WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay canceled
an appearance today before a Senate committee investigating the
bankrupt energy giant, and lawmakers swiftly arranged to issue a
subpoena to compel his testimony. The Senate Commerce Committee
plans to vote on a subpoena tomorrow morning -- 24 hours after Lay
had been scheduled to testify on the largest bankruptcy in the
nation's history. "We feel the appropriate approach now is to issue
a subpoena," Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said. "He certainly has a
right to claim his Fifth Amendment rights when he does appear."
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Five Palestinian gunmen were killed
in the Gaza Strip today in what Palestinian officials said was a
targeted Israeli missile attack at their car. The Democratic Front
for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical PLO faction, said it
would avenge the five members of its military wing. "Retaliation
will come very soon and will shake the land under the feet of the
occupiers," a DFLP leaflet said. The deaths came at a time of
top-level Israeli-Palestinian contacts aimed at exploring truce
prospects.
TOKYO (AP) -- Sensing their best opportunity yet to unseat
the prime minister, Japan's opposition parties submitted a
no-confidence motion in Parliament today targeting Junichiro
Koizumi's Cabinet, amid a collapse in the leader's once lofty
approval ratings over the dismissal of his charismatic foreign
minister. The motion was not directly linked to last week's abrupt
firing of Makiko Tanaka, but rather accused Koizumi's agriculture
minister of mishandling the nation's mad cow disease outbreak.
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) -- Marian Pearl, the pregnant wife of
kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, issued an
impassioned appeal today for his life and said she was willing to
die in his place. Pearl's abductors last released a photo of him
Wednesday, with a threat to kill him in 24 hours. An earlier e-mail
demanded that Washington return Pakistani prisoners held at the U.S.
naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for trial in Pakistan. The Bush
administration has ruled out any negotiations.
MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan (AP) -- Main militia factions
made plans today to withdraw from northern Afghanistan's biggest
city and forge a new security force in a broad attempt to calm one
the nation's most volatile regions, an envoy to the negotiations
said. The planned withdrawal also includes pledges from all sides to
eventually demobilize tens of thousands of fighters who have
protected the warlords' interests for years. The warlords pose some
of the biggest challenges to the interim government.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- A former Malaysian army
captain accused of playing host to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers
will not be extradited to the United States, the government said
today. Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Yazid
Sufaat, arrested after returning to Malaysia from Afghanistan, would
be dealt with under Malaysian law.