■ Iraq
RAF plane crashes
As many as 15 British military personnel died Sunday when the transport plane they were travelling in crashed in central Iraq, the military said. The Royal Air Force C-130 Hercules, which can carry up to 128 troops, went down near Baghdad at 4:40pm. Military sources said the number killed in the crash was "around 10," with it "highly unlikely" to be more than 15. The cause of the crash was unclear.
■ Chile
Investigation deadline set
The Chilean supreme court has set a six-month deadline for the completion of hundreds of investigations into crimes allegedly committed by former members of Augusto Pinochet's military government. The ruling, which orders that by July investigators must either file charges or terminate the inquiries in 365 cases against former members of the armed forces, has incensed human rights activists. Many of the accused are alleged to have committed murder, kidnap and torture during the late 1970s. "The investigations are starting to show real progress; it is a false brake to put a time limit on them," said Joyce Horman, widow of American journalist Charles Horman, who was kidnapped and killed in 1973.
■ Canada
Church fights same-sex law
The Roman Catholic Church has launched a campaign to defeat a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in Canada, which the government says will be introduced early this month when a deeply divided Parliament reconvenes. The bill is largely symbolic, because provincial and territorial courts have already expanded marriage rights in jurisdictions where 85 percent of Canadians live. But it will be the first time an elected body will vote on the issue, and polls show the population to be about evenly split. The church and Roman Catholic groups, allied with Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Orthodox Jewish groups, are revving up their strongest political effort in decades in what the government calls a challenge to the separation of church and state.
■ Spain
ETA bombs hotel
A bomb exploded in a seaside hotel in southeast Spain on Sunday, slightly injuring a tourist, after a warning call in the name of the Basque separatist group ETA. The bomb, the second claimed by ETA in two weeks, was hidden in a backpack and left in a courtyard in the hotel in Denia, near the resorts of Benidorm and Alicante. About 160 people, including several British tourists, were evacuated before the explosion, but one guest's eardrums were damaged by the blast. The blast, which ripped a hole 10m by 5m in an outside wall and shattered windows, followed a warning call to the Basque roadside assistance authority in the name of ETA, a spokesman there said.
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