World Scene

SERBIA-MONTENEGRO

Kosovar president has lung cancer

PRISTINA — Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova, the icon of a 15-year drive by ethnic Albanians to secede from Serbia, said yesterday that he has lung cancer.

But Mr. Rugova, who spent last week at a U.S. military hospital in Germany, said doctors there had told him that his condition was “improving” and they were optimistic he would recover. He made no mention of resignation.

“With the help of God, I will overcome this battle and continue to work for the recognition of our country, Kosovo,” a visibly frail Mr. Rugova, 60, said in a recorded televised address to the province.

ETHIOPIA

Final election tally favors ruling party

ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopia yesterday released final election results confirming that Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s ruling coalition won bitterly contested parliamentary polls in the vast Horn of Africa nation.

After nearly three months of counting, the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia issued final results for 545 of the 547 seats in the federal parliament, giving 327 seats to Mr. Meles’s ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front.

The main opposition coalitions won 161 seats, while other seats went to smaller parties and independents.

JAPAN

Oil reserves will be released

TOKYO — Japan will free 7.3 million barrels from oil reserves held by private-sector refiners over 30 days beginning tomorrow, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said this morning.

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