LIMA: Peru's Prime Minister Alberto Pandolfi has resigned, the government said in a statement. His resignation, which was submitted on Thursday, was accepted by President Alberto Fujimori. The prime minister was one of Fujimori's closest allies. His successor is expected to be Javier Valle Riestra, a lawyer and former politician.

Hostages killed

BOGOTA: A right-wing paramilitary group has killed 25 hostages who they accused of being leftist rebels, said Jose Rios, a top government human rights official. The hostages, who were kidnapped last month in eastern Colombia, were killed after an unofficial ``trial'', said a a statement the paramilitaries sent to a government commission.

German disaster

ESCHEDE: Germany suspended most of its high-speed train services, one day after a horrific smash left at least 94 dead and 200 injured in the worst rail disaster in the country's post-war history. No official reason has yet been found to explain why the intercityExpress Munich-Hamburg train slammed into an overpass pylon at 200 km per hour near the northern town of Eschede late Wednesday. However a hypothesis has been suggested that a faulty wheelcasing may have caused one of the carriages to rock off the tracks.

S Korea polls

SEOUL: South Korea's ruling coalition triumph in local polls is seen as a referendum on President Kim Dae-Jung's economic reforms launched since he took office 100 days ago, official results showed. The ruling parties won a landslide victory in the first polls since Kim came to power, picking up 10 out of 16 key mayoral gubernatorial posts across the country.