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Monet painting vandalized at museum

By Times Wires
Published October 8, 2007

PARIS

Intruders broke into the Orsay Museum early Sunday and punched a hole in a renowned work by Impressionist painter Claude Monet, the French culture minister said. A surveillance camera caught four to five people entering the museum. An alarm sounded and they left, but not before damaging the painting, Le Pont d'Argenteuil, above, Culture Minister Christine Albanel said.

GAZA STRIP

Christian activist found dead on street

A prominent Palestinian Christian activist was found dead on a Gaza City street Sunday, sending a shudder of fear through a tiny Christian community feeling increasingly insecure since the Islamic Hamas seized control last summer.

The body of Rami Khader Ayyad, 32, bore a visible gunshot wound to the head, and an official at Gaza's Shifa Hospital said he was also stabbed numerous times. Ayyad left two young children and a pregnant wife.

Also Sunday, Palestinian militants fired a Katyusha rocket into Israel from Gaza, a rare instance of the use of a more sophisticated missile than the usual crude, Gaza-made Qassams. The Katyusha, which landed 7 miles east of Gaza, did little damage.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday a conference next month is not a substitute for direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, an apparent attempt to lower expectations from the gathering called by President Bush.

Elsewhere

Sudan: A Darfur town under the control of Sudanese troops has been razed in apparent retaliation for a rebel attack on a nearby base of African peacekeepers. U.N. officials who inspected the town said Sunday that about 15,000 civilians had fled the area.

Myanmar: Military leaders said weapons had been seized from Buddhist monasteries and announced dozens of new arrests Sunday, defying global outrage over its violent repression of protestors who sought an end to 45 years of dictatorship.

China: Typhoon Krosa drenched China's southeast on Sunday after killing five people in Taiwan and prompting the evacuation of 1.4-million people in China, officials said. In Vietnam, the death toll from a separate storm rose to 55.

Cuba: A bus collided with a train in eastern Cuba on Saturday, killing at least 28 people and injuring 73 others, including 15 who were in critical condition, state media reported Sunday.

[Last modified October 8, 2007, 00:19:39]