RUSSIA DEVELOPING NEW BALLISTIC MISSILE
MOSCOW: Russia is developing a new intercontinental ballistic missile that will eventually replace its existing Topol-M and Yars long-range weapons, the military said on Friday. Revealing the existence of the project for the first time, rocket forces commander General Sergei Karakayev said that several test launches of prototypes had already taken place and the work was on the “right path,” Russian state media said.

TAIWAN DEBATES BARRING NEW CHINA PASSPORTS
TAIPEI: Taiwan will discuss whether to deny entry to holders of new Chinese passports with maps showing two of the island’s most famous spots as part of Chinese territory, a top official said. Wang Yu-chi, chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council which is the top China policy-making body, told parliament that relevant government units will review the matter within a week. Opposition lawmakers demanded the government bar Chinese visitors who use the new passports bearing a map that covers Sun Moon Lake and Cingshui Cliff, both popular tourist destinations in Taiwan. Taiwan has protested the controversial new passports. Beijing also infuriated its southern neighbors with the new passports showing various islands in the South China Sea as being in its territory despite overlapping sovereignty claims.

US SENATE PANEL APPROVES CIA TORTURE FINDINGS
WASHINGTON, D.C.: The US Senate intelligence committee on Thursday approved the findings of an investigation into Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) “enhanced interrogation”—techniques the panel’s leader decried as “terrible mistakes.” The committee voted nine to six to approve the 6,000-page report on the former use of the tactics, which have been deemed torture by President Barack Obama and Republican Senator John McCain among others. But they made no immediate plans to de-classify the report for the public. Investigators pored over six million pages in a 3.5-year review of Central Intelligence Agency practice, including the sending of detainees to so-called black sites around the world where they endured harsh interrogation.

CHAVEZ SUFFERED ‘COMPLICATIONS’
CARACAS: Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez experienced “complications,” including bleeding, during his cancer surgery, but is showing positive signs of recovery, senior aides say. During his latest treatment, Chavez suffered “bleeding that required the adoption of corrective measures,” Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas said in a television and radio address. It was the first time Venezuelan officials had acknowledged complications in the six hours of surgery that Chavez underwent on Tuesday in Havana.