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Stop gay marriage, pope says

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II urged authorities Saturday to stop approving gay marriages, saying they "degrade" the true sense of marriage between a man and a woman.

It was the second time in a week the pontiff has raised the issue, which is making headlines in the United States as gay couples marry in cities like San Francisco and New Paltz, N.Y.

John Paul said a family based on marriage between a man and a woman was a pillar of society that justly had rights and duties specific to it.

"This is a time in which there is no lack of attempts to reduce marriage to a mere individual contract, with characteristics very different from those that belong to marriage and the family, and that end up degrading it as if it were a form of accessory association within the social body," he said.

JERUSALEM - Missiles fired from an Israeli military helicopter killed three members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad on Saturday as they rode in a car on the edge of Gaza City.

About 10 bystanders, including several children, were reported injured in the strike on a crowded street in the Saftawi neighborhood.

Israeli military officials said two of the men were senior activists in the group, which has taken responsibility for numerous shootings and suicide bombings of Israelis. One, Mahmoud Juda, was described by leaders as head of the group's military wing in the northern Gaza Strip.

TAIPEI, Taiwan - An estimated 1.2-million people linked hands in a human chain the length of the island Saturday as President Chen Shui-bian urged protesters to oppose China's military threats and create the "Great Wall of Taiwan's democracy."

The event was the biggest islandwide demonstration in Taiwan's history. The protesters hoped it would win the world's sympathy for Taiwan in its struggle against China.

Organizers said the chain stretched 303 miles, from the northern port of Keelung down the western coast to Pingtung County near the island's southern tip.

SIRTE, Libya - African leaders signed a sweeping defense and security agreement Saturday that allows the African Union to send forces to intervene in civil wars, international conflicts and coup attempts across the continent.

Also, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said his country decided to dismantle its atomic program to avoid the dangers it might bring.

"The nuclear arms race is a crazy and destructive policy for economy and life," Gadhafi said at the closing session of the African Union summit. "Any national state that will adopt these policies cannot protect herself; on the contrary, it would expose itself to danger."

The agreement aims to prevent tragedies like the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which more than 500,000 people were massacred while the African Union's predecessor, the Organization of African Unity, did nothing. But with funding short and the African Union $40-million in debt, the joint force is not likely to form soon, delegates said. A Zimbabwe official said it would not be ready before 2010.