World Scene

IRAQ

U.S. troops fire on Canadians’ car

BAGHDAD — U.S. troops fired on a Canadian diplomatic vehicle that failed to obey signals to stop in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone on Tuesday, but there were no casualties, a military spokesman said.

A spokeswoman at the Canadian Embassy in neighboring Jordan said four Canadian diplomats, including the acting ambassador, were in the vehicle.

The Canadian government does not have an embassy in Iraq but is expected to open one later this year. Canadian diplomats regularly travel between Iraq and Jordan.

UNITED NATIONS

Polio eradicated in Egypt, Niger

GENEVA — Polio has been stamped out in Egypt and Niger, leaving four nations in the world where the deadly disease is endemic, the World Health Organization said yesterday.

The polio virus has not infected anyone in the two African countries in the past 12 months, leaving only Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan as countries in which the disease is still classified as endemic, the agency said.

Polio is still present in eight other countries — including Yemen, Indonesia and Somalia — where it had been eradicated before being imported again from one of the countries where polio is endemic.

NEPAL

King vows election in 15 months

KATMANDU — Nepal’s king pledged to hold national elections within 15 months yesterday — the first anniversary of his power grab — and claimed success in fighting communist rebels, despite an overnight attack that killed at least 20 security forces.

Scores of police were reported missing after the rebel assault on a mountainous town in western Nepal, an army spokesman said.

In Katmandu, a coalition of the seven largest political parties tried to hold a rally to press King Gyanendra for democratic change. Police beat up several protesters and arrested nearly 100 others.

ISRAEL

Feeding tube inserted in Sharon’s stomach

JERUSALEM — Doctors inserted a feeding tube in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s stomach yesterday, according to Jerusalem’s Hadassah hospital, where he is being treated for a massive stroke.

The prime minister, 77, has been in a coma since he suffered a stroke Jan. 4, and the stomach procedure was further evidence that he is likely to be incapacitated for a long time.

Specialists in long-term care and a U.S. authority on comatose patients have examined Mr. Sharon in recent days. Specialists say his chances of regaining consciousness or a meaningful level of activity are slim.

INDONESIA

Navy rescues scores after ferry sinks

JAKARTA — Naval vessels picked up 114 survivors from a passenger ferry that went down in rough seas in eastern Indonesia, but there was no sign late yesterday of dozens of others, rescuers said.

Groups of worried relatives flocked to the port in Kupang, where the ferry originated, to greet survivors as they disembarked from two navy ships.

By nightfall, 114 survivors had arrived at the port, an official said. About 45 others thought to have been on board had not been found.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Panel says IRA still in organized crime

DUBLIN — The Irish Republican Army has halted violence but still is gathering intelligence on enemies and remains deeply involved in organized crime, according to a report published yesterday by Britain and Ireland.

The Independent Monitoring Commission’s 46-page report raised doubts about when the outlawed IRA will disband in support of Northern Ireland’s 1998 peace accord and its central goal: power-sharing between the province’s British Protestant majority and Irish Catholic minority.

From wire dispatches and staff reports