World news
Iraq, EU key issues during European vote
London European voters punished leaders in Britain, Italy and the Netherlands for getting involved in Iraq – but they also turned their ire on the war’s chief opponents, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac, over local issues, projections showed Sunday.
The 25-nation vote, spread out over four days, also revealed anxieties about the newly expanded European Union.
The continentwide vote, which ended with 19 countries voting on Sunday, came at a crucial time in the development of the European Union. The bloc has added 10 members, largely from Eastern Europe, and leaders hope to agree on a new constitution this month.
Israel’s Sharon won’t face bribery charges
Jerusalem Israel’s attorney general has decided not to indict Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a bribery case involving a failed real-estate deal, media reported Sunday.
If indicted, he would probably have had to step down, at least temporarily, analysts said.
The case concerns a plan by a close associate of Sharon’s, businessman David Appel, to develop a tourist project on a Greek island. Appel has been indicted for allegedly bribing Sharon, then foreign minister, and one of his sons.
Thousands visit Dublin on ‘Ulysses’ anniversary
Dublin, Ireland Several thousand Dubliners, tourists and literary experts filled the capital’s major boulevard Sunday to celebrate the fictional anniversary of “Ulysses,” James Joyce’s famously complex epic set on a single Dublin day 100 years ago.
The book, published in Paris in 1922, is considered among the greatest but most difficult novels of the 20th century. It charts the June 16, 1904, wanderings of Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus in Dublin.
Helicopter brings food to flood-ravaged town
Mapou, Haiti A U.N.-chartered helicopter ferried food and aid to survivors in this flood-ravaged town Sunday, three weeks after floods devastated communities along the Haiti-Dominican border.
Mapou, in the southeast, was still partly submerged from the May 24 floods that left more than 3,300 dead or missing.
Much of Haiti is heavily deforested, putting some areas at high risk of floods because there are few roots to hold back raging waters and mudslides.