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Top story: Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is planning to contest the results of Sunday's Presidential election, which awarded a slim victory to her rival, Viktor Yanukovych. The Tymoshenko Bloc claims the results were distorted by fraud.
"I will never recognize the legitimacy of Yanukovich's victory with such elections," she reportedly told a party meeting on Monday.
With only .03 percent of the vote left to count, Yanukovych is leading by 3.5 percentage points. Tymoshenko has not yet called for public protests but has reportedly instructed her lawyers to prepare to contest the result in court. Tymoshenko's challenge could set up a rematch of the 2004 Orange Revolution in which Tymoshenko and current president Vikto Yushchenko successfully challenged a fraudulent victory by Yanukovych.
This time around, however, the result has been praised as fair by international observers including the Organiztaion for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Union, and the United States. The U.S. embassy hailed the result as "another step in the consolidation of Ukraine's democracy."
Yanukovych plans to address supporters at a victory rally tonight.
Business: Toyota has recalled 437,000 Priuses and other hybrids worldwide over break problems.
Asia
- The Pakistani Taliban has finally confirmed the death of leader Hakimullah Mehsud,
- 197 people, including a former governor, have been charged with last November's politically-motivated massacre of 57 in the Philippines.
- Sri Lankan opposition leader Sarath Fonseka, who had been planning to challenge last months presidential election result in court, was arrested on sedition charges.
- North Korea's Kim Jong Il dispatched his top nuclear envoy to Beijing for disarmament talks.
Middle East
- Iran has reportedly begun enriching its supply of uranium.
- An Iranian opposition leader was jailed for six months for his role in last summer's protests.
- Egypt arrested three top Muslim Brotherhood leaders.
Africa
- Nigeria's senate voted to empower Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to take over from ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, ending weeks of uncertainty over who was running the country.
- A rebel leader who was the first Darfur war crimes suspect to be charged at the International Criminal Court has had the charges against him dropped.
- Ghana has blocked the sale of an oil field to Exxon Mobil.
Americas
- Mexico arrested two leaders of Tijuana's top drug cartel.
- Haitian authorities say the U.S. missionaries facing kidnapping charges had made an earlier attempt to remove children from the country.
- A 28-year old man was pulled from the rubble in Port-au-Prince, alive after four weeks.
Europe
- The British Iraq War inquiry will now seek meetings with top Bush administration officials.
- The IRA splinter group, the Irish National Liberation Army, has fully disarmed but made no apologies for its violent tactics.
- France has unveiled a new national identity plan which would require new immigrants to sign a declaration of values.
VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP/Getty Images
