Sri Lanka parliament dissolved before April 8 poll

COLOMBO - Sri Lanka's president has dissolved parliament before legislative elections on April 8, a senior government official said on Tuesday, a day after a leading opposition figure was arrested on military offences. The legislative poll will follow last month's presidential election, in which incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa beat former army commander General Sarath Fonseka by a landslide.

Ukraine's Tymoshenko girds to contest result

KIEV - Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko launched action on Tuesday to call rival Viktor Yanukovich's election into question, ignoring international endorsement of the poll and threatening a lengthy legal battle. A local newspaper quoted Tymoshenko as saying she "will never recognise" Yanukovich's victory in Sunday's presidential election and her supporters in parliament announced organised action to try to prove "cynical" fraud by the rival camp.

Crisis-hit Greece sticks to guns on wages, taxes

ATHENS - Greece's Socialist government announced a tough incomes policy on Tuesday, a day before unions strike against austerity measures needed to exit a fiscal crisis, and sugared the pill by hiking taxes on the rich. On the eve of a 24-hour stoppage by the powerful ADEDY public sector union, Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou announce a wage freeze and other measures that will save the state 800 million euros this year.

Second snowstorm bears down on U.S. East Coast

WASHINGTON by Wednesday night.

China officers urge economic punch against U.S.

BEIJING - Senior Chinese military officers have proposed that their country boost defence spending, adjust PLA deployments, and possibly sell some U.S. bonds to punish Washington for its latest round of arms sales to Taiwan. The calls for broad retaliation over the planned U.S. weapons sales to the disputed island came from officers at China's National Defence University and Academy of Military Sciences, interviewed by Outlook Weekly, a Chinese-language magazine published by the official Xinhua news agency.

U.S. wants Iran sanctions in weeks

TEHRAN - The United States said on Tuesday that it wanted a U.N. sanctions resolution on Iran "within weeks" as Iran further expanded its nuclear programme in defiance of growing international pressure. The Islamic Republic, which denies its programme has military aims, said on Sunday it would enrich uranium to 20-percent purity for a reactor making isotopes for cancer patients. On Tuesday it announced the work had begun.

Sudan, Chad agree "definitive end" to proxy wars

KHARTOUM - Sudan and Chad agreed on Tuesday to end their proxy wars and work together to rebuild their border areas, a move seen aimed at bolstering security and credibility before impending polls in both nations. Chadian President Idriss Deby made a surprise visit to Khartoum for talks with President Omar Hassan al-Bashir after relations between the oil producers had hit rock bottom with each capital backing rebels fighting the other's government.

Fate of Pakistani Taliban chief still unclear

ISLAMABAD - A new frenzy of rumours spread about the fate of Pakistan Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud on Tuesday, but a U.S. counter-terrorism official said he could not definitively confirm the death of the militant. Hakimullah was wounded in a U.S. drone aircraft attack in January. The strikes have escalated since Hakimullah appeared in a farewell video with the double agent suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees in December in Afghanistan.

Nigerian parliament recognises VP as acting leader

ABUJA - Nigeria's parliament recognised Vice President Goodluck Jonathan as acting head of state on Tuesday in the absence of the African oil producer's ailing president. But the move takes Nigeria into uncharted political territory and does not end the uncertainty over who rules Africa's most populous nation since President Umaru Yar'Adua was hospitalised in Saudi Arabia in November.

Somali pirates free Panama ship after ransom

MOGADISHU ransom Tuesday and had freed a Panama-flagged ship, the MV Al Khaliq, which they hijacked in October. "Our friends have disembarked and the ship set off into the ocean," one of the pirates, Hassan, told Reuters by telephone from the coastal pirate base of Haradheere.