RP, RI, Japan, to hold anti-piracy and anti-pollution drills:

RP, RI, Japan, to hold anti-piracy and anti-pollution drills: Coast guard personnel from the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan will take part in exercises later this week to combat marine pollution and piracy, the Philippine coast guard said on Wednesday. The anti-pollution exercise, which start Saturday in Subic Bay near Manila, will involve 600 coast guard personnel. It will simulate a major oil spill from a burning ship and airborne evacuation of its crew, a coast guard statement said. --AP

NASA loses contact with 'Pioneer 10' probe: The U.S. space agency has lost contact with a 30-year old space probe that was the first to pass through the asteroid belt and send to Earth close- up images of Jupiter, NASA officials announced on Tuesday. "Originally designed for a 21-month mission, Pioneer 10 lasted more than 30 years," said project manager Larry Lasher. Launched in 1972, Pioneer 10 entered the asteroid belt that same year and passed by Jupiter in December 1973. In addition to taking pictures of Jupiter, it charted the gas giant's radiation belts, located the planet's magnetic field and established that Jupiter was predominantly a liquid planet. --AFP

U.S. jeeps, trucks line Turkish port as government debates: More than 500 U.S. military trucks and jeeps were lined up on Wednesday at a Turkish port as Washington waited for Turkey's parliament to decide on allowing in U.S. combat troops for an Iraq operation. The trucks and jeeps have been unloaded over the past week, but have not been moved out of the port. Parliament had been expected to vote late last week on a proposal that would allow in 62,000 U.S. combat troops to open a northern front against Iraq. --AP

Belgian FM hits back at Israeli critics: Foreign Minister Louis Michel hit back on Wednesday at Israeli critics of Belgium's contentious war crimes law, saying his government was not behind efforts to bring Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon to trial. Michel criticized the Israeli government, which recalled its ambassador two weeks ago after Belgium's Supreme Court ruled that war crimes charges could be pursued against Sharon after he is out of office and no longer covered by diplomatic immunity. The case was filed by a group of Palestinians seeking to try Sharon for war crimes over a 1982 massacre in refugee camps in Lebanon. --AP