World
More than 100 Islamic schools in Pakistan were cut off from government funding for at least the next three years because they "have been linked to militancy," a senior cleric said. The announcement came as Pakistan called for UN monitors to verify whether Islamic separatist guerrillas are infiltrating disputed Kashmir, as India alleges. US Defense Secretary Rumsfeld is due in the region later this week at the head of a mission to try to lower tensions between the nuclear rivals. (Story, page 1.)
The Middle East mission of CIA Director George Tenet was complicated by a Palestinian court order that would free a jailed militant leader under joint US-British guard. Ahmed Saadat is chief of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which has claimed responsibility for the murder last October of Israel's tourism minister. Reacting angrily to the court order, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel would "take all necessary steps" to keep Saadat locked up. Meanwhile, two other militant groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, rejected offers to serve in the new cabinet of Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat, which was to have been announced Monday night. Above, Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and a bodyguard stare at a news photographer en route to a rally in the Gaza Strip.
American troops returned from a search-and-destroy mission in eastern Afghanistan reporting no contact with remnants of Al-Qaeda or the Taliban and raising questions about whether there are any enemy fighters left in the area. The US force found only deserted caves, a small stash of ammunition, and a few documents whose intelligence value was being assessed. British marines searching further south along the border with Pakistan also have encountered no enemy fighters.
An emergency meeting of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's Liberal Party was scheduled for tonight in Canada to try to repair a deep internal rift caused by the departure of his popular finance chief. Paul Martin, once viewed as Chrétien's likely successor, told journalists he learned of his dismissal Sunday via a radio newscast. But Chrétien insisted they'd "mutually agreed that he was to leave." The flap arose as Canada prepares to serve as host of this summer's Group of Eight summit and the finance ministers' meeting that precedes it.
Roman Catholic bishops reacted with dismay to the one-sided decision by Switzerland's voters to legalize abortion, calling it an open door to "further dangers to the respect of life." More than 80 percent of those participating in a national referendum Sunday backed a proposal to allow abortions up to the 12th week of pregnancy, bringing Switzerland into line with most of the rest of Europe.
