World
As many as 10,000 demonstrators surrounded a Japanese-owned supermarket in Shenzen, China, demanding a boycott of that country's products. A similar, but smaller protest was held in Guangzhou as new tensions arose in relations between the Asian neighbors. Japan's ambassador called the outbursts - and those of Saturday, when protesters in Beijing smashed windows in his residence and embassy and in Japanese restaurants with rocks - "gravely regrettable." Anti-Japanese sentiment in China has run high since the approval of a new history textbook that critics say minimizes Japanese military atrocities in World War II. The Beijing government has called the book "poison."
New frictions were straining the truce between the Palestinians and Israel in a dry-run test of security arrangements by opponents of this summer's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Organizers who hope to disrupt the pullout threatened an invasion of a holy site in Jerusa-lem's Old City, forcing thousands of police to guard it. Only a few protesters showed up, however. Meanwhile, Palestinian mortar rounds fell on Jewish settlements in Gaza in protest against the shooting deaths Saturday of three teenagers whom Israeli defense forces accused of smuggling.
Tens of thousands of supporters of militant Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr resurfaced in Baghdad over the weekend, demanding a timetable for US forces to leave Iraq. Similar demonstrations were reported in the Sunni triangle city of Ramadi. Meanwhile, 15 Iraqi soldiers were found shot to death in a truck 30 miles south of the capital, and a Pakistani diplomat was kidnapped as he was en route to a mosque to pray.
Another victim of last week's terrorist bombing in Cairo died of his wounds Sunday, bringing the number of those killed to four. Seventeen others were hurt. Responsibility was claimed by a previously unknown group, the Al-Ezz Islamic Brigades, which said the attack was a message to President Hosni Mubarak that insurgency remains alive in Egypt. But authorities said it appeared to be an "individual act." The blast targeted the city's main bazaar Thursday as it was visited mainly by American and French tourists.
Rome was emptying of people who converged on the city for the funeral of Pope John Paul II, and the College of Cardinals began a public silence before convening to elect his successor. The cardinals, many of whom barely know each other, were expected to use the intervening days to discuss the state of the Roman Catholic Church and its mission as they prepare to vote next Monday. Among the 113 electors, there is no clear favorite to become the next pope.
