■ Saudi ArabiaDiplomatic car attacked
A US Marine embassy guard and his driver escaped uninjured Monday when the vehicle in which they were travelling came under attack in the Saudi city of Jeddah. US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher also said Saudi officials were investigating the attack, adding that it apparently was the work of a single gunman. Boucher said several shots were fired at the car, which belonged to the US consulate in Jeddah. He said the US didn't know who carried out the attack, which occurred approximately two blocks from the consulate. Boucher said the consulate was closed to the public for the rest of the day.
■ Russia
Three-way meeting begins
A three-way meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Jacques Chirac got underway yesterday, their third summit since the trio united in strong opposition to the US invasion of Iraq. International affairs such as the situation in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East were expected to top the agenda, but the leaders also planned to devote time to relations between Russia and the EU as well as issues involving energy cooperation.
■ United States
Drunk decapitates friend
A Georgia man who drove home with a friend's headless body after a truck accident then went to bed while the remains dangled out the window faces charges including vehicular homicide and drunk driving, police said Monday. John Hutcherson, covered in blood and visibly inebriated, was arrested in bed on Sunday morning after a local resident out on a stroll observed a headless, bloody body hanging out of the 21-year-old man's truck. Police said that Hutcherson and his friend, identified as Francis Brohm, 23, were returning from a bar outside Atlanta early Sunday morning when their pickup hit a curb near a telephone pole. Brohm, partially outside the window at the time, was decapitated by a guide wire on the telephone pole, according to police, who recovered his head at the crash site.
■ United States
Detainees to see lawyers
Two British nationals held by the US as terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay are to be visited by a lawyer this week for the first time since their detention, their British lawyer said Monday. Strict orders have been put in place by the US government about what the lawyer, Gita Gutierrez, can say on the men's condition and state of mind following the visit, said the men's British attorney Louise Christian. Feroz Abbasi, 23, of London, who was arrested in Afghanistan in 2001, and Moazzam Begg, 36, from Birmingham, in the English Midlands, who was arrested in Pakistan more than two years ago, were to be visited yesterday and today.
■ France
Hostages appear on TV
Two French journalists held hostage in Iraq urged the French government to give in to their captors' demand by revoking a law banning Muslim head scarves in public schools, the Arabic-language television station Al-Jazeera reported Monday night. Otherwise, they said, they might be killed. Quoting a written statement, the station reported that the Islamic Army of Iraq, the little-known group that kidnapped the two men, had decided to extend by 24 hours the deadline for Paris to lift the ban. On Saturday night the group gave France 48 hours to cancel the ban.
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