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Parliament lets antiterrorism measures expire

By TIMES WIRES
Published February 28, 2007

CANADA

Canada's Parliament voted Tuesday not to extend two measures that were passed as part of a sweeping package of antiterrorism laws weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The measures will expire Thursday. One allows the police to arrest people suspected of preparing to commit an act of terrorism and hold them for 72 hours without charges, and the other enables courts to compel witnesses to testify at special hearings similar to grand jury proceedings in the United States. Neither has ever been used.

VENEZUELA

Castro tells Chavez he's feeling better

Cuban leader Fidel Castro called in to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's radio talk show on Tuesday, declaring he's "more energetic, stronger" and his country is running smoothly without him at the helm. "I feel good and I'm happy," Castro said in a phone call to Chavez's weekday radio program. Castro, 80, transferred control of Cuba's government to his brother Raul after undergoing intestinal surgery in July and dropped out of public view, fueling speculation about his condition.

CHINA

Communist Party to stay the course

The Communist Party cautioned China's increasingly impatient reformers and intellectuals Tuesday that political liberalization and democracy are still a long way off despite the rapid pace of economic change during the past two decades. The warning, in an article attributed to Premier Wen Jiabao in the official People's Daily, constituted the party's first-known response to a bubbling up of political debate as China prepares for an annual session of its legislature and an important Communist Party congress that is scheduled for this fall.

SRI LANKA

2 envoys slightly hurt in attack

Rebels fired on Sri Lankan military helicopters carrying six foreign envoys in Batticaloa on Tuesday, slightly wounding the U.S. and Italian ambassadors and sending the group screaming and running for cover. The government said it was a deliberate attack, but the rebels said they did not know diplomats were on board. U.S. Ambassador Robert Blake was all right, the U.S. Embassy said.

Elsewhere

North Korea: North and South Korea held high-level reconciliation talks in Pyongyang on Tuesday for the first time since the communist nation's nuclear test in October, paving the way for a resumption of aid to the impoverished country.

South Africa: President Thabo Mbeki on Monday named an interim health minister to replace the ailing but controversial Manto Tshabalala-Msiming, whose reluctance to embrace lifesaving AIDS drugs provoked international rebuke. Transport Minister Jeff Radebe is the interim health minister.

[Last modified February 28, 2007, 01:29:49]