Revolutionary Council

Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal, one of the world's most wanted men, turned up in Algiers to take part in talks aimed at reuniting the PLO, Palestinian sources said Monday. Abu Nidal was in the Algerian capital over the weekend and met with Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat's closest aides, including deputy PLO commander Khalil Wazir, the sources said.

Saying he could not endure the anguish of the trial, a Palestinian gunman declined to appear Monday before a court trying him for mass murder in the 1985 post-Christmas terrorist attack on Rome's Leonardo da Vinci Airport. Ibrahim Khaled, the sole survivor of the four-man suicide squad whose attack claimed 16 lives and left 80 other people wounded, exercised his right not to appear at the first substantive session of his trial.

Arab terrorists who attacked passengers last week at the Vienna airport's El Al airline counter intended to take Israeli hostages and hijack an El Al jetliner, a senior Austrian official said Monday. Interior Minister Karl Blecha also said called it "very likely" that the terrorists belonged to a group headed by Abu Nidal, a Palestinian extremist who split with Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat in the 1970s while accusing Arafat of being too moderate.

Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal, one of the world's most wanted men, turned up in Algiers to take part in talks aimed at reuniting the PLO, Palestinian sources said Monday. Abu Nidal was in the Algerian capital over the weekend and met with Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat's closest aides, including deputy PLO commander Khalil Wazir, the sources said.

The Palestinian guerrilla group headed by the elusive Abu Nidal says it will continue to attack Israeli and American interests with suicide commando raids, following what it termed a course of "martyrdom as a goal and a means." A rare communique from the group, the Revolutionary Council of Fatah, was handed to journalists in the Syrian capital by an official of the organization. Abu Nidal is the nom de guerre of the group's leader, Sabri Banna, whose whereabouts are not known.

Saying he could not endure the anguish of the trial, a Palestinian gunman declined to appear Monday before a court trying him for mass murder in the 1985 post-Christmas terrorist attack on Rome's Leonardo da Vinci Airport. Ibrahim Khaled, the sole survivor of the four-man suicide squad whose attack claimed 16 lives and left 80 other people wounded, exercised his right not to appear at the first substantive session of his trial.

BEIRUT - At least 20 people were killed in the Syrian city of Aleppo on Tuesday when a bakery was hit by a shell, turning the bread shop into a bloodbath, activists said. More than 50 people were injured in the attack by government forces on the Masaken Hanano neighborhood, they said, with surrounding field hospitals so overwhelmed by the influx of victims that activists sent out a plea for local doctors to come and assist. Only half of the victims could be identified. One gruesome video showed a young girl, in a turquoise shirt, whose head had been blown off. PHOTOS: Living under siege: Life in Aleppo, Syria They were among more than 100 killed across Syria on Tuesday, activists said.

The ruling Revolutionary Council in Iraq instituted a new law Thursday centralizing the collection of the Islamic alms tax for distribution to the needy.

BEIRUT - Syrian rebels brought tanks, mortar launchers and homemade rockets to bear Wednesday in their offensive to seize the international airport in the city of Aleppo and a nearby military airport, a day after making other strategic military gains in the northern region. The opposition fighters, seeking to cut off supply lines to President Bashar Assad's forces guarding the airports, were able to take partial control of railroads in the area, activists said. Taking the international airport would be one of the most significant gains for the rebels in the north and could solidify the opposition's hold on the province of Aleppo.

Two weeks after seizing power in a coup, Capt. Blaise Compaore appointed himself head of state of the West African nation of Burkina Faso and made sweeping changes in the Cabinet. An official statement said Compaore, 35, also became president of the Popular Front, an umbrella organization set up during the Oct. 15 coup to replace the dissolved National Revolutionary Council.

The Palestinian guerrilla group headed by the elusive Abu Nidal says it will continue to attack Israeli and American interests with suicide commando raids, following what it termed a course of "martyrdom as a goal and a means." A rare communique from the group, the Revolutionary Council of Fatah, was handed to journalists in the Syrian capital by an official of the organization. Abu Nidal is the nom de guerre of the group's leader, Sabri Banna, whose whereabouts are not known.

Arab terrorists who attacked passengers last week at the Vienna airport's El Al airline counter intended to take Israeli hostages and hijack an El Al jetliner, a senior Austrian official said Monday. Interior Minister Karl Blecha also said called it "very likely" that the terrorists belonged to a group headed by Abu Nidal, a Palestinian extremist who split with Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat in the 1970s while accusing Arafat of being too moderate.

An explosion wrecked a post used by Abu Nidal's Fatah Revolutionary Council in this south Lebanese city, killing two guerrillas. Security sources said the incident was the latest in a power struggle within the group. Tension is high between the FRC and a dissident wing backed by Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization.

Egypt has rejected a request by Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi for arms, including submarines and missiles, the semi-official newspaper Al Ahram reported Friday. The newspaper said the request was conveyed by a Libyan army officer and member of the Libyan Revolutionary Council, Col. Abdel-Fatah Younis, who was in Cairo earlier this week.