World: U.S. criticizes Israel

JERUSALEM -- In a message to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon before his planned visit to Washington this week, the Bush administration has criticized Israel for killing Palestinian civilians during its military operations and for maintaining crippling restrictions on movement in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The letter, delivered Friday by the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Daniel C. Kurtzer, was reported Sunday in the local press and confirmed by senior Israeli officials; it followed similar expressions Washington made publicly last week.

Kurtzer's letter called for Israel to ease its military grip on the West Bank Palestinian cities it occupied after suicide bombings in June, allow Palestinians greater freedom of movement and turn over withheld taxes that Israel collected on behalf of the Palestinians, according to the diplomatic source and Israeli newspapers.

Israel's Cabinet on Sunday discussed the possibility of removing some military blockades in and around Palestinian areas and handing over the tax money.

More Palestinian civilian deaths were reported Sunday. A 4-year-old boy was killed during an Israeli army raid in Rafah in the Gaza Strip in which a militant was also killed, and a woman was fatally shot near Jenin in the West Bank when soldiers opened fire on a taxi, Palestinians said.

In other violence on Sunday, two Palestinian gunmen who infiltrated into southern Israel from Egypt were shot and killed by Israeli soldiers. In Bethlehem, an explosion near a public phone killed a local militant, Muhammad Abayat, 27, a member of the militant al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, and Palestinians said Israel was responsible.

Conservatives get boost in elections in Greece

ATHENS, Greece -- Opposition conservatives headed toward victory in key local elections in Greece on Sunday, but appeared to fall short of winning a powerful protest vote against the long-governing Socialists.

With about half the vote counted, candidates backed by the conservative New Democracy party took huge leads in Athens and other big cities, while holding narrow leads in contests for regional governments.

It appeared that no one would win at least 50 percent of the vote in many contests, sending those races to run-offs between the top two candidates on Oct. 20. Final figures were expected early today.

In Athens -- a high-profile race ahead of the 2004 Olympics -- conservative Dora Bakoyianni led with 47.7 percent and is the runaway favorite to become the capital's first woman mayor in the run-off.

Marchers support Chavez

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Tens of thousands of Venezuelans marched in the capital on Sunday to mark Hugo Chavez's dramatic return to power after an April coup and to rebuff an ultimatum that the president resign.

Chavez, whose leftist government faces a deepening economic and political crisis, boasted the march drew 2-million people -- in a nation with 24-million people. The crowd's size was impossible to verify, but Chavez's claim was directed to organizers of an opposition march Thursday who claimed a turnout of 1-million.

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