WORLD IN BRIEF

U.N.: Congo leader ready to meet rival

Renewed fighting broke out Saturday between rebels and soldiers in eastern Congo, as a U.N. special envoy flew in for emergency talks and said President Joseph Kabila was ready to meet his main rival. Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo spoke in Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, before flying to the eastern city of Goma. Fighting erupted in August in the east, displacing 250,000 people. Congo’s government has always said it was willing to meet with rebel leader Laurent Nkunda, but only along with the myriad other militias operating in the region —- not alone. Nkunda says he is fighting to protect ethnic Tutsis from Hutu militias who fled to Congo after Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. The mass slaughter left more than 500,000 dead, most of them Tutsis.

Pakistan forced to turn to IMF for loan

Pakistan said it had agreed to borrow $7.6 billion from the International Monetary Fund in an effort to stabilize the economy of the strategically important U.S. ally on the front lines of the battle against al-Qaida and the Taliban. The government had been reluctant to go to the IMF but had little choice once even close allies the United States, China and Saudi Arabia snubbed its pleas for significant bilateral aid.

Military wins route from Tamil Tigers

Sri Lankan troops dismantled the last rebel defense on the island’s west coast, securing a land route to the northern peninsula in a key victory against Tamil Tiger separatists, the government said. President Mahinda Rajapaksa in a televised speech hailed the capture of the town of Pooneryn and urged the rebels to lay down their arms and surrender. The military has had no land link to the previously isolated, government-controlled Jaffna peninsula in the north for more than a decade, and the newly captured road gives soldiers an alternative to the main highway that is still under rebel control.

Violence flares with Georgia separatists

A Georgian official said a policeman was killed in a clash with separatists close to the breakaway province of Abkhazia. Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said the policeman was shot by a group of armed Abkhazians who entered Georgian-controlled territory to plant land mines. But Abkhazian presidential envoy Ruslan Kishmariya said police from the separatist side killed one and wounded two Georgian “saboteurs” in the tense Gali district. The district is claimed by Abkhazia and has been the scene of regular clashes between the two sides.

Mexico officials give plane crash reason

The turbulent wake of a larger plane likely caused the crash of a government jet that killed Mexico’s second-most powerful official, investigators said. A preliminary investigation found the pilots were slow to follow the control tower’s instructions to reduce speed and appeared to be nearly one nautical mile too close behind a Boeing 767-300 on the same flight path to Mexico City’s international airport, Transportation Secretary Luis Tellez said. The account was aimed at quelling widespread rumors that the plane was brought down by powerful and increasingly violent drug cartels.

Myanmar activists sentenced by court

A court in military-ruled Myanmar has sentenced an additional nine pro-democracy activists to 65-year prison terms, relatives and activists said. Their cases are among a string of recent prison sentences given to critics of the ruling junta. About 70 opposition activists, writers, musicians and Buddhist monks have been sentenced in the last week.

South Africans remember Makeba

A trumpet wailed and poetry soared as South Africans remembered “Mama Africa,” Miriam Makeba, for her music and her commitment to human rights. The memorial service after Makeba’s death Monday at the age of 76 followed two days of national mourning, with flags at half staff and books of condolences at the presidency and Parliament. She died after collapsing during a concert in Italy in honor of six immigrants from Ghana who were shot to death in September in an attack blamed on organized crime.

British teen aims for sailing record

A 16-year-old British boy set out on an attempt to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world. Michael Perham left Portsmouth on his Open 50 Racing Yacht and was expected to be alone at sea for more than four months. He is expected to be back in Portsmouth sometime near his 17th birthday on March 16. The world solo youth record was set by 18-year-old Australian Jesse Martin in Melbourne in 1999.