London

Sharon’s call to boycott Arafat rejected at visit

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was rebuffed by Britain in his calls to boycott longtime Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whom Israel and the United States accuse of fomenting terrorism.

“We will continue to have dealings with (Arafat) as long as we judge it to be useful,” a British official said after Sharon met with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

Above, protesters are restrained outside 10 Downing Street prior to Sharon’s meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Texas

Tropical storm expected to hit coast today

Residents along a 200-mile stretch of coastline braced for hurricane-force winds, torrential rain and pounding tides as Tropical Storm Claudette plodded toward land, heading north of where forecasters had anticipated.

The National Hurricane Center extended its warning north along the Texas coast, from the sparsely populated area around Baffin Bay, 30 miles south of Corpus Christi, to High Island, just east of Galveston and 75 miles south of Houston.

Forecasters believed Claudette could become a hurricane early today and expected the storm to turn west before striking the coastline late today.

Residents in low-lying areas of Texas’ coast under the hurricane warning were asked to evacuate Monday, emergency management officials said.

Washington, D.C.

House moves to block new meat labels

The House voted Monday to prohibit the Agriculture Department from requiring meatpackers and grocers to inform consumers whether hamburger, sausage and other beef, lamb and pork products came from abroad.

The 208-193 vote would effectively exempt meat products from the country-of-origin labels that Congress last year ordered for a variety of foods, including fish, fruits and vegetables.

Since the labeling requirements were included in a farm bill signed into law last year by President Bush, grocers, large livestock operations and packinghouses have been trying to get the rules reversed or at least postponed. The law required foods to carry the labels by September 2004.