MIDDLE EAST

ISRAEL TO BRING IN 20,000 MORE ETHIOPIANS BY 2007

By the end of 2007, Israel will bring in the last 20,000 Ethiopians who claim they were forced to convert from Judaism, said a government decision announced yesterday.

Ethiopian immigrants demonstrated in front of Prime Minister Sharon’s office as he discussed the issue, demanding their relatives be allowed to join them in Israel. Under the decision, the monthly immigration quota will be doubled from 300 to 600 starting in June, with a goal of bringing the rest of the group in 2007.

Immigration of the Ethiopians, called Falash Mura, has evoked heated arguments in Israel for years.

While Ethiopian Jews have strong ties to Judaism dating back more than 2,000 years, the Falash Mura said they were forced to convert to Christianity in the 19th century and are now embracing their original religion.

But skeptics, including some in the Ethiopian immigrant community, charge at least some of the 20,000 waiting to go to Israel are impostors – latching on to the Falash Mura label in order to escape their poverty-stricken country.

– Associated Press

PERSIAN GULF

KUWAITI POLICE ARREST REPUTED TERROR BOSS

KUWAIT CITY – Police burst into suspected terrorist hideouts throughout a tranquil suburb yesterday, arresting a reputed terror boss and setting off a ferocious gun battle that killed at least four of his followers and a bystander. The raid – the fourth in three weeks – reflected a new sense of urgency in the battle to crush Islamic extremists deeply opposed to the presence of American forces in this oil-rich emirate.

Kuwait’s prime minister, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, called for the “uprooting of this phenomenon and the removal of this cancer before it spreads,” the acting information minister, Faisal al-Hajji, told the state-owned Kuwait News Agency yesterday. Kuwait beefed up security in late December around vital infrastructure, including oil installations, following terror attacks in Saudi Arabia, and soon after the government began conducting raids against suspected insurgents.

– Associated Press

NEARLY 94% OF IRAQI VOTERS ABROAD CAST ABSENTEE BALLOTS

Nearly 94% of registered Iraqi voters living abroad cast absentee ballots in Iraq’s election, international organizers said yesterday. The International Organization for Migration said it was counting votes in each of the 14 countries that hosted three days of out-of-country polling. Results will be announced publicly in Baghdad.

Although participation of registered voters was high, the number of expatriate Iraqis who registered in a special nine-day campaign represented only 23% of the estimated 1.2 million eligible. The low registration figure was attributed partly to fears of violence and retribution from insurgents but also the fact that not all countries with large numbers of Iraqis, including Egypt, participated and many voters had to travel abroad to register and then again to vote.

– Associated Press

SOUTH ASIA

NEPAL KING DISMISSES GOVERNMENT

KATMANDU, Nepal – King Gyanendra dismissed Nepal’s government today and said he was taking control of the Himalayan kingdom – the second time he has done so in three years.

The monarch made the announcement over the state-run TV, accusing the government of failing to conduct parliamentary elections and restore peace in the country.

He fired Sher Bahadur Deuba, who was appointed prime minister last year with the task of holding parliamentary elections and conducting peace talks with the Maoist rebels who have been fighting since 1996 for a socialist state.

Mr. Deuba also was fired in October 2002, but was reinstated in 2004 after massive street protests.

The rebels, who say they are inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, have been fighting since February 1996 to replace Nepal’s monarchy with a communist state. The insurgency has claimed more than 10,500 lives.

– Associated Press