World
A major new offensive against Palestinian militants is not imminent, Israel's Defense Ministry said, despite the latest in a wave of terrorist bombings Monday that killed a woman and her 1-1/2-year-old granddaughter and wounded 44 others. But the Army arrested a local Hamas leader and 11 more terrorist suspects in a raid on Jenin and was conducting house-to-house searches in Bethlehem, both in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority condemned Monday's attack, and Yasser Arafat said "we should come back" to internationally sponsored peace negotiations. (Related story, page 1.)
Calling Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's speech to the nation Monday "disappointing" and "dangerous," Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh accused him of "belligerent posturing" over Kashmir and ruled out negotiations to lower tensions between the nuclear rivals. But Singh also said India would "reciprocate" if Musharraf "fulfills his promise to end terrorism." Above, a UN observer-patrol vehicle on the Kashmir dividing line stops to allow a local resident to cross the road.
Heavy US assistance is crucial to choke off the narcotics trade that finances leftist rebels in Colombia's civil war, President-elect Alvaro Uribe told his first news conference since the vote Sunday. Colombia produces most of the world's cocaine and 70 percent of the heroin consumed in the US, with the profits used to pay for smuggled arms shipments. Uribe said he wants to increase the strength of the armed forces and form a 1 million-strong civilian militia to combat the narcotics trade.
At least 26 people died and dozens of others were wounded in some of the heaviest fighting yet between forces of Somalia's transitional government and militiamen who control much of the capital, Mogadishu. The two-year-old government still exerts influence over only parts of the city, although it issued a statement over the weekend calling on its forces to "destroy the enemies of peace" a reference to the militias that do not recognize its authority.
Six aviation investigators from the US arrived in Taiwan to join the probe into why a China Airlines jet broke apart in flight and crashed at sea Saturday, killing all 225 people aboard. Its two data recorders, which might yield clues, have yet to be found. The fatal accident was the airline's fourth since 1994.
