World Scene

ISRAEL

15 wanted militants allowed back in Gaza

JERUSALEM — Up to 15 Palestinian militants wanted by Israel have returned to the Gaza Strip, Israeli officials said yesterday, complaining that the Palestinian Authority had not fulfilled its obligation since taking control of the border with Egypt last week.

The Palestinians said they did not violate a U.S.-brokered deal for operating the Rafah terminal, and that the fugitives had the right to return. European monitors at Rafah said they were trying to settle the dispute to protect the border agreement, the biggest diplomatic achievement since Israel’s unilateral pullout from Gaza last summer.

UGANDA

Court halts trial of opposition leader

KAMPALA — Uganda’s High Court yesterday ordered the military to suspend its trial of the main opposition leader until the civilian court rules on whether the proceeding is legal.

Justice Remmy Kasule, however, refused to release Kizza Besigye on bail because the attorney general and the head of the military court were not represented during yesterday’s proceedings.

Mr. Besigye was detained Nov. 14 and was charged with treason and rape in a civilian court after returning from self-imposed exile to run for president in next year’s elections. He later was also accused of terrorism and illegal possession of firearms at a military court that is controlled by trusted aides to President Yoweri Museveni.

HAITI

14 children set free, missionary still held

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Gunmen released 14 children who were abducted along with their bus driver on their way to school, but an American missionary kidnapped in a separate incident remained in captivity, police said yesterday.

Haitian radio reported that an unspecified ransom was paid, but officials said the gunmen received no money.

The children, aged 5-17, were kidnapped Thursday, the same day that Phillip Snyder, 48, president of Zeeland, Mich.-based Glow Ministries International, was abducted while driving on a road north of the capital.

PAKISTAN

Quake survivors in danger from cold

MUZAFFARABAD — Aid officials warned yesterday that almost all of the hundreds of thousands of tents distributed to quake survivors in Pakistan will not protect against the harsh Himalayan winter.

Pakistan’s army said it was constructing 5,000 shelters a day out of corrugated metal for the 3.5 million left homeless amid fears of a second wave of deaths as conditions worsen in the coming weeks.

An estimated 87,000 died in the Oct. 8 temblor.

From wire dispatches and staff reports