We Syrian will leader: U.N.’ s ‘ game’ play

Syrian President Bashar Assad said Thursday that his government would cooperate with a U.N. investigation that implicated Syrian of / cials in the killing of a former Lebanese leader, but he called it a game and warned the policywould end if Syria were harmed.

“ We will play their game,” Assad said in a speech at Damascus University. He also disclosed that the chief U.N. investigator into the killing of Ra / k Hariri had rejected Syria’s terms for interviewing six Syrian of / cials. Assad gave no hint of howthe matterwould be resolved, but the Security Council has warned Syria to cooperate fully.

After Assad’s speech, French President Jacques Chirac warned of sanctions against Syria if it refuses to cooperate.

The slaying Feb. 14 provoked protests that led to Syria withdrawing its troops from Lebanon in April, ending its 29- year domination of the country. Assad said his countrywas “ 100% innocent.”

Liberians rst elected choose female Africa’s leader

Former / nance minister Ellen Johnson- Sirleaf claimed victory in Liberia’s presidential runoff and prepared to become Africa’s / rst elected female head of state. The National Elections Commission said that with 90% of polling stations reporting, the Harvard- educated banker had 59.2% of the vote; millionaire soccer star George Weah had 40.8%.

Max van den Berg, head of a 50member European Union mission that monitored the voting, said early / ndings indicated itwas fair.

Polio eradicated in 10 African nations

Polio has been stamped out in 10 African countries in a major boost to a global campaign to rid the world of the deadly disease, the World Health Organization said.

The 10 nations are Benin; Burkina Faso; Cameroon; Central African Republic; Chad; Ghana; Guinea; Ivory Coast; Mali; and Togo.

Polio is still endemic in six countries: Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Niger, Afghanistan and Egypt, the U.N. health agency said. Cases also have been reported in Angola, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Nepal, Somalia and Sudan.

The outbreak was blamed on a vaccine boycott initiated by hardline Islamic clerics in Nigeria, who claimed in 2003 that the polio vaccine was part of a U.S.- led plot to render Nigeria’s Muslims infertile or infect them with HIV.

Bruce Aylward, coordinator of the WHO’s global polio eradication program, said the world could be free of polio in 12 to 18 months.

break Latin American up cocaine authorities cartel

Authorities in Colombia, Mexico and Ecuador arrested 60 suspects and shut down a drug traf / cking and money laundering operation, police said. Col. Jaime Gutierrez, deputy director of Colombia’s Judicial Police, said agents seized 2.2 tons of cocaine in Colombia and 1 ton in Ecuador. The cartel “ had tentacles both in the United States and Europe,” Gutierrez said. “ They sent the drugs to the U.S. through Mexico or across the Paci / c.”

Authorities in Colombia, the world’s largest producer of cocaine, have seized more than 110 tons of the narcotic this year.