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Israeli forces work Thursday to remove people from the West Bank settlement outpost of Amona.
Israeli forces work Thursday to remove people from the West Bank settlement outpost of Amona.

Israeli settlers resist outpost eviction

AMONA, West Bank -- Israeli police faced stiff resistance early Thursday as they tried to dismantle mobile homes of settlers who had moved back into an illegal West Bank outpost, with 23 officers lightly injured by stone-throwing settlers.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the Israeli troops were enforcing a court-ordered evacuation of two homes, popularly called caravans, when they were pelted with rocks and stones from some of the 300 protesters in Amona, in the northern West Bank. One officer was stabbed with a sharp object. Police dragged away several protesters with bleeding cuts.

Rosenfeld said police responded with nonlethal means and arrested seven settlers on the scene. Dozens of mattresses remained strewn about the abandoned structures.

The outpost was dismantled two years ago after the Supreme Court ruled that it had been built on private Palestinian land. The Israeli government has promised to build a new settlement to replace it. Amona has become a rallying cry for extreme settlers and a small group returned there recently in protest, after an outburst of Palestinian violence.

The Palestinians and most of the international community consider Israeli settlements to be illegal and obstacles to peace. More than 400,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank, in addition to 200,000 in east Jerusalem. The Palestinians seek both areas, captured by Israel in 1967, as parts of their state.

Coast Guard aids grounded Chinese ship

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- A large Chinese-flagged fishing ship ran aground on a remote Pacific atoll early Thursday, and the U.S. Coast Guard said it was helping coordinate the rescue of its 24 crew members.

The 308-foot Ou Ya Leng No. 6 ran aground on uninhabited Taka Atoll in the Marshall Islands, Petty Officer 3rd Class Matthew West said. He said a Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules plane had arrived in the area and contacted the crewmen, who remained aboard and were using emergency generator power.

West said earlier reports that the crew had left the ship and made it ashore on a lifeboat were incorrect. He said the Hercules had circled the area but there was nowhere suitable nearby for it to land.

Two fishing vessels should arrive today to help rescue the crew, West said, adding that the Marshall Islands also had sent a patrol craft. There were no reports of injuries or pollution, according to the Coast Guard.

West said it wasn't clear about the cause of the accident, about the crewmen's nationalities, or the status of the ship's cargo and fuel. The fish carrier goes after squid in the west and central Pacific Ocean, according to the Coast Guard.

West said that communications with the region were difficult and that the situation remained fluid. The area was experiencing 11-foot-high seas and winds of 25 mph, with conditions forecast to deteriorate.

Women in temple set off Hindu rampage

NEW DELHI -- Hindu hard-liners vandalized shops, shut businesses and clashed with police in a southern state Thursday to protest the entry of two women in one of India's largest Hindu pilgrimage sites, police said.

Police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the protesters who also blocked roads by placing burning tires and concrete blocks in key towns, including Kozhikode, Kannur, Malappuram, Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram.

Pinarayi Vijayan, the state's top elected official, accused supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party of triggering violence that reportedly claimed one life.

Most state-run buses kept off roads after several were damaged by protesters.

Supporters of Modi's party held protest marches in the state as part of a strike call by Sabarimala Karma Samithi, an umbrella organization of Hindu groups.

The two women entered the temple to pray early Wednesday, triggering protests. They were escorted by police because it is "the government's constitutional responsibility to give protection to women," Vijayan said.

Women of menstruating age were forbidden to pray at the temple until the Supreme Court lifted the ban in September. The ban was informal for many years but became law in 1972.

8 Afghan police killed in Taliban assault

KABUL, Afghanistan -- An Afghan official said the Taliban killed eight police in an attack on their post in the provincial capital of the northern Baghlan province.

Safdar Mooseni, the head of the provincial council, said police battled the insurgents for four hours before reinforcements arrived and repulsed the Taliban onslaught, which also wounded two police. The Taliban claimed the attack.

Afghanistan's beleaguered security forces come under near daily attack by the Taliban, who control nearly half the country. Afghanistan's generals fear that the partial withdrawal of American troops by the summer will further embolden the insurgents.

Washington's peace envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, is meanwhile stepping up efforts to negotiate an end to the 17-year war, America's longest.

A Section on 01/04/2019

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