Palestinian women hold candles during a vigil protesting the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.


JERUSALEM  Israeli naval vessels intercepted a Libyan ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza on Monday, Palestinian and Israeli officials said.

Israel's Foreign Ministry said the ship was stopped and ordered to turn back because it was not authorized to dock in the Palestinian territory of Gaza which is under an Israeli blockade.

After receiving the message by radio contact, the Libyan ship turned back, a ministry spokesman said.

Gaza lawmaker Jamal Khoudary said the ship returned to the Egyptian port town of Al-Arish near the Gaza border.

"This ship was carrying food and medicine and was coming to assist the Palestinian people in Gaza, where they live under siege," Khoudary said.

Israel maintains that rocket attacks and security threats from militant groups in Gaza forced it to close its border crossings with Gaza. The blockade also applies to ships coming into Gaza. Israel controls the waters off the coast of the Palestinian territory.

Human rights groups have expressed concern about the Israeli blockade on Gaza, which has restricted the delivery of emergency aid and fuel s ... Читать дальше »

Indian authorities say this man, suspected of being a gunman in the Mumbai attack, claims he is Pakistani.

MUMBAI, India A second Indian official offered his resignation Monday in the wake of last week's deadly terrorist attacks as Pakistan urged its nuclear neighbor to withhold blame until further investigation.

Vilasrao Deshmukh, chief minister of the state of Maharashtra where Mumbai is located, said he would leave it up to his ruling Congress party to decide whether his resignation would be accepted.

His announcement followed Sunday's resignation of federal Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who quit amid criticism of the response to Wednesday's attacks that left 179 dead.

The attacks have damaged India's already strained relationship with Pakistan, which says India has yet to offer any proof to support allegations that a Pakistani-based Islamic militant group was behind the massacre.

One captured suspect has told police that he is Pakistani, Indian officials said. Sources told CNN's sister station, CNN-IBN, that the captive has said he was trained by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, a Pakistan-based terror group allied with al Qaeda.

The suspect also said he and his fellow attackers were told to memorize Google Earth maps of Mumbai's streets so they could find their targets, CNN-IBN reported. ... Читать дальше »

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Three people were killed when a car blew up near a subway station in Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg, on Tuesday, authorities said.

The victims included a 3-year-old child, an emergency worker told CNN. There was no immediate indication of what caused the explosion.

The blast took place in the city's Viborsky district, the worker said. Officials suspect a grenade may have caused the blast.

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- The Kremlin says President Dmitry Medvedev has submitted a draft bill that would extend the term of Russia's president from four to six years.

Medvedev said in his state of the nation address last week that he would seek constitutional change that would extend the president's term by two years. Constitutional experts say the proposed changes would only apply to future presidents.

A six-year term could mean 12 more years as president for former president Vladimir Putin -- the current prime minister -- who has not ruled out getting his old job back.

The next election is scheduled for 2012, but Medvedev's swift move to extend the presidential term is raising widespread speculation that Putin might not wait that long.

HARARE, Zimbabwe  The whereabouts of a dozen opposition supporters -- including a mother and her 2-year-old daughter -- remain unknown, weeks after they were seized by Zimbabwean security forces, the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe and a human rights lawyers group said Thursday.

"Zimbabwean security authorities seized 12 individuals, including the mother and a 2-year-old child, affiliated with the Movement for Democratic Change, the opposition party," James McGee said Thursday.

"The adults are reportedly being interrogated for their alleged involvement in paramilitary camps in Botswana -- a charge that the Botswanan government had roundly denied," McGee said.

Bright Matonga, Zimbabwe's deputy information minister, said in response: "What is interesting is the involvement of America in the case. It would help if the MDC and their masters would ... be specific instead of just trying to create a bad image of Zimbabwe. There is nothing to comment [on] unless we get something concrete, not this, cooked-up stories."

It was not immediately clear when the alleged arrests occurred. McGee said they took place from October 27 through November 1, while the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) said they occurred between October 30 and November 1.

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