World Scene

YEMEN

Kidnappers free Japanese tourists

TOKYO — Two Japanese women who were kidnapped by local tribesmen while on vacation in Yemen have been released safely, Japan’s foreign ministry said today.

The pair were abducted while visiting a historic site in Marib, about 100 miles east of the country’s capital, San’a. They arrived without injury at their hotel, Japan’s Kyodo news agency said, quoting a source from Japan’s embassy in Yemen.

A provincial government official in the area had said the tribesmen kidnapped the women to press the Yemen government to free a jailed relative.

The Japanese foreign ministry did not give the terms for the women’s freedom.

CHINA

New procedures to battle virus

BEIJING — China announced yesterday new rules that require health care providers to report all cases of a viral illness that has killed 28 children and sickened thousands in outbreaks across the country.

There have been 15,799 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease this year, the official Xinhua news agency said, surfacing in areas ranging from the tropical island province of Hainan in the south to Jilin province in the northeast and Yunnan province in the southwest.

The number and scope of cases in recent years, along with the need for increased surveillance, prompted the Health Ministry to enforce the new reporting rules, spokesman Mao Qun’an said.

Hand, foot and mouth disease is a common childhood illness that spreads through contact with saliva, feces, fluid secreted from blisters and mucus from the nose and throat.

POLAND

Military aid sought for missile defense

WARSAW — Poland and the U.S. will form working groups to study Warsaw’s demands for defense aid in exchange for placing part of a U.S. missile-defense system on Polish territory, a senior U.S. negotiator said yesterday.

The decision was made during meetings between Deputy Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski and U.S. defense and military experts on how Washington can help upgrade Warsaw’s defenses, U.S. diplomat Stephen Mull said.

The four working groups will analyze the issue in what will be a “long-term process,” Mr. Mull told reporters in Polish.

The U.S. wants to place 10 interceptor missiles in northern Poland and a radar base in neighboring Czech Republic, saying the defense system is needed to protect Europe and the U.S. from being attacked by countries like Iran.

Russia opposes building the missile-defense sites so close to its borders, arguing that it would undermine its nuclear deterrent.

IRELAND

New prime minister fights economic woes

DUBLIN — Finance Minister Brian Cowen was elected Ireland’s prime minister yesterday, and he pledged to guide the country on a continued pro-European course through choppy economic waters.

Mr. Cowen won in an 88-76 vote in Dail Eireann, Ireland’s parliament. He received support from all three parties in the government of his predecessor, Bertie Ahern, who stepped down Tuesday after 11 years in power.

Mr. Ahern and lawmakers from all parties offered Mr. Cowen a standing ovation.

CHINA

Olympic flame atop Everest

BEIJING — An Olympic flame reached the top of the world today .

Live television footage showed a Chinese mountaineering team holding up a specially designed torch — separate from the main Olympic flame — along with Chinese and Olympic flags on the peak of Mount Everest.

“One World, One Dream,” one of the climbers said on the approach to the peak, repeating the slogan for the Olympics. “We have lit the torch on top of the world,” another climber said.

From wire dispatches and staff reports