JERUSALEM

Sharon quits Likud to pursue peace

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Monday he gambled and broke away from his hardline Likud Party because he did not want to squander peacemaking opportunities created by Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip or waste time with political wrangling.

Sharon, whose split from Likud electrified Israeli politics and set the stage for likely March elections, ruled out unilateral withdrawals from the West Bank, however. He also said he remains committed to the internationally backed "road map" plan, which calls for a negotiated peace deal culminating in a Palestinian state.

"There is no additional disengagement plan," he told a televised news conference, referring to the summer's Gaza withdrawal. "There is the road map."

Sharon's decision to form a new party he described as "liberal" cemented his transformation from the hawkish patron of Israel's settler movement to a moderate peacemaker reconciled to the inevitability of a Palestinian state.

Weekend polls indicated Sharon, Israel's most popular politician, could marshal enough support to return to the prime minister's office for a third term at the head of a moderate coalition.

Palestinians said the developments created new prospects for peacemaking, which ground to a halt during five years of violence.

"I believe this is an eruption of an Israeli political volcano, and I hope that when the dust settles, we will have a partner in Israel to go toward ... a final arrangement," said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

 

BAGHDAD

U.S. soldiers mistakenly kill civilians

U.S. forces mistakenly fired on a civilian vehicle outside an American base in a city north of Baghdad yesterday, killing three people, including a child, the military said.

Iraq's foreign minister was quoted as saying that tests were under way to determine whether the leader of al-Qaida's wing in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a weekend raid in Mosul. The U.S. ambassador, however, said it appeared al-Zarqawi was not among the dead.

In the largely Shiite southern city of Basra, insurgents killed a Sunni cleric, Khalil Ibrahim, outside his home, police Capt. Mushtaq Talib said. Ibrahim was a member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, a group of influential Sunni clerics that has been sharply critical of the Shiite-led government.

In the shooting of the three civilians, a U.S. soldier thought the vehicle was moving erratically outside the base in Baqouba and fired warning shots, said Maj. Steven Warren, a U.S. spokesman.

 

LONDON

U.N.: HIV prevention investments paying off

HIV infection rates are starting to decrease consistently in some countries for the first time, indicating that prevention programs set up over the last five years are finally yielding results, the United Nations said.

However, the AIDS virus continues to expand its reach, with the estimated number of people living with the virus now passing 40 million, according to this year's AIDS epidemic update report, published yesterday by the United Nations. That's an increase of some 900,000 cases over the estimate for the previous year.

AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognized in 1981, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in history. An estimated 3.1 million people died from AIDS-related illnesses last year, and 4.9 million more people became infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

 

- Compiled from Daily wire reports