Foreign Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

MIDDLE EAST
ISRAEL SHUTS DOWN HAMAS-LINKED CHARITIES
JERUSALEM – Israel shut down charities with ties to Hamas across the West Bank yesterday as it widened a five-day offensive against Palestinian Arab terrorists. Israeli aircraft fired missiles at several Gaza targets early yesterday, knocking out power in Gaza City for most of the night, damaging several buildings, and destroying an overpass. Troops also fired live artillery shells into northern Gaza for the first time, hitting an area the army said was used to fire rockets.
A senior army officer said Israel might shell Palestinian towns – after first giving warning – and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Israel was trying to teach the terrorists it will not tolerate any more attacks from Gaza following its recent pullout from the area.
– Associated Press
FBI JOINS LEBANESE BOMBING INVESTIGATION
BEIRUT, Lebanon – FBI agents sifted through the debris yesterday of the latest in a spate of bombings in Lebanon, American involvement certain to unnerve Syria as it comes under stepped-up American pressure to stay out of its neighbor’s business.
FBI agents picked through metal fragments and lifted fingerprints from the site where a bomb tore through a car Sunday near the port city of Jounieh north of Beirut. The vehicle belonged to a prominent anchorwoman and talk show host on a television station that has taken a line against Syria, May Chidiac. She was maimed in the attack.
– Associated Press
TURKISH WOMEN CONFRONT HUGHES ON IRAQ
ISTANBUL, Turkey – A group of female Turkish activists confronted Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes yesterday with heated complaints about the American-led invasion of Iraq, turning a session designed to highlight the empowerment of women into a raw display of anger at American policy in the region.
“War makes the rights of women completely erased and poverty comes after war – and women pay the price,” a Kurdish women’s rights activist, Fatma Nevin Vargun, said. Ms. Vargun denounced the arrest of Cindy Sheehan, the activist mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, in front of the White House Monday at an antiwar protest.
Ms. Hughes, looking increasingly pained, defended the decision to invade Iraq as a difficult and wrenching moment for President Bush, but necessary to protect America.
– The Washington Post
WESTERN EUROPE
COMMANDOS STORM HIJACKED FERRY
PARIS – French police commandos stormed a car ferry off Corsica yesterday after it was hijacked by striking seamen. In an exercise that bore more resemblance to an anti-terrorist operation than an attempt to resolve a labor dispute, they raced along the deck, recapturing the ship from the 50 protesters. No passengers were on board. The strikers, who work for the National Corsica Mediterranean Company and were protesting about plans to privatize their state-owned employer, commandeered the ship in Marseille on Tuesday. – The Daily Telegraph
IMAM ORDERED TO STUDY GENDER EQUALITY
MADRID, Spain – An imam who wrote a book on how to beat your wife without leaving marks on her body has been ordered by a judge in Spain to study the country’s constitution. The judge told Mohamed Kamal Mustafa, imam of a mosque in the southern resort of Fuengirola, to spend six months studying three articles of the constitution and the universal declaration of human rights.
The Spanish government has set up a commission to find ways for the Muslim community to regulate itself. A central recommendation is that imams speak Spanish and have a basic knowledge of human rights and Spanish law.
– The Daily Telegraph
EASTERN EUROPE
RUSSIA RETRIEVES NUCLEAR FUEL
Under the gaze of Russian, American, and Czech experts, about 31 pounds of highly enriched uranium were retrieved under armed guard from the KV-2 Sparrow reactor at the Czech Technical University in Prague. About 55 pounds are sufficient to make a nuclear device.
The secret operation in Prague, which took place on Tuesday, was part of a joint long-term nuclear clean-up program by Russia and America. Fears that terrorists could get their hands on HEU held in often poorly-guarded storage facilities prompted the Bush administration to pledge $450 million last year to help to repatriate Russian-origin HEU.
– The Daily Telegraph
CENTRAL ASIA
SUICIDE ATTACKER KILLS NINE, WOUNDS 38
KABUL, Afghanistan – A suicide attacker on a motorbike detonated a bomb yesterday outside an Afghan military training center in Kabul, killing nine soldiers and wounding 28 other people, the Defense Ministry said.
The attacker struck in a parking lot where officers and soldiers of the Afghan National Army were waiting to take minibuses home at about 4 p.m. A purported Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility and threatened more suicide attacks.
– Associated Press
NORTH AFRICA
REFERENDUM ASKS ALGERIANS TO VOTE FOR PEACE
ALGIERS, Algeria – The cycle of violence that gripped Algeria for more than a decade is at the heart of a referendum today that asks: Is it time to forgive and move on?
President Bouteflika says his Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation is aimed at closing the wounds of the battle between Islamic extremists and security forces that left an estimated 120,000 people dead and thousands missing. Critics say the charter is a way for the president to further consolidate power and that issuing pardons for perpetrators of the violence goes against the very notion of peace.
– Associated Press