World Scene

ISRAEL

Netanyahu backs referendum on Gaza

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s attempt to speed up a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip was undercut yesterday by his main political rival, Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called for a national referendum that could delay or even scuttle the pullout.

Mr. Sharon’s minority government could fall over a crucial budget vote in March, and he is trying to move up the evacuation of 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank from late next year to the beginning of 2005.

Critics said Mr. Netanyahu’s real motive was to postpone the pullout past March, hoping that a new government would kill it.

Political sources said Mr. Sharon remained opposed to a referendum on the issue.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military killed three members of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction, in an air strike in the West Bank city of Jenin.

AFGHANISTAN

U.N. workers quit Herat; 22 militants die

KABUL — U.S. troops and helicopter gunships killed 22 militants, including three Arab fighters, in the southern province of Zabul, the military said yesterday, the latest bloodshed ahead of historic Afghan elections next month.

Meanwhile, the United Nations withdrew dozens of staff from the western city of Herat a day after mobs ransacked its offices. The mob violence came after President Hamid Karzai fired the city’s warlord governor.

NORTH KOREA

Regime ‘committed’ to new nuke talks

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