MIDDLE EAST

POLICE CONFRONT DEMONSTRATORS AT TEMPLE MOUNT

Thousands of Israeli police surrounded Jerusalem’s Temple Mount to thwart its storming by ultra-nationalist Jews yesterday, averting clashes with Muslims at the disputed holy site.

As Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, prepared for his meeting today with President Bush at his ranch in Texas, Jews seeking to draw attention to their opposition to the planned withdrawal from Gaza forced the authorities to draft in some 3,000 officers to the Old City. Their allies outside the city burned tires on Israeli highways.

Police fanned out across Jerusalem, blocking roads leading to the disputed site, and later confronting demonstrators planning to take their protest to the Temple Mount. The site is revered by Jews as the location of their biblical temples, while Muslim tradition says the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven from the spot. It has been a flashpoint during four years of Israeli Palestinian violence and there were serious fears of bloody confrontation Sunday.

At least 16 Israelis were arrested amid scuffles and rock-throwing when about 300 supporters of the Revava [Multitude] movement, who are opposed to Mr. Sharon’s plans for Gaza, confronted the massed ranks of police.

Hundreds of Palestinian counter-demonstrators also clashed with police on horseback at an Old City gate before being driven back.

March organizers had insisted they would bring at least 10,000 demonstrators to a site at the heart of the Middle East conflict but police restrictions and an awareness of the clampdown appeared to be an effective deterrent.

– The Daily Telegraph

PERSIAN GULF

U.S. OFFICIALS PREDICT TROOP REDUCTION IN IRAQ

The progress made in Iraq since Saddam Hussein’s ouster will soon merit a troop reduction, according to senior commanders and top Pentagon officials, the New York Times reported on its Web site late last night. Roughly 12,000 to 20,000 insurgents remain in Iraq, making it too early to declare a complete victory, officers told the Times.

However, attacks on coalition troops have leveled off, and many of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s head lieutenants have been killed or captured recently. As a result, America’s goals have shifted from waging a daily battle against insurgents around the country to training Iraqi troops and police officers. More than 152,000 Iraqis have been trained, according to the Times’s dispatch. Senior officers said that the number of American troops in Iraq could drop to about 105,000 from 142,000 by early 2006.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

SOUTHEAST ASIA

EARTHQUAKE ROCKS SUMATRA JAKARTA, Indonesia – A strong undersea earthquake rocked the Indonesian island of Sumatra yesterday, sending thousands of people fleeing from their homes in panic, but no tsunami was triggered, seismologists said. The 6.8-magnitude temblor smashed windows in the west Sumatran city of Padang, state news agency Antara reported. There were no reports of casualties or major damage.

The quake was followed by at least 10 aftershocks ranging up to magnitude 6.3, officials and residents of the seaside city said. Local media reports urging people to leave their homes added to the panic, said Nanang Farid, a Padang resident.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

SUSPECT IN MUNCH THEFTS QUESTIONED

OSLO, Norway – A suspect in the brazen daytime theft of two Edward Munch masterpieces was being questioned over the weekend, and police said they were hopeful more arrests would follow.

The 37-year-old man, who has not been identified, was arrested Friday in Oslo. He is suspected of involvement in the raid of the Munch Museum in Oslo in August, where three armed and masked robbers escaped with “The Scream” and “Madonna.” Police prosecutor Morten Hojem Ervik declined to say how the man might have been involved, but the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang reported that police believe the suspect supplied the getaway car.

“Is this a breakthrough? As long as [the paintings] are still out there, you can debate whether it’s a breakthrough or not,” Hojem Ervik said. “But at least it brings the investigation one step further.”

The paintings, which are among Munch’s best-known, were stolen on August 22. “The Scream,” a 20th-century icon that depicts an anguished figure who appears to be screaming or shielding his ears from a scream, is too well known for the thieves to try to sell, experts say.

– Associated Press

HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS, GERMAN LEADER HONOR VICTIMS OF BUCHENWALD

Elderly survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp laid flowers yesterday and observed a moment of silence for victims of the Nazis, 60 years after American troops liberated the camp.

Flags from some 30 nations hung in a cold drizzle to symbolize the nations from which the camp’s 240,000 prisoners came between 1937 and 1945. About 56,000 died – worked to death, shot, or killed in medical experiments.

Chancellor Schroeder and American veterans came to the camp memorial outside Weimar for the commemoration, which kindled vivid memories for the survivors, most of them in their 70s and 80s. Georg Sterner, a Hungarian Jew, recalled looking out from Barracks No. 37 when the first American tank crashed through the barbed-wire perimeter fence on the morning of April 11, 1945.

– Associated Press

PRINCE, DUCHESS LEAVE FOR SCOTTISH HONEYMOON

CRATHIE, Scotland – On the first day of their Scottish honeymoon, Prince Charles sported a tartan kilt and his new bride wore a fuchsia coat and matching feathered tam when they wheeled up to the local parish church yesterday.

The gray Audi, with Charles at the wheel, was met by a couple hundred villagers standing in blustery weather to wish the newlyweds well. Dozens of reporters stretched for a view.

“She’s just right for Prince Charles,” said one onlooker. “We’re all very happy.”

Charles and Camilla – officially the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay when they are in Scotland – are staying at Birkhall, a hunting lodge on the Balmoral estate he inherited from his grandmother.

The prince and Camilla are expected to stay about 10 days. If the opinions of the well-wishers were a bellwether of British public opinion, some of the antipathy for Camilla and her 30-plus-year relationship with Charles seemed to have dissolved, easing years of criticism and claims she was behind the failure his marriage to Diana.

– Associated Press