World briefs 9A

China replaces longtime central bank chief

BEIJING -- China replaced its longtime central bank governor Saturday, putting a former stock market regulator in charge as it prepares to open its banking industry to foreign competition.

Dai Xianglong, who headed the People's Bank of China for eight years, will be succeeded by Zhou Xiaochuan, former chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Dai is taking up a post in Tianjin, a major port city east of Beijing, Xinhua said. It didn't give any details, but Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper said Friday that Dai is to be mayor of Tianjin, China's fourth-largest city.

Vatican to release papers from prewar Germany era

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican will release archives documenting its relations with Germany in the years before World War II in an effort to counter criticism of papacy actions during the Holocaust.

But the Vatican said Saturday that a chunk of the archive dating from 1931 to 1934 was "nearly completely destroyed or dispersed" during the 1945 bombing of Berlin and a fire at the apostolic nuncio's palace.

The Feb. 15 release will be the Vatican's response to demands by Jewish groups for access to archives dealing with Pope Pius XII, the World War II pope. Critics of the pope charge that he failed to raise his voice and use his position to head off the extermination of European Jews by the Nazis.

The documents scheduled for release do not involve the papacy of Pius XII but cover the years 1922-1939, when he was a Vatican diplomat in Germany and later secretary of state.

Japan's Emperor Akihito diagnosed with cancer

TOKYO -- Emperor Akihito, 69, has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and will undergo surgery next month, Japan's Imperial Household Agency announced Saturday.

The results of a prostate biopsy revealed the cancer cells, the spokesman said. Doctors believe the cancer hasn't spread, and that the emperor has a "good chance of a full recovery," he said.

The emperor is scheduled to undergo an operation at Tokyo University Hospital in mid-January to have the cancerous tissue removed.

Akihito's eldest son, Crown Prince Naruhito, will temporarily assume the emperor's duties if necessary.

Venezuela receives shipment of gasoline

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuela received its first foreign shipment of gasoline Saturday, but the 525,000 barrels from Brazil were a drop in the bucket as the oil-rich nation suffers through shortages because of a strike against President Hugo Chavez.

The 27-day strike has cut oil exports from 3 million barrels a day to 160,000, virtually evaporating domestic gasoline supplies.

The strike began Dec. 2 to demand Chavez call a nonbinding referendum on his rule.

Mile-long lines formed for gasoline Saturday. Some motorists protested by blocking the Pan-American Highway outside Caracas.

Germany won't rule out supporting action in Iraq

FRANKFURT, Germany -- Germany would not rule out supporting military action in Iraq while serving on the U.N. Security Council, the foreign minister said in an interview.

In an early release of an interview with German weekly Der Spiegel on Saturday, Joschka Fischer said Berlin would not send any troops to Iraq, but he could not say how his country would vote if the issue of military action against Iraq came up during Germany's tenure on the council.

Germany joins next month.

Fischer stressed the need to continue searching for a peaceful solution to the Iraqi situation and repeated his country's emphatic denial it would participate in any way in "a highly dangerous conflict, the necessity of which (Germany) is not 100 percent convinced."

Iraq could face a U.S. military strike if it does not comply with U.N. resolutions to disclose and abandon efforts to acquire and develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

Germany repeatedly has expressed reservations about the U.S. approach to Iraq. -- From wire reports

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder angered President Bush last summer by successfully campaigning for re-election on his rejection of war.

But at the same time, Berlin has said it stands firmly behind the United States in the international war against terrorism, a fight it does not necessarily consider linked to Baghdad.

"We have enough to do with the war on terrorism," Fischer said. "And I think it would be wrong to place a change of leadership in Baghdad as our top priority."

Last week, German lawmakers voted to double the number of German peacekeepers in Afghanistan to 2,500 and extend their mandate there for another year.

-- From wire reports