BAGHDAD, Iraq

Shiites protest U.S.-backed government

Tens of thousands of Shiite Muslims marched peacefully in
Baghdad yesterday to demand an elected government, as U.S. and
Iraqi officials prepared to seek U.N. endorsement of American plans
for transferring power in Iraq.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has been reluctant to let the
United Nations play a greater role in Iraq until he is convinced
the country is safe.

Underscoring those dangers, 31 people were killed and about 120
were wounded Sunday when a suicide bomber blew up his pickup truck
at a gate to the headquarters compound of the occupation authority
in Baghdad, Iraq’s Health Minister Khudayer Abbas said
yesterday.

Huge crowds of Iraqi Shiites, estimated by reporters at up to
100,000, marched about three miles to the University of
al-Mustansariyah, where a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Husseini al-Sistani delivered a speech he said was directed at
Annan, the U.S.-led occupation authority and its Iraqi allies.

It was the biggest display of Shiite political power in Baghdad
since Saddam Hussein’s regime collapsed in April. It followed
a similar demonstration on Thursday by some 30,000 Shiites in the
southern city of Basra.

JERUSALEM

Sharon: Peace with Syria requires withdrawal

Addressing two of Israel’s thorniest issues, Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon told lawmakers yesterday that peace with
Syria would require a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights and
ordered a review of the contentious West Bank separation
barrier.

Sharon’s comments on the Golan, made to parliament’s
Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee, were an unprecedented
admission by the career hard-liner. In the past, right-wing Israeli
governments insisted a peace deal could be reached without a
withdrawal from the strategic plateau captured in the 1967 Mideast
war.

The prime minister did not tell the closed-door meeting whether
he was willing to pay what he defined as the price for peace.
However, one committee member said it was clear from the context
that Sharon is not ready to return the Golan in exchange for a
peace deal.

Also yesterday, the Hamas founder announced a change in
strategy, saying the Islamic militant group would increasingly
recruit female suicide bombers. Last week, Hamas sent its first
female assailant, a 22-year-old woman who blew herself up at the
Gaza-Israel crossing and killed four Israeli border guards.

PLANO, Texas

Episcopalian faction to establish protest group

Conservative Episcopalians opposed to a gay bishop’s
consecration and other liberal trends were on track to establish a
nationwide protest organization by the close of a two-day meeting
today.

Planners insist the budding Network of Anglican Communion
Dioceses and Parishes is not a schism or denominational split but a
“church within a church” whose backers will remain
Episcopalians.

The immediate cause of dissent was the Episcopal Church’s
decision last summer to elevate Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New
Hampshire, who has lived for years with a gay partner.

But the meeting’s chairman, Bishop Robert Duncan of
Pittsburgh, told a news briefing that the denomination “split
from its own history this past summer, so who left?”

WASHINGTON

Study: Most diabetics risking poor health

There’s grim news on the diabetes front: Nearly two-thirds
of diabetics aren’t properly controlling their blood sugar.
And one in three older diabetics likely also has a serious leg
disease that could cost their limb.

 This year, specialists for the first time are urging every
diabetic older than 50 to get tested for the leg disease, called
peripheral arterial disease or PAD.

Severe PAD can lead to amputation. Worse, if your leg arteries
are clogged and stiff, your heart arteries are too. Having PAD
quadruples your risk of a heart attack or stroke, important to know
so you can seek protective treatment.Anybody can get PAD. At least
12 million Americans are thought to have it, most of them
undiagnosed.

PIERRE, S.D.

Janklow resigns prior to court sentencing

Whether they loved him or hated him South Dakotans will notice
when Rep. Bill Janklow leaves the political stage he has dominated
for nearly three decades.

Janklow’s resignation from Congress takes effect today,
six weeks after the former four-term Republican governor was
convicted of manslaughter, speeding and running a stop sign in an
Aug. 16 accident that killed a motorcyclist.

On Thursday, Janklow, 64, will be sentenced and could get a
maximum of just over 11 years in prison.

Whatever the legal penalty, his remarkable public life is
over.