World
Any proposal that asks Iran to stop enriching uranium will be considered "invalid," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday. He spoke as foreign ministers from the European Union were gathering in Brussels for a meeting to consider a package of political, trade, and technical incentives to be offered to the Islamic republic in exchange for halting enrichment and accepting international oversight of its nuclear activities. The package would be presented to a meeting scheduled for Friday of UN Security Council members.
By a 6-to-5 vote, Israel's Supreme Court upheld a 2002 law that denies residence to most Palestinians, even if they're married to citizens of the Jewish state. The ruling Sunday was seen as the most significant on civil rights in years, and it drew immediate fire from critics, who called it racist. It affects thousands of Palestinians who are spouses of Israeli Arabs; marriages between Jews and Palestinians are rare. The law aims to protect Israelis from terrorist attacks by Palestinians who could use family ties as a pretext to gain entry to Israel.
Only sporadic gunfire could be heard in Somalia's capital as rival Islamist and secular militias observed an uneasy truce after eight days of heavy fighting over control of the city. The truce was demanded by influential clan elders, who said in a radio message that if either side violated it, they'd throw their support to the other. Neither side appeared to have gained the upper hand, although both were reinforcing units guarding access roads to Mogadishu. Reports Sunday said at least 148 people have died in the violence to date.
At least 13 more people were killed over the weekend in violence between security forces and Tamil separatist rebels in Sri Lanka, and President Mahinda Rajapakse vowed "to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity" of the island nation at any cost. He was reacting to a warning Saturday by rebel leaders that they'd "wage war with anyone" who attempted to deny them access to the sea. Since April 1, more than 180 people have died in relatively low-intensity clashes between the rebels and government troops and naval personnel.
An organized crime gang was blamed for the deaths of 52 people - many of them police officers - in Brazil's São Paulo State since Friday night. Thirty-two others were hurt, authorities said. As many as 64 separate attacks on police, firefighters, and prison guards were blamed on a gang known as First Command of the Capital in retaliation for the transfer of some of its leaders between prisons to try to prevent rolling rebellions planned throughout the state penal system. The rebellions were taking place anyway, although six were reported to have been quelled.
To try to head off a risk to public health, emergency crews in southern Nigeria raced to find the remains of dozens of people who died when a leaking gasoline pipeline exploded and erupted into an inferno Friday as they tapped free fuel. At least 165 victims had been found and buried in mass graves. Since stealing fuel is a criminal offense, reports said no relatives had come forward to identify the dead and none who survived the incident had sought medical treatment for burns. President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered an investigation, although identical incidents have taken hundreds of lives in recent years.
Forty governments sent delegations to Haiti for the inauguration Sunday of President René Préval, the impoverished nation's first elected chief of state since Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled into exile in 2004. His swearing-in was to take place amid tight security, with 4,500 UN peacekeepers and police cordoning off downtown Port-au-Prince, the capital. Préval was elected on pledges to unite Haiti's deeply divided political factions and restore domestic peace. Observers say the rate of violent crime already has dropped since his Feb. 7 victory.
