WORLD IN BRIEF: Outspoken pastor asks to step down

An Austrian pastor who suggested that God punished New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina because of the city’s sins has asked the pope to rescind his promotion to auxiliary bishop of Linz, Austria’s second largest city. The Rev. Gerhard Maria Wagner said he made the decision to step down because of “fierce criticism” among Catholics who warned the controversy could prompt people to leave the church.

One hostage freed, another threatened

Pakistani Taliban militants freed a Chinese engineer held captive for nearly six months, officials said Sunday, as fears rose for the safety of an abducted American. It was not immediately clear if a ransom was paid or if militants were freed in exchange for Long Xiaowei’s freedom, although a militant spokesman claimed the government had agreed to demands for the enforcement of Islamic law in parts of Pakistan’s northwest. U.N. officials said they were still trying to establish contact with the gunmen who seized American John Solecki on Feb. 2 in Quetta, a southwestern city near the Afghan border.

Frozen seas yield unknown species

The polar oceans aren’t biological deserts after all. A marine census —- supported by governments, divisions of the United Nations and private conservation organizations —- being released today has documented 7,500 species in the Antarctic and 5,500 in the Arctic, including several hundred that researchers believe could be new to science. And in one of the biggest surprises, researchers said they discovered dozens of species common to both polar seas —- separated by nearly 7,000 miles. Now they have to figure out how they separated.

Fraud won’t derail election results

Iraqi officials acknowledged Sunday that there was some fraud in last month’s provincial elections but not enough to force a new vote in any province. The election commission said final results of the Jan. 31 voting would be certified and announced this week. The most widespread fraud appeared to have occurred in Diyala province, which has large Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish communities and an ongoing insurgency.

Release urged for hunger striker

A British team visiting a hunger-striking detainee at the U.S. terrorism detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Sunday said Binyam Mohamed is medically fit to be released. Mohamed, 30, a Ethiopian who moved to Britain as a teenager, has been on a hunger strike for more than a month and is being force-fed. He had been accused of plotting al-Qaida attacks in the United States, but war-crimes charges against him were dropped last year.

Hints may signal new missile test

North Korea early today said it is preparing a rocket launch, claiming the country has the right to “space development” —- a term Pyongyang has used in the past to disguise a long-range missile test as a satellite launch. “One will come to know later what will be launched,” Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who last week urged the North to avoid provocations, was on her way to the region. North Korea is expected to be a key topic for her visit to Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China.

GDP numbers forecast gloom

Japan’s economy contracted in the fourth quarter at the fastest pace in 35 years as a collapse in global demand battered the world’s second-largest economy. Japan’s gross domestic product, or the total value of the nation’s goods and services, dropped at an annual pace of 12.7 percent in the October-December period, the government said today. That far outpaced declines of 3.8 percent in the U.S. and 1.2 percent in the euro zone.

COMING UP

> A landmark trial opens today in Sweden for four men behind The Pirate Bay, a popular online piracy site with an estimated 22 million users that directs users to films, music and other protected material through so-called torrents. Entertainment companies are seeking $14.3 million in compensation for lost revenues.

—- From news services

Chavez wins vote to end term limits

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez won a referendum to eliminate term limits Sunday, paving the way for him to run again in 2012 —- and beyond —- and push through his vision of a socialist state. With 94 percent of the vote counted, 54 percent had voted in favor of the constitutional amendment, National Electoral Council chief Tibisay Lucena announced. Forty-six percent had voted against the measure to eliminate term limits on all public officials, too few to make up the distance with the remaining votes.

—- Associated Press