Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who faced virtually no opposition in last Sunday's presidential election that was boycotted by the major opposition parties, was officially declared the winner, the Provisional Electoral Council announced.

Chile

WASHINGTON — In what may be his final trade initiative in office, President Clinton announced the launch of free-trade negotiations with Chile, hoping to expand commercial ties between the two nations and North and South America.

South Africa

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa, where one out of 10 people is HIV-positive, granted a special exemption to allow the import of a generic anti-AIDS drug, seen by AIDS activists as a landmark decision. The regulatory Medicines Control Council said it would allow the conditional use of biozole, a generic of the anti-AIDS drug fluconazole after an application from the AIDS Law Project. (See related story on A15.)

India

SRINAGAR — Kashmir's leading separatist alliance accused security forces of violating the ceasefire ordered by India in the strife-torn Himalayan region, but authorities denied the charge.

Sri Lanka

COLOMBO — Suspected Tamil rebels blew up two Sri Lankan military vehicles with land mines, killing nine people and wounding 19 in the country's war-wracked north, a military spokesman said.

England

LONDON — Britain's High Court rejected a Saudi Arabian businessman's bid to avoid extradition to the United States to face charges relating to the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in East Africa. The court upheld a judge's 1999 order that Khalid al Fawwaz, who lives in London, be extradited to the U.S.

Philippines

MANILA — Thousands of protesters demanded President Joseph Estrada's resignation in a march near the presidential palace but the former actor, facing an impeachment trial, vowed to fight on and finish his term.

Germany

BERLIN — Germany will never follow the Netherlands by legalizing euthanasia, Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin said. The Dutch parliament's lower chamber this week backed a bill allowing doctors to help patients die provided they follow a strict set of rules, making the Netherlands the first country to legalize mercy killing.

India

NEW DELHI — The government said it planned to acquire deep sea rescue vessels for its large, predominantly Soviet-origin submarine fleet.

Russia

MOSCOW — Russian environmentalists vowed to fight a decision by election authorities to throw out more than half a million signatures from a petition calling for a referendum that would bar imports of nuclear waste.

Belarus

MINSK — Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his government to sign an agreement on establishing a single currency with Belarus — the biggest step yet toward adding substance to the two nations' largely symbolic union.

Indonesia

JAKARTA — Fifty people have been killed in fierce fighting after Muslims attacked Christian villagers in Indonesia's ravaged Moluccas islands earlier this week, police said on Thursday.

Yemen

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SAN'A — Yemeni tribesmen released a Swedish engineer they had held hostage for more than two weeks.

Anders Salenius, 69, was freed by the al-Zaidi tribe and taken to a hotel in the northern Marib province.

Japan

TOKYO — Japan hanged three convicted killers, the eighth straight year it has carried out the death penalty, to the protest of human rights groups that said the executions were speeded up because of Tokyo's political calendar.

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