Gaza Strip: Israeli incursion kills 10

Ten Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded Monday during an Israeli incursion into the city of Khan Younis, officials and doctors said, most when an Israeli helicopter fired a missile that exploded in a crowd.

The Israeli military said the operation in Khan Younis came a few hours after Palestinians fired a mortar shell at a Jewish settlement in another part of the Gaza Strip. The missile strike came at the end of the four-hour incursion. It wasn’t clear what the target was.

Washington, D.C.: Senate assesses Enron blame

The Securities and Exchange Commission and Wall Street’s system of informally policing big corporations failed in their duty to detect the impending accounting failure at Enron, a Senate panel finds in a new report.

The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which has investigated the role of government and industry watchdogs in Enron’s stunning collapse since early this summer, said the oversight system must be tighter.

It said the oversight failures included financial analysts, credit-rating agencies and auditors as well as the SEC.

Chicago: Doctors recommend against mass smallpox vaccination

The American Academy of Pediatrics says the nation’s smallpox plan should involve limited vaccinations if a case occurs, not universal inoculations before there’s even an attack.

Potential side effects are too severe, and available vaccines have not been tested on children, who may be at higher risk for bad reactions, the academy said in a policy statement to be released today.

Based on studies from the 1960s, 15 out of every million people vaccinated will face life-threatening reactions, and one to two will die.

New York City: E-mail worm infects compute

An e-mail-borne computer virus that lets hackers control infected machines remotely continues to spread and constitutes the most severe attack this year, experts say.

The worm, known as W32.Bugbear, or I-Worm.Tanatos, infects computers that use Microsoft’s Windows operating systems. It was first spotted a week ago and has spread to dozens of countries.

Once a machine is infected, a hacker could steal and delete information from it. Some subject lines for the e-mail are “bad news,” “Membership Confirmation” and “Your Gift.”