• SRINAGAR, India -- Soldiers defused two powerful land mines on the planned route of a bus service between the Indian and Pakistani portions of Kashmir. The service is one of the first to cross the border in more than half a century, security officials said. The mines, found two days before the bus service was to begin, were likely planted by separatists after soldiers had swept the area clear of mines, an official said.
THE MIDDLE EAST
• JERUSALEM -- Two Israeli policemen who beat up two Palestinian youths and forced gravel down the throat of one of them were sentenced to prison.
The paramilitary border police officers were convicted of pummeling the Palestinians with fists and batons. They also forced one of the youths to kiss an officer's shoes, prosecutors said. Jerusalem District Court sentenced the commander to 10 months in prison, another officer to eight months, and a third to six months of community service.
• JERUSALEM -- President Bush demanded that Israel stop expanding Jewish settlements, as a plan to extend the largest West Bank settlement to the edge of Jerusalem threatened to cloud his meeting next week with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Sharon heightened White House concern over the plan to build 3,500 homes between the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim and Jerusalem when he told a parliamentary committee Monday that the settlement should be linked to Jerusalem.
-- From News Services
