All but one die in Slovak crash

Hejce, Hungary A Slovak military plane carrying troops back from Kosovo crashed into a mountainside in northeastern Hungary, killing at least 42 people, officials said today.

Only one person survived after the AN-24 aircraft went down Thursday near the Slovak border, said National Police spokesman Laszlo Garamvolgyi. The survivor was taken to a hospital in the Slovak city of Kosice but there was no immediate word on his condition.

Suicide bombing wounds 20 in Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv, Israel A Palestinian suicide bomber posing as a peddler blew himself up in a Tel Aviv fast-food restaurant Thursday and wounded 20 people in an apparent attempt to destabilize the region a week before Palestinian elections.

Islamic Jihad, the only Palestinian faction boycotting the vote, claimed responsibility. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas accused the group of trying to sabotage the Jan. 25 election.

In a high-level security meeting to assess a response, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Syria planned the attack and Iran funded it, but Israel would not hit back at the Palestinians, according to security officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to provide details to the media.

Ivory Coast protests go into fourth day

Abidjan, Ivory Coast Protesters defied a call by Ivory Coast’s president to end street violence that entered its fourth day Thursday, as the U.N. Security Council warned of possible sanctions against those trying to sabotage the African nation’s peace process.

U.N. peacekeepers fired tear gas grenades to keep back hundreds of angry young men protesting outside U.N. headquarters in Abidjan, the country’s main city.

In the city center, shops, schools and banks remained closed, although life began returning to normal in some outlying areas after President Laurent Gbagbo called late Wednesday for protesters – many of whom are believed to be his supporters – to leave the streets and go back to their jobs.

The latest bout of unrest began Monday in the government-held south after a U.N.-backed international mediation group recommended that parliament’s expired mandate not be renewed.