Hugo Chavez has called President Bush a devil, a donkey and a drunkard. But on Wednesday the Venezuelan leader said his comments were "nothing personal."

Chavez, who had stepped up his verbal assault during Bush's Latin American tour this week, suggested that the two adversaries might eventually overcome their differences and even play a game of dominos or baseball together.

"One day, if maybe George Bush and I survive all of this, we will reach old age, and it would be good to play a game of dominos, street baseball," Chavez said on his weekday radio program.

But he said his comments about the American leader were "nothing personal" and that his opposition to Bush was due to "deep ethical, political, historic and geopolitical" reasons.

Chavez has fiercely opposed U.S.-backed free trade policies and criticized the Bush administration's handling of Iraq and other foreign policy decisions.

Chavez said Bush was part of a long line of elitist U.S. administrations that have become accustomed to abusing the rest of the world, acting unilaterally and violating human rights.

He also taunted the U.S. leader for skirting questions about Chavez during his Latin American tour in the past week, comparing him to a matador avoiding the bull with his cape.

"The president of the United States takes out his cape as always, Ole!, because he doesn't want to respond" to pointed issues raised by the Venezuelan leader, Chavez said.

Bush on Wednesday completed a tour of Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia and Guatemala.

Chavez went on something of a shadow tour of Bush's trip over the same period, visiting several regional nations including Argentina, where he led thousands in an anti-bush rally.

Five Chinese citizens seeking compensation from Japan for injuries from poison gas left behind in China by Japanese forces during World War Two lost a court battle on Tuesday.
The five Chinese had sought a total of 80 million yen (US$680,000) from the Japanese government for injuries and health problems they suffered between 1950 and 1987.

But on Tuesday, the Tokyo High Court upheld a lower court ruling in May 2003 that had dismissed their damages suit, one of a range of war-related issues that have at times strained relations between the two Asian giants.

It was not immediately clear whether the Chinese plaintiffs would appeal to the Supreme Court.

Beijing and Tokyo have been grappling with a number of disputes over everything from energy resources and territorial boundaries to historical issues stemming from Japan's invasion and occupation of parts of China from 1931 to 1945.

But ties have warmed since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office last September and made his first trip abroad an ice-breaking visit to China. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is expected to make a reciprocal visit to Tokyo in April.

In a separate but similar court battle, the Tokyo District Court ordered the government in September 2003 to pay a total of about 190 million yen in compensation to 13 Chinese, including bereaved relatives of victims.

The Japanese government filed an appeal several days later.

The case arose from poison gas incidents in 1974 and 1982 and a shell explosion in 1995, all involving discarded Japanese munitions in Heilongjiang province in northeastern China.

China says Japanese forces left behind about 2 million chemical weapon shells in China, and more than 2,000 people have been harmed by them.

Japanese studies have placed the number of such shells at about 700,000.

Japan had pledged to clean up the weapons by this year, but it later sought an extension, saying the deadline was impossible to meet. China has complained about the slow pace of disposals.

On Aug. 4, 2003, one man died and more than 40 people were injured after five World War Two-era metal barrels containing mustard gas were unearthed at a construction site in the city of Qiqihaer, Heilongjiang.

Japan apologized and paid a total of 300 million yen in compensation to the Chinese government for the Qiqihaer incident.

China plans to gradually lessen the number of executions it carries out while still keeping the death penalty, according to a statement released Sunday by China's Supreme People's Court, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Public Security, and China's lead prosecutor. The statement indicated that China cannot entirely abolish the death penalty, but noted that if the possibility exists that a convicted individual did not commit the crime, then that person should not be executed. The legal groups also condemned confessions through torture and said police must instead gather evidence according to the law.

China, which executes more prisoners than any other country in the world, revised its death penalty laws last year, mandating the Supreme People's Court to review any death sentences handed down. The country has been under pressure to take a closer look at its policies after China's deputy chief prosecutor revealed that almost every wrongful conviction in recent years has been the result of torture and intensive interrogation techniques.

Although the government generally respected and promoted human rights at the national level by investigating, prosecuting, and sentencing public officials and members of the security forces, a deeply entrenched culture of impunity and corruption persisted, particularly at the state and local level. The following human rights problems were reported: unlawful killings by security forces; kidnappings, including by police; torture; poor and overcrowded prison conditions; arbitrary arrests and detention; corruption, inefficiency, and lack of transparency in the judicial system; statements coerced through torture permitted as evidence in trials; criminal intimidation of journalists, leading to self-censorship; corruption at all levels of government; domestic violence against women often perpetrated with impunity; criminal violence, including killings against women; trafficking in persons, sometimes allegedly with official involvement; social and economic discrimination against indigenous people; and child labor.

On Friday, Calderon said he plans to replace each state's individual criminal code with a single, nationwide code. He also wants to make it easier to fire corrupt police officers and to transition to trials similar to those in the US. Trials are currently held behind closed doors.

Thousands of Italians rallied in Rome on Saturday in support of a bill that would give legal status to unmarried gay and heterosexual couples couples. The proposal, which has been harshly criticized by the Italian justice minister and the top Italian bishop, would give unmarried couples combined medical insurance, the right to visit their partner in prisons or hospitals, inheritance rights, and decision-making authority should one partner become sick. Couples would have to live together for nine years before they would be entitled to property rights, but if the legislation is passed, couples would be able to take advantage of the other legal protections immediately.

The Vatican has said that giving unmarried couples rights would threaten traditional families. A "traditional" family is held by the Vatican to be a marital union between a man and a woman.

A revised version of a controversial bill granting amnesty to groups that allegedly committed war crimes was signed into law Saturday by Afghan President Hamid Karzai after being approved earlier in the day by the Afghan parliament, which includes many former militia leaders. The resolution bars the state from independently prosecuting individuals for war crimes absent accusation from an alleged victim. It also extends immunity to all groups involved in pre-2002 conflicts, as opposed to only leaders of various factions alleged to have committed war crimes during the 1980s resistance against Soviet forces and war crimes committed during the country's civil war. The Taliban and other human rights violators active before the establishment of the December 2001 Interim Administration in Afghanistan are protected under the bill. Critics say the law may violate Afghanistan's constitution as well as certain international human rights treaties. MPs opposing the bill reportedly were threatened by former militiamen in the national assembly.

Both houses of the Afghan parliament initially approved a resolution calling for amnesty for leaders in February. That resolution drew some popular support but was criticized by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and other rights advocates. Afghanistan's highest body of Islamic clerics also opposed the issuance of a blanket amnesty, arguing that the perpetrators of war crimes can only gain forgiveness from the victims and not the parliament.