Today's news

--> Venezuela: Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is purchasing ''three or four times'' more weapons than he needs, a top U.S. intelligence chief said Wednesday, but there is no evidence so far he is providing arms to Colombian guerrillas.

Gen. Michael Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said that the 100,000 AK-103s and AK-104 assault rifles purchased by Venezuela from Russia are going "into armories.''

Maples and National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell also told a Senate panel that the Cuban leadership shift from Fidel Castro to his brother Raúl could trigger tensions and even a migration crisis.

--> U.S.: The economy skidded to a near halt in the final quarter of last year, held back by the double blows of a housing and credit slump that made people and businesses alike more cautious in their spending.

The Commerce Department reported today that the gross domestic product increased at a scant 0.6 percent pace in the October-to-December quarter. The reading -- unchanged from an initial estimate a month ago -- underscored just how much momentum the economy has lost. In the prior quarter, the economy clocked in at a brisk 4.9 percent pace.

--> Kenya: Kenya's rival politicians have agreed to form a coalition government after weeks of wrangling on how to end the country's deadly post election crisis, mediator Kofi Annan said.

President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga had been negotiating for weeks about sharing power following the disputed elections in late December.

Annan told reporters at a press conference today: "We have come to an understanding on the coalition government."

The Associated Press reported that Mr Annan offered no further details, saying: "All I can say is that we do have an agreement."

--> Belgium: The European antitrust regulator imposed a record $1.35 billion fine against Microsoft on Wednesday in a ruling intended to send a clear message to the world’s largest software maker — and to any other company — of the dangers of flouting Europe’s competition rulings.

The size of the penalty, which surprised lawyers and legal experts, was a clear assertion of the power of the European Commission and its main antitrust regulator, Neelie Kroes, who is its competition commissioner. She has emerged from a lengthy legal battle with Microsoft as possibly the world’s most activist regulator.

The dispute with the commission has cost Microsoft more than $2.3 billion in fines.

--> India: A newborn baby girl fell through the toilet in a moving train and onto the tracks moments after her mother prematurely gave birth, surviving nearly two hours before being found, relatives said today.

The child's mother, who uses the single name Bhuri, was traveling with relatives on an overnight train when she went to the bathroom shortly before midnight Tuesday and unexpectedly gave birth to a baby girl, said Arjun Kumar, her brother-in-law.

"Later, she fell unconscious and the baby fell through the toilet," he continued. "Two stations later, we knocked at the door." Bhuri opened the door, soaked in blood.

"She was on the rail track for almost 1½ to two hours," said Dr. Gautam Jain, a pediatrician at Rajasthan Hospital in Ahmadabad, in the western state of Gujarat, where the baby and mother were taken.

The child, who has not yet been named, was eight to 10 weeks premature and weighed only 3.22 pounds, Jain said. She had a low heart rate and body temperature.

"We do not expect such children to survive," Jain said.