Prominent Iranian cleric urges suicide attacks

TEHRAN, Iran -- A leading Iranian cleric urged Iraqis to use suicide attacks to expel U.S. forces from Iraq and learn from Iran's Islamic revolution to set up a new government.

"The Iraqi people have reached the conclusion that they have no option but to launch an intefadeh and resort to martyrdom operations to expel the United States from Iraq," Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati told worshippers during Friday sermons in Tehran.

President Bush announced the end of major combat operations in Iraq on Thursday, but said U.S.-led coalition forces would remain there to restore order and establish a democratic government.

"Somebody -- who has might but not logic -- does not have dignity nor shame and doesn't listen to anybody," Jannati said, in an apparent reference to the Bush administration. His speech was broadcast live on Tehran radio.

Jannati, who heads Iran's powerful Guardian Council, said Iraqis should learn from Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution to establish a Shiite Muslim-controlled government.

British journalist shot dead in Gaza Strip

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- A freelance British journalist was shot dead Friday night in the southern city of Rafah along the Egyptian border, the Israeli army said.

The journalist was the third foreigner injured or killed in Rafah in recent weeks.

Witnesses said the journalist was filming a documentary on the Israeli army's house demolitions in Rafah when the Israeli tank opened fire.

The journalist, who was not immediately identified by the military, was shot in the neck and taken from the scene in an Israeli tank. He died before a helicopter sent to evacuate him arrived, the army said.

A man who said he also was a British journalist and identified himself only as Dan, said that the victim and two colleagues were simultaneously filming and waving a white flag as they walked toward the tank when the tank opened fire.

The army said a tank was on a mission to find weapon-smuggling tunnels on the border when it came under fire. The tank returned fire, and troops later found a wounded man, the army said.

Canceled election draws ridicule from Sinn Fein

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Frustration over Northern Ireland's stalled peace process boiled over Friday as Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams ridiculed a key Irish government negotiator.

Adams' attack on Irish Justice Minister Michael McDowell came a day after Britain announced it was canceling Northern Ireland legislative elections scheduled for May 29. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was still waiting for the Irish Republican Army to make a clear commitment to give up violence.

Adams, whose IRA-linked party is under international pressure to deliver detailed IRA commitments to cease all hostilities and disarm, accused McDowell of pro-British bias and incompetence.

He attacked McDowell's view that the Irish government was an "honest broker" alongside Britain in efforts to make a success of the 1998 peace accord for Northern Ireland, a British territory.

Gunman kills five during Sicily shooting rampage

CATANIA, Sicily -- A disgruntled town worker opened fire with a handgun in a town hall in eastern Sicily on Friday, killing five people and injuring one before committing suicide, police said.

The suspect fled the scene of the attack in the town of Aci Castello, just outside Catania, prompting a manhunt through eastern Sicily. Police in the southeastern city of Ragusa said Friday night that the suspect had killed himself in a church near the town of Vittoria, 60 miles southwest of Catania.

The victims of the shooting rampage included the Aci Castello mayor, police said, another town official and two women. A fifth man, an elderly bystander, was killed outside the building.

--From wire reports