World
Issuing his strongest hint yet that Israel might target Hamas's political leaders for assassination, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned that no "special consideration" would be given to anyone after the latest cross-border rocket attacks. Two Israeli children were wounded seriously when a rocket fell on the town of Sderot Saturday. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told reporters that there was "no hope" for peace with the Palestinians as long as rocket fire from Gaza continued. Hamas also has claimed responsibility for a terrorist bomb attack last week that killed one Israeli. Above, an Israeli carrying part of a spent rocket leads an anti-Hamas protest in Jerusalem Sunday.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga of Kenya said Sunday he was "prepared" for a political solution to the postelection violence that has wracked the nation for weeks. But he also told reporters he would not "betray our supporters" in talks being mediated by ex-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. On Saturday, Odinga said he wouldn't compromise in his demand that President Mwai Kibaki resign. Two days earlier, however, he maintained that Kibaki's resignation was not essential.
The unilateral declaration of independence for Kosovo will be made next Sunday, senior Serbian officials said they've learned. But they vowed, "We are immediately going to cancel this decision." Hashim Thaci, the ethnic-Albanian premier of the breakaway province, would not confirm the timing but said, "It is a done [deal]; everybody knows it."
Saying, "The time has come to change from military rule to democratic civilian rule," Burma's junta scheduled a referendum in May on the proposed new Constitution. It also promised to hold a multiparty election in 2010. But critics of the junta and the opposition National League for Democracy reacted cautiously, calling the announcement "vague and strange" and noting that the new charter still isn't finished despite a drafting process that has taken 15 years.
For the 14th time, the vote for a new president in Lebanon was postponed Saturday, extending the nation's deepest political crisis since civil war ended in 1990. Parliament will try again Feb. 26, Speaker Nabih Berri said. Pro- and anti-Syrian forces have agreed on Army chief Michel Suleiman as the new head of state but haven't found common ground on the makeup of a new cabinet. The presidency has been vacant since Nov. 23.
An official apology to Australia's Aboriginal people will be extended Wednesday for generations of children who were forcibly removed from their parents and reared by white families. New Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he'd issue it at a session of Parliament, calling the policy "a blight on the nation's soul." His predecessor, John Howard, refused to apologize, issuing a statement of regret instead.
Incumbent President Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic failed by one vote to win reelection in parliament over the weekend. Legislators scheduled another vote for Friday, although rules now allow new candidates to join Klaus and challenger Jan Svejnar in the contest.
Panic ensued as hundreds of teenagers tried to leave an overcrowded punk rock concert in Bandung, Indonesia, at the same time late Saturday night, and at least 10 were trampled to death, police said. Scores of others were hurt. More than 1,500 people were estimated to be inside the hall, which was built to hold 700.
More than 100 letters and postcards describing the plight of Polish insurgents in their battle with Nazi occupiers of Warsaw were acquired at auction by a museum in the city. Its director said two people who'd either sent or received some of the mail also had been located. The uprising was crushed by Nazi forces but remains a source of deep national pride. The insurgents set up their own mail service to send information to other Warsaw residents cut off by 63 days of fighting, often stamping the letters and cards with seals carved from potatoes.
