Around The World

Arafat calls for cease-fire\nJERUSALEM -- Yasser Arafat asked militant groups to halt attacks on Israelis Wednesday in the Palestinian leader's first public attempt to restore calm following the collapse of the armed groups' unilateral truce.\nIsrael, which has tried to sideline Arafat from the peace process, dismissed his appeal as empty rhetoric and said the army would keep rounding up terror suspects and hunting down their leaders.\nArafat stepped forward with the appeal at a time when he's caught in a power struggle with his prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, and when the United States is pressing the Palestinians to act against militants, a key requirement under the creaking U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan.\nReligious stampede kills 39, injures 125 in India\nNASIK, India -- Crowds of Hindu pilgrims waiting to bathe in a holy river in western India surged over a flimsy bamboo fence, triggering a stampede that killed at least 39 people and injured 125.\nWorshippers spilled to the ground as the fence collapsed and were trampled by the thousands of others pushing toward the Godavari River outside the town of Nasik, about 110 miles northeast of Bombay. Many of the dead were women.\nStampedes are not uncommon at major Hindu religious festivals, which can attract millions of worshippers. \nPolice in Nasik estimated that nearly 1.6 million people attended the festival Wednesday. About 60 million people are likely to participate at various times during the festival, which started July 30 and ends Monday.\nTwo U.S. soldiers dead in Iraq, relief agencies leave due to increasing violence\nBAGHDAD, Iraq -- Two more U.S. soldiers were killed in combat Wednesday, and the international relief agency Oxfam said it pulled its foreign staff out of Iraq because of the increasing danger.\nThe International Monetary Fund and the World Bank pulled workers from Iraq last week following the suicide truck bombing at U.N. headquarters in Baghdad that killed 23 people and wounded more than 100. Many U.N. foreign staff also have left the country temporarily.\nViolence in Iraq, particularly in and around Baghdad, has taken its toll on Iraqis as well, with a spree of carjackings and robberies reported by the population.