In the World

JERUSALEM - Israel's attorney general notified Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday that he plans to indict him on suspicion of illicitly taking cash-stuffed envelopes - a sensational case that turned public opinion so sharply against the Israeli leader he was forced to resign.

Olmert would become the first Israeli prime minister ever indicted. Before a decision on an indictment is made, Olmert will have one last chance to try to persuade Attorney General Meni Mazuz not to charge him, Mazuz said in a news release.

Five corruption investigations are pending against Olmert, and he has denied wrongdoing in each. His spokesman, Amir Dan, predicted yesterday that the charges would "disappear in the end."

All the investigations predate Olmert's becoming prime minister in January 2006, when he was mayor of Jerusalem and minister of industry and trade. He has remained in office pending the formation of a new government. - AP

CARACAS, Venezuela - Government troops will occupy Venezuela's biggest rice-processing plant today, President Hugo Chavez announced yesterday, as the socialist leader expanded his crackdown on private companies that evade government price caps.

Chavez sent soldiers to occupy their first rice-processing plant Saturday, a facility in central Venezuela owned by Grupo Polar, the country's largest food producer. Chavez said, "I'm here to safeguard the public and follow the constitution."

The president's original order Saturday called for troops to occupy all rice mills, but they have yet to enter a plant owned by Cargill Inc., the U.S. multinational company. Doing so likely would draw a sharp protest from the Obama administration.

- McClatchy Newspapers

QUETTA, Pakistan - A suspected separatist group holding an American U.N. worker in Pakistan said yesterday it would kill him in four days if the government did not release more than 1,000 prisoners.

The threat on the life of John Solecki was made in a letter sent to the Online International News Network that was also read by an Associated Press reporter.

Gunmen seized Solecki on Feb. 2 after shooting his driver to death as the pair drove to work in the southwestern city of Quetta in Baluchistan. The previously unknown Baluchistan Liberation United Front claimed responsibility. - AP

Security forces have killed 120 militants linked to al-Qaeda in Algeria over the last six months and arrested 322, the government said yesterday. Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni attributed the results to increased security efforts in the North African country since August, when al-Qaeda's local offshoot claimed responsibility for suicide bombings that left more than 100 people dead.