World
Enraged Jewish settlers turned on Palestinians who were stoning a funeral procession in the volatile West Bank city of Hebron, killing a teenage girl and injuring at least six others. Reports said houses and cars also were damaged in the incident, and Palestinians complained that Israeli troops did little to intervene. The settlers were carrying a dead soldier, killed in an ambush Friday, to his burial when the trouble erupted. A curfew, which was to have been lifted, was quickly reimposed.
Upping the ante, the main party in Iran's government threatened to quit unless the unelected hard-line conservatives who control the courts and security forces stop undercutting its efforts at political and social reform. Such a move, Islamic Participation Front chief Mohamad- Reza Khatami said, would strip the government of its legitimacy. He is the younger brother of President Mohamad Khatami. On Saturday, the younger Khatami was quickly rebuffed by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, when he called for rapprochement with the US. Meanwhile, one court banned the rival Freedom Movement and jailed 30 of its members for up to 10 years each.
Hundreds of thousands of rain-soaked Roman Catholics turned out to hear Pope John Paul II preside over a mass in Toronto as World Youth Day drew to a close. The pontiff was assisted by 3,000 priests during the 2-1/2-hour service. He is scheduled to fly on to Guatemala.
Difficult dealmaking appeared necessary for New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark after her Labour Party won a new three-year lease on power but not a majority in Parliament. Saturday's national election gave her party 52 seats, but her coalition partners, the Greens, were vowing to stand by a demand for an extended moratorium on genetically modified food crops. Clark has said she'll end the ban on schedule in October of next year.
The military commander and air force chief were fired, the defense minister offered to quit, and a ban on military air shows was expected to be announced by Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma after Saturday's crash of a fighter jet killed at least 83 people and hurt 116 others. A special inquiry into the incident was focusing on technical failure or negligence by the crew, who were executing low-altitude maneuvers when the plane clipped the ground, plowed into spectators, and caught fire.
American Lance Armstrong won his fourth straight Tour de France, crossing the finish line in Paris more than seven minutes ahead of his closest rival. The victory left Armstrong one shy of the event record.
