Army chief fired; protests erupt

Nepal’s prime minister fired the army chief Sunday after a struggle over admitting former Maoist rebel fighters to the military, sparking mass protests and jeopardizing the survival of the country’s first elected government.

President Ram Baran Yadav, meanwhile, rejected the ouster of the army chief, Rookmangud Katawal, in a letter, calling it unconstitutional. The letter was delivered to Katawal’s office late Sunday night and copies were also sent to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s residence.

Yadav was the first person elected as president in this Himalayan country, where a centuries-old monarchy was abolished last year. The army is officially under the president’s command, not the prime minister’s.

However, since the country’s constitution is being rewritten, many things are unclear, including who has the power to fire the army chief. The president is a member of the Nepali Congress, the main opposition party, which vowed to fight the decision.

The army chief’s dismissal prompted a key political party to withdraw from the ruling coalition and frayed already tense relations between the government, dominated by former Maoist rebels, and the military they long fought.

Thousands of demonstrators filled Katmandu’s streets Sunday, some to support the Maoist government and others to protest. Maoist supporters, waving red flags, called the army chief’s sacking a “victory for people’s rule” while the opposition blocked traffic and burned tires in protest.

INNSBRUCK, Austria

Six hikers die in avalanche

Six people were killed when an avalanche trapped them under 8 feet of snow as they hiked in the Alps of Western Austria, according to authorities.

A 45-year-old man was the sole survivor when the group was hit by the avalanche at an altitude of about 9,850 feet, rescuers said Sunday.

Authorities said the bodies of the victims had been recovered.

The group was buried by the tumbling snow Saturday afternoon while hiking not far from the popular Soelden ski resort in Austria’s alpine province of Tyrol.

NAIROBI, Kenya

French intercept suspected pirates

A French naval vessel intercepted 11 suspected pirates traveling off the Somali coast on Sunday in two assault vessels and a so-called “mothership” loaded with Kalashnikovs and rocket launchers, the French Defense Ministry said.

It was the French ship’s third pirate intervention in a month. France has been the most aggressive in pursuing pirates out of more than a dozen nations patrolling shipping routes in the Gulf of Aden.

French Defense Ministry spokesman Christophe Prazuck said the 11 new suspects were intercepted Sunday morning about 560 miles off Somalia’s coast. They had been traveling with a pirate mothership – a larger vessel often used to tow speed boats hundreds of miles out to sea and resupply them in open water. Prazuck said it was still unclear what France would do with the new suspects.

CARACAS, Venezuela

Military helicopter crashes, killing 18

Seventeen Venezuelan soldiers and a civilian were killed when a military helicopter crashed Sunday near the Colombian border, the state news agency reported. A brigadier general was among those killed.

President Hugo Chavez said the soldiers were patrolling the 1,400-mile border separating Venezuela and Colombia when the local military base lost contact with their Mi-17 helicopter shortly after midday. The helicopter crashed near the town of El Alto de Rubio, the state-run Bolivarian News Agency reported.

Two pilots and the entire crew were killed. Army Brig. Gen. Domingo Alberto Feneite and Cristian Velazquez, a civilian, were among the victims, according to the state news agency.

PANAMA CITY

Martinelli wins landslide election

Conservative supermarket magnate Ricardo Martinelli won Panama’s presidential election in a landslide Sunday, promising to guide the country through the world economic crisis and an ambitious expansion of the Panama Canal.

The win by Martinelli, of the opposition Alliance for Change, marked a rare center-right election triumph in a region that has seen a wave of leftist leaders.

Electoral Tribunal President Erasmo Pinilla called Martinelli the “indisputable winner” after preliminary results showed him with 61 percent support and governing party candidate Balbina Herrera with 37 percent. Former President Guillermo Endara was a distant third. The winner was announced with 87 percent of the votes counted.

The U.S.-educated, pro-business Martinelli, 57, who owns Panama’s largest supermarket chain, said he would work for a national unity government because “that is what the country is counting on.”

“Tomorrow we will all be Panamanians and we will change this country so that it has a good health system, good education, good transportation and good security,” he said.

From wire reports