World Scene

IRAQ

Parliament reverses electoral law change

BAGHDAD — Under U.S. and U.N. pressure, Iraq’s Shi’ite-led parliament yesterday reversed its last-minute electoral law changes, which would have ensured passage of a new constitution via a referendum but which the United Nations called unfair.

Sunni Arab leaders who had threatened a boycott because of the changes said they were satisfied with the reversal and were now mobilizing to defeat the charter at the polls. But some warned they could still call a boycott to protest major U.S. offensives launched over the past week in western Iraq, the Sunni heartland.

Also yesterday, a suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives at the entrance of a Shi’ite mosque south of Baghdad. At least 25 persons were killed and 87 wounded as hundreds of worshippers gathered for prayers at the start of the Islamic month of Ramadan and for the funeral of a man killed two days ago in a bomb blast at his restaurant.

El SALVADOR

Toll from storm climbs to about 120

SAN SALVADOR — Tropical Storm Stan reached hurricane strength only briefly, but killed about 120 people in Central America and Mexico, and relentless rains yesterday fueled fears of further devastation.

The storm is blamed for 50 deaths in El Salvador, 50 in Guatemala, 11 in Nicaragua and eight in Mexico.

CANADA

Mystery disease claims more lives

TORONTO — An outbreak of a respiratory illness at a Toronto nursing home for the elderly has claimed six more lives, raising the death toll to 16, health officials said yesterday.

The cause of the outbreak at the Seven Oaks Home for the Aged remains unknown, although officials insisted the situation was under control. Thirty-eight persons were hospitalized with the illness, and officials fear many of them are too frail to fully recover.

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