RAMALLAH, West Bank
Parliament passes joint security plan
The Palestinian Cabinet approved a new security plan Saturday that calls for a joint operations room overseeing rival security forces and appeals to gunmen not to flaunt their weapons, officials said.
The plan is to be the centerpiece of cooperation between the Islamic militants of Hamas and members of the rival Fatah movement, Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti said.
He said the operations center would include all Palestinian security forces, but details remained sketchy, particularly on whether Hamas’ year-old militia would be dissolved.
ISTANBUL, Turkey
32 killed in crash of 2nd-graders’ bus
A bus full of second-graders crashed into a truck in central Turkey on Saturday, killing at least 32 people, most of them children, and injuring 30, the government-owned Anatolia news agency said.
The crash occurred on a highway near the city of Aksaray, but it was unclear how it happened.
The bus had left Izmir on Friday night for an overnight trip, and an assistant bus driver who survived said he was asleep at the time of the crash, Anatolia reported.
ATHENS, Greece
Recorder recovered from sunken ship
Investigators recovered the data recorder on the sunken Sea Diamond cruise ship using a remote-controlled undersea probe, the Merchant Marine Ministry said Saturday.
The ministry said the recorder could reveal details of the sinking of the Sea Diamond, information officials hope to use in the prosecution of crew members.
Two French tourists remain missing from the ship, which struck well-marked rocks April 5 and sank off the main port of the Greek holiday island of Santorini.
Nearly 1,600 people were rescued, including hundreds of Americans and groups from Canada, Britain, Australia, France and Spain.
ROME
Activists ask pope to put away his fur
An Italian animal-rights group is asking Pope Benedict XVI to give up his fur, including an ermine-trimmed red velvet cape and papal hat, in “a choice of high religious and ethical value.”
“It would be a praiseworthy example of Christian charity,” Roberto Bennati, the deputy chairman of the Anti-Vivisection League, said in a statement released late Friday.
The Anti-Vivisection League made its appeal ahead of a papal trip later this month to Pavia, a northern city home to some of Italy’s furriers.
The Vatican has not publicly responded to the appeal.
LONDON
Store won’t need its Wills-and-Kate mugs
Kate Middleton and Prince William have ended their four-year relationship, a decision that surprised palace- watchers and disappointed those hoping for a royal wedding to rival that of Prince Charles and Princess Diana.
For many Britons, however, the split provided more evidence that the royals are as human as anyone else.
“I think they’re just like any other couple,” said Minet Marshall, 36, a London office worker. “They’re young, and before you meet the right person you have to kiss a lot of frogs.”
It was widely thought the couple would soon announce their engagement. Retail chain Woolworths had commissioned mugs, plates and other Wills-and-Kate memorabilia, despite the absence of a formal engagement.
