World Digest
Venezuela offers asylum to Aristide

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez also said he would not recognize the Haitian transition government being formed by Prime Minister Gerard Latortue. An official said none of the 11 of 13 Cabinet ministers chosen so far came from Aristide's Lavalas Family Party.

Chávez told a nationwide address yesterday that "the doors of Venezuela are open" to the former president, who resigned and fled Haiti on Feb. 29, spent two weeks in the Central African Republic and arrived Monday in Jamaica to reunite with his family.

Chávez's offer of asylum is certain to whet the already sharp edges in U.S. relations with the leftist populist Chávez, whose oil-rich nation is all but politically paralyzed by a drive to recall him.

Stolen gas valves linked to Russian apartment blast

MOSCOW — Police said yesterday they were searching for two homeless men who might have stolen gas valves in order to sell them from an apartment building in northern Russia, leading to a huge predawn explosion that left at least 32 people dead.

But a municipal official said the utility lines in Arkhangelsk, 600 miles north of Moscow, were so poorly maintained that simple deterioration also could have caused the tragedy.

Authorities did not rule out a terrorist attack, especially since the building apparently housed employees and veterans of Russia's Interior Ministry, which has been a target of rebel attacks in the breakaway southern republic of Chechnya.

U.S., South Korean exercises condemned by North Korea

SEOUL, South Korea — The USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier sailed to South Korea for annual joint military exercises, drawing condemnation from North Korea that the war games will worsen tensions amid the crisis over the communist country's nuclear-weapons program.

A U.S. military spokeswoman said yesterday that the exercises involving 8,500 U.S. troops and an undisclosed number of South Koreans start Sunday and run through March 28.
 
They take place as South Korea is in the midst of a political crisis over the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun and as Seoul and five other governments try to resolve the North Korean nuclear standoff.

Potential oil reserves spur U.S. interest in São Tomé

SÃO TOMÉ — U.S. experts began training security officials yesterday in the tiny archipelago of São Tomé, which has caught U.S. attention because of potential oil reserves and its strategic location off West Africa's coast.

Newly appointed Defense Minister Oscar Sousa told reporters the training program was aimed at helping the twin islands of São Tomé and Príncipe "have a better organized defense and security policy."

Washington, D.C., says there are signs al-Qaida cells are operating in West Africa, and recently said it would look into building a deep-water seaport in São Tomé as well as developing its airport.

Oil firms hope to find six to 11 billion barrels of crude, and produce up to 1 million barrels a day in a decade, in waters São Tomé shares with oil giant Nigeria.

Also ...

China declared victory yesterday in its fight against bird flu, while a factory worker in Thailand became Asia's 23rd victim of the virus since December when the disease hit eight Asian countries. ... Rebels killed at least 337 people last month in Uganda's worst massacre in years, a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) official said yesterday. ... Taiwan accused rival China yesterday of trying to intervene in the island's upcoming presidential election by holding joint naval exercises with France just four days before the polls. Taiwan will hold a controversial referendum on boosting defenses against China that was proposed by independence-leaning President Chen Shui-bian, who is locked in a tight race with Nationalist challenger Lien Chan.

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