In Brief

BAD WEATHER – Harsh winter weather is threatening to cut off more than 300 000 survivors of last year’s killer South Asian earthquake from critical food supplies, the United Nations warned yesterday, as the season’s first snows began to fall.

* PROPOSALS – British Prime Minister Tony Blair was to lay out plans yesterday for a new multibillion-pound nuclear deterrent, a move expected to be among his last major acts as premier – and one likely to cause friction in his governing Labour party. * WITHDRAWAL – Rebels in Central African Republic have retreated from another northeastern town in the face of advancing government troops, leaving them with just one stronghold.A rebel leader confirmed the retreat from Ndele on Monday.It was first announced on state radio Sunday afternoon.* IMPASSE – Officials of Somalia’s Islamic movement stressed in an informal meeting with an Ethiopian minister that the group would only hold substantive talks with Ethiopia once it withdraws its troops from Somalia, the group’s foreign affairs chief said yesterday.* SUPPORT – Thailand’s revered king voiced his support yesterday for the country’s post-coup government, using his annual birthday speech to deliver a thinly veiled criticism of deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.* CUTTING BACK – In an effort to shore up a shaky truce in the Gaza Strip, Israeli military officials said yesterday they were reducing their operations in the West Bank and had made it more difficult for field commanders to order arrest raids there.Nampa-AFP-AP-Reuters* WITHDRAWAL – Rebels in Central African Republic have retreated from another northeastern town in the face of advancing government troops, leaving them with just one stronghold.A rebel leader confirmed the retreat from Ndele on Monday.It was first announced on state radio Sunday afternoon.* IMPASSE – Officials of Somalia’s Islamic movement stressed in an informal meeting with an Ethiopian minister that the group would only hold substantive talks with Ethiopia once it withdraws its troops from Somalia, the group’s foreign affairs chief said yesterday.* SUPPORT – Thailand’s revered king voiced his support yesterday for the country’s post-coup government, using his annual birthday speech to deliver a thinly veiled criticism of deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.* CUTTING BACK – In an effort to shore up a shaky truce in the Gaza Strip, Israeli military officials said yesterday they were reducing their operations in the West Bank and had made it more difficult for field commanders to order arrest raids there.Nampa-AFP-AP-Reuters