<B>CHINA. Airports closed, thousands stranded by fog. </B> Thousands of passengers across eastern, northern and central China have been stranded after heavy fog closed airports and hundreds of flights were cancelled, state media said yesterday. Highways were also closed and in some cities, such as Lanzhou in the northwest, authorities issued pollution alerts and warned people not to go outside as smog had worsened the situation, Xinhua said. ?In some provinces, people are advised to wear masks as the heavy smog contains pollutants like carbon monoxide,? Xinhua said. Airports in Nanjing, Hangzhou and Hefei in China?s east and Jinan in the north either closed completely or cancelled most flights.

<B>ETHIOPIA. Planes attack retreating Islamists. </B>Two Ethiopian jets fired missiles on Islamist fighters retreating from the town of Buur Hakaba which pro-government forces took overnight, a witness said yesterday. ?They attacked heavily in the last 30 minutes. I can confirm three dead,? an Islamist fighter said of what would be the third day of air-strikes by Ethiopian planes backing the interim Somali government in a war with Mogadishu-based Islamists. He said the dead were Islamist fighters who had retreated to the town of Leego, whose residents had fled the aerial bombardment. He said there were four wounded. The latest air assault came a day after Ethiopian fighter jets hit two Islamist-held airfields, including one in the capital Mogadishu in a symbolic first strike on the movement?s stronghold. A week of heavy artillery and mortar duels between Islamists and the Ethiopian-backed secular government has spiralled into open war that both sides say has killed hundreds.

<B>WORLD CRISIS. Iran ready to use oil in nuclear dispute. </B> Iran has repeated threats that it was ready to use its massive oil exports as a weapon to defend itself if it felt necessary in an international dispute over its atomic programme, the semi-official Fars news agency said yesterday. ?If necessary, Iran will use any weapon to defend itself,? said Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh. The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Saturday to impose sanctions on Iran?s trade in sensitive nuclear materials and technology, in an attempt to stop uranium enrichment work that could produce material to be used in bombs. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said those who backed the U.N. resolution, drawn up by Britain, France and Germany but supported unanimously by the Council, would soon regret their ?superficial act?.