World
With NATO reaching a compromise to protect Turkey in the event of war with Iraq, the European Union sought to present its own united front. EU leaders gathered for an emergency summit in Brussels to try to avert a crisis in the ranks, with France and Germany staunchly opposing conflict in Iraq. Britain, Italy, and Spain were taking a tough line against Iraq. Meanwhile, Iraq's foreign minister complained that its neighbors were doing too little to prevent war after the Arab League failed to set a date for its own emergency summit.
As leftist demonstrators protested outside, Turkey's prime minister said parliament's already-delayed vote to OK US troop deployments likely will be postponed still further. The decision, urgently awaited in Washington, had been expected Tuesday. But passage has been complicated by lack of a specific aid package to compensate Turkey for any losses incurred from war with neighboring Iraq and by European reluctance to defend Turkey from possible Iraqi counterattack.
North Korea's government ratcheted up the rhetoric over its weapons program by claiming, "Victory in a nuclear conflict is ours." The saber-rattling came as the US and South Korea announced their annual joint war games will begin next month and as leader Kim Jong Il was treated to a national celebration of his 61st birthday.
Reeling from a heavy new hit to its ranks, Hamas vowed "thunderous attacks" inside Israel in revenge. Six Hamas militants were killed when a remote-controlled glider on which they were working blew up. A Hamas spokesman accused Israel of booby-trapping it. Earlier, the chief of Hamas's military wing in Gaza died after an exchange of gunfire with Israeli troops. Both incidents followed the explosion of a landmine Saturday that killed a four-man Israeli tank crew, for which Hamas claimed responsibility.
New uncertainty clouded hopes for early reunification of Cyprus after the island's Greek community elected opposition leader Tassos Papadoupoulos as its president. The outcome of the vote was greeted with disappointment by Turkish Cypriot President Rauf Denktash, who'd openly preferred the reelection of Glafkos Clerides, with whom he has been negotiating possible reunification.
