Food aid runs short as need soars

The United Nations food agency said Monday it has scaled down distribution in Zimbabwe, where more than 1 million people are in critical need, because of a shortage of donor money.

The World Food Program also said further reductions might be necessary across southern Africa.

The poor donor response followed repeated assurances by officials in Zimbabwe that it would be able to feed itself ahead of the next harvests in March, the WFP said. The agency estimated 1.4 million Zimbabweans are in critical need of food aid now and predicts the number will rise to nearly 2 million in coming weeks because of soaring inflation and shortages of food on the local market.

About 65,000 tons of emergency food, at a cost of $35 million, was budgeted for the "lean" period, when last year's harvest is running low and before the new harvest is in, from October to March. The agency received pledges for only 39,000 tons, leaving a deficit of $17 million needed to import more food.

Tskhinvali, Georgia

Independence vote goes unrecognized

South Ossetians voted overwhelmingly for independence in their second referendum since breaking away from Georgia in the early 1990s, officials in the tiny mountainous region said Monday, in balloting that neither the United States nor Europe intends to recognize.

Russia has also stopped short of recognizing the vote, but analysts say the results of Sunday's election will bolster Moscow and its efforts to keep Georgia — a key U.S. ally in the strategic Caucasus region — from moving any further out of Russia's shadow.

Election officials in South Ossetia said 99 percent of voters approved independence for the Caucasus Mountains region, which split off from Georgian government control in 1991-92 war that killed more than 1,000 people, displaced tens of thousands, and resulted in the region's de facto independence.

South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity, who won re-election in a simultaneous vote, vowed that the region eventually would achieve international recognition.

Peshawar, Pakistan

Province to start anti-vice effort

Legislators from an Islamic coalition ruling Pakistan's deeply conservative northwest on Monday approved a law to set up a Taliban-style department to suppress vice.

The law establishes a unit led by an Islamic cleric to promote virtue and eliminate vice, with a separate police force to implement its orders. According to the legislation, the department would help fight government corruption, eliminate child labor and ensure rights for women and religious minorities.

The province's governor must sign the law, and it was not immediately clear when the legal procedure would be completed.

Also

Chechen torture claimed: Detainees, including women and minors, are routinely tortured in both official and secret prisons across Russia's Chechnya region, Human Rights Watch said on Monday. Methods used to extract information from people suspected of backing rebels seeking independence or from relatives of insurgents include beatings with cables, burning with red-hot rods, and electric shocks, according to a report from the group.

Whale hunt: Norwegian hunters killed 546 minke whales this year, falling far short of their commercial-whaling quota because bad weather spoiled much of the season, government and industry officials said Monday.

Seattle Times news services