PERSIAN GULF

CIVILIANS FLEE TOWN WHERE FORCES BATTLE AL QAEDA, INSURGENTS

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Scores of terrified Iraqis fled a besieged town yesterday to escape a second day of fighting between American Marines and Al Qaeda-led militants along the Syrian border.

The American commander of the joint force, Colonel Stephen W. Davis, told the Associated Press late yesterday that his troops had moved “about halfway” through Husaybah, a town about 200 miles northwest of Baghdad. At least 36 insurgents have been killed since the assault began Saturday and about 200 men have been detained, Colonel Davis said. He would not comment on American and Iraqi government casualties but said the militants were putting up a fight because “this area is near and dear to the insurgents, particularly the foreign fighters.”

Elsewhere, American Army snipers killed eight insurgents yesterday in separate incidents in Ramadi, the American command said. In Baghdad, two people were killed and nine wounded when a car bomb exploded near a tunnel, police Captain Qassim Hussein said. Gunmen in two speeding cars also fired on civilians near a bus stop in the capital, killing a policeman, police said.

— Associated Press

MIDDLE EAST

MOSAIC FROM AN ANCIENT CHURCH FOUND IN ISRAELI JAIL

JERUSALEM — Prisoners helped discover one of Christianity’s earliest churches when they took part in an archaeological dig inside one of Israel’s top security jails. A large and superbly preserved mosaic with a Greek inscription referring to the “Lord Jesus Christ” was discovered during renovation work inside the prison at Megiddo, thought to be the modern name for the biblical site of Armageddon.

Archaeologists suggested the mosaic was the earliest site of Christian worship yet found in the Holy Land. The Israeli prison authorities were reported to have asked for the mosaic to be dug up and relocated so they could continue with plans to increase the capacity of the jail.

— The Daily Telegraph

EAST AFRICA

AT TACK ON CRUISE SHIP UNDERLINES BOLDNESS OF SOMALI PIRATES

NAIROBI, Kenya — The violent attack on the cruise liner Seabourn Spirit off Somalia’s coast shows that the country’s pirates are becoming bolder and more ambitious in their efforts to hijack ships for ransom and loot, a maritime official warned yesterday. Judging by the location of Saturday’s attack, the pirates were likely from the same group that hijacked a U.N.-chartered aid ship in June, the head of the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Program, Andrew Mwangura, said.That gang is one of three well-organized pirate groups on the 1,880-mile coast of Somalia.

Separately, attackers in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, threw grenades and exploded a land mine yesterday near a convoy carrying Prime Minister Gedi.

— Associated Press

CENTRAL ASIA

AZERBAIJAN’S RULING DYNASTY ACCUSED OF RIGGING ELECTION

BAKU, Azerbaijan — The people of Azerbaijan voted yesterday, some of them several times, in parliamentary polls that demonstrated the ruling dynasty’s proficiency at winning elections, if not perhaps at grasping democratic principles. Provisional results and exit polls pointed to a substantial majority for the ruling party of the pro-Western autocrat who inherited the oil-rich former Soviet republic from his late father in 2003, Ilham Aliyev.

The opposition, whose democratic credentials are as questionable as the government’s, rejected the poll. Alleging fraud, they called for street protests today, hoping to emulate the “colored revolutions” that overturned similarly dubious elections in Georgia and Ukraine in the past two years.

It is unclear if the opposition can muster sufficient numbers, however.The crucial support of America, which fears instability could jeopardize vital Western energy and strategic interests in the country, may not be forthcoming either, unless the irregularities are sufficiently egregious.

— The Daily Telegraph

EAST ASIA

CHINA CALLS IN WHO OVER SUSPECTED BIRD FLU

BEIJING —The Chinese authorities performed an embarrassing about-face yesterday and called in the World Health Organization to examine three suspected human cases of bird flu. Newspapers in Hong Kong alleged that a girl from Hunan province in central China had died from an unknown fever after eating a chicken believed to be infected with the H5N1 virus. The authorities were quick to deny that she had contracted bird flu, but yesterday the state news agency, Xinhua, issued a brief statement saying that the disease “had not been ruled out” as the cause of her death.

— The Daily Telegraph

WESTERN EUROPE

CLARKE RULES OUT FUND FOR VICTIMS OF TERRORISM

Four months after the July 7 attacks on London, Britain’s home secretary, Charles Clarke, rejected calls for the British government to set up a special fund for those whose lives have been damaged by a terrorist attack. “Whether you are stabbed outside the pub or maimed by an explosion on a Tube train, it’s not actually the way in which you are injured that is the key thing — provided it’s a criminal act — but the extent of the injuries,” he said.

The home secretary’s comments come as Prime Minister Blair prepares to make a climb-down over his anti-terror laws. Downing Street admitted yesterday that the government would have to make concessions to Labour rebels over a proposal to allow the police to hold terrorist suspects for 90 days without charge.

— The Daily Telegraph