WORLD IN BRIEF

At Big Five-Oh, Generous Gifts to Self

Seven Palestinians Die In Israeli Strikes on Gaza

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GAZA CITY -- Israel killed seven Palestinians in a series of airstrikes in Gaza on Saturday, including three senior Islamic Jihad fighters and a rocket manufacturer for a wing of Fatah, President Mahmoud Abbas's group.

Israel's six successive attacks, aimed at increasing military pressure on the Hamas-ruled territory it wants to isolate, came three days after an offensive in which 12 Palestinians were killed in the territory.

An Israeli military spokesman confirmed three aerial attacks in Gaza, including one that targeted a car carrying fighters that the spokesman said had been involved in plotting a suicide bombing and in past attacks on Israel. Another strike targeted a weapons depot.

Palestinian security sources and witnesses said the three fighters killed in the first strike were commanders of the Islamic Jihad group in Gaza.

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ASIA and the pacific

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· TOKYO -- Japan's defense minister said the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States during World War II was an inevitable way to end the war.

Fumio Kyuma's comments drew sharp criticism from survivors, and some opposition lawmakers called for his dismissal. He later apologized, saying Sunday, "I am sorry if my comments gave the impression I disrespect the victims."

Kyuma, who is from Nagasaki, said the bombing caused great suffering in the city.

· SYDNEY -- Australian Prime Minister John Howard is secretly planning to begin withdrawing Australian troops from Iraq by next February, Australian media reported.

The Sunday Telegraph, quoting an unnamed senior military source, described the plan as "one of the most closely guarded secrets in top levels of the bureaucracy." Australia has about 1,500 soldiers, sailors and airmen in and around Iraq.

AFRICA

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· KAMPALA, Uganda -- Uganda's government and Lord's Resistance Army rebels have signed an agreement on how to deal with war crimes, the rebels said Saturday, in the third phase of talks to end one of Africa's worst conflicts.

The signing was a major development in a five-stage peace plan aimed at ending two decades of violence in northern Uganda.

The plan has raised hopes of an end to a war that has caused tens of thousands of deaths and forced nearly 2 million refugees into camps that aid workers say are among the most squalid in the world.

the americas

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· GUATEMALA CITY -- An Army Day parade turned into a brawl when relatives of people killed in Guatemala's civil war tried to interrupt the procession. Only minor injuries were reported.

Members of the Children's Collective, whose relatives died or disappeared in the 1960-96 war, called the parade an insult to the memory of the war's 200,000 mostly civilian victims. A 1998 report by the Roman Catholic Church's human rights office blamed Guatemala's military for the overwhelming majority of atrocities committed during the civil war.

· BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombia's president, Álvaro Uribe, rejected a request by France, Spain and Switzerland for an international probe into the killing of 11 hostages held by rebels for more than five years.

-- From News Services