A round-up of today's other world news stories in brief
Opposition rejects Chavez plan to stay on
CARACAS - Opposition parties in Venezuela have rejected a plan by President Hugo Chávez to seek to stay in office as long as he keeps winning elections.
In a joint statement, the opposition said: "Fourteen years are sufficient."
Mr Chávez, marking 10 years since his first election as president, is seeking reforms that would let him stand again when his latest term ends in 2012.
The socialist president says he wants to govern for at least another decade, but the constitution requires him to stand down at the end of his current term in 2013. - (Reuters)
Chinese anger at Sarkozy meeting
BEIJING - French president Nicolas Sarkozy drew an angry protest from China yesterday for meeting the Dalai Lama, with Beijing warning of broader damage to relations with the European Union.
The two met on Saturday, five days after China called off a summit with the EU in protest against Mr Sarkozy's plan to meet the Tibetan spiritual leader, branded by Beijing a "splittist" for advocating self- determination for his mountain homeland.
Beijing said it had summoned the French ambassador to China, Hervé Ladsous, to issue a sharp rebuke. "We urge the French side to prioritise bilateral relations and interests of the two peoples, to . . . fully understand the damage generated from the meeting between Sarkozy and the Dalai Lama on bilateral relations as well as Sino-EU relations," vice-foreign minister He Yafei said on state-run CCTV. - (Reuters)
Czech PM wins new mandate
PRAGUE - Czech prime minister Mirek Topolanek won a new mandate to lead the ruling Civic Democrat Party yesterday in a vote confirming him as head of government before the country's EU presidency starting next month, official results showed.
Mr Topolanek's victory kept in place his shaky, minority coalition cabinet and defeated a eurosceptic wing in the right-wing ruling party that has been campaigning for parliament not to ratify the EU's Lisbon treaty. - (Reuters)
Opposition plans Swedish coalition
STOCKHOLM - Sweden's three opposition parties said yesterday they would build a coalition should they win power at the next parliamentary election. The Social Democrats, the Green Party and the Left Party said in a joint statement they were deepening their co-operation "with the aim of asking for a mandate for a common coalition government after the 2010 election".
The Social Democrats lost power in 2006, after decades of nearly continuous leadership, to an alliance of four centre and right parties which had made a similar vow two years earlier. - (Reuters)
IMF plans Latvia rescue package
WASHINGTON - The International Monetary Fund said yesterday it was discussing a rescue package with Latvia that maintains the countrys current exchange rate parity and band.
"In co-operation with the European Commission, some individual European governments, and regional and other multilateral institutions, we are working with the authorities on the design of a programme that maintains Latvia's current exchange rate parity and band," IMF mission chief to Latvia, Christoph Rosenberg, said. - (Reuters)
Support falls for Japanese PM
TOKYO - Support for Japanese prime minister Taro Aso slid more than 15 points to about 25 per cent in a poll released yesterday that also showed voters unhappy with his decision to delay measures to prop up the sagging economy. - (Reuters)