Abbas outlaws Hamas militias

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas swore in an emergency Cabinet on Sunday and outlawed the militias of Hamas, leaving Palestinians with two rival governments, one in the West Bank, the other led by the Islamic group in the Gaza Strip.

The installation of the new administration in the West Bank formalized the geographical and political divide among Palestinians since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip last week, routing forces dominated by Abbas’ Fatah movement.

The new 12-member Cabinet, made up mostly of technocrats and headed by Salam Fayyad, an internationally respected economist, has no effective authority in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas is enforcing its rule with the militias Abbas has declared illegal.

Paris

Sarkozy party wins Assembly majority

French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s center-right party won a solid majority of seats in National Assembly elections Sunday, giving him the backing he needs to implement reforms promised during his recent election campaign.

But Sarkozy fell short of the landslide victory predicted in polls last week, as voters apparently heeded Socialist Party warnings about a tax increase and unchecked presidential power.

Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP, will have at least 314 seats in the 577-member National Assembly, according to final results in the second round of parliamentary elections. However, the party did not win the predicted 450 seats, which would have allowed it to dominate the parliament.

Ulan Bator, Mongolia

Helicopter crash kills 14 people

A helicopter crash in northern Mongolia killed 14 people, but eight others survived, a government official said today.

The Russian-made Mi-8 helicopter had gone missing several days ago while on a firefighting mission, said Emergency Minister S. Otgonbayar. Rescuers located the crash site Saturday on a mountain in north-central Mongolia and were trying to get the survivors out, he said.

Among the survivors was one of the three pilots.

Tehran, Iran

Knighthood for Rushdie attacked

Iran on Sunday condemned Britain’s decision to knight Salman Rushdie, the author who was forced into hiding for a decade after the leader of the Iranian revolution ordered his assassination.

Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said granting Britain’s highest honor to Rushdie, whose novel “The Satanic Verses” sparked the death threat, insulted the Muslim world.

“Awarding a person who is among the most detested characters in the Islamic society is obvious proof of anti-Islamism by ranking British officials,” Hosseini said at his weekly press conference.

Rushdie went into hiding after Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a 1989 fatwa, or religious edict, ordering Muslims to kill the author because of contents in “The Satanic Verses” were offensive to Islam.

From wire reports