World Scene

ISRAEL

Missile hits building owned by bomber

JERUSALEM — Israeli helicopters destroyed a three-story building in a crowded district of Gaza City yesterday, gutting a structure owned by the family of a young mother who blew herself up in a suicide bombing.

Palestinian medics said two persons were injured. The building was vacant. Israel said a metal shop in the building was used to build bombs for the militant organization Hamas. Palestinian officials said it was a factory for car batteries.

Earlier, Israeli troops fired on Palestinians mourning a militant leader in the Gaza Strip, killing a 12-year-old boy.

INDIA

Villagers block roads over Iraq kidnapping

UNA — Hundreds of men armed with iron rods blocked traffic and enforced a daylong general strike in northern India yesterday in protest against New Delhi’s failure to win the release of three Indian hostages in Iraq.

When Indian television reported that the captors had extended a deadline to kill a hostage, the protesters lifted the highway blockade and allowed a handful of shops to open.

The protest was in Una town, home of Antaryami, one of seven foreign truck drivers being held by militants in Iraq.

NORTH KOREA

U.S., Japan mull sending inspectors

TOKYO — Japan and the United States have begun talks on the possibility of sending inspectors, including Japanese experts, to North Korea in the event the communist state decides to accept nuclear inspections, the Kyodo News agency said yesterday.

Japanese government officials and private-sector experts are likely to be sent as part of any International Atomic Energy Agency inspection team.

North Korea pulled out of international agreements on nonproliferation and threw out IAEA inspectors weeks after a crisis over its nuclear ambitions erupted in October 2002, when U.S. officials said Pyongyang had admitted to a clandestine nuclear program.

FRANCE

Parliament approves debt measures

PARIS — France’s parliament gave final approval yesterday to measures to slash the debt burden in its costly health system, a key plank in President Jacques Chirac’s reform drive.

The reform bill, which includes a controversial charge for seeing a doctor and a rise in welfare levies, was adopted as expected by the upper and lower houses of parliament, both dominated by Mr. Chirac’s ruling conservatives.

The simple show-of-hands vote put an end to months of hard bargaining over the health care revamp, which triggered protests last month. Left-wing deputy Jean-Pierre Brard said the reform was aimed at dismantling the health insurance system.

TURKEY

Explosives found in truck from Iraq

ISTANBUL — Turkish authorities yesterday seized 200 pounds of plastic explosives hidden in a truck as it crossed into Turkey from Iraq, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Acting on a tip, paramilitary police searched the truck at the Habur border gate with Iraq and found the C-4 explosives, 20 detonators and more than 10,000 bullets for automatic weapons hidden in a secret compartment, the agency reported. Radical Kurdish, Islamic and leftist groups are active in Turkey and have carried out attacks.

From wire dispatches and staff reports