GUINEA-BISSAU: Mutinous soldiers in Guinea-Bissau have killed President Joao Bernardo
Vieira, just hours after a bomb blast killed the country's military
chief.
Soldiers loyal to slain armed forces chief Tagme Na Waie killed the president as he tried to flee his residence.
It is not immediately clear if a coup is under way.
Automatic gunfire and heavier explosions were heard in Guinea-Bissau's capital, Bissau, early Monday.
ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS: The international donors' conference on reconstructing the war-torn
Gaza Strip has opened in Egypt, six weeks after the guns of Israeli
troops fell silent.
Representatives from at least 75 donor nations are meeting in Sharm
el-Sheik with a goal of raising billions of dollars to rebuild Gaza
after Israel's military offensive.
A spokesman for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the U.S. will
pledge $900 million in support for Palestinians at Monday's conference,
with $300 million earmarked for aid in the Gaza Strip.
The six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council said Sunday they would contribute $1.65 billion.
The Palestinian Authority says it needs to raise $2.8 billion to reconstruct Gaza.
BRITAIN-US: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is heading to Washington Monday for
talks with U.S. President Barack Obama on forging a global pact aimed
at fighting the world economic crisis.
Mr. Brown will meet with Mr. Obama Tuesday at the White House. On
Wednesday, the British leader will address the U.S Senate and House of
Representatives.
Mr. Brown wrote in London's "Sunday Times" that he and President Obama
will discuss "a global new deal, whose impact can stretch from the
villages of Africa to reforming the financial institutions of London
and New York."
VENEZUELA -RICE: Venezuela has seized control of a rice processing plant following
President Hugo Chavez order for military intervention in a dispute over
rising food prices and reports of food shortages.
The plant, owned by Empresas Polar, is the first one to be seized as part of Mr. Chavez's edict.
Richard Canan, Venezuela's deputy minister of agriculture, said the plant was operating at less than 50 percent capacity. CAMBODIA-KHMER ROUGE TRIAL: Attorneys in Cambodia have asked the U.N.-backed Khmer Rouge genocide
tribunal for permission to interview Prime Minister Hun Sen and former
King Norodom Sihanouk as part of their client's defense.
The request was made Monday by the defense team for Nuon Chea, the main
ideologist of the regime whose 1975 through 1979 rule left an estimated
1.7 million Cambodians dead.
The defense attorneys also said National Assembly President Heng Samrin
and Cambodian People's Party President Chea Sim should be under
investigation. Both men, along with Hun Sen, were members of the Khmer
Rouge but defected to Vietnam before the regime was ousted.
