LEBANON
5 U.N. peacekeepers wounded in bombing
BEIRUT — A roadside bomb blew up next to a U.N. convoy carrying French peacekeepers in south Lebanon on Tuesday, wounding five of them in the second such attack in a month, a Lebanese security official said.
The bomb went off at the southern entrance of the port city of Sidon as a U.N. convoy with several vehicles was driving past.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack. But political tensions are rising in Lebanon over a U.N.-backed tribunal’s indictment last month of four Hezbollah members in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
IRAQ
Al Qaeda in Iraq appeals for fundraising ideas
CAIRO — Al Qaeda militants in Iraq made an online appeal Tuesday for new fundraising ideas, saying they are in dire need of money to help thousands of widows and children of slain fighters.
Insurgents of the Islamic State of Iraq - an umbrella group for Sunni militants - have funded their operations in the past by robbing jewelry stores, banks and offices where the government pays out monthly salaries.
But the group has seen its main source of money, funding from abroad, dry up, leaving the group strapped for cash.
EGYPT
Women demand rights in new constitution
CAIRO — Fifteen Egyptian groups called for women’s rights to be guaranteed in the new constitution on Tuesday, after a popular uprising that toppled the Mubarak regime paved the way for a new charter.
“We are not proposing a new constitution, but we want women’s rights to be included,” said Amina ElBendary, a professor at the American University in Cairo and one of the signatories on a statement demanding equal rights.
The statement comes as Egyptians await a new constitution, after the previous one was suspended by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took power when President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February.
The council has said parliamentary elections will take place before the end of the year, after which a new constitution will be drafted and a presidential election set.
GAZA STRIP
Hamas hangs two men accused of spying for Israel
GAZA CITY — The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip hanged a father and son at dawn Tuesday for collaborating with Israel, a government spokesman said.
The two men were found guilty of helping Israel target a top Hamas leader and identify other militants who were later killed by Israeli forces, said Ihab Ghussein, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry in Gaza.
They were arrested in 2003 and charged a year later. They had exhausted all legal means to appeal the sentence, he said.
The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights identified the two men as Mahmoud Abu Qenas, 51, and his son, Rami, 21.
YEMEN
Local al Qaeda pledges loyalty to new leader
SANAA — The leader of al Qaeda’s offshoot in Yemen pledged allegiance Tuesday to Osama bin Laden’s successor, vowing to fight together to liberate the holy places of Islam.
In an audio message on terrorist websites affiliated with al Qaeda, Nasser al-Wahishi says that his group, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, recognizes Ayman al-Zawahri as the new chief of terrorist network.
Al-Zawahri took over after the death of bin Laden in a U.S. raid in May.
From wire dispatches and staff reports
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