World Scene

ISRAEL

Qureia urges U.S. to reject Sharon plan

JERUSALEM — The Palestinian prime minister asked President Bush yesterday to reconsider his tacit recognition of some Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia wrote to Mr. Bush, saying recent U.S. declarations that Israel could keep some of the West Bank and would not have to absorb Palestinian refugees contradict long-standing U.S. policy. Mr. Bush gave the assurances to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during a meeting last week.

Israeli troops, meanwhile, killed nine Palestinians during fighting in the Gaza Strip, where gunbattles in the town of Beit Lahiya kept about 4,000 residents of a housing complex indoors for several hours.

LIBYA

Gadhafi prepares breakthrough EU visit

BRUSSELS — Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi will make a groundbreaking visit to the European Union next week in his latest drive to normalize relations with the West, Belgian officials said yesterday.

Col. Gadhafi, a pariah for much of his 34-year rule because of his sponsorship of terrorism, will meet European Commission President Romano Prodi and Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt early next week.

The trip follows high-level Libyan contacts with London and Washington after Tripoli began renouncing its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction in December and accepted responsibility for the 1988 Lockerbie Pan Am bombing.

BRITAIN

Dolly’s cloning team eyes human embryos

LONDON — The creators of Dolly the sheep, the world’s first mammal cloned from an adult, want to create cloned human embryos for stem-cell research, one of the scientists said yesterday.

The Roslin Institute, near Edinburgh, Scotland, said it is considering applying to the government’s fertility authority for a license to carry out the procedure, known as therapeutic cloning.

The purpose is not to create a baby, but to harvest stem cells from early stage embryos in an effort to treat such disorders as Parkinson’s disease and diabetes.

SWITZERLAND

U.S. opposes ban on executions

GENEVA — The United States yesterday opposed a resolution adopted by a United Nations body that urges all countries to abolish the death penalty, joining nations such as China, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe with which Washington often is at odds over human rights.

The U.N. Commission on Human Rights approved, for the eighth year in a row, a resolution that calls on all states that use the death penalty to abolish it “and in the meantime, to establish a moratorium on executions.” The 29-19 vote had heavy support from European and Latin American nations.

IRAQ

Judges’ names kept secret in Saddam trial

BAGHDAD — The U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council has chosen judges and prosecutors to try Saddam Hussein, but their identities are being kept secret for fear that the toppled dictator’s supporters will hunt them down.

Salem Chalabi, director general of administration for the tribunal set up to prosecute Saddam, said yesterday that seven investigative judges and five prosecutors would take charge of the case against the ousted dictator.