World briefs 1/22/06

Coldest winter in 25 years grips Russia and Poland

MOSCOW -- Russia's severest cold in a quarter of a century, with temperatures in Moscow at minus 8 Saturday, has killed at least 40 people and strained the nation's crumbling infrastructure, with residents piling on the blankets and heating bricks to keep warm. The big freeze extended to neighboring countries, killing four people in Estonia, one in Moldova and knocking out power and delaying trains in Poland. In Moscow, rescue workers found five homeless or drunk people dead, the city emergency medical service said, bringing the number of deaths to more than 20 in the capital during the six-day cold that saw temperatures drop to minus 24 Thursday -- coldest on that date since 1927. Nineteen people have been hospitalized with hypothermia, the service said. In Poland, the cold delayed trains and snarled traffic.

Kuwait's Cabinet wants to transfer power from emir

KUWAIT CITY -- Kuwait's Cabinet asked parliament Saturday to transfer power from the ailing new emir to the prime minister, but the emir said he wants to take the oath of office, signaling a rift inside the ruling family of this oil-rich Gulf nation. Sheik Saad Al Abdullah Al Sabah, as the crown prince, was named the new ruler after the death last Sunday of his distant cousin, the emir, Sheik Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah. Both the emir and crown prince had been ailing for years, and the prime minister, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, had been running the country, a major U.S. ally. In an unprecedented move, a newspaper called Friday for the new emir to abdicate and assign his responsibilities to a member of the ruling family who "is able to carry them out."

U.N.: Pakistan camps may be needed until summer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Tent camps sheltering earthquake victims in devastated northern Pakistan may be needed for another six months, a U.N. official said Saturday, as the United States signed a $200 million grant for rebuilding the country. Visiting U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns signed over the aid money, part of $510 million earlier pledged by Washington, the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad said. The grant covers four years, with the first $15 million available Saturday. Burns said the money would go toward rebuilding schools and hospitals destroyed when the massive Oct. 8 quake struck Pakistan's Kashmir region and surrounding areas.

Death of Kosovo's president delays talks

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro -- President Ibrahim Rugova died of lung cancer Saturday, leaving Kosovo's fractious political scene in disarray just before the start of crucial talks on whether the province should gain the independence from Serbia that was his lifelong dream. His departure leaves a leadership vacuum at the most sensitive time since the Kosovo war ended in 1999. International leaders appealed for calm and unity in the disputed U.N.-administered province. The Serb government expressed fears that Rugova's successor might not share his commitment to nonviolence.

-- From wire reports