Malaysia

Leader denies covering up nuclear dealings

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi denied Thursday that his government whitewashed an investigation of Malaysia’s role in a nuclear black market, and said he wasn’t worried the issue would hurt him in upcoming elections.

The vote, which Abdullah called Wednesday, will be the first since former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad retired in October. The Islamic opposition has promised to focus on the nuclear network during its campaign for the election, expected by the end of March.

The government faces allegations that a Malaysian company owned by Abdullah’s son played a key role in a nuclear black market, led the father of Pakistan’s nuclear program, to traffic technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea.

PARIS

Government criticized for keeping plot secret

A commuters’ advocacy group criticized the French government Thursday for keeping secret a multimillion-dollar extortion plot by an unknown group threatening to blow up railway tracks.

The threats, first disclosed Wednesday, appeared in letters sent to the offices of President Jacques Chirac and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy on Dec. 10, Feb. 13 and 17.

“Once more, the law of silence has prevailed,” the Federation of Transport Users, a commuter’s advocacy group, said in a statement.

The government had earlier urged media not to report the extortion scheme to protect efforts to establish contacts with the group. But the Interior Ministry released details Wednesday after the story leaked and quickly became the top story of the day.

The letters, demanding sums of $4 million and 1 million euros — the equivalent of $1.2 million — threatened nine railway targets.

Venezuela

Opposition marches to protest arrests

Hundreds of opponents of President Hugo Chavez marched Thursday in Caracas, demanding the release of some 350 people arrested during a week of protests that has left at least eight dead.

The latest death occurred in a protest Thursday in the western town of Machiques, when gunfire from an undetermined source killed a 50-year-old woman, National Guard said.

Chanting “Freedom! Freedom!” demonstrators in Caracas held up photographs of a prominent opposition politician, Carlos Melo, who was detained on charges of weapons possession.

Opposition leaders claim 350 people were arrested in five days of rioting in Venezuela, the world’s No. 5 oil exporter.

Ukraine

Radio station director killed in car crash

The head of a Ukrainian radio station that was considering broadcasting U.S.-funded Radio Liberty programming died in a car crash, police said Thursday. The death came the same day that another station transmitting the programs was pulled off the air.

The death Wednesday of Yuriy Chechyk — combined with Radio Liberty’s losing its second outlet in Ukraine in a month — raised suspicions of foul play amid complaints that Ukrainian authorities are rolling back media freedoms.

“Yesterday, we witnessed the killing of journalists again in Ukraine,” Mykola Tomenko, the head of parliament’s free press committee, said.