Around The World

Town of Tulkarem taken over by Israeli troops\nTULKAREM, West Bank -- Israeli troops searched homes and traded fire with Palestinians as the military took over an entire Palestinian town Monday, a first in 16 months of fighting and another blow to beleaguered Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.\nDozens of tanks rumbled through the streets of Tulkarem, emptied by a military curfew. Troops firing tank-mounted machine guns fought with Palestinian militiamen and rounded up suspected militants. Two Palestinians were killed and 24 wounded in clashes in Tulkarem and in the West Bank town of Ramallah.\nIsrael said the seizure was in response to lethal attacks on Israelis and that it was doing the job Arafat failed to do -- rounding up militants.\nIndia continues attempts to ease tensions with Pakistan \nNEW DELHI, India -- India's foreign minister said Monday he is trying to avoid war with Pakistan over disputed Kashmir, but is uncertain how fast Pakistan's president can change his nation's policy and halt militant attacks on Indian soil.\nIn Indian-controlled Kashmir, gunmen attacked a home, killing eight children and four other civilians, officials said. But the chief minister of Indian Kashmir said authorities did not believe the attackers came from Pakistan.\nUnder U.S. and Indian pressure, Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf announced Jan. 12 that he would not tolerate terrorism aimed at ending India's rule over two thirds of Kashmir, a Himalayan region that is divided between the two countries and has led to two of their three wars.\nRussia hopes to limit U.S. missile defense program\nMOSCOW -- Russia hopes to negotiate agreements that would put limits on the U.S. missile defense program, a senior general said in an interview released Monday.\nThe statement by Col. Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky is the first official indication that Russia is trying to get restrictions on the U.S. missile shield, although Washington has shown no willingness to bend.\n"In our opinion, these agreements must put certain restrictions on the missile defense system the United States intends to build," said Baluyevsky, the first deputy chief of staff of the Russian armed forces, who led the Russian delegation to arms talks in Washington last week. The comments were made in an interview with the Interfax-Military News Agency released Monday.\nBritish treated OK at Guantanamo Bay prison\nGUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba -- The British Prime Minister sought Monday to ease tensions that blew up over the weekend about U.S. treatment of captives at Guantanamo prison, saying three Britons held there "had no complaints."\nA new group of prisoners arrived at the base Monday afternoon, but it was not immediately clear how many captives were on board the plane. Military officials had said Monday's flight would include injured fighters on stretchers.\nA British team visited the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay over the weekend, at the same time that newspapers at home were playing up pictures of Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners shackled and kneeling. The news coverage prompted the government in London to ask the United States to explain itself.\nIslamic humanitarian \nagency harbor suspects\nSARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- The arrest and extradition of six Algerian terror suspects -- five of whom worked for Islamic humanitarian organizations -- has the Bosnian government and Western intelligence agencies taking a hard look at some 120 aid groups operating in the Balkan country.\nOfficials want to know whether the groups, which poured in to help the Muslim country recover from its devastating 1992-95 war, are legitimate aid organizations or fronts for terrorists plotting new attacks against U.S. interests.\nThe issue is a delicate one for Bosnia, which is still struggling to recover from its devastating 1992-95 war and depends heavily on outside humanitarian assistance. Officials are torn: They want to ensure agencies aren't sheltering terrorists, but they're anxious to avoid offending legitimate charities.\nAid pledges fall short of desperate Afghan plea\nTOKYO -- Afghanistan's leader made an emotional appeal for aid to rebuild his shattered country, but at a conference of donors on Monday pledges so far fell short of the United Nations' hopes.\nAfghan Prime Minister Hamid Karzai collected promises of $2.6 billion for the next three years on Monday. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he hoped for $10 billion for five years, and the United Nations estimates a total of $15 billion would be needed over the next decade.\nDelegates consider this a make-or-break chance for Karzai, who is trying to collect funds while the world's attention is still focused on Afghanistan.\nMan arrested in Phillipines, suspected al Qaeda links\nMANILA, Philippines -- A man was arrested in the southern Philippines Monday for allegedly belonging to an al Qaeda-linked group accused of plotting terror attacks in Southeast Asia.\nMohammad Kiram was arrested in the predominantly Muslim city of Marawi, the latest of five suspected members of Jemaah Islamiyah to be arrested in the Philippines.\nThe Muslim extremist group is accused of planning attacks on western embassies and the U.S. military in Singapore with the help of cells in Indonesia and Malaysia as the well as the Phillipines.