Datelines

Thailand

BANGKOK - The United States closed its embassy and other facilities here as a precaution against terrorist attack, U.S. diplomats said. An embassy spokesman and diplomats declined to give details of the security threat to the mission, but a source close to the embassy said the closure was due to fears of a car-bomb attack.

Japan

TOKYO - The head of Japan's Defense Agency, Fuku-shiro Nukaga, stepped down one day after releasing an internal report that exposed a cover-up at the highest levels in a growing corruption scan-dal.

Yugoslavia

PRISTINA - Heavy snow forced U.N. officials to reroute trucks carrying food, blankets and mattresses to Kosovo, raising concern about reaching refugees sheltered in remote villages.

Denmark

COPENHAGEN - The Supreme Court increased to life imprisonment the sentence of a Hells Angel who killed a member of a rival gang in the last outburst of the Nordic biker war.

Mexico

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS - Lawmakers and Zapa-tista rebel leaders were hoping weekend meetings in the southern state of Chiapas could rejuvenate a peace process that stalled two years ago.

China

BEIJING - Two earthquakes have struck rural southwestern China, killing one person and injuring 1,383, more than 200 of them seriously when their homes collapsed, the Central Seismology Bureau reported.

England

YORK - Authorities seized 6,000 counterfeit versions of two of the most coveted Beanie Babies soft toys, including a bear introduced to benefit Princess Diana's memorial fund.

Australia

PERTH - Dozens of tourists swam to safety past several freshwater crocodiles after their tour boat sank in the Fitzroy River in Western Australia's remote northwest, police said.

Switzerland

BASEL - The nation's two largest banks declared themselves ready to pay the first $250 million of their settlement with Holocaust survivors and their heirs.

Ukraine

KIEV - President Leonid Kuchma appointed career diplomat Anton Buteiko to be Ukraine's ambassador to the United States and Mexico, the presidential press service said.

Lebanon

NABATIYEH - Israel staged an air and artillery attack on the position of pro-Syrian guerrillas who had fired mortar bombs at its south Lebanon occupation zone, the Israeli army and security sources said.

Russia

MOSCOW - The nation can only pay about $10 billion of its foreign debt obligations next year and will need to reach a restructuring agreement with creditors, former presidential economic aide Alexander Livshits said.

France

PARIS - Michel Rocard, a former prime minister, has launched a damning attack on Francois Mitterrand, denouncing the late president as dishonest and casting fresh doubt over his disintegrating reputation.

Italy

ROME - A Rome court freed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan from detention, ordering him to remain in the capital while his appeal for political asylum is considered.