Rebels kill at least 8 in India, Kashmir\nPATNA, India -- Rebels trying to disrupt India's parliamentary elections killed at least eight people and wounded at least 20 across India and Kashmir Sunday, a day before the next phase of the staggered voting.\nSuspected Maoist rebels from the People's War Group shot and killed three farmers and wounded another in Adai village in eastern Bihar state, police officer Sanjay Singh said. Adai residents had defied the rebels' call to boycott the first round of polling held April 20, Singh said.\nAdai is about 30 miles south of Patna, Bihar's capital. Maoist rebels in the state have threatened to attack anyone participating in the campaigning or the parliamentary elections, which will be held in phases through May 10.
Shortages confront N. Korean victims\nDANDONG, China -- Injured children lay on file cabinets as an overcrowded North Korean hospital struggled to cope without enough beds or medicine for hundreds of victims from last week's train explosion, an aid worker who visited the facility said Sunday.\nSinuiju Provincial Hospital, just across the border from China, was treating 360 people injured in the blast, according to Tony Banbury, Asia regional director for the U.N. World Food Program. More than 60 percent of the victims there were children, he said.\n"They clearly lack the ability to care for all the patients," Banbury said.\nThursday's huge explosion in the town of Ryongchon, fed by oil and chemicals, killed 161 people and injured at least 1,300, officials said.\nThe death toll rose by seven Sunday, but it was unclear whether the higher number reflected new fatalities or simply freshly confirmed casualties. Aid agencies didn't say whether they expected the number to increase.
Israel: No Arafat attack planned now \nJERUSALEM -- Israeli leaders Sunday backed away from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's latest threats against Yasser Arafat, saying there are no immediate plans to kill the Palestinian leader.\nSharon declared in a television interview over the weekend he is no longer bound by a promise to the United States not to harm Arafat.\nThe comments, which were criticized in Washington, D.C., Europe and the Arab world, raised speculation that Arafat might be in Israel's crosshairs. In recent weeks, Israel has killed the founder of the Hamas militant group and his successor.
