ALGERIA
ALGIERS -- Rebels slashed the throats of 42 people at a village in western Algeria overnight, government security officials said Wednesday.
FRANCE
PARIS -- France said on Wednesday it was not opposed to putting former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier on trial for crimes against humanity during his 15-year rule.
PANAMA
PANAMA CITY -- Thousands stayed away from work and school Tuesday to protest a government order to change the date of the Mother's Day festival, customarily celebrated in Panama on Dec. 8.
JAPAN
TOKYO -- Former insurance saleswoman Masumi Hayashi was charged with murder and attempted murder for allegedly sprinkling arsenic into a pot of curry served at a summer festival in Wakayama.
TOKYO -- Lightning struck an Air Nippon domestic flight carrying 50 people to western Japan on Wednesday, denting the nose cone, the airline said. None of the 44 passengers or six crew members aboard the Airbus 320 was injured.
INDIA
SRINAGAR -- Four people were killed and 20 wounded on Wednesday when unidentified militants lobbed a grenade near a bus stop in Kashmir, police said.
NEW DELHI -- An oil tanker collided with a bus in northern India Wednesday, exploding in flames and burning to death at least 50 people.
MONGOLIA
ULAN BATOR -- Janlaviin Narantsatsralt, mayor of the capital, Ulan Bator, was elected prime minister.
RUSSIA
MOSCOW -- Boris Yeltsin was released from a hospital Wednesday after more than two weeks of treatment for pneumonia.
MOSCOW -- A Russian fighter jet disappeared in Russia's Far East early Wednesday and has most likely crashed, a news report said.
BELARUS
MINSK -- A Belarussian journalist received a press freedom award in Minsk from the Committee to Protect Journalists, after the government barred him from traveling to New York to accept the honor.
AUSTRALIA
CANBERRA -- South Africa and Australia jointly criticized Japan Wednesday over reports that it is planning a super tariff of up to 1,300 percent on its rice imports.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
ABU DHABI -- Leaders of six Arab states in the Persian Gulf apparently have decided to postpone until March a decision on cutting oil production.
SWEDEN
STOCKHOLM -- Sweden's Astra and Britain's Zeneca, two midsize drug makers noted for their pain relief products, will merge, costing 6,000 jobs, company officials said Wednesday.
NORWAY
OSLO -- Roman Catholic John Hume and Protestant David Trimble arrived Wednesday for celebrations leading up to the Nobel Peace Prize they will accept in the shadow of discord over their agreement aimed at ending Northern Ireland's sectarian strife.
INDONESIA
JAKARTA -- Government prosecutors questioned former President Suharto for four hours Wednesday about allegations of corruption during his 32-year authoritarian rule.
GABON
LIBREVILLE -- President Omar Bongo, Gabon's ruler for the past 31 years, has been re-elected president of this Central African nation for seven more years.