Israeli troops clash with militants

Israeli troops surrounded two houses in Jenin today, setting off a fierce gunbattle with militants in the West Bank town, the army and Palestinian witnesses said.

The soldiers called on loudspeakers for militants inside the houses to surrender, witnesses said. Militants in Jenin said from four to six militants from Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades were holed up inside the houses.

Palestinian gunmen immediately took to the streets, exchanging fire with troops. Palestinian students threw stones at Israeli soldiers, and an army bulldozer tried to disperse the crowd. Soldiers took over homes in the area, taking up position and fighting with gunmen.

The Jenin operation came two days after the army conducted a dramatic prison raid in the West Bank town of Jericho, spiriting away six militants, including the alleged mastermind of the 2001 assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister.

United Nations

U.S., few others oppose new panel

The United States stood nearly alone Wednesday as it voted against the creation of a new U.N. Human Rights Council, saying the reform did not go far enough to keep abusers off the panel.

However, U.S. officials did not carry through on a threat to block the new body’s funding.

Jan Eliasson, president of the General Assembly, called the vote “a historic moment for human rights” as 170 member-states backed the new council. Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau joined the U.S. in voting against.

The new council is meant to replace the 53-member Commission on Human Rights founded in 1946 to censure countries that abuse their own citizens. Membership on the commission was allocated by region, allowing countries with poor human rights records to gain seats and use them to head off criticism.

In an effort to keep violators off the panel, the new council’s rules say that to join a candidate has to win a majority, or 96 votes, in a direct election in the General Assembly.

Scientist awarded Templeton Prize

John D. Barrow, a Cambridge University cosmologist who has researched and written extensively about the relationship between life and the universe, on Wednesday was awarded the 2006 Templeton Prize, worth about $1.4 million, for progress in spiritual knowledge.

Barrow, 53, is the sixth scientist to have won the award, considered the Nobel Prize for religion.

Given annually, the Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities was founded in 1972 by philanthropist John M. Templeton. Previous winners include Mother Teresa, evangelist Billy Graham and author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.