World

November 2, 2005

Angry Syrian leaders denounced the new UN resolution demanding their government's full cooperation with the international inquiry into the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The Foreign Ministry called it "very negative" and "accusatory." Hundreds of Syrians held a protest and sit-in outside the US Embassy in Damascus, a move that observers said could only have come with the government's OK. The US cosponsored the resolution, which won unanimous approval in the Security Council Monday. Among other points, it requires Syria to detain anyone identified as a suspect in the Hariri case for questioning at a time and under conditions set by the investigators.

Two wanted Palestinian terrorists died in an Israeli airstrike on their refugee camp in the Gaza Strip minutes after President Mahmoud Abbas had left the area. Nine bystanders were hurt in the attack, hospital officials said. Fawzi Abu Kara of Hamas and Hassan Madhoun of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade were riding in a car when it was hit by missiles. The strike came as Israel's cabinet OK'd the deployment of European monitors at the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, a move seen as giving Palestinians more freedom of movement without Israeli interference while easing Israel's concerns about the smuggling of weapons into Gaza.

The long-awaited report of the investigation into high-level corruption in Canada blamed former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien but spared his successor, Paul Martin. It found Chrétien and other senior officials of the ruling Liberal Party responsible for misspending $85 million in taxpayer funds - much of which was kicked back - on promoting the cause of federalism in French-speaking Quebec. Chrétien, who ordered the campaign, had sought to have the chief investigator fired on grounds of bias against him.

Despite a new "zero tolerance" policy on violence, immigrant youths rioted for a fifth straight night in a suburb of Paris, and the number of police hurt in clashes with them rose to 30. Interior Minister Nicolas Sar-kozy promised an investigation into the violence, which began when two teenagers were electrocuted in a utility substation as they hid from police. It worsened after a tear gas grenade exploded inside a mosque. Dozens of youths have been arrested as Sarkozy ordered additional police to provide residents with "the security they have a right to."