March 28 date set for Israeli general election

JERUSALEM -- Israel on Wednesday set March 28 as the date for early elections, clearing the way for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to try to stay in power at the head of a new centrist party in a major political realignment. Sharon bolted from his hard-line Likud and formed the new "National Responsibility" party, which picked up momentum Wednesday with an announcement by Haim Ramon, a senior Labor Party politician, that he is joining the group. He was the first Labor legislator to switch to the Sharon camp. Sharon's aides said Wednesday he would campaign on the U.S.-backed "road map" plan, which calls for Palestinian statehood as part of a peace deal. However, aides Lior Horev and Eyal Arad insisted that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas must dismantle militant groups before Israel has to start meeting its obligations, such as freezing West Bank settlement construction and removing outposts.

Chinese city of nearly 4 million trucking in water

BEIJING -- A Chinese city of 3.8 million people closed schools and was trucking in drinking water Wednesday after shutting down its water system following a chemical plant explosion that officials said polluted a nearby river with toxic benzene. The announcement of the shutdown in Harbin in China's frigid northeast set off panicked buying this week of bottled water, milk and soft drinks that left supermarket shelves bare. The water system was shut down at midnight Tuesday and probably will stay out of service for four days, said an official of its Municipal Water Supply Group. He would give only his surname, Chen. An explosion Nov. 13 at a chemical plant in the nearby city of Jilin left the Songhua River, Harbin's main water source, polluted with benzene, a toxic, flammable liquid, the government said. Though local officials denied it, water supplies were also cut in at least one district of Songyuan city in neighboring Jilin province, about 90 miles southwest of Harbin, residents said.

Japanese probe landed successfully on asteroid

TOKYO -- Japan's space agency said Wednesday its spacecraft had successfully touched down on an asteroid 180 million miles from Earth despite an earlier announcement that it had failed. On Sunday, JAXA officials had said the Hayabusa probe, on a mission to land on the asteroid named Itokawa, collect material, then bring it back to Earth, failed to touch down after maneuvering within yards of the surface. However, the agency said Wednesday that data confirmed that Hayabusa had landed on the surface Sunday for a half-hour, although it failed to collect material. JAXA officials had said earlier that Hayabusa dropped a small object as a touchdown target from 130 feet above the asteroid and then descended to 56 feet from the surface, at which point ground control lost contact with the probe for about three hours. But after analyzing data, the agency said the probe landed on the asteroid within about 99 feet of the initial landing target.

Kenya's president fires Cabinet following setback

NAIROBI, Kenya -- President Mwai Kibaki dismissed his entire Cabinet Wednesday, two days after Kenyans handed him a setback by rejecting a draft constitution that he had supported. He said on state-owned television he would announce a new Cabinet in two weeks. Monday's referendum was cast by critics as a vote of confidence on Kibaki two years before the next presidential election. The referendum followed a bitter campaign that divided the country along ethnic lines and led to the deaths of seven people in clashes. The campaign was rarely about the provisions of the draft charter, which would have created a prime minister position appointed by the president, strengthened civil rights and decentralized the government. Instead, Kenyans were asked to consider whether Kibaki had kept promises he made during his 2002 presidential campaign to foster democracy and accountability and root out corruption.

-- From wire reports