President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Sunday that Pakistan will stick to its January schedule for parliamentary elections but he set no time limit on emergency rule, raising grave doubts about whether the crucial vote can be free and fair. Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, speaking two days after she was briefly put under house arrest, said the schedule for elections was “a first positive step,” but with an emergency in place, it would be “difficult” to campaign. Other opposition parties said Musharraf’s sweeping powers, which have already led to thousands of arrests and a ban on rallies, would make a mockery of the democratic process.
U.S.-led coalition troops battling militants in southern Afghanistan lobbed a grenade that killed 15 militants as well as a woman and two children, the coalition said Monday. Meanwhile, weekend reports of other violence included the deaths of three policemen and a coalition soldier in separate explosions and raids. The U.S.-led troops were raiding compounds suspected of housing bomb makers in the Garmser district of Helmand province on Sunday when militants attacked them with heavy fire, the statement said. Coalition forces responded with small-arms fire, killing several militants, it said.
A private security guard fatally shot an Iraqi taxi driver, Iraqi officials said Monday, in the latest incident involving what Iraqis believe are unprovoked killings by contractors hired to protect Americans. The security guard worked for DynCorp International, a Falls Church, Va.-based company, U.S. Embassy spokesman Philip T. Reeker said. DynCorp International is among three firms – along with Blackwater Worldwide and Triple Canopy – under contract to protect American diplomats and other officials in Iraq.
Hamas security forces opened fire Monday at a rally by the rival Fatah movement commemorating Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Six people were killed in the bloodiest day of intra-Palestinian fighting since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June. Some 250,000 Fatah supporters, carrying pictures of Arafat, yellow Fatah flags and wearing trademark black-and-white Arab headdresses, joined Monday’s rally in a major square of Gaza City. It was the biggest outpouring of support for Fatah since Hamas’ violent takeover of \nthe territory.
A police officer was placed under investigation Monday for possible manslaughter in the shooting death of a soccer fan that provoked riots across Italy. Authorities detained four people Monday for taking part in the violence in Rome, where angry fans attacked a police barracks near the stadium and the building housing the Italian Olympic Committee. Gabriele Sandri, a 26-year-old disc jockey from Rome, died after getting hit in the neck by a bullet while sitting in a car. Police said an officer fired shots to disperse a scuffle at a highway rest stop in Tuscany.
