Cuba
HAVANA — Fidel Castro chatted about nutrition and energy prices during a private meeting with U.S. farm officials who are in Havana for three days of talks on bringing more agricultural goods to Cuba, those at the meeting said Tuesday. Cuba wants to sign contracts to buy American farm products worth as much as $130 million during the talks, which end Wednesday.
Cyprus
NICOSIA — The prime minister of the breakaway Turkish Cypriot republic resigned Tuesday, two days after parliamentary elections, to allow Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash to designate a new prime minister to form a government. Prime Minister Dervis Eroglu submitted his resignation to Denktash, the president of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognized only by Turkey.
Denmark
COPENHAGEN — A fire broke out at Denmark's North Sea Museum late Tuesday, destroying much of the building housing Europe's largest aquarium. No people were injured. Officials said they did not know yet the fate of the thousands of fish contained in the 1.2 million-gallon tank, a popular tourist attraction in Hirsthals, 170 miles north of here.
Haiti
PORT-AU-PRINCE — A strike to press for the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide closed down schools, stores and banks in the Haitian capital Tuesday. The strike was called by opposition parties and a coalition of 184 business associations, labor unions and other groups.
Israel
JERUSALEM — Israel on Tuesday barred Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem for a third straight year, as Egyptian mediators again pressed Palestinian militants to halt attacks. With efforts to revive peace talks at a standstill, Israeli leaders sent a mixed message to the Palestinians: Israel is ready to negotiate but will take unilateral action if peace talks fail.
Monaco
Prince Rainier III of Monaco was hospitalized Tuesday with flu symptoms, his office said. The prince, 80, was admitted late Tuesday afternoon to a heart and chest clinic in the principality for examination, the one-sentence statement said. It gave no other details. Rainier, who was married to the late film star Grace Kelly, underwent heart surgery in 1999 and has been hospitalized for fatigue and bronchitis.
Pakistan
ISLAMABAD — Police arrested 10 people suspected of links to the Taliban and al-Qaida in two nighttime raids near the capital, officials said Tuesday. The detainees, some of them Afghans, were arrested late Monday in Rawalpindi, where assassins tried to kill President Gen. Pervez Musharraf Sunday with a bomb. But a government statement said the arrests were unrelated to that attack.
Somalia
MOGADISHU — Rival militias battled over barren desert lands in central Somalia on Tuesday in fighting that killed at least 31 people and wounded 50 others, a spokesman for one of the militias said. The violence between two subclans was near Dhuusa Mareeb, 250 miles north of here.
Spain
MADRID — Police in Spain arrested a Dutchman suspected in the theft of two Van Gogh paintings worth millions of dollars from an Amsterdam museum last year, authorities said Tuesday. Police in the southern city of Malaga said in a statement that they had arrested Octave Durham, 31, in the nearby town of Puerto Banus.
Sweden
STOCKHOLM — Former chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said Tuesday it's becoming "increasingly clear" that Saddam Hussein's regime did not have any weapons of mass destruction. Blix, who announced the members of a new Stockholm-based independent commission on weapons of mass destruction, said he didn't think Saddam's capture would result in the discovery of any such weapons in Iraq.
Vatican City
A top Vatican cardinal said Tuesday Saddam Hussein should face trial for his crimes, but stressed the Vatican's opposition to the death penalty and criticized the U.S. military for portraying him "like a cow" having his teeth checked. Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said he felt compassion for Saddam and that the world should have been spared the images of his medical examination after his capture.