WORLD BRIEFS

SRI LANKA: Defeated opponent arrested

The defeated presidential candidate was hauled from his office by military police Monday and will be court-martialed for allegedly planning to overthrow the government while serving as the head of the army. Sarath Fonseka, who as the top general helped defeat the Tamil Tiger rebels, was forcibly detained, opposition politician Rauff Hakeem told The Associated Press. Fonseka and President Mahinda Rajapaksa were once strong allies who combined to end the country's 25-year civil war last May. But they subsequently fell out, and Fonseka quit his post. They contested a bitter election last month for the presidency that Rajapaksa won by 17 percentage points, according to official results.

COSTA RICA: Woman takes the helm

Costa Ricans have elected their first woman president as the ruling party candidate won in a landslide after campaigning to continue free market policies in Central America's most stable nation. With most of the votes from Sunday's election counted, Laura Chinchilla held a 22-point lead over her closest rival. Her 47 percent share of the vote was well beyond the 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. The protege of the current president, Oscar Arias, promised to pursue the same economic policies that recently brought the country into a trade pact with the United States and opened commerce with China. Chinchilla, 50, will be the fifth Latin American woman to serve as president when she takes office in May.

UKRAINE: Yanukovych victory hailed

International monitors hailed Ukraine's presidential election Monday as transparent and honest, bolstering opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych's claim of victory and leaving Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in a strategic bind. Tymoshenko, who was the charismatic catalyst of the 2004 Orange Revolution mass protests, had said she would call supporters into the streets if she deemed Sunday's election fraudulent. She has signaled she will challenge the outcome in the courts, but she issued no protest call Monday. International observers' criticism of the 2004 presidential election had lent significant weight to the Orange protests, which ended with a court-ordered revote in which Yanukovych was defeated by Viktor Yushchenko.

THE EMIRATES: Problems at the skyscraper

The world's tallest skyscraper has unexpectedly closed to the public a month after its lavish opening, disappointing tourists headed for the observation deck and casting doubt over plans to welcome its first permanent occupants in the coming weeks. Electrical problems are at least partly to blame for the closure of the Burj Khalifa's viewing platform, the only part of the half-mile-high tower in Dubai open yet. It was unclear whether the rest of the largely empty building, including elevators to whisk visitors to the tower's more than 160 floors, was affected by the shutdown. The indefinite closure comes as Dubai struggles to revive its international image amid nagging questions about its financial health.