World datelines

Afghanistan

KANDAHAR — A suicide bomber blew himself up next to security contractors in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing two Americans and five Afghans. It was the sixth suicide attack in the Kandahar region in nine days.

Congo

KINSHASA — After decades of dictatorship and wars, Congo on Wednesday swore in Joseph Kabila, its first freely elected president since 1960, installing the son of a rebel leader who promised a new era of order and better days ahead.

Cuba

HAVANA — Acting President Raul Castro sat in for his ailing brother Fidel Wednesday at the 13th birthday celebration for Elian Gonzalez, the boy at the center of an international custody dispute nearly seven years ago.

Fiji

SUVA — Fiji's powerful council of tribal chiefs on Thursday refused to recognize the military regime that ousted the elected government in a coup, throwing its support instead behind the South Pacific nation's president. The move leaves the coup's leader, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, increasingly isolated with no significant group in Fiji expressing even tacit support for Tuesday's ouster of Premier Laisenia Qarase's government.

France

PARIS — A French pilot was forced to eject from his fighter plane over Algeria Wednesday during a flight from Chad to France, the Defense Ministry said. The pilot landed safely, and the aircraft crashed in an uninhabited area south of the city of Constantine.

Israel

JERUSALEM — In their first comment about the fate of two soldiers whose capture triggered a monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas last summer, Israeli officials said Wednesday the two were seriously wounded — raising the prospect they may no longer be alive.

Kyrgyzstan

BISHKEK — A U.S. serviceman fatally shot a civilian at the U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday "in response to a threat," the military said.

Lebanon