World briefs 8/27/06

Israel wants some Muslim troops in U.N. force

JERUSALEM -- The Israeli government said Saturday it is asking friendly Muslim countries to contribute troops to the U.N. force that is to help police the cease-fire in southern Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah. The United Nations wants Muslim troops included to lend credibility in the region to what so far is a mostly European force. Israel says it would be reluctant to share intelligence with a force that included Muslim nations it doesn't have relations with.

Israeli airstrike hits journalists' car in Gaza

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israeli aircraft fired two missiles early Sunday at an armored car belonging to the Reuters news agency, wounding five people, including two cameramen, Palestinian witnesses and hospital officials said. The Israeli army said it did not realize the car's passengers were journalists and only attacked because the vehicle was driving in a suspicious manner near Israeli troops in the middle of a combat zone. A Hamas militant was killed in a separate airstrike, hospital officials said. And a 72-hour deadline set by a militant group holding two Fox news journalists passed Saturday night with no new information on their fate, but Palestinian officials expressed confidence the men would be released soon. The journalists, correspondent Steve Centanni, 60, of Washington, D.C., and cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, of New Zealand, were seized in Gaza City on Aug. 14.

Two oil companies ordered to leave Chad

N'DJAMENA, Chad -- Chad's president on Saturday ordered oil companies Chevron Corp. and Petronas to leave the country, saying neither has paid taxes and his country will take responsibility for the oil fields they have overseen. In remarks on state-run radio, President Idriss Deby gave the companies -- part of the African country's oil production consortium that is led by Exxon Mobil -- a deadline of just 24 hours to start making plans to leave.

-- From wire reports