PHILIPPINES
MANILA -- A local Manila fire chief was sacked after a Thursday blaze in his slum district destroyed an orphanage, killing at least 25 children and five adults. Media reports said firefighters had arrived more than an hour after witnesses reported the first signs of fire.
THAILAND
BANGKOK -- The 20th Century Fox movie studio was cleared to begin pre-production work on a Thai vacation island for a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
RUSSIA
MOSCOW -- President Boris Yeltsin, who is in the hospital recovering from pneumonia, met with Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov and will be back at work in the Kremlin on Monday, an aide said.
ETHIOPIA
ADDIS ABABA -- The U.N. World Food Program has granted Ethiopia $94.8 million in development assistance.
MEXICO
MEXICO CITY -- The Popocatepetl volcano spit a column of ash 2 1/2 miles into the air and showered red-hot rock onto the flanks of the peak.
MEXICO CITY -- Congress passed a bill to more severely punish those who flee house arrest, commit credit card fraud, join criminal bands or exploit minors.
CHINA
HONG KONG -- A brief power failure hit the business district, but traders kept buying and selling in their darkened dealing rooms.
TURKEY
TUNCELI -- Troops killed 22 Kurdish rebels in clashes overnight in southeastern Turkey, officials said.
INDIA
CALCUTTA -- Police arrested 11 people after they set fire to a tent at a Calcutta museum where an industrial tycoon's son was getting married.
MOROCCO
MARRAKESH -- British tycoon Richard Branson and his former rival Steve Fossett have postponed a joint attempt to fly non-stop around the world in a hot-air balloon until next week because of bad weather.
IRAN
TEHRAN -- The navy launched maneuvers in the Persian Gulf involving 50,000 sailors and marines with a message of friendship to Arab neighbors across the strategic waterway, Tehran radio reported.
EGYPT
CAIRO -- The arrest of human rights activist Hafez Abu Seda drew more protests from international human rights groups around the world.
POLAND
WARSAW -- President Aleksander Kwasniewski, a former communist, vetoed a bill that would have opened personal files compiled by Poland's communist-era security police.
IRAQ
BAGHDAD -- Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz asked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to cut alleged contacts between U.N. arms inspectors and Western intelligence agencies, Iraqi newspapers said.
SRI LANKA
COLOMBO -- Government troops linked up three key northern towns in a fresh offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels, military officials said.
INDIA
AHMEDABAD -- Thousands of Christians gathered in cities across the country to protest against a mounting incidence of violence against their community. A crowd of nearly 15,000, mainly children, walked through Ahmedabad in the western state of Gujarat, where human rights groups say most of the attacks on Christians have taken place.