International Headline News

Date: Saturday, February 13, 2010
TOP STORIES as of 0900 HKT -- 14 February, 2010

OFFENSIVE AGAINST TALIBAN MAKING PROGRESS
Two coalition soldiers have died in the offensive against the
Taliban in southern Afghanistan, NATO says, but overall is off
to a promising start

> CHANGES COMING TO DEADLY LUGE TRACK
The luge track on which a Georgian athlete died during an
Olympic training run will reopen Saturday after officials found
it had no deficiencies, the Vancouver Olympic committee and
International Luge Federation said.

> PRINCESS DIANA REVEALING LETTERS ON SALE
More than 30 letters and cards written by the late Princess
Diana were up for auction Saturday in London, revealing personal
details such as how she liked to open presents early and that
she had trouble coping with media attention.

> EIGHT KILLED IN INDIA BAKERY 'BOMB' BLAST
A explosion Saturday at a bakery in the western Indian city of
Pune killed at least eight people and injured 33 others,
authorities said.

> SKI-JUMPER WINS FIRST GOLD OF OLYMPICS
Switzerland's Simon Ammann claimed the first gold medal of the
2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver when he won the opening men's
ski-jumping event on Saturday.

> TOYOTA RECALLS 8,000 TRUCKS OVER GLITCH
Toyota announced a voluntary safety recall of about 8,000
four-wheel-drive Tacoma trucks in North America, citing
potential production defects in the front drive shaft of certain
2010 models.

> SUU KYI AIDE RELEASED IN MYANMAR
A senior leader of the party of Myanmar pro-democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi was released Saturday night at the end of his
six-year house arrest.

> IRAQI MILITANT BLASTS UPCOMING ELECTIONS
A Sunni extremist leader has denounced the upcoming Iraqi
national elections and warned of insurgent acts against the
Shiite-led government.
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BUSINESS
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> GOOGLE 'OPTIMISTIC' IT WON'T LEAVE CHINA
Google co-founder Sergey Brin said he's optimistic that his
search engine will not have to pull out of China over hacking
and censorship issues.

> EUROZONE ECONOMIC RECOVERY FALTERS
The eurozone's economic recovery faltered late last year as a
strong performance by France failed to offset stagnation in
Germany and contraction in Italy and Spain reports Eurostat, the
European Union's statistics office.

> REPORT SLAMS EUROSTAR FOR XMAS CHAOS
An independent report out Friday slammed Eurostar for the fiasco
that saw thousands of passengers stranded before Christmas when
winter weather hit the English Channel Tunnel.