Abbas Urges Militants To Stop Firing at Israel
DEIR EL-BALAH, Gaza Strip -- Mahmoud Abbas, the leading candidate for Palestinian Authority president, called on militants Sunday to stop firing rockets at Israel, as Israeli tanks and troops massed in northern Gaza in response to a barrage that injured several Israelis.
A public opinion poll released Sunday showed Abbas with the backing of two-thirds of Palestinian voters, three times the support of his nearest rival a week before Jan. 9 elections to replace Yasser Arafat.
Still, the candidate with the gray, bureaucratic image spent the day courting young militants who have disparaged him. With Israeli tanks gathering nearby, Abbas expressed his support for Palestinian militants at a campaign rally at a school in the northern Gaza town of Jabaliya, but also criticized the rocket fire.
"Don't let your actions be used as an additional pretext and excuse for [Israel] to fight us, because this is not the proper time for such actions," Abbas said.
In a separate development, a Palestinian cameraman working for an Israeli TV station was shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers in northern Gaza, Palestinians and local news media said.
EUROPE
• ZAGREB, Croatia -- Incumbent Stjepan "Stipe" Mesic failed to win an outright first-round victory in presidential elections and faces a runoff vote in two weeks, according to nearly complete official results.
Mesic was the choice of 49.03 percent, the Electoral Commission said after more than 99 percent of votes were counted. His opponent, Jadranka Kosor, a minister in the ruling Croatian Democratic Union-led cabinet, was trailing far behind with 20.18 percent.
THE AMERICAS
• BUENOS AIRES -- Mourning families buried victims of a nightclub fire that killed at least 188 people and injured more than 700, while the public security chief of Buenos Aires resigned after revelations that some of the packed club's emergency exits were locked.
The funerals came before a pot-banging protest in which irate Argentines demanded a full government accounting for Thursday's calamity, the worst fire tragedy in this country in recent memory. Anger was palpable as several hundred protesters called on Mayor Anibal Ibarra to step down.
• LIMA, Peru -- Gunmen belonging to a nationalist group that seized a police station in southern Peru ambushed a police vehicle, killing four officers and wounding several more, said hospital officials in Andahuaylas, 275 miles southeast of Lima. One gunman was gravely wounded.
• TORONTO -- Canada confirmed its second case of mad cow disease, just days after the United States said it planned to reopen its border to Canadian beef. A 10-year-old dairy cow from Alberta has tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
ASIA
• KABUL, Afghanistan -- A U.S. soldier and a former Afghan militia leader, identified by another militia commander as Mullah Dost, were killed when American troops clashed with gunmen while searching the leader's compound in western Afghanistan, U.S. and Afghan officials said. The soldier's name was withheld.
-- From News Services
