Palestinians attack Israeli raid party
JERUSALEM -- Israeli soldiers clashed with Palestinians during an arrest raid early Thursday in the most violent confrontation so far in the week-long search for three missing Israeli teens believed to have been abducted in the West Bank.
The military said about 300 Palestinians took to the streets when the soldiers entered the West Bank town of Jenin overnight. Some opened fire while others threw explosive devices or rocks at the soldiers, who responded with live fire, it said.
There were no serious injuries reported on either side.
Israel has blamed the Islamic militant group Hamas for the apparent abductions, without providing evidence, and has launched a widespread crackdown on the group, arresting scores of members while conducting a search for the missing youths.
Hamas has praised the abduction of the teenagers but has not claimed responsibility for it.
The crisis has escalated already heightened tensions between Israel and the new Palestinian government, which is headed by Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas but supported by Hamas. Israel, the U.S. and Europe consider Hamas a terrorist group because of its long history of attacks on Israeli civilians.
Polish leader warns of early elections
Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland warned Thursday that he might be forced to call early elections if a scandal over secretly taped conversations of senior government officials continued to escalate.
"If the crisis of confidence becomes too deep, perhaps the only way out will be early elections," he said.
His news conference followed a tense scene Wednesday in the offices of Wprost, the weekly newspaper that published transcripts of the conversations last weekend.
Polish security agents raided the newspaper's offices and demanded the personal laptop of the top editor, Sylwester Latkowski, saying it might contain the evidence they need in their investigation of who made the illegal recordings.
The editor refused and called on other Polish journalists for support. After a standoff that lasted for hours, the security agents left without the laptop.
Tusk criticized the raid and said it had been conducted without his knowledge.
He also indicated that he will reconsider whether to dismiss his interior minister, Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, who was recorded on at least one of the tapes and who is in charge of the investigation.
5 kids rescued in Canadian porn case
TORONTO -- The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Thursday that they rescued five children who were depicted in online pornography and have charged or investigated 150 people in a nationwide crackdown on child porn.
Saskatoon police detective Sgt. Darren Parisien said the operation targeted sex offenders who traffic in child pornography. Police seized hundreds of computers and hard drives along with nearly 2 million images or videos.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Mike Petrilli said some of the images and videos involved infants.
Petrilli said 343 criminal charges had been filed so far, ranging from sexual assault to the possession and distribution of child pornography.
Police would not reveal the ages of the children who were rescued but said they were prepubescent and were victims of sexual assault and physical abuse. Two of the children were from British Columbia, one was from Ontario, one from Quebec and one from New Brunswick.
9 Indonesians missing as 2nd boat sinks
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Nine people were missing after a boat carrying 27 Indonesian workers overturned Thursday off Malaysia's west coast, the country's maritime agency said, in the second such accident in two days.
On Wednesday, an overcrowded wooden boat carrying Indonesian migrants home sank in choppy seas, with 23 people still missing. Eleven people were confirmed dead and at least 63 survived.
Maritime agency official Hamid Mohamad Amin said the second boat capsized early Thursday in rough seas about 12 miles off Sepang town on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. He said 18 people, including four women, were rescued by passing merchant ships but nine others were still missing.
One of the survivors was injured seriously and was hospitalized.
Hamid said the small boat was believed to have been headed to Tanjung Balai on Indonesia's Sumatra island to take the workers home ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He said the boat was overcrowded and its capacity was only 10 people.
-- COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS
A Section on 06/20/2014