A Lot of Talk but Little Sign of Action; Suicide Bombers Lose Some Backers; India Gets Its First Female President; Battling Anew at the Red Mosque; Flying in Brazil Is No Day at the Beach
Battling Anew at the Red Mosque
Following last month's army assault against militants occupying Islamabad's Red Mosque, in which more than 100 people were killed, authorities in Pakistan tried to remake the mosque by applying a fresh coat of paint (pale yellow) and appointing a moderate cleric to lead prayers. But late last week, it was again the scene of violent clashes, as hundreds of hard-line religious students splashed the walls with red paint, denounced President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, forced out the government-supplied imam, and demanded the return of a pro-Taliban cleric. Adding to the sense of crisis: An apparent suicide bomber struck a hotel near the Red Mosque, killing at least 13 people and wounding more than 70.
Flying in Brazil Is No Day at the Beach
Frustrated American air travelers, take heart. It's worse in Brazil. There, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva fired the defense minister amid months of chaos in Brazil's military-run civil air-traffic system capped by July's TAM Linhas Aereas SA jetliner crash, which killed nearly 200 people at São Paulo's Congonhas airport. Since then, TAM, the nation's No. 1 carrier, has canceled dozens of flights to and from Congonhas—the country's busiest airport—because of safety concerns about using the airport's shorter backup runway. Use of the main runway has been halted since the deadly crash on July 17, when a TAM jet skidded off the main runway in a heavy rainstorm. Brazil's aviation authority last week suspended ticket sales for flights to and from Congonhas.
With Larry Derfner in Israel and Associated Press
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