Police Halt Basque Protest

Riot police clash with Basque nationalist supporters in Bilbao, northern Spain. Authorities dispersed an illegal street protest by several thousand supporters of Basque separatist parties in the city, officials said. (By Alvaro Barrientos -- Associated Press)

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Monday, February 11, 2008; Page A14

ISRAEL

Olmert Rejects Calls For Invasion of Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday ruled out a broad military operation in the Gaza Strip, despite rising anger after an 8-year-old boy lost a leg in a Palestinian rocket attack.

"Anger is not an operational plan," Olmert said in response to demands for a full-scale invasion of northern Gaza to take over the areas where fighters have been launching rockets. Some cabinet members called for the assassination of Hamas political leaders.

Residents of the battered town of Sderot near Gaza blocked the main highway entrance into Jerusalem, demanding government action after doctors amputated Osher Twito's leg following a rocket attack Saturday that also wounded his 19-year-old brother.

"We must take a neighborhood in Gaza and wipe it off the map," cabinet minister Meir Sheetrit said after warning citizens to flee.

In a public statement at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting, Olmert said the surge in Palestinian rocket attacks was a response to Israel's own military strikes. He said 200 Gaza militants had been killed in recent months "as a result of initiated, aggressive, planned and comprehensive activity" by Israeli military and security forces.

Olmert indicated that Israel might target Hamas political leaders.

EAST TIMOR

President Wounded By Renegade Soldiers

Gunmen wounded President Jos¿ Ramos-Horta and opened fire on a car carrying the prime minister Monday in apparently coordinated attacks against the leadership of the recently independent nation, officials said.

The president, wounded in the stomach, was in stable condition, while Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped unhurt.

Monday's violence plunged the tiny country into fresh uncertainty after a flare-up in violence in 2006 killed 37 people, displaced more than 150,000 and led to the collapse of the government.

Notorious rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was killed in the attack, as was one of Ramos-Horta's guards, an army spokesman said.