Doctors in Austria say Ukrainian president candidate Viktor Yushchenko has been poisoned, probably by someone who added the highly toxic chemical dioxin to something he ate or drank. Mr. Yushchenko's physician in Vienna says tests show a dioxin level 1,000 times above normal in the opposition leader's blood. Experts suspect the poisoning was deliberate, but there are no specific accusations.
Romania cast ballots today in a presidential run-off election that will decide who will guide the former communist nation toward European Union membership. Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase of the Social Democratic Party is going up against West-leaning Bucharest Mayor Traian Basescu of the Justice and Truth alliance. The run-off was necessary after neither candidate garnered the required 50 percent of the vote in elections held November 28th.
Two senior pro-democracy leaders have been freed in military-ruled Burma's latest mass prisoner release, affecting more than 5,000 detainees. Senior Democracy Party member U Htwe Myint and pary chairman U Thu Wai, both in their 70s, were released from Rangoon's notorious Insein prison today. There was no word whether other political detainees were among the 5070 prisoners being freed today(at 41 jails across the country).
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