosecutor, Detlev Mehlis, was first made in Damascus on Friday and later confirmed in a short statement issued by the U.N. secretary-general, Kofi Annan.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John R. Bolton, welcomed the compromise between Syrian officials and Mehlis. "We hope this Syrian cooperation continues and grows," he said.
Indonesia to make supply of bird flu drug Tamiflu
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesia said Friday it would begin producing the bird flu drug Tamiflu, while Vietnam and China reported new outbreaks of the virus among poultry.
Swiss-based drug manufacturer Roche Holding AG said Indonesia could produce the drug, and the country will start making it as soon as it decides whether to get the raw materials from China or Korea, said Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari.
The announcement came the same day the country announced bird flu has been detected in poultry throughout Jakarta.
"It is very serious," said Indonesian Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono. "Based on our research, the virus has spread all over the city."
The H5N1 virus has been found in 23 of Indonesia's 30 provinces and has killed seven people.
Also ...
PROBE LANDS ON ASTEROID: A Japanese spacecraft appears to have succeeded in landing on an asteroid and collecting surface samples Saturday, part of an unprecedented mission to bring the material back to Earth, said a spokesman for JAXA, Japan's space agency.
EGYPTIANS ARRESTED ON EVE OF RUNOFF: Police detained at least 50 members of Egypt's largest Islamic movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, Friday on the eve of runoff elections to parliament, officials said. The Interior Ministry said that detainees had planned to deploy "thugs" at polling stations to disturb today's elections.
