3 new nations elected to U.N. Security Council\nUNITED NATIONS -- Algeria, Brazil and the Philippines were elected to seats on the U.N. Security Council Thursday for two-year terms along with Romania and Benin.\nThe five candidates won the support of more than 170 nations in voting by the 191-member General Assembly. Five other nations were chosen last year for terms expiring in 2004.\nSome years see fierce competition for the council's 10 elected seats, which are based on nominations by regional groups to ensure geographical representation.\nThe new members will join the Security Council on Jan. 1, replacing Bulgaria, Cameroon, Guinea, Mexico and Syria, whose two-year terms expire Dec. 31.\nThe five permanent members -- the United States, Britain, Russia, China and France -- are the only ones on the 15-member council to hold veto power, enabling them to block resolutions.
Israel to build 300 new homes in West Bank \nJERUSALEM -- Israel disclosed plans Thursday to build nearly 300 homes in West Bank settlements, despite a freeze on construction required by a U.S.-backed peace plan. Palestinians condemned the project and urged the United States to intervene.\nAn associate of Yasser Arafat said the Palestinian leader was unnerved by an army raid near his compound this week, and clenched a submachine gun as he declared he felt the "smell of paradise."\nIsrael has said it would "remove" Arafat at an unspecified time, but has not explained whether this means expulsion or assassination. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said this week that Arafat is the major obstacle to peace, but in an earlier newspaper interview backtracked from threats to expel the Palestinian leader.\nThe construction of 273 apartments in West Bank settlements was disclosed Thursday by Israel's Housing Ministry, which published an ad in an Israeli newspaper inviting contractors to bid on them. The apartments are slated for Karnei Shomron, a settlement deep in the northern West Bank, and Givat Zeev, on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
Photographers go on trial for Princess Diana pictures\nPARIS -- Three photographers will go on trial in Paris today for shooting pictures at the scene of the 1997 car crash that killed Princess Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed.\nThe trial, the latest judicial proceedings surrounding the high-speed crash, stemmed from a criminal complaint for invasion of privacy filed by Dodi Fayed's father, Egyptian-born billionaire Mohammed Al Fayed.\nCelebrity photographers on motorcycles had been chasing Diana and Dodi Fayed after they left the Ritz Hotel in their car on Aug. 31, 1997. The couple and chauffeur Henri Paul were killed when the car crashed in a Paris tunnel.\nThe photographers were cleared last year of manslaughter charges in the crash and will now be tried only for pictures they took of Dodi Fayed.\nDiana's relatives and the British royal family are not plaintiffs in the case. Photos taken at the site were confiscated, and none were ever published.
