Haitian rebels promise to disarm forces
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti- Rebel leader Guy Philippe said yesterday
his forces would disarm as U.S. Marines fanned out in the capital
— rifles at the ready — to help bring order amid
Haiti’s bloody uprising. Earlier, Washington warned the rebels, who
overthrew President Jean-Bertrand Aristide after seizing the
northern half of the country, to disarm and disband.
“Now that there are foreign troops promising to protect
the Haitian people … and they have given the guarantee to
protect the Haitian people … we will lay down our
arms,” Philippe told a news conference.
In their first reconnaissance sweep since arriving Sunday, a
convoy of Marines in Humvees and armored vehicles rumbled out of
the presidential National Palace as troops on foot moved onto
surrounding streets.
They patrolled an area stretching 30 blocks, pushing old
burned-out cars from the road. The Marines met no resistance and
then returned to the palace.
Despite the rebel vow to disarm, a gun battle erupted yesterday
between rebels and militant Aristide loyalists in their stronghold,
the seaside La Salines slum.
Israeli forces kill three members of Hamas
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip- An Israeli helicopter fired two missiles
at a car driving through the Gaza Strip yesterday, killing three
members of the Hamas militant group.
The army said all three passengers were senior Hamas militants
who had recently carried out many terrorist attacks against
civilian targets and were planning more. The car was traveling
along a Palestinian road not far from the Jewish settlement of
Netzarim. “A missile from the sky hit the car,” said
Ahmed Asmat, 35, a farmer who was working about 100 yards from the
explosion.
Flames engulfed the vehicle and intense gunfire rang out from
the direction of the settlement, about 500 yards away.
Palestinians ran to the car, throwing sand on the burning
wreckage and beating the flames with coats and scarves. One man
used a blanket to lift a charred, decapitated body out of the car
and heave it onto a stretcher.
Some in the crowd lashed out at Yasser Arafat’s
Palestinian Authority.
“I spit on the Palestinian Authority and those who brought
them here,” one person at the scene screamed.
Shiites and Sunnis rally together in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq- Shiite clerics joined Sunni preachers in a march
of thousands of mostly black-clad men yesterday, trying to keep
sectarian passions in check after a horrific attack on Shiite
pilgrims that raised fears of civil war.
U.S. and Iraqi officials disagreed over how many people died in
Tuesday’s bombings in Baghdad and Karbala — the
deadliest here since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
The Iraqi Governing Council said 271 people were killed. U.S.
officials put the toll at 117.
The attacks — at some of the holiest shrines of Shiite
Islam and on the most sacred day in the Shiite calendar —
threatened to turn Shiites against Sunnis if the bombers were found
to have been Iraqi Sunni extremists.
FBI says interview with McVeigh failed
WASHINGTON- As the clock ticked toward Timothy McVeigh’s
execution, senior FBI agents pressed behind closed doors for
permission to interview the convicted Oklahoma City bomber, but the
plan never materialized amid internal disagreements, officials
say.
The agents wanted to resolve questions about McVeigh’s
whereabouts on certain dates that were left unanswered by his
public statements and the evidence, the officials told The
Associated Press.
The plan was scrapped when the government couldn’t resolve
who would attend the interview or how it would be conducted.
Officials also became distracted by the belated discovery of
some 4,000 pages of documents that had not been turned over to
McVeigh’s defense during his trial.
Parents boycott Girl Scouts over sex ed
CRAWFORD, Texas- Some families are boycotting Thin Mints and
Do-Si-Dos and other Girl Scout cookies. Troop 7527 is down to just
two members after the other girls were withdrawn by their parents.
And Brownie Troop 7087 is no more.
Why are folks in this conservative Texas town where President
Bush has his ranch so mad at the Girl Scout organization? Planned
Parenthood and sex education. The furor was started a few weeks ago
by the leader of the anti-abortion group Pro-Life Waco, who sent
out e-mails and ran ads on a Christian radio station urging people
to boycott Girl Scout cookies because of the “cozy
relationship” between the Girl Scouts and Planned
Parenthood.
— Compiled from Daily wire reports