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Israeli Prosecutor Urges President to Step Aside
JERUSALEM -- Israel's attorney general recommended Sunday that President Moshe Katsav recuse himself from official duties pending a decision on whether he will be indicted on charges of rape and sexual assault.
In a nonbinding opinion filed with Israel's high court, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said the state does not have the authority to remove Katsav from his post but urged him to resign voluntarily if indicted.
Under Israeli law, Katsav, 60, is immune from prosecution while in office. His term expires next year.
Israeli police investigators have concluded that claims made by women who worked in his office amount to charges of rape, sexual assault, fraud and illegal wiretapping. Israel's presidency is mostly ceremonial, but it does hold the power to grant pardons and accept the credentials of foreign diplomats.
Mazuz is weighing whether to indict Katsav, a decision he said Sunday would take a few more weeks. Katsav, a former member of parliament and cabinet minister from the Likud Party, has denied the allegations and contends he is the victim of a conspiracy.
-- Scott Wilson
THE AMERICAS
· HAVANA -- Photographs of Fidel Castro standing and talking on the phone were published in Cuba's state-run media, a day after the ailing leader was shown in a video to dispel rumors he was dead.
EUROPE
· MARSEILLE, France -- France's interior minister sent riot police to patrol the southern port of Marseille after a group of marauding teenagers torched a bus, gravely burning a woman. French police braced for violence this weekend, the anniversary of last year's riots in poor neighborhoods where immigrants from former French colonies in Africa live with their French-born children on the fringes of society.
ASIA
· DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Bangladesh's president, Iajuddin Ahmed, installed himself as leader of the country's caretaker government, hoping to end days of rioting that have left 25 people dead and hundreds wounded over a political standoff ahead of national elections.
