BEIJING - China, seeking to intimidate Taiwan in a row over the estranged island‘s political future, said on Wednesday it would rather let a thousand soldiers die in fighting than lose an inch of territory.

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Indonesian armed forces chief General Wiranto said on Wednesday he may declare a state of emergency in the violence-torn province of Aceh if separatist rebels continue their guerrilla war.

SYDNEY - Resistance leader Jose Ramos-Horta has warned of an economic war which could see computer viruses planted in Indonesia‘s banking system if Jakarta refuses to accept a vote for independence in East Timor on August 30.

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian police said on Wednesday that they rewrote a sodomy charge against former finance minister Anwar Ibrahim after discovering the building where the crime allegedly took place was not up at the time.

TOKYO - Japan is considering joining Canada and the United States in banning the collection of blood donations from people who lived in or frequently visited Britain during the outbreak of mad cow disease.

BEIJING - Nine Chinese officials, including two central bankers, are being tried on fraud charges involving 1.3 billion yuan ($157 million).

TAIPEI - A Taiwan F-16 fighter crashed during a routine training mission in southern Taiwan on Wednesday — the fourth crash of the U.S.-made warplanes in Taiwan in the past 18 months.

MANILA - Philippine President Joseph Estrada said on Wednesday that the sponsors of a rally against his proposed constitutional amendments should call off the protest because of the effect it is having on the economy.

TEHRAN - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said the „wall of mistrust“ between Iran and the United States could not be broken until Washington changed its policies towards the Islamic republic.

ESQUIMALT - Embarrassed Canadian officials said on Tuesday that fewer of the 131 Chinese migrants who arrived here last week were set to undergo quick deportation proceedings than initially announced.

SAN JOSE - The presidents of Honduras and Costa Rica called for a regional summit next month to discuss ways to make oil-producing nations understand how rising oil prices are hurting Central American economies.

KIGALI - Fighting eased in the rebel-held Congolese city of Kisangani on Wednesday after Uganda and Rwanda agreed to a ceasefire deal in a bid to revive their troubled military alliance after three days of ferocious clashes.

LONDON - Four British aid workers who were kidnapped in the Liberian jungle flew back home for an emotional reunion with their families.

BAGHDAD - Iraq said 19 civilians were killed and 11 wounded on Tuesday in a series of U.S. and British air raids on areas outside no-fly zones in the north and south of the country.

WASHINGTON - The United States, reacting to a draft nuclear deterrence doctrine publicized by India on Tuesday, said it was sticking with proposals that would restrain the nuclear weapons programs of India and Pakistan.

MOSCOW - Popular former Russian prime minister Yevgeny Primakov proposed a package of constitutional changes to limit the powers of the president as he took charge of a centrist electoral block on Tuesday.