World
The timetable for Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip calls for the first settlers to leave in August, reports said. The pullout of settlers and military units is planned for completion by Sept. 30, 2005. Government documents obtained by the Jerusalem Post and the Associated Press said settlers would be offered unspecified financial compensation to leave but would be evacuated by force if they refuse.
Despite having agreed to a truce, gunmen loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr seized a police station in Najaf, Iraq, looting it and destroying vehicles outside. Four people died in the confrontation; 13 others were wounded before the attackers withdrew. US forces were not involved, reports said. It was not immediately clear whether the incident meant that the truce - accepted by Sadr June 4 - was void.
Terrorists ambushed a convoy carrying one of Pakistan's most senior Army chiefs, perhaps in retaliation for the attempted roundup of Al Qaeda and Tali-ban remnants along the Afghan border. Lt. Gen. Ahsan Saleem Hayat was unhurt in the attack in Karachi, but his driver and nine others were killed. The attackers escaped.
For the first time, opinion polls in Canada showed the opposition Conservative Party pulling into the lead as time winds down to the June 28 general election. Aides to Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin acknowledged their party is "in a spiral that we have to arrest" if it is to retain its 11-year hold on power. Results of a survey published in the Toronto Globe and Mail indicated the Conservatives may win as many as 118 seats in Parliament, to no more than 108 for the Liberals.
Voters will try Sunday for the fourth time in 18 months to elect a new president in what's left of the former Yugoslavia. More than 6 million people in Serbia and Montenegro are eligible to go to the polls for two-stage balloting that pits ultranationalist Tomislav Nikolic against liberal Boris Tadic, billionaire Bogoljub Karic, and 12 other candidates. The second round is scheduled for June 27. Each previous election was ruled invalid because of too low a voter turnout.
The "trial of the century" in Belgium wound down, with defendant Marc Dutroux reading a 21-page statement to the jury. He denied guilt in the murders of an alleged accomplice and two teenage girls in the mid-1990s and said he played no role in the kidnappings of two other girls who later were found dead on property he owned. But he expressed "sincere regret" for kidnapping and sexually abusing two more teens who were rescued from the basement of his home. The jury is expected to reach its verdict as soon as Tuesday. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.
