Gunbattles kill five in West Bank
Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinian gunmen and two civilians in heavy fighting Thursday in the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian hospital officials and the Israeli military said. Two Israeli soldiers and 22 Palestinians were wounded in the gunbattles, which unfolded in stages throughout the day.
The clashes were some of the most intense since Israel and a dozen armed Palestinian groups agreed a year ago to abide by a cease-fire. They reflect intensifying Israeli military operations in the West Bank in recent days, particularly in the volatile north.
The fighting Thursday occurred in the Balata refugee camp on the city’s edge, witnesses and Israeli military officials said.
Three of the Palestinians killed were identified as members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement.
Soroti, Uganda
Rain no damper on voter turnout
Ugandans showed up in large numbers Thursday to vote in the country’s first multiparty elections in more than 25 years, a vote widely seen as a referendum on President Yoweri Museveni’s 20-year rule.
Sudden downpours soaked open-air polling stations across the country but did little to dampen turnout in this East African nation, where critics say Museveni’s government has become increasingly authoritarian.
Museveni was ahead in opinion polls before the election, but seemed unlikely to get more than 50 percent of the vote and avoid a runoff. Supporters of the 62-year-old president changed the constitution in July so he could run for a third term.
The country’s choices for president and 284 members of parliament will be announced by late Saturday, according to Ugandan law.
Beirut, Lebanon
Rice hints Lahoud should step down
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hinted Thursday the United States would welcome the exit of Lebanon’s pro-Syrian president.
The top U.S. diplomat’s surprise visit to the Lebanese capital came days after major demonstrations there against Syria’s control over Lebanon.
Rice took no position on whether Lebanese President Emile Lahoud should stay or go, saying the decision was up to the Lebanese. But she noted pointedly that the Lebanese “need a presidency that looks forward, not back, and that defends Lebanese sovereignty.”
Lahoud is Damascus’ ally in Beirut, a vestige of the days when Syria used proxy politicians to seal control of its weaker neighbor. Rice snubbed him on this trip, meeting instead with reform-minded Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and leading figures from Lebanon’s Christian, Sunni and Shia Muslim groups.