ISRAEL
Shas leader rejects Sharon pullout plan
JERUSALEM — The spiritual leader of Israel’s influential Shas party ordered its 11 parliamentarians yesterday to vote against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
But political analysts said Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s ruling was unlikely to affect the outcome of a parliamentary vote on the plan early this week that Mr. Sharon was expected to win.
Rabbi Yosef said he opposed a withdrawal from Gaza because it would leave nearby Israeli towns such as Ashkelon and Sderot unprotected from rockets fired by militants.
GAZA STRIP
Suspected collaborator found fatally shot
GAZA CITY — The bullet-riddled body of a Palestinian was found near a trash bin on a Gaza City street yesterday, and Hamas said it killed the man on suspicion he passed along information that helped Israel assassinate the group’s founder and nine others.
Palestinian militants have killed dozens of suspected informants in the West Bank, but such attacks have been rare in the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian security services still function to some degree.
Also yesterday, five Tunisian doctors were en route to the West Bank to examine Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
The health of the 75-year-old has been a subject of intense speculation in recent years, in part because of the tremor in his lips and hands, considered a symptom of Parkinson’s disease.
JAPAN
U.S. beef debated as mad cow found
TOKYO — Japan and the United States narrowed their differences over testing standards for mad cow disease and agreed to work toward reopening Japanese markets to U.S. beef after three days of arduous talks that ended Saturday.
Meanwhile, a dairy cow from western Japan tested positive for the disease in preliminary tests conducted early yesterday, the nation’s 15th infected cow.
Japan banned American beef after last year’s discovery in the United States of a cow suffering from bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly referred to as mad cow disease.
ALGERIA
Muslim militants murder soccer fans
ALGIERS — Suspected Islamic militants killed 16 persons heading to a soccer match in a pre-dawn ambush south of Algeria’s capital — the first bloodshed since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, an official statement said.
The victims, mostly youths, were driving to Algiers for the match when they were ambushed on the road near Medea, 30 miles south of the capital. They were buried yesterday, and the mourners included Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni.
The North African nation has been fighting the insurgency since 1992, when the army canceled national elections to prevent victory by a Muslim fundamentalist party. The violence has killed an estimated 120,000 people.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.