World
Officials around the world continued the hunt for terrorists, arresting dozens of suspects this week. In South Africa two men and a senior Al Qaeda terrorist were captured after a 12-hour gunbattle Wednesday and found to be plotting attacks on tourist sites in their home country. Police in London released one of the 13 men arrested in an antiterrorist sweep, as the others faced questioning Wednesday. In Indonesia, six Muslim militants arrested last month were found to be members of a suicide squad awaiting orders from leaders of the Jemaah Islamiyah terror group, said Ansyaad Mbai, the top antiterror official at the security ministry.
A tribal chief in Fallujah, Iraq, said Wednesday that he led a raid that freed four Jordanian hostages, while a militant group released two Turkish workers after Turkish truck drivers agreed to halt deliveries to US forces there. In other violence, fierce fighting broke out in the northern city of Mosul Wednesday between Iraqi police and militants, leaving 12 dead. Also, government officials announced that an amnesty plan intended to help end the insurgency in Iraq will not cover fighters who have killed anyone.
Israeli tanks and bulldozers moved toward the Jebaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip Wednesday, severing electricity and telephone lines in an operation to stop Palestinian rocket attacks, witnesses and Israeli officials said. In the West Bank, Palestinian Prime Minister Qureia complained that Israel is expanding its settlements and preventing Palestinian police from asserting their authority.
A school employee with a history of mental problems slashed 15 students and three teachers with a kitchen knife Wednesday at a Beijing kindergarten, killing one child, police and news reports said.
More than 100,000 people marched through Sudan's capital Wednesday in a rally opposing a UN Security Council deadline for the government to disarm Arab militias blamed for killing thousands of people in western Darfur. The demonstrators also presented a memorandum to the UN envoy in Sudan demanding that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan apologize for "misleading" people on the situation in Darfur.
The death toll from a fire at a Paraguay supermarket over the weekend rose to 464, as many citizens continue searching for relatives and friends. The co-owner of the supermarket and five of his employees were arrested and will be charged with manslaughter after a security guard told investigators he received orders to lock the store's doors to prevent looting.