Israel: Troops leave Jenin, add security measure

Israeli troops withdrew Friday from Jenin, a stronghold for militants, after digging a six-foot trench around part of the West Bank town to keep would-be bombers from slipping out in cars.

Since rolling into seven Palestinian cities and towns in June, Israeli forces have now pulled back to the outskirts of Jenin and Bethlehem, but remain in the other five.

Troops plan to withdraw within a few days from Palestinian-controlled parts of the West Bank city of Hebron, but the exact timetable will be left to the military, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said.

Israel has defended the tough security measures, pointing to the reduction in suicide bombings. But Palestinians complain that hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians have been confined to their homes for most of the past four months.

Colombia: Police hunt down suspected rebels

Security forces detained dozens of suspected rebels Friday in house to house searches in Medellin, Colombia’s second-largest city, as police raised the death toll from three days of fighting to 11.

Police were using hooded informants to point out suspected rebels in an embattled Medellin neighborhood. The suspects, held with their hands secured behind their backs with plastic cuffs, were taken to a police station for questioning.

The death toll in this week’s fighting in the Comuna 13 neighborhood of Medellin rose to 11 Friday, according to Oscar Castellanos, chief investigator for the Medellin prosecutor’s office.

Elsewhere in Colombia, two soldiers were killed when they stumbled on a rebel mine field and four rebels died in firefights with army troops in southern Colombia, the army said.

Ivory Coast: Hopes for peace rise as truce accepted

After a month of fighting, government troops and rebels in Ivory Coast silenced their guns Friday, abiding by a cease-fire and raising hopes of restoring stability in the West African nation.

Boosting prospects for peace, France the former colonial power in the country said its troops in Ivory Coast would help monitor the truce.

French forces helped evacuate foreign nationals from the fighting.

There was an unconfirmed report of a clash but a West African mediator said they were unaware of any fighting Friday, the first day of the truce.

“We were told that it is holding,” said Senegalese Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio. “We’ll count day by day and stay hopeful.”

Despite the truce, the U.S. State Department on Friday urged Americans still in the country to leave “while space is still available on outgoing flights.”

Russia: Doctor: Six of 10 pregnancies aborted

About 60 percent of all pregnancies in Russia end in abortion, and another 10 percent of pregnant women lose unborn children because of health problems, the nation’s chief gynecologist said on Friday.

Russia ranks second in the world behind Romania in the number of abortions per capita, Vladimir Kulakov, the head of the Scientific Center for Obstetrics and Gynecology, said at a news conference.

Girls in Russia under 18 account for every 10th abortion, he said. Doctors say the use of contraception is less widespread in Russia than in the West.

Of some 38 million women of child-bearing age, about 6 million are infertile, and medical authorities consider abortions a major cause of infertility, Kulakov said.

He said about half the women who bear children in Russia do not get enough nourishment or vitamins during pregnancy, and that 58.8 percent of all newborns last year were born with illnesses.

Zimbabwe: World Food Program suspends relief effort

The World Food Program said Friday it suspended hunger relief efforts indefinitely in a Zimbabwean town after ruling party activists threatened aid workers and seized donated grain.

The action marked the first time the WFP halted food distributions in Zimbabwe, whose government has been accused of using food as a political tool against the opposition.

An estimated 6.7 million Zimbabweans, more than half the population, are in danger of starvation in the coming months.

Workers for the Organization of Rural Associations for Progress were distributing WFP corn to hungry families Thursday at Insiza, 350 miles southwest of Harare, when ruling party militants threatened them and seized more than three tons of the grain, the WFP said.