Moscow

Presidential candidate missing since last week

Russia’s presidential campaign has taken a disconcerting turn as one of the long-shot challengers to Vladimir Putin has vanished — his fate still unknown Monday, four days after he was last seen.

Rybkin was last seen Thursday outside his Moscow home, said Alexander Tukayev, deputy chairman of Liberal Russia. He failed to turn up for a news conference Friday and missed his official registration as a presidential candidate Saturday.

Putin is expected to easily win the March 14 vote.

Most observers point to three possibilities: his disappearance was staged as a political gimmick aimed at destabilization ahead of the election; he fell victim to intrigues within the Berezovsky-funded Liberal Russia party; or he was targeted in a politically motivated attack by the security services.

Iraq

Letter reportedly sought al-Qaida aid

U.S. forces have intercepted correspondence believed to have been written by a terrorist operative seeking al-Qaida’s help in inciting violence between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in Iraq, the U.S. military said Monday.

The letter, believed to have been written in Iraq, outlines a plan for “provoking ethnic sectarian warfare … in the hope of tearing this country apart,” said Dan Senor, a spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority.

The letter, military officials believe, was written by Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian suspected of having ties to al-Qaida. Reports indicated that the letter was intended for senior leaders of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network.

Beijing

World Food Program suspends N. Korea aid

The World Food Program, saying it has nearly run out of rations for North Korea, warned of an intensifying food crisis Monday. Because of a shortage of food from donor nations, only 100,000 of the 6.5 million vulnerable children, pregnant women and elderly people it normally feeds in North Korea are now receiving aid from the U.N. agency.

The WFP predicted “a real increase in suffering” in North Korea as pregnant women go hungry, children in state-run day-care centers are forced to skip one meal a day and the elderly get nothing to eat beyond the meager government rations for all residents.