The British army will slash its garrison in Northern Ireland to peacetime levels, demolish spy towers in Catholic areas and disband its overwhelmingly Protestant local battalions within two years, British commanders said Monday. The announcement of the cuts came as a response to the IRA’s promise last week to disarm fully and cease violence.

Germany: 9 babies’ remains found

Police discovered the remains of nine newborn babies buried in a garden in eastern Germany and arrested a 39-year-old woman believed to be their mother, prosecutors said Monday. The bodies were found Sunday in Brieskow-Finkenheerd, said prosecution spokesman Michael Neff. Investigators believed the children were born between 1988 and 2004 and died shortly after birth, Neff said.

England: More patrols and arrests

Police investigating failed July 21 bomb attacks in London said Monday they had arrested two men during raids in the city. British transport police, meanwhile, dispatched reinforcements from around the country Monday to patrol London’s subway system in a show of force meant to discourage more attacks. The July 21 bombing came exactly two weeks after July 7 attacks that killed 52 people plus all four suicide bombers.

Israel: Settlers scrap march plans

Settlers appeared to back down Monday from plans to defy a police ban against a mass march in the town of Sderot next to Gaza to protest the uprooting of settlements, a sign that resistance to Israel’s pullout from Gaza and part of the West Bank in less than three weeks may be crumbling. The government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon continued preparations for the pullout, with soldiers at a military base in central Israel practicing dragging settlers out of houses.

From Herald news services