World digest 12/17/03

Arafat banned from Christmas celebrations

JERUSALEM -- Israel on Tuesday barred Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem for a third straight year, as Egyptian mediators again pressed Palestinian militants to halt attacks. Meanwhile, violence continued in the West Bank. Israeli soldiers fired at a crowd of stone throwers in the Balata refugee camp, critically wounding a 15-year-old boy in the head, Palestinian hospital workers said.

Failed bomb packed 550 pounds of explosives

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The men who tried to assassinate Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf used a sophisticated bomb with an estimated 550 pounds of explosives planted in five places under a bridge -- but it blew up seconds too late, officials said Tuesday. Investigators have yet to identify any suspects in Sunday evening's attack, which caused no injuries. Musharraf says homegrown religious extremists were the most likely perpetrators, but preliminary reports of the sophistication and scale of the bomb have raised the possibility that outside terrorist groups such as al-Qaida may have been involved.

2003 third-hottest year, U.N. weather group says

GENEVA -- The year 2003, marked by a sweltering summer and drought across large swaths of the planet, was the third hottest in nearly 150 years, the U.N. weather agency said Tuesday. The World Meteorological Organization estimated the average surface temperature for the year to be 0.81 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the normal 57 degrees. The agency said that the warmer weather could not be attributed to any one cause. The agency, which collects data from forecasters worldwide, said the three hottest years since accurate records began to be kept in 1861 have all been in the past six years.

-- From wire reports