Italy

ROME -- Five oil paintings, including two by the 17th century Italian master Guercino, have been stolen from Rome's Capitoline museums, police said.

United Nations

The U.N. Security Council approved a two-week stopgap extension of its humanitarian program for Iraq on Friday, during which it will try to break months of deadlock over a new comprehensive policy on Iraq.

Colombia

BOGOTA -- President Andres Pastrana lashed out at Colombian rebels' "demented attacks" on Friday after the guerrillas responded to his end-of-year truce offer with a bloody offensive.

Mexico

MEXICO CITY -- The new rector of Mexico's National Autonomous University was formally sworn in Friday, vowing to bring to an end a student strike that has paralyzed Latin America's largest university for seven months.

MEXICO CITY -- A Chiapas state court has freed six Zapatista rebel sympathizers jailed after helping establish parallel governments independent of local authorities.

Spain

MADRID -- The judge who indicted Augusto Pinochet has asked the Supreme Court to consider charges against former Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez in connection with the deaths of Basque separatists.

Brazil

BRASILIA -- Brazil's government sent soldiers to guard the president's farm from peasants who have protested there for four days demanding land and funds they say they were promised, officials said.

Ecuador

QUITO -- Ecuadorean President Jamil Mahuad said a burst of ash from the smoldering Tungurahua volcano forced his plane to alter its flight path.

QUITO -- An Ecuadorean group calling itself the Popular Fighters Group, or GCP by their Spanish initials, claimed responsibility for an attack Tuesday on the country's main oil pipeline.

Venezuela

CARACAS -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that a new constitution drafted by a powerful assembly packed with his allies would distance the world's No. 3 oil exporter from "savage capitalism."

Germany

GOERLITZ -- In an amnesty for asylum seekers, Germany will allow some 20,000 foreigners who have been living in the country illegally for years to stay, officials said.

Senegal

DAKAR -- Floods triggered by heavy rain in Senegal have killed at least 103 people and made 23,400 others homeless, a special monitoring committee said. It listed 20 people as missing.

Algeria

MONTE CARLO, Monaco -- Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika issued a strong warning Friday to Islamic militants in his country, saying they must lay down their weapons or face "eradication."

Kenya

NAIROBI -- The humanitarian aid group Doctors Without Borders has suspended assistance to government-organized camps in Burundi, saying its intervention has had "little impact."

Yugoslavia

SARAJEVO -- Bosnian Serb experts have exhumed a mass grave in a Sarajevo cemetery holding the remains of more than 30 victims from the country's 1992-95 war, an Australian forensic anthropologist said.

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Indonesia

JAKARTA -- The military has withdrawn hundreds of soldiers who stood guard around former President Suharto's house for the past 20 months.

China

BEIJING -- A crowded bus overturned and plunged into a river in southwestern China's Guangxi region, killing 17 people and leaving 10 missing, the state-run Beijing Morning Post reported.

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