February 23 2005

• President Bush arrives in Slovakia for the Slovakia Summit, becoming the first sitting U.S. President to visit Slovakia. (Reuters)
• Three British soldiers are found guilty of abusing Iraqi prisoners; more British soldiers face the possibility of conviction. (Reuters) (Guardian) (CBC)
• Bhutan bans smoking in public places (Kerala Next) (BBC)
• In Sri Lanka, Tamil Tigers warn that the truce with the government is under threat after the killing of one of their leaders, E Kaushalyan. The ceasefire has lasted for four years. (Reuters Alertnet) (Bloomberg) (BBC)
• Pakistan's supreme court refuses a government request to withdraw a corruption case against minister Faisal Saleh Hayat. (KeralaNext) (BBC)
• Rasim Delić, former commander of the Bosnian army in Bosnia during the Yugoslav Wars, announces he will hand himself over to the UN Tribunal. He stands accused of war crimes against ethnic Serbs (Reuters) (BBC)
• In Italy, Andrea Volpe, leader of the Beasts of Satan rock group, is sentenced to 30 years in prison for three murders. Another member Pietro Guerrieri receives 16 years, while a third member is acquitted (Reuters) (AGI) (BBC)
• Exiled Cuban writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante dies in London (Reuters) (BBC)
• South African archbishop Desmond Tutu launches a campaign to require governments to register all children at birth (Reuters) (BBC)
• Interpol announces a stern warning that the threat of a bioterror attack still exists. (BBC) (Interpol)
• WHO warns that there is a potential threat of a bird flu pandemic (Reuters) (BBC) (CNN) (VOA)