World
An estimated 100,000 Palestinians, many of them demanding revenge against Israel, massed in the West Bank for the funerals of Hamas militants killed in a rocket attack the day before. But in Jerusalem, senior Israeli officials shrugged off the calls as well as international protests against their policy of "surgical interceptions" of Palestinians considered a threat to security. They said the policy would continue because "we had all the justification in the world." (Story, page 1.)
Only indictment now stands between another Chinese-born US citizen and trial after he was arrested formally by authorities in Beijing. We Jianmin, a journalist, had been detained since late May on grounds that he was "collecting information that endangered state security." The term usually is interpreted to mean spying for Taiwan. His arrest came on the same day that Qin Guangguang, the last of three other Chinese-born scholars convicted of spying but freed by the government last week, left the country for an unknown destination.
The "take-it-or-leave-it" plan to salvage Northern Ireland's self-rule coalition ran into trouble as soon as it was made public by the British and Irish Republic governments. Its architects called the plan "fair," "balanced," and "our best view of a viable way forward." But the province's dominant Protestant party, the Ulster Unionists, warned they'd reject the document outright because it sets no date either for the start or the completion of disarmament by the Irish Republican Army. The sponsors asked for a response from both Catholics and Protestants by next Monday. Above, journalists in County Down reach for copies of the proposal as they were handed out by an official.
Without saying why, another justice of Zimbabwe's highest court announced he'll resign, effective Aug. 31. Michael Gillespie becomes the third High Court justice to quit this year amid what the International Bar Association has called "unrelenting and vicious" harassment by President Robert Mugabe's government and his political party. Mugabe frequently has attacked or ignored the court's rulings. Gillespie's move also leaves only four white jurists on the Zimbabwe bench in the face of pressure from militant black civil war veterans, who accuse them all of racism.
At least 62 people were killed in flash flooding and landslides on an Indonesian island popular with surfing enthusiasts. Authorities said more than 820 others unaccounted for after days of torrential rain driven by strong winds could have taken shelter on high ground. Meteor-ologists predicted the weather pattern would continue until the middle of the month. The island of Nias is 825 miles from Jakarta, Indonesia's capital.
