¤ Turkey said yesterday that newspaper reports which say the US has asked Ankara for permission to use military bases in Turkey for possible attacks on neighbouring Iran are not connected with reality. Some Turkish newspapers have reported or repeated similar stories in newspapers published in other countries which say that a series of high-profile US visitors to Ankara in recent months have been preparing the ground for US strikes from Turkey against Iran's nuclear facilities.
¤ Residents in California's wine country began cleaning up yesterday as flooded rivers receded and officials reopened roads after two powerful storms caused an estimated tens of millions of dollars in damage. Days of heavy storms over the weekend swelled rivers and caused flooding, mudslides and evacuations across Northern California including the heart of the state's famed wine region in Napa Valley and Sonoma County.
¤ France said yesterday it would lift a state of emergency tomorrow that was introduced in November during the worst violence in the country in nearly 40 years. The decision was made after calmer than expected new year celebrations that officials had feared might trigger new violent protests against racism and unemployment by youths of African and Arab origin as well as whites from poor areas.
¤ Heavily armed men attacked two military bases in Ivory Coast's economic capital Abidjan yesterday, briefly seizing one before government forces recaptured it and restored control, officials said. Residents woke to the sound of intense automatic rifle fire and detonations of heavier arms as fighting raged at two camps in the eastern Akouedo district of the lagoon city, the trading hub of the West African country, divided since a 2002 civil war.
¤ Indian police shot and killed nine tribesmen yesterday after they were attacked with arrows and stones, killing a constable, a police official said. The attack happened after 1,000 tribespeople, some armed with bow and arrows, opposed a move by authorities to acquire land for the setting up of a steel plant in Jajpur in the eastern Indian state of Orissa.
¤ Floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains have killed 26 people and damaged hundreds of homes in Indonesia's East Java province, police said yesterday. The disaster happened late on Sunday at Kemiri village, where most of the victims were living on plantations near the town of Jember, some 800 kilometres east of Jakarta.
¤ Tribesmen holding five Italian hostages warned the Yemeni government yesterday they would kill the captives if any attempt was made to free them by force. The kidnapping of the Italians on Sunday was the fourth of Western tourists in less than two months and sparked fears of a return to a wave of abductions that swept Yemen several years ago.