Associated Press, File
A flag of the Ulster Volunteer Force. The group and the Ulster Defense Association are now talking peace.
In the World
N. Ireland peace advances more
LONDON - Lasting peace in Northern Ireland took another step forward yesterday when major Protestant paramilitary organizations announced that they had decommissioned some or all of their weapons, following a similar move years earlier by the opposing Irish Republican Army.The Ulster Defense Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force, two fearsome groups responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths, said the time had come for peace and democracy in a territory riven for decades by conflict between Catholics and Protestants.
"The need for armed resistance has gone. Consequently, we are putting our arsenal of weaponry permanently beyond use," the Ulster Defense Association said in a statement. It added that it had begun destroying some of its arms in the presence of independent monitors.
The Ulster Volunteer Force said it had fully given up its stockpile. The declaration was made at a Belfast news conference by a spokesman who appeared unmasked and dressed in civilian clothes.
- Los Angeles Times
Orthodox Jews protest parking
JERUSALEM - Police turned water cannons on a raucous demonstration by ultra-Orthodox Jews yesterday, the second consecutive day of protests over the opening of a city parking lot on the Jewish Sabbath, when religious Jews are forbidden to drive.Thousands of protesters were on the streets throughout the city, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said. Police said they made 24 arrests, and one boy, 6, was slightly hurt by a stone thrown by protesters. Four officers had minor injuries as well.
The mayor opened the parking lot on the request of police, who said that illegal parking in the nearby Old City was blocking emergency vehicles, Barkat spokesman Stephan Miller said. He said the mayor tried to ease ultra-Orthodox concerns by not charging for parking and hiring non-Jews to administer the lot. - AP
New Lebanon leader vows unity
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Western-backed billionaire Saad Hariri pledged yesterday to work for a national unity government that includes his Hezbollah rivals shortly after he was appointed by the president to become Lebanon's next prime minister.An alliance led by the 39-year-old son of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri fended off a serious challenge from the Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies in parliamentary elections this month.
Hariri's nomination - and his conciliatory statements - signaled more willingness on the majority's part to placate Hezbollah and its allies, who had serious misgivings about the previous prime minister, Fuad Saniora. - AP
Elsewhere:
Brazil ended the search Friday for more bodies from the Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean last month, but the search for the jet's flight recorders will go on. Searchers have recovered large chunks of debris and 51 bodies from Flight 447, which disappeared May 31 with 228 people on board.
