World
Israel plans to build a temporary fence separating Jerusalem from the West Bank by July, leaving the structure in place while legal challenges to a permanent barrier play out in court, Israel's military chief said Sunday. The announcement by Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon threatened to ignite a new controversy over the barrier project. Israel says the structure is needed to protect its cities from suicide bombers. But the Palestinians view it as an illegal confiscation of land they claim.
After 42 days in an Egyptian jail on fraud accusations, opposition leader Ayman Nour (left) was freed on bail Saturday. President Hosni Mubarak, who only last month ordered that the constitution be changed to allow more than one presidential candidate, has come under international pressure in recent weeks to release Nour.
Hundreds of thousands of people turned out for a Hizbullah rally against foreign meddling in Lebanon on Sunday. It was the second time in a week the Hizbullah guerrilla group, which has the largest following in the country and is the only one with weapons, had flexed its muscles. Meanwhile, the US cautiously welcomed Syria's promise to withdraw its troops and intelligence agents from Lebanon. An exact timetable was unavailable, but withdrawal could begin later this month, according to some reports.
Iran defiantly insisted Saturday it would never give up its nuclear fuel program despite a new united policy of incentives and threats from Washington and the European Union. The EU and US, which suspect Iran could use its nuclear power program to make atomic bombs, unveiled a coordinated carrot and stick approach Friday aimed at pressuring Tehran to give up sensitive activities like uranium enrichment, which can be used to make bomb-grade fuel.
Serbia's government announced Sunday that Gojko Jankovic, a paramilitary leader accused of atrocities against Muslims during the Bosnian war, will surrender to the UN war crimes tribunal. Jankovic has been on the run for more than five years. Jankovic is the sixth Serb in less than two months to agree to face the tribunal amid mounting Western pressure on Belgrade to extradite all men wanted for war crimes.