World
To allow tempers to cool, the interim Iraqi National Assembly put off a vote for three days on the draft constitution. But Sunnis maintained that agreement on the document remains far off because more than 20 issues still divide their ranks and those of the Shiites and Kurds. Shiite chairman Humam Hamoudi, however, said he would not reopen contentious clauses in the charter and that it should be put to a national referendum. He said Sunnis on the drafting committee were not representative of their own community.
Israel's evacuation of Jewish settlers from Palestinian lands was completed ahead of schedule with the removal of residents of two communities in the West Bank Tuesday. Police had to use tear gas and spray water at some residents of Sanur in northern Samaria to force them to leave a rooftop, but resistance after that was passive, the Jerusalem Post reported. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas phoned his Israeli counterpart, Moshe Katsav, to praise the withdrawal and to pledge to ensure that Palestinians understand that the way forward is through dialogue and not violence.
"By common accord," the three European governments negotiating with Iran over its controversial nuclear program canceled the next scheduled meeting a week from Wednesday. French Foreign Ministry official Jean- Baptiste Mattei said the talks wouldn't be held because Iran resumed the processing of uranium in breach of its promise not to, as long as the sides were still negotiating. The Tehran government said Monday it was ready to restart the discussions.
Police investigators were scouring the scene of another bomb explosion in Lebanon Monday night that hurt at least five people and caused extensive damage. The blast went off between a hotel and an upscale shopping center in a Christian neighborhood of Beirut and was the latest in a series that has killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and wounded Deputy Prime Minister Elias Murr.
Drawing on her overwhelming majority in Congress, embattled Philippines President Gloria Arroyo appeared to have squelched all but the weakest of three impeachment articles drawn up by her political opponents. A vote on the measure is expected later this week, but analysts said it probably will not succeed in ending her increasingly unpopular rule.
Only about 47,000 white people remain in Zimbabwe, mostly because of the seizure of their land for redistribution to poor blacks, census data showed. They also showed that one-quarter of the stayers are 65 or older. An analysis of data since the last census in 2002 appeared Tuesday in the state-run Herald newspaper in Harare, the capital. Independent analysts maintain that the number of whites remaining may be fewer than 30,000. As recently as the mid-1970s, Zimbabwe's white population was 293,000.
