WESTERN EUROPE

FRANCE TO DEPORT 120 FOREIGN RIOTERS

PARIS – The French Riviera cities of Nice and Cannes were among areas that imposed curfews for minors yesterday as rioting abated. The government toughened its stance against those involved in civil unrest. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said local officials have been told to deport the 120 foreigners convicted so far for their roles in the violence.

Although rioting persisted in some places for a 13th night, car burnings fell by nearly half and reports of violence dropped. Nonetheless, looters and vandals attacked superstores in northern France and a newspaper warehouse and a subway station in the south.

– Associated Press

NORTH AFRICA

HIGH TURNOUT, LITTLE VIOLENCE, CHANGE FACE OF EGYPTIAN VOTE

CAIRO, Egypt – Turnout was better than expected yesterday, violence was sparse, and the Muslim Brotherhood ran an open campaign in what many viewed as Egypt’s freest parliamentary vote. Regardless, President Mubarak’s ruling National Democratic Party faced no immediate threat to its iron grip on power.

– Associated Press

MIDDLE EAST

UNION LEADER UNSEATS SHIMON PERES IN ISRAELI LABOR PARTY RACE

JERUSALEM – A fiery union leader won a stunning victory over Shimon Peres in the leadership contest for Israel’s Labor Party, officials said yesterday, dealing a blow to the elder statesman that could endanger the country’s shaky governing coalition. Amir Peretz has promised to pull Labor out of Prime Minister Sharon’s government, raising the likelihood of early elections. The defeat also could spell the end of Mr. Peres’s distinguished, six-decade political career. Mr. Peres had been heavily favored to win.

– Associated Press

SYRIA IMPOSES TRAVEL BAN ON SIX OFFICIALS THAT U.N. WANTS TO INTERVIEW

DAMASCUS, Syria – A Syrian judicial committee probing the assassination of a former Lebanese leader has imposed a travel ban on six officials a U.N. commission wants to interview, a spokesman said yesterday. The newly formed committee also has started quizzing the officials, a panel spokesman, Ibrahim Daraji, told the Associated Press. Mr. Daraji did not name the six, but they reportedly include President Assad’s brother-in-law and chief of Syria’s military intelligence service, General Assef Shawkat.

– Associated Press

PERSIAN GULF

SADDAM’S LAW YERS DEMAND SECURITY GUARANTEES BAGHDAD, Iraq – The defense team in Saddam Hussein’s trial said yesterday it will not show up for the next session November 28 unless the court accepts its demands for “neutral international intervention” to guarantee security. Also yesterday, the American command announced that an American Marine died of injuries suffered when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle two days earlier in western Iraq. Two car bombs exploded last night near a Shiite mosque in Baghdad, killing six people. Also, a driver for the Sudanese Embassy was shot to death yesterday as he left the Palestinian mission, police said. Five policemen were killed when a suicide car bomber struck a patrol near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. – Associated Press

SOUTH AMERICA

HEZBOLLAH MEMBER SUSPECTED AS BOMBER IN ARGENTINE ATTACK

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – The bomber who detonated a van packed with explosives outside a Jewish community center in 1994, killing 85 people in Argentina’s worst terrorist attack, has been identified as a Hezbollah militant. Prosecutor Alberto Nisman said in a statement that a Lebanese citizen and member of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, Ibrahim Hussein Berro, carried out the attack that leveled the center in downtown Buenos Aires.

– Associated Press

SOUTHEAST ASIA

THE BALI BOMB-MAKER BLOWS HIMSELF UP

JAKARTA, Indonesia – The bomb-maker whose deadly expertise claimed hundreds of lives in Bali blew himself up yesterday during a gun battle with police. A Malaysian and a leading member of Jemaah Islamiah, the South East Asian terrorist group that has close ties to Al Qaeda, Azahari Husin, was surrounded by police who had been tipped off that he was at a house in the town of Malang, East Java. Meanwhile, in a breakthrough for the investigation into the October 1 attack, the Indonesian police said yesterday they had identified two of the three suicide bombers.

– The Daily Telegraph

AUSTRALIA

AT LEAST SIX ALLEGED TERRORISTS WERE AUSTRALIAN-BORN

SYDNEY, Australia – A former actor who appeared in the soap opera “Home and Away,” Omar Baladjam, 28, was charged with attempted murder the day after 17 alleged militants were arrested in Melbourne and Sydney. Some of those arrested came from Lebanon, Algeria, and Bangladesh. But at least six were born in Australia.

– The Daily Telegraph