Afghan official says Bush will visit today

President Bush will make his first visit to Afghanistan today and meet with President Hamid Karzai, a top Afghan official said.

The two leaders will have lunch and hold a joint press conference, said the official, who is familiar with Karzai’s schedule but did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. U.S. Embassy officials in Kabul declined to comment.

Bush departed Washington on Tuesday on a trip to South Asia, with stops scheduled in India and Pakistan.

In New Dehli, tens of thousands of Indians waving black and white flags and chanting “Death to Bush!” rallied today to protest Bush’s visit.

Beijing

Panel’s end called ‘dangerous step’

Chinese President Hu Jintao accused the Taiwanese leader of taking a “dangerous step” toward independence and warned Tuesday that Beijing will never let the self-ruled island break with the communist mainland.

A stern series of Chinese statements, however, refrained from repeating Beijing’s threats to attack Taiwan, which it claims as part of its territory. The United States and Japan urged both sides to resume talks.

The Chinese criticism came in response to Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian’s decision Monday to abolish a committee responsible for unifying the island and the mainland.

Jerusalem

Palestinians need funds, U.N. says

The United Nations warned Tuesday that Israel and the West could unleash a crisis in Palestinian territories by withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and transfers.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs cautioned that an Israeli decision to cut off taxes and customs duties collected on behalf of the Palestinians could bring the Palestinian government to the brink of collapse by limiting its ability to provide basic services such as health, education, utilities and policing.

The flow of money has been jeopardized by the Islamic militant group Hamas’ victory in Jan. 25 Palestinian elections.

Israel’s Cabinet decided this month to stop sending the Palestinian Authority roughly $55 million in taxes and customs duties it collects on its behalf each month on imports and from Palestinian merchants and laborers working in Israel.

Montreal

Priests denounce Vatican gay stance

In a rare public dissent, 19 Catholic priests have denounced the Vatican’s opposition to gay marriage and allowing homosexuals into the priesthood.

The clerics signed an open letter that ran Sunday in Montreal’s La Presse newspaper, criticizing the church’s positions on the issues.

The priests said the church was invoking “natural law” to make its case against homosexuality, arguing that slavery was also once considered “natural.”

“What we are saying is that human nature is constantly evolving,” Claude Lemieux, one of the signatories, said Tuesday. “We believe this position is closer to that which is shared by our parishioners.”