Soldiers rescued about 600 students who were abducted from their classrooms in western Nepal by communist rebels, army officials said Sunday. The rebels apparently fled before the army reached the village, mountainous Niskot, where they were held, said one official, who did not want to be named for security reasons. The students were rounded up and taken Friday from village schools in the remote, neighboring Tahanu and Palpa districts, a spokesman at the Royal Nepalese Army headquarters said.
Japan: Nuke sanctions threatened
Japan will call for U.N. economic sanctions against North Korea if the communist state tests an atomic bomb, a top ruling party official said Sunday. Shinzo Abe, secretary-general of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Japan faces the greatest threat of any nation if North Korea is armed with nuclear weapons.
Iran: Bill urges uranium processing
Iranian lawmakers instructed the government Sunday to develop a nuclear fuel cycle, which would include resuming the process of enriching uranium, a prospect that has drawn criticism from the United States and Europe because it could be used in developing atomic weapons. The bill approved Sunday by 188 of the 205 deputies attending the parliamentary session doesn’t force the government to immediately resume uranium enrichment but pressures it not to give up its nuclear program, including uranium enrichment.
Russia: Suspected militants killed
Security forces and police killed six suspected militants, including two female would-be suicide bombers, who had holed up in an apartment in southern Russia, officials said Sunday. The four men and two women killed in the operation beginning Saturday in Cherkessk were subordinate to the Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev and another alleged rebel, Achimez Gochiyayev, said Anna Lyzina, a Federal Security Service spokeswoman.
Israel: Palestinians mourn anniversary
With sirens and rallies, Palestinians on Sunday mournfully commemorated the anniversary of what they call “Al Nakba,” or “the catastrophe” – the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of their people with the 1948 creation of the state of Israel. About 700,000 Palestinians lost their homes in the fighting that followed Israel’s independence. Israelis held barbecues, concerts and launched fireworks to celebrate the 57th anniversary of their independence Thursday, according to the date on the Hebrew calendar.
From Herald news services
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