World
The sentencing of four suspects by a Palestinian military court for the murder of Israel's tourism chief last October was quickly dismissed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who repeated demands that they be extradited for trial in the Jewish state. One of the four was sentenced to 18 years at hard labor; the others drew lesser terms. Sharon said his forces would keep Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat confined to his Ramallah compound until the men are turned over to Israel. (Related stories, pages 1, 6.)
A U-turn that would return financially embattled Argentina to pegging its peso to the US dollar is "possible," President Eduardo Duhalde said. The peso has lost 70 percent of its value since being devalued in January. Duhalde said restoring the fixed exchange rate would help stave off price rises for basic commodities, a collapse of the banking system, and social unrest. But critics said such a move almost certainly would cost Argentina further aid from the International Monetary Fund. (Story, page 1.)
The highest-ranking official of the former Yugoslav government besides President Slobodan Milosevic surrendered to the UN war-crimes tribunal in The Hague. Gen. Dragoljub Ojdanic (above, waving to supporters), who commanded Milosevic's army, is under indictment by the tribunal for atrocities against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. He is the first of six suspects to agree to turn himself in rather than submit to arrest and extradition. In all, 24 Serbs are on the tribunal's list of persons wanted for such crimes during the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Milosevic already is on trial before the tribunal.
Over the protests of senior legislators, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri announced she'd attend next month's Independence Day in East Timor. The world's newest nation was an Indonesian territory until 1999 when its long campaign for separation succeeded. Nobel Peace Prize-winner Jose Ramos Horta, now a Timorese senior minister, said she "would be the star of the event," but a key lawmaker in Jakarta called her decision "extremely regrettable."
The largest display of military might in eight years paraded before North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of the communist nation's armed forces. Kim, who rarely appears in public, reportedly did not speak. But Defense Minister Kim Il-choi warned of "merciless blows" if "the US imperialists and their followers" sought to follow up President Bush's "axis of evil" characterization by engaging North Korea in battle.
