by John Kearney
For Columbia Radio News, this is John Kearney.
In central Nigeria, militants from a largely Christian tribe killed at least 500 people in attacks on a Muslim majority village, a senior Red Cross official said today.
The attacks occurred Sunday and Tuesday of this week, but the Red Cross does not yet have an exact death toll. Red Cross workers interviewing witnesses and families of those killed estimate 500 to 600 dead in the Muslim village of Yelwa. About 100 people were missing, many of them women and children.
Bearing different messages to different parties, President Bush today urged Israel to withdraw from Palestinian territory captured in the 1967 Mideast war. His announcement came after a White House meeting today with King Abdullah of Jordan.
Last month, President Bush gave Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon written assurances that the U.S. would back Israel in its retention of land captured in 1967. Bush also gave Sharon written rejection of the right of Palestinians to return to private property within Israel that was seized in the 1948 war between Israel and neighboring countries.
Previously, U.S. policy had been to leave such issues to negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. However, Bush appeared to signal a return to this policy, saying the US will not predetermine the outcome of negotiations.
A presidential commission recommended today that the US take steps to subvert the planned succession in Cuba from President Fidel Castro to his younger brother, Raul.
The commission, headed by Secretary of State Colin Powell, recommended increased pressure on the Cuba's communist political elite.
The report also favored restricting family visits to one every three years instead of the current one annually.
President Fidel Castro is now 77; his brother Raul will turn 73 in June. The Cuban succession plan has been in place for a number of years.
But five US senators, in a letter to Bush, said the "best way to prepare for change in Cuba is to undertake a transition in our own policy."
For Columbia Radio News, this is John Kearney.