World

A proposed new UN resolution on Iraq is expected to be presented to the Security Council by the Bush administration this week, amid indications that it will run into the same opposition that thwarted prewar attempts at diplomacy. The measure is expected to seek:

• the lifting of economic sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait;

• to phase out the oil-for-food program;

• endorsement for an interim Iraqi authority under the supervision of the US-led coalition;

• the appointment of a special UN coordinator to help work on the rebuilding of Iraq.

Opposition already was forming, however, chiefly from Russia and France, both of which hold veto power in the Council.

A required vote of confidence in Prime Minister-designate Mahmoud Abbas's cabinet is expected to be held Tuesday in the Palestinian parliament, with details of the US-sponsored "road map" for peace with Israel to follow Wednesday. But the situation was fraught with complications: The cabinet nominees include several controversial holdovers from Yasser Arafat's leadership ranks; at least one Palestinian militant faction said it would reject any order by Abbas to disarm; and Abbas was refusing to visit the US or other foreign capitals to discuss peace until Israel allows Arafat to travel freely with a guaranteed right to return.

Eleven people were hurt, one of them seriously, when a terrorist bomb exploded in Indonesia's main international airport at Jakarta. The security ministry blamed the rebel Free Aceh Movement, whose Dec. 9 peace deal with the government has been unraveling in recent weeks. But a spokesman for the movement denied it was responsible.

Outrage was growing in Colombia over the execution-style death of a teacher whose father failed to carry out leftist rebel orders to assassinate a paramilitary chief within 48 hours if he wished to spare her life. Suspicion fell on the National Liberation Army (ELN), for the teacher's murder. She was kidnaped last week, and a ransom note to her father accused her of collaborating with a right-wing paramilitary group.

The April 11 firing-squad deaths of three Cubans who failed to reach the US in a hijacked ferry were "necessary," and imitators "should know that ... such actions must be yanked out by the roots," Fidel Castro said in a national TV address. He blamed the US for fomenting subversion against his regime, which, he said, cannot be held responsible for the arrests or executions of dissidents.