WORLD IN BRIEF: Rebels lose minority heartland

Sri Lankan government forces seized a final strip of Tamil Tiger rebel-held land in the north Wednesday, securing control of the Jaffna peninsula, the cultural capital of ethnic minority Tamils and the symbolic heart of their 25-year separatist insurgency. Humanitarian groups say 230,000 civilians are now crammed into the remaining rebel-held district, Mullaittivu, and they have accused the rebels of preventing people from fleeing the area.

Summit urged to resolve gas feud

Heated complaints from European leaders failed Wednesday to thaw the deep-rooted economic and political dispute between Russia and Ukraine that has blocked natural gas shipments to much of Europe in the dead of winter. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev proposed European gas-consuming countries send their leaders to Moscow on Saturday for a summit. And European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he would urge EU energy companies to sue if a resolution doesn’t come soon.

Key supply route for troops reopens

Pakistan reopened a supply route for NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan on Wednesday after tribesmen ended a three-day blockade protesting a raid by counter-narcotics forces that left a villager dead. The road through the frontier town of Chaman is one of two main routes into Afghanistan for trucks carrying fuel and other supplies to the thousands of foreign troops there.

6 cleared in deaths from hormones

A French court acquitted six doctors and pharmacists Wednesday in the deaths of at least 114 people who contracted brain-destroying Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease after being treated with tainted human growth hormones. The verdict outraged the families of the victims, many of whom were children, and sparked calls for an appeal. The case stemmed from a 20-year program that involved collecting hormones from the pituitary glands of human corpses to treat thousands of French children who suffered from a deficiency in the secretion of growth hormone. The program ended in 1988. The court said the investigation “did not provide confirmation” that the pediatricians, biologists and pharmacists who helped make and distribute the growth hormone were aware in 1980 of the contamination risk.

Rioting puts reform on urgent track

Latvia’s president lashed out at lawmakers Wednesday and threatened to dissolve parliament after more than 40 people were injured as protesters furious at the country’s deepening recession rioted Tuesday night in Riga. President Valdis Zatlers gave lawmakers until March 31 to agree to reforms to help restore economic calm. Meanwhile, 23 people were injured when a similar demonstration Wednesday in Sofia, Bulgaria, turned violent, with protesters clashing with police and attacking the parliament building.