World
Amid a new flurry of terrorist attacks, Iraq's interim Governing Council announced a plan to open all sectors of the economy - except the oil industry - to foreign investment. The council also said an income tax will be imposed Jan. 1 on citizens and businesses. Most personal incomes were not taxed under Saddam Hussein's regime. Meanwhile, one of the council's three women members was undergoing intensive medical treatment for her wounds in an assassination attempt Saturday, and an appeal was issued for information on her attackers.
Efforts to heal the breach among Europe's three major powers over Iraq appeared only partially successful, with French President Jacques Chirac refusing to budge from his insistence that the US yield control over affairs there "as rapidly as possible - in a matter of months." But he and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and British Prime Minister Tony Blair did agree that any new UN resolution on Iraq should place the world body in charge of overseeing steps to achieve democracy there.
Yasser Arafat claimed new international support for the Palestinian cause after the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution condemning Israel for its threat to "remove" him. But Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the vote would not change his government's "positions." The vote came Friday, after the US vetoed a similar Arab-backed resolution in the Security Council.
The only independent daily newspaper in Zimbabwe, seemingly about to resume publishing, was banned by the government's Media Commission. The panel denied an application for a license by the Daily News of Harare, announcing within five days a decision that normally takes weeks. The paper, often critical of authoritarian President Robert Mugabe, had a readership of almost 1 million, It was ordered closed Sept. 12 for operating without a license, but appeared to win a reprieve last Thursday when a Supreme Court justice told police to return seized computers and permit its staff to return to work.
Almost 70 percent of voters in Latvia approved membership for their country in the European Union, making the former Soviet republic the last of 10 invitees to join in the bloc's first major expansion. Initiation ceremonies to swell EU ranks to 25 members are expected next May.
