World
Seven people were killed and 20 injured in a suspected Palestinian ambush near the Jewish settlement of Emmanuel on the West Bank. Witnesses said three gunmen dressed in Israeli army uniforms opened fire on passengers after a roadside bomb damaged their armored bus. The assailants then fled the scene. The incident occurred as Secretary of State Powell, European Union, Russian, and United Nations officials members of the so-called "quartet" were to meet in New York on proposed solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Turkey will hold early elections Nov. 3, leaders of the three-party ruling coalition agreed Tuesday, in a move that ailing Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit previously opposed. Seven Cabinet ministers and more than 50 legislators have quit Ecevit's Democratic Left Party in recent weeks amid calls for the vote from its coalition partners. The departure of six more legislators dropped the government below the 276 seats needed for a majority in parliament.
Spain and Morocco agreed to diplomatic talks to resolve a territorial dispute over a tiny Mediterranean island off the coast of North Africa. Morocco sent about a dozen soldiers Thursday to the unoccupied outcrop that it calls Leila and Spain calls Perejil, in what it termed a bid to curb illegal immigrants. Madrid responded by deploying four warships.
Thirteen people were injured in a grenade attack by suspected Islamic militants in the north of Indian-controlled Kashmir. The attack came three days after 28 people died in an assault on a Hindu slum in the southern part of the disputed territory. India has accused Pakistan of "inspiring" such attacks.
Three suspected Al Qaeda terrorists have been arrested in Spain, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said. One of the alleged members of the terrorist group had videotapes of New York's World Trade Center before the Sept. 11 attacks, US bridges, and terrorist-training exercises, Acebes said.
Hundreds of Nigerian women agreed to end a more than week-long occupation of a ChevronTexaco oil terminal Tuesday, after the company pledged to hire at least 25 villagers and build schools. The unarmed women had held some 700 workers captive at the facility, in the oil-rich but impoverished Niger Delta.
