Japan
KOBE - A truck collided with a passenger train in Kobe, west-ern Japan, injuring at least 10 people, fire department officials said.
China
HONG KONG - Hong Kong issued a cholera warning and advised the public to pay extra attention to food hygiene after two elderly men caught the disease.
BEIJING - China is resuming exports of live chickens to Hong Kong, ending a ban imposed in December because of fears about the bird flu.
TOKYO, Japan - Chinese Defense Minister Chi Haotian said China will not become a military threat to the international community and remains committed to demilitarization and world peace.
Britain
LONDON - Britain kept up the heat on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, warning him not to underestimate international resolve to prevent him from building deadly chemical and biological weapons.
BRUSSELS, Belgium - British Transport Minister Gavin Strang ruled out the possibility of Britain ever switching to the continental European system of driving on the right.
Bosnia
SARAJEVO - Peace mediators said close to a million letters and parcels were finally delivered to Bosnian Serb territory this week after 22 months of delay caused by former ruling nationalists.
Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - An Afghan opposition coalition claimed responsibility for rocket attacks on Kabul and said it would strike the capital again unless the Taliban militia ended air raids on opposition positions.
Armenia
YEREVAN - Armenia plunged deeper into crisis when deputies accepted the resignations of the president and parliament speaker, effectively handing power in the tiny ex-Soviet state to the hard-line prime minister.
Tajikistan
DUSHANBE - Tajikistan's Islamist opposition released the last group of government prisoners it had captured during a recent civil war and said it was now expecting the secular government to follow suit.
Pakistan
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan said it might review its peaceful nuclear policy if arch-foe India made nuclear weapons as pledged by that country's BJP Hindu nationalist party, the front-runner in elections that begin this month.
Taiwan
TAIPEI - Taiwan defended its reluctance to launch into full-blown reconciliation talks with China, saying that skipping the easier preliminary steps risked heating frictions rather than building mutual trust.
Turkey
ANKARA - Turkey's state-run Anatolian news agency reported heavy traffic at a U.S.-Turkish air base used to patrol northern Iraq but U.S. officials said it was unrelated to the tension with Baghdad over arms inspections.
ISTANBUL - A group of film stars, writers and intellectuals challenged Turkey's tough restrictions on free expression by handing out banned speech-es in front of Istanbul's special security court.
Sudan
NAIROBI, Kenya - Sudan's government banned aid flights to its Bahr el-Ghazal region a day after an operation started to assist up to 150,000 people displaced by fighting, the U.N. food agency said.
Egypt
INSHAS - The leaders of Egypt and Argentina called for a nuclear weapons-free Middle East.