World digest 06/21/05

Lebanon's new leader reaches out to opposition

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- The son of Lebanon's slain former prime minister, whose anti-Syrian slate swept to victory in the final round of Lebanon's parliamentary elections, reached out Monday to his defeated opponents with promises that he would not "close the door on anyone." The anti-Syrian opposition led by Saad Hariri captured control of Lebanon's parliament Monday in the fourth and final round of the country's elections, breaking Syria's long domination of the country. Interior Minister Hassan Sabei declared anti-Syrian opposition candidates had won all 28 seats in north Lebanon in Sunday's polling. Hariri, the son of the assassinated former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, said he would negotiate with other parliamentary blocs to broaden his alliance.

Tokyo world's costliest city; New York 13th

LONDON -- Japan's Tokyo and Osaka are the world's most expensive cities with London in third place, according to a survey released Monday. New York, the most costly of American cities, placed 13th. The annual report released in London Monday ranked cities based on the comparative cost of more than 200 items including housing, public and private transport, food, clothing and entertainment. For example researchers for Mercer Human Resource Consulting found a bus ride in London cost $3.66 compared to 51 cents in Prague, $1.83 in Dublin and $1.76 in Paris. Surveys are conducted in 144 cities around the globe every March. All cities are compared to New York, which is automatically given a ranking of 100, Tokyo in comparison scored 135.

China says it will stop misusing antiviral drug

China's government said Tuesday it was dispatching experts to stop the misuse of an antiviral drug on poultry and denied a report that officials encouraged farmers to use it, possibly making it ineffective for treating deadly bird flu in humans."We'll take measures soon to curb the action," an Agriculture Ministry spokesman, Xu Shixin, was quoted as saying by the government-run China Daily newspaper. The report didn't say when or how widely the drug amantadine was misused or whether farmers still use it. Phone calls to the health and agriculture ministries on Tuesday weren't answered.Xu denied a report by The Washington Post that officials encouraged farmers to give amantadine to millions of chickens in their drinking water in the late 1990s to suppress bird flu outbreaks, the China Daily said. "The report was groundless," Xu was quoted as saying. Amantadine is meant for use only in humans.

Spanish judge jails five in Madrid train bombings

MADRID, Spain -- The judge investigating last year's Madrid train bombings jailed five men Monday who were suspected of having close ties to organizers of the attack and helping key suspects flee Spain, officials at the National Court said. The men were arrested last week as part of a crackdown that also netted 11 suspects who allegedly belonged to a Syrian-based network that recruited people for suicide attacks in Iraq. The 11 were still undergoing questioning at the court Monday. The five suspects, arrested June 14 in Madrid and Barcelona, were ordered jailed on suspicion of links to a terrorist organization. This stops short of a formal indictment but allows Judge Juan del Olmo to keep them in custody while he gathers more evidence in the March 11, 2004, bombings that killed 191 people.

Moderate quakes rock Japan; one injured

TOKYO -- Five moderately strong earthquakes rocked buildings across a wide swath of Japan's main island on Monday, injuring at least one person. The first two quakes -- measuring magnitude 5.6 and 4.1 -- struck within 15 minutes of each other early in the morning in Chiba state, to the east of Tokyo, the Meteorological Agency said. In the afternoon two more temblors hit in quick succession in the northern prefecture of Niigata, spooking residents who last year suffered the country's deadliest temblor in recent years. The quakes had a magnitude of 5.0 and 4.1, and were centered in Niigata state. An hour after the Niigata quakes, a magnitude-4.5 tremor struck in the central prefecture of Gifu.

-- From wire reports