MIDDLE EAST

ROCKET FROM LEBANON LANDS IN ISRAEL

JERUSALEM – A Katyusha rocket fired from Lebanon landed in the northern Israeli town of Shlomi late yesterday, the army said, heavily damaging a factory in an industrial zone and drawing an Israeli threat of retaliation. There were no injuries, and no one immediately claimed responsibility. But in a statement, the Israeli army said it held Lebanon responsible for the attack, which it said was the third such rocket strike in the past year. “The Lebanese government is responsible for all incidents which take place in Lebanese territory, including these attacks, which are conducted by terror organizations,” the army said. The Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah has occasionally shelled Israeli positions, although the border has been relatively quiet since Israel pulled out of southern Lebanon in 2000. Hezbollah officials in Lebanon declined to comment, and there was no immediate reaction from the government in Beirut.

– Associated Press

SOUTHEAST ASIA

E.U. RISKS ANGERING CHINA OVER HUMAN RIGHTS DEMANDS

The European Union risked infuriating China yesterday with a long list of human rights demands in the two sides’ highest level meeting since plans for a quick end to the E.U.’s arms embargo collapsed. An E.U. delegation said it was up to China to “improve the climate” and allow the arms ban, imposed after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, to be lifted. It handed over a list of four “suggestions” as to how China could help sway European public opinion over an end to the embargo. But while members said these were not set conditions, the idea of any linkage was rejected immediately by the Chinese.

– The Daily Telegraph

NORTH AMERICA

PRIME MINISTER SCHEDULES VOTE OF CONFIDENCE

TORONTO – Prime Minister Martin of Canada said yesterday that a vote of confidence in his scandal-rocked government would be held May 19, as members of Parliament gather to vote on his federal budget.

If the budget motion fails, Mr. Martin said he would dissolve the 308-seat House of Commons, which would trigger general elections in June.

“I am proposing there will be a vote on the budget and that bill will be a matter of confidence,” Mr. Martin told reporters following an emergency meeting with his Cabinet.

Should the government be defeated next week, the earliest date for general elections would be June 27. Mr. Martin’s Liberal Party ignored a vote in Parliament on Tuesday night, in which a slight majority passed a motion recommending that the prime minister resign. The Liberals and constitutional experts insisted the vote was out of order, however.

– Associated Press

SOUTH ASIA

REBEL ATTACKS LEAVE AT LEAST 13 DEAD

SRINAGAR, India – A series of rebel bomb attacks and gunfights with security forces in the Indian portion of Kashmir yesterday left at least 13 people dead and dozens injured, officials said.

Suspected insurgents triggered a small explosion that detonated a larger bomb in an abandoned car on a busy street in Srinagar, the summer capital of India’s Jammu-Kashmir state, an officer of the Central Reserve Police Force, Hari Lal, said.

The blasts left three soldiers and three civilians dead, and wounded 40 others, Officer Lal said. The explosions shattered windows at dozens of nearby buildings.

A person identifying himself as the spokesman for a Pakistan-based rebel group, Al-Nasireen, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to the Current News Service, a local news agency.

Separatist rebels have vowed to continue fighting Indian forces despite India and Pakistan declaring a cease-fire in Kashmir and holding talks aimed at settling the decades-old Kashmir dispute.

– Associated Press