World

Terrorists in Baghdad detonated a car bomb outside a police station and shot to death a military attache to Spain's embassy on the six-month anniversary of Saddam Hussein's downfall. The blast targeted a station in a Shiite neighborhood as officers gathered to collect their pay. Ten people were killed and at least 35 others were hurt. Above, a civilian reacts to the news that one of the dead at the police station was his relative.

The Palestinian Authority was battling perceptions of internal chaos, amid reports that Yasser Arafat's choice for new prime minister was on the verge of quitting in a dispute over security powers. It was unclear as the Monitor went to press how Arafat would respond to the resignation threat by Ahmed Qureia, who was said to have refused to form a cabinet. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Legislative Council postponed indefinitely its vote on ratifying any cabinet choices. Arafat's first prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, also quit over the allocation of security powers.

Despite intense Israeli security measures, a Palestinian terrorist first described as female detonated a bomb at an Army checkpoint in the West Bank, the second such attack in less than a week. The bomber died and two Israelis were hurt. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and military sources later said they couldn't be sure of the attacker's gender.

New violence erupted in Chechnya, apparently in retaliation for last weekend's easy victory by the Kremlin-backed candidate in presidential election voting. The murder of a village elder by masked gunmen was blamed on his support for the election, Russian officials said. A note left with his remains warned "This will happen to every enemy of the people." In a separate incident, one of President Akhmad Kadyrov's bodyguards died when gunmen sprayed the car in which he and colleagues were riding with bullets.

A manhunt was under way in southern Indonesia for a truck driver suspected of causing a crash that killed 54 people. Most of the victims were schoolgirls returning from an outing on the resort island of Bali aboard a bus. Traffic accidents are common in Indonesia, whose roads are crowded and poorly maintained, but this was one of the worst in years.