World
Despite relentless pounding of targets by US bombers, Afghanistan's Taliban regime again refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, who issued new threats against Americans and their British allies. Reporters taken by the Taliban to see damage inflicted by the US attacks reported the capital, Kabul, was without electricity and water and virtually deserted. Above, Afghans fleeing the bombing cross into Pakistan on foot. (Related stories, pages 1, 6; related opinion, page 11.)
Secretary of State Powell is due in Pakistan today for discussions with President Pervez Musharraf amid the most violent anti-US demonstrations there to date. In clashes with police and paramilitary units, at least one person was killed, dozens of others were wounded, and as many as 500 were arrested outside an air base in southern Pakistan being used by the US. A nationwide general strike has been called for today. (Related story, page 7.)
Would-be passengers on overseas airlines were being turned away if they were of Arab origin or resided in the Middle East. Reports said Chinese carriers were ordered to issue tickets to such persons only with the approval of the government's nearest embassy or consulate. A pilot ordered three Arabs off a Swedish airliner because they'd bought tickets at the last minute.
In their first announced targeted attack in weeks, Israeli forces acknowledged killing a Palestinian militant accused of organizing the June 11 suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv disco. He was shot on the roof of a house in Qaqilya in the West Bank. Security sources said he was on a list of militants whose arrest was demanded of the Palestinian Authority. Israel pledged last month to end targeted attacks, but reneged Oct. 2 after Palestinian raiders attacked a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip. (Story, page 8.)
At least 13 people were killed in new clashes between Muslims and Christians in northern Nigeria, and there were concerns that the number could go far higher. More than 100 others were arrested, and shops, places of worship, and other property lay in ruins. Army troops were patrolling Kano, the region's largest city, to try to restore calm. Reports said the violence began Friday when Muslims protesting the US-led raids on Afghanistan were confronted by police. The violence was an area where earlier sectarian clashes have killed thousands.
"Neither the moral nor the legal consequences" of the Oct. 4 shooting down of a chartered plane carrying 78 people from Israel to Russia can be escaped, senior Ukraine officials said in their first acknowledgement of responsibility for the incident. For five days, officials had denied that a missile launched in a military exercise had hit the plane.
