World in brief

Sharon: Gaza pullout to start by June, take three months

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Thursday that he wanted to begin withdrawing Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip next May or June and complete the pullout within three months.

Sharon's comments to a closed session of the Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee of the Israeli Parliament represented the most specific date he had given for the Gaza evacuation. Sharon still must win approval for the plan in Parliament, which is scheduled to bring it up for debate and a vote on Oct. 25. After nightfall, settlers demonstrated across Israel against the pullout.

AL-AQSA CURB: Israel will not limit the number of Muslim worshipers at a hotly disputed Jerusalem site during the holy month of Ramadan, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided Thursday, backing away from a threat to restrict access to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

Great white sharks, one of the world's most feared animals, will receive protection from international trade after nations at a global summit in Thailand voted Thursday to treat them as an endangered species.

The delegates also added or strengthened restrictions on the export and import of about 20 other groups of plants and animals, including the rare Irrawaddy dolphin; humphead wrasse, a giant reef fish popular in Asian restaurants; and trees harvested in the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia.

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia - A Boeing 747 cargo jet bound for Spain with a crew of seven crashed in a fireball after its tail section apparently broke off during takeoff at Halifax International Airport early Thursday, killing all aboard.

The MK Airlines jet loaded with lawn tractors and 58 tons of lobster and fish crashed shortly before 4 a.m. local time into woods near an industrial park north of Halifax, said Steve Anderson, a spokesman in Britain for the Ghana-based carrier.

UNITED NATIONS - France and the United States circulated a new resolution Thursday urging Syria for a second time in six weeks to withdraw from Lebanon and calling for quarterly reports from Secretary-General Kofi Annan on its progress.

The two countries decided to keep up their pressure after Algeria, Pakistan and other Security Council members opposed a presidential statement they introduced seeking the same action.

Syrian troops have been in Lebanon for 28 years.

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