New York City

Bush, Kerry campaigns plan three debates, source says

The campaigns of President Bush and Sen. John Kerry tentatively have agreed to a series of three debates that both sides hope will give them momentum in the closing weeks of the presidential election campaign, a person familiar with the debate negotiations said Sunday night.

The agreement, not yet final, calls for the presidential debates to be spread over a two-week period starting Sept. 30. It was not clear when any agreement would be announced.

The source said the two campaigns have agreed on the dates and sites proposed by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates — Sept. 30 at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla.; Oct. 8 at Washington University in St. Louis; and Oct. 13 at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz.

Gaza Strip

Israeli missile kills senior Hamas militant leader

An Israeli helicopter fired a missile late Sunday at a car in Gaza City, residents said, killing a senior Hamas militant leader, the latest Israeli attack in the territory it plans to leave next year.

Witnesses said parts of a dismembered body were pulled from the wreckage. Hospital officials said six were wounded, two seriously, all bystanders returning from a mosque.

Military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said an Israeli helicopter carried out the attack.

Hamas identified the dead man as Khaled Abu Shamiyeh, 30, from the Shati refugee camp next to Gaza City. Hamas did not say what role he played in the violent Islamic group, which has claimed responsibility for dozens of suicide bombings in Israel.

Sudan

Government says U.N.’s threatened sanctions unfair

Sudan said Sunday that the U.N. Security Council’s resolution threatening oil sanctions if it failed to end violence in the country’s western region of Darfur was unfair and would make it harder to resolve the crisis.

The council’s decision would only make the country “resentful” of the United Nations, said Ibrahim Ahmed Omar, head of the ruling National Congress party. He said the international community had not recognized the government’s efforts to ease the situation in Darfur, where more than 1.2 million civilians from African tribes have been driven from their homes by a government-backed Arab militia known as the Janjaweed.

Omar said the government would try to re-establish security in the region by dispatching more police forces.

Atlanta

Hostage’s wife pleads for husband’s release in Iraq

The wife of one of three construction workers taken hostage in Iraq pleaded for her husband’s freedom, saying their 13-year-old daughter “misses her father very much.”

A group linked to al-Qaida threatened in a videotape Saturday to behead the three men within two days. It was the first word on the fate of Jack Hensley, 48, of Marietta, fellow American Eugene Armstrong and Briton Kenneth Bigley since they were kidnapped from their Baghdad home two days earlier.

“Since Jack has been a guest in your country, he has been treated with honor and dignity,” Patty Hensley said on CNN. “We ask for your mercy in freeing Jack and his co-workers so that they can continue to return home to their loving families.”