World digest 03/21/03

Two Russian helicopters missing in ChechnyaMOSCOW -- Two Russian helicopters with four crew members aboard went missing in Chechnya on Thursday and the military sent rescue crews to locate them, the Defense Ministry said.

The helicopters were Mi-24 models escorting two transport helicopters in dense fog in the mountains of southern Chechnya, said Col. Vyacheslav Sedov, a ministry spokesman.

Air Force spokesman Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky said the helicopters were taking part in a combat landing mission in southeastern Chechnya, the Interfax news agency reported. He wouldn't give any other details.

Rebels have dug into the rugged, forested mountains of southern Chechnya, dodging regular Russian artillery barrage and air strikes and mounting surprise raids against the federal forces.

Mudslides in Colombia kill at least 15 people

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Mudslides caused by heavy rain killed at least 15 people in Colombia's mountainous coffee-growing region and destroyed dozens of houses, authorities said Thursday.

At least 11 people were killed in Manizales, a city of 450,000 people about 100 miles northwest of Bogota. It is built into the side of an Andean mountain range that runs down western Colombia.

At least 20 people were reported missing in some of the city's poorest, cliffside neighborhoods, said Angela Sanchez, Red Cross director in Manizales.

Just outside Manizales, in the town of Villamaria, four other people were killed by mudslides that crushed their homes.

Oil firms airlift villagers from violence-ridden delta

WARRI, Nigeria -- Multinational oil firms airlifted hundreds of people Thursday out of the Niger Delta, where fighting between rebels and soldiers has razed villages and crippled petroleum operations for the world's sixth largest oil exporter.

ChevronTexaco, Royal/ Dutch Shell and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. flew weeping residents by helicopter from remote oil facilities to the southern port city of Warri.

It was not immediately known how many people have been killed in the fighting involving Nigerian soldiers and Ijaw and Itsekiri ethnic militants, which started March 12 ahead of next month's presidential elections.

At least eight villages have been destroyed.

Husband of astronaut holds NASA blameless

CHANDIGARH, India -- The families of the seven astronauts killed in the Columbia explosion in February do not blame NASA, the husband of Indian-born astronaut Kalpana Chawla said Thursday.

"It was a risk we knew about. It's the same for families of military pilots," Jean-Pierre Harrison told some 40 aeronautics students at Punjab Engineering College, where his wife had studied 25 years ago.

The seven astronauts and their families had planned to visit India together in March. On Thursday, Harrison came alone to this Indian town.

"We don't blame NASA," he said. "They did the best job they knew given the information they had."

Chawla, the first Indian astronaut, is a national hero in India.

Court frees businessman who led Venezuelan strike

CARACAS, Venezuela -- An appeals court on Thursday ordered the release of a businessman who has spent nearly a month under house arrest for leading an unsuccessful strike to oust President Hugo Chavez.

The Caracas court ruled that prosecutors have not presented enough evidence to keep Carlos Fernandez in custody on charges of rebellion and instigation, Judge Luis Lecuna told Globovision television.

Fernandez, 52, helped organize a two-month strike to demand Chavez's resignation or early elections. The strike paralyzed the world's fifth-largest oil exporting industry but fizzled last month with Chavez firmly in power.

-- From wire reports