World briefs 10/21/02

First U.S. ship in Yemen port since Cole bombing

SAN'A, Yemen -- A U.S. cargo ship docked in Aden port on Sunday, the first American vessel to enter the southern Yemeni Red Sea port since the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000.

The official Yemeni news agency reported the ship carried 25,000 tons of American wheat as a U.S. government donation to the impoverished country.

The October 2000 attack on the USS Cole occurred while the destroyer was on a refueling stop in Aden harbor. Seventeen U.S. sailors were killed and 37 were wounded.

Osama bin Laden's terror network, al-Qaida, is suspected in that attack as well as one earlier this month in which a French oil tanker was rammed by a small explosives-laden boat off Yemen's coast. One person, a Bulgarian crew member, was killed.

Yemen, at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula, has been working with the United States to enhance security in the country.

Pope John Paul II beatifies six people

VATICAN CITY -- Pope John Paul II beatified six people Sunday, adding founders of religious orders and two teenage Ugandan missionary "martyrs" to the swelling ranks of those on the path to possible sainthood.

Among the six elevated Sunday were Ugandan teenagers Daudi Okelo and Jildo Irwa, who worked as missionaries in northern Uganda until they were killed in 1918.

Also beatified were: Bishop Andrea Giacinto Longhin, a Capucchin who was bishop of Treviso during World War I; the Rev. Marcantonio Durando, the Italian founder of the Nazareth Sisters order; Marie de la Passion, who was borne Helene Marie de Chappotin de Neuville and founded the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Mary; and Liduina Meneguzzi, a member of the Institute of the Sisters of St. Francis de Sales.

Israelis remove settlers, tear down outpost

JERUSALEM -- Hundreds of Jewish settlers scuffled with Israeli security forces at an illegal West Bank outpost that was dismantled Sunday after three confrontations in the past four days.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sought to keep the dispute from escalating into a political crisis and issued a rare public criticism of the settlers.

"There is no issue which justifies violence against soldiers and the security forces," Sharon told his Cabinet.

Settlers at the Havat Gilad outpost, outside the Palestinian city of Nablus, burned tires and then threw water bottles and punched members of the security forces to keep them from the hilltop outpost -- several makeshift homes where a few people have lived for several months.

Deadline for new Kashmir government extended

SRINAGAR, India -- The governor of Indian-controlled Kashmir extended a deadline indefinitely for political parties to form a coalition government, after state elections failed to produce a clear winner.

The rebels had tried to sabotage the polls, which ended after a month of staggered voting on Oct. 8 with no party winning a majority.

The Congress party and People's Democratic Party, tipped to form a new coalition government, couldn't reach a deal Thursday, when the previous legislature's term ended, because they disagreed over which should get the state's most powerful post, chief minister.

On Friday, Jammu-Kashmir came under federal rule to avert a constitutional crisis. The federal government's top representative in the state, Gov. Girish Chandra Saxena, assumed charge and gave lawmakers until Oct. 21 to agree on a new government.

-- From wire reports