DILI. East Timorese hold peace vigil amid poll disputes

East Timor's election commission met yesterday to discuss calls for a vote recount, as the tiny nation faces a presidential run-off between Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta and the ruling Fretilin Party?s candidate. Monday?s polls were mostly peaceful but a drawn-out election period and allegations of irregularities will raise concerns about fresh instability in the impoverished nation that still has deep divisions five years after independence.

BEIJING. Japan-educated Chinese don't hate Japan

Most Chinese who study in Japan don?t hate the country, a survey shows, challenging a common view that they turn anti-Japanese due to discrimination and what many in China see as Japan?s whitewashing of wartime atrocities. The results were made public as Wen Jiabao, the first Chinese premier to visit Japan since 2000, told the Diet that bilateral relations were unshakable 70 years after the Nanjing Massacre in which China says Japanese soldiers killed 300,000 Chinese. Japan came out on top in the survey in which 1,478 returning students were asked to gauge their feelings towards seven countries on a 10-point scale. France came second, followed by Canada, the United States, North Korea, Russia and India.

JERUSALEM. Police to question businessmen over Olmert

Israeli police plan to question two businessmen abroad in connection with a investigation into Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over a 2005 bank privatisation, an Israeli newspaper said yesterday. The state prosecutor in January ordered a criminal investigation into Olmert to see if he promoted the interests of the two men during the sale of Bank Leumi while he was Finance Minister two years ago. A national police spokesman said he could neither confirm or deny the report, published in ?Yedioth Ahronoth?, Israel?s biggest newspaper. The businessmen, described by media as Olmert?s friends, reside in the United States and Australia. Olmert has denied any wrongdoing in the case, as well as several others which he is being investigated for, including a 2004 real estate deal.

DALLAS. Texas executes man for murder, rape of teen

Texas executed a man by lethal injection on Wednesday for the 1993 rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl. The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty said James Lee Clark?s execution was the 152nd in Texas since Rick Perry became governor in December 2000, tying the record set by his predecessor, US President George W. Bush.

Texas leads all states with 391 executions since it resumed the practice in 1982, six years after the US Supreme Court lifted a capital punishment ban. Clark was the 12th convict put to death in the state this year. Clark, 38, was condemned for the June 1993 robbery, rape and murder of high school student Shari Crews in Denton just north of Dallas, who was shot to death after being sexually assaulted.

BUENOS AIRES. Anteater attacks zookeeper in Argentina

An anteater attacked a young zookeeper in Argentina, ripping open the woman?s abdomen and legs with its long claws and leaving her in critical condition, a doctor said on Wednesday. This female anteater apparently attacked her keeper at a Buenos Aires-area zoo to protect her offspring. The unusual attack damaged the zookeeper's stomach, liver and lungs, said Jose Potito, director of the hospital where the woman was being treated. channel America. Anteaters, which can measure up to 9.2 feet (2.8 meters) long and weigh as much as 110 pounds (50 kg), are native to Latin America and have toothless snouts. They are usually not aggressive, but their long, knife-like claws can do serious damage to predators when they defend themselves. A worker at the zoo described the attack as an accident and said the animal was not punished in response.

PARIS. Strike disrupts flights at Paris Orly airport

An air traffic controllers? strike at Orly airport in Paris disrupted flights yesterday, but flights at the other main airport, Roissy Charles de Gaulle, were so far unaffected, authorities said. By 0805 GMT, around half the scheduled flights to and from Orly had been cancelled with delays to the rest, air transport and union officials said. There had been 10 arrivals and departures from Orly airport instead of 38 normally expected, a spokeswoman for the civil aviation authority said. ?At Roissy everything is normal for the moment,? she said. Guillaume Ramonet, an official of the CFDT union, said a minimum service was being maintained to ensure some services during the day. Some controllers from the CGT and CFDT unions have gone on strike to protest against plans to centralise air traffic control for both Orly and Roissy from 2011. The strike was expected to last only one day.

KAMPALA. Uganda police open fire at protest

Ugandan police opened fire with tear gas and live rounds yesterday, wounding at least two people during protests in Kampala against plans to slash a rainforest reserve, a protest organiser said.

?People were demonstrating peacefully when there was a misunderstanding with the police. All of a sudden they opened fire with tear gas and live ammunition,? Frank Muramuzi, head of a Ugandan environmental group, told Reuters by telephone. ?Everyone scattered but two people were seen lying in the road. I don't know if they were killed or injured, but they have been rushed to hospital.?

Police officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Commanders had earlier approved the march, which was called to demonstrate against plans to replace thousands of hectares of Mabira Forest with sugarcane plantations.

CANBERRA. Fiji coup leader moves against Council of Chiefs

Fiji's military coup leader Frank Bainimarama sacked the nation?s Great Council of Chiefs yesterday and suspended all future meetings, dramatically increasing political tensions in the Pacific islands nation. Bainimarama?s move came after an ongoing standoff with the nation's council of traditional chiefs, who refused to endorse the military commander's government and his nomination for vice president following the country's fourth coup in 20 years. Bainimarama accused the chiefs of meddling in politics, and said they had made decisions that were were not in the best interests of the people of Fiji.