World briefs 1/23/06

Israeli leaders brace for Hamas' ascendance

JERUSALEM -- Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with top military and political officials Sunday to discuss the growing likelihood that the militant group Hamas could dominate this week's Palestinian elections. The ascendance of Hamas has alarmed Israel, which appears to have been caught off guard by the group's surging popularity before Wednesday's vote. Hamas remains committed to Israel's destruction.

Canadian election offers options for change

OTTAWA -- Canadians voting today for a new leader and House of Commons will choose between 13 years of Liberal Party rule or a new government that could shift the country toward a conservative right seeking to cut social programs funded by high taxes. It's a tough call for the nation's 22.7 million registered voters. Many support the social and economic policies of the Liberals and worry that Conservative leader Stephen Harper may be too extreme in his views on abortion and gay marriage, but Canadians also have grown weary of the broken promises and corruption scandals that have plagued the ruling party.

U.N. says 20,000 flee fighting in Congo

GENEVA -- About 20,000 people have fled violence in Congo to seek refuge across the border in Uganda over the last four days, the U.N. refugee agency said Sunday. In eastern Congo, home to many of the refugees, renegade former army soldiers ambushed U.N. peacekeepers with mortars in a hilltop banana plantation in eastern Congo Sunday, sparking a firefight that left four attackers dead, U.N. officials said. The peacekeepers were trying to flush the former soldiers out of territory they captured during raids this week, U.N. military spokesman Mayank Awasthi said. The raids in eastern Congo's North Kivu province forced the refugees to cross the nearby border with Uganda.

Atheist sues priest, wants proof Jesus existed

ROME -- Atheist Luigi Cascioli says Jesus never existed. And he's going to court to prove it. The lifelong atheist filed a complaint in 2002 against the Rev. Enrico Righi, a Roman Catholic priest, after Righi wrote in a parish bulletin that Jesus was born of a couple named Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem and lived in Nazareth. A judge set a hearing for next Friday. Cascioli wants the court to appoint technical experts to review the historical data and determine if Jesus really did exist. R. Scott Appleby, a professor of church history at the University of Notre Dame, concurs. There's "no real doubt" that Jesus existed, he said. "There is more evidence of the existence of Jesus of Nazareth than there would be for many other historical people who actually existed. Not only did Jesus actually exist, but he actually had some kind of prominence to be mentioned in two or three chronicles."

-- From wire reports