Venezuela's Supreme Court decided on Wednesday to suspend the Feb. 2 referendum set by the National Electoral Council on President Hugo Chavez's rule.

The ruling ordered the National Electoral Council to stop organizing the non-binding vote until the National Assembly appoints a new electoral body, said a communique of the Supreme Court. The tribunal also asked the National Electoral Council to refrain from making any other decisions on elections to guarantee the administrative function of the government.

Electoral authorities had set the consultative referendum for Feb. 2 after the opposition collected more than 2 million signatures to demand the vote so as to pave the way for an early election.

Chavez, who was re-elected in 2000 and survived a brief coup last April, rejected calls for his resignation or early elections before August this year, halfway through his six-year term.

Vice President Jose Rangel said the ruling has "frozen" the consultative referendum the opposition sought.

　　The opposition condemned the ruling as an unfair political decision. "This is a demonstration of the political control that the government has in the Supreme Court," said opposition spokesman Timoteo Zambrano.

Carter'S Proposals Considered
The government and the opposition analyzed on Wednesday the twoproposals put forward by former US President Jimmy Carter for a solution to the political crisis in the country.

Carter, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2002, Tuesday proposed a constitutional amendment that would shorten presidential terms and allow early elections or wait until Aug. 19,when the constitution allows a mid-term referendum to determine whether Chavez should stay in office.

The government considered the proposals "constructive," said Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), who was brokering the peace talks in Venezuela.

The opposition will comment on it in the coming days, he added.

The opposition, which launched the 52-day-old general strike, said on Wednesday that its delegation was to meet in Washington with foreign ministers of the Group of Friends of Venezuela, whichis comprised of Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Portugal, Chile and the United States.

Death toll in Mexican earthquake rises to 23

At least 23 people were killed in Tuesday's strong earthquake in western and central Mexico, the national civil defense authorities said on Wednesday.

The quake, which measured 7.6 on the Richter Scale, struck around 8: 11 p.m. (0211 GMT) in Colima, a small western state, about 500 kilometers west of Mexico City.

Radio reports from Colima said 21 people were killed and 204 others were injured in the state, and most of the victims died or injured after portions of offices and residential buildings collapsed near the center of the Colima city.

Nearly all of the state remained without electricity and phone service.

In Guadalajara, the capital of the neighboring state of Jalisco,the quake killed two people and injured 158 others. The death toll is expected to rise as the rescue work continues. Residents of 10 cities in Colima and four cities in Jalisco have been evacuated.

The National Seismological Service said at least 12 aftershocks have been felt following the earthquake. A strong offshore earthquake affected Mexico City on Sept. 19, 1984, killing 7,000 people, injuring 11,000 and leaving 300,000 others homeless. The damage stood at 1.1 billion US dollars.

Iraq expects "gray" report on disarmament from UN inspectors
Iraq said on Thursday it expected next week's key report by UN arms inspectors to the UN Security Council on its disarmament process to be a "gray" one -- neither positive nor negative.

"I expect chief UN inspector Hans Blix's report to be grey, not white, not black," Gen. Hussam Mohammed Amin, chief of the National Monitoring Directorate, Iraq's liaison body with the UN experts, told a press conference here.

Amin also voiced his hope that Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency

The two chief UN inspectors indicated on Monday that they had not obtained enough evidence to come to a conclusion on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction and would report to the Security Council that their mission in Iraq has not finished.

While denying US allegation that it has prohibited weapons, Iraqhas accepted the UN Security Council Resolution 1441 that provides for a tougher weapons inspection regime in the country. The UN weapons experts resumed their hunting for prohibited weapons of mass destruction in Iraq on Nov. 27 after a four-year suspension and have so far searched more than 400 suspected sites.

They must give their first report to the UN Security Council about Iraq's weapons programs by a Jan. 27 deadline.

Pakistan expels four officials of Indian embassy
Pakistan on Thursday declared four officials of the Indian High Commission (embassy) in Islamabad "personae non grata" and asked them to leave the countrywith in 48 hours, according to the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).

The APP quoted Foreign Office spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan as saying that three diplomats and one staff member of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad have been found involved "in activities incompatible with their status as members of the diplomatic mission."

The decision was conveyed to the Acting High Commissioner of India, who was called to the Foreign Office and told that the three diplomats and one official "must leave Pakistan within 48 hours." Their families, however, have been permitted to leave within seven days as provided in the bilateral code of conduct signed between the two countries in August 1992.

The Foreign office spokesman stated, "Reciprocating the Indian decision to cut down the strength of the Pakistani High Commissionin New Delhi to 51 personnel, the Government of Pakistan has also decided to apply the same staff ceiling on the Indian High Commission in Islamabad."

"Washington needs no new UN resolution for war against Iraq"
"The United States does not need another UN resolution to wage a war against Iraq", visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said here Thursday.

"We believe there is sufficient authority to move now without asecond resolution", Armitage, who is in Moscow for talks primarilyon U.S.-Russian cooperation in counter-terrorism, told the Echo Moskvy radio.

The official denied reports that the United States was ready tostart the war in mid-February, saying that President George W. Bush has not yet made a final decision on whether to go to war. Hesaid the president is holding consultations with allies.

Armitage meanwhile said the United States was working "very closely" with Russia "about the process of designating some Chechen terrorist groups as foreign terrorist organizations."

"Anyone who kills civilians for political aims is anathema to us," he said. The official also praised Russian-American cooperation in the area of counter-terrorism as well as Russia's work in guarding itsown nuclear facilities in order to prevent proliferation.