Soldiers in Niger have named a new military leader following Thursday's coup against  President Mamadou Tandja. Squadron chief Salou Djibo leads Niger's new Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy. He commands a heavy artillery unit that played a key role in Thursday's attack on the presidential palace. President Tandja was detained while holding a cabinet meeting.

The United Nations' special envoy on human rights in Burma says he deeply regrets that Burma's military government denied him a meeting with opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who is currently under house arrest. U.N. envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana told reporters Friday he was particularly disappointed to be denied a meeting because this year Burma is expected to hold its first national elections in 20 years.  He said no reason was given for the denial. Quintana met Friday with a number of government officials to discuss the elections and other issues.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko urged a court Friday to examine carefully all the evidence regarding Ukraine's run-off presidential election, which she says was rigged. A court in Kyiv began hearing the prime minister's appeal to block the inauguration later this month of her rival, Viktor Yanukovych. Ms. Tymoshenko said she would accept the court's decision if all the evidence regarding the February 7 vote is studied thoroughly. Yanukovych is due to be sworn in February 25 after beating Prime Minister Tymoshenko by more than 3.5 percentage points.

An Afghan-international patrol found a weapons cache in the Nurgaram district of Nuristan province last night. The cache consisted of 12 107mm rockets, two rocket-propelled grenades and two 75mm recoilless rifle rounds. In the Garm Ser district of Helmand yesterday, an Afghan civilian told a joint patrol about a weapons cache buried in a field.

Clearance operations continue and are still meeting with some resistance, more so in Marjah than in Nad-e Ali. IED's remain the main threat to the combined force, with some intense small-arms engagements still occurring. Afghan and British forces are pressing on with clearing operations in Nad-e Ali and the South Bolan Desert while ANSF and U.S. forces clear Marjah. The combined force is meeting determined pockets of resistance in both the north and east of Marjah city. The main effort has been on clearing IED's and minefields.

Rescue and recovery efforts are still ongoing following the Feb. 18 crash of a U.S. Navy MH-60S "Knighthawk" helicopter in a remote area of West Virginia, with the majority of the personnel safely extracted from the crash site. There are injuries reported to the 17 crew and passengers aboard, but none of the injuries are life threatening. There are no fatalities. The names of the injured are not being released at this time. The helicopter is assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Support Squadron 26 from Naval Station Norfolk.

U.S. service members and supporting contractors from the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Joint Test and Evaluation (JT&E) Program selected the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P) as the location for a 30-day field test of newly developed civil information management procedures Jan. 15-Feb. 15. The Joint Test (JT) began at Camp Navarro in Zamboanga, Philippines.