Hong Kong democracy activist Szeto dies at age 79

HONG KONG (AP) -- Veteran Hong Kong democracy activist Szeto Wah, a leading campaigner for the victims of Beijing's 1989 crackdown on protesters at Tiananmen Square and a voice for mainland dissidents, died Sunday of lung cancer. He was 79.

A teacher and a former primary school principal by trade, Szeto started his political career organizing fellow teachers, building Hong Kong's Professional Teachers' Union into one of the territory's most powerful unions.

But he is best known as a democracy advocate. Szeto, like many Hong Kongers, was shocked by Beijing's military suppression of the pro-democracy protests on Tiananmen, in which at least several hundred people were killed.

Along with others he organized the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Democratic Movements in China. The group, which he headed until his death, became a key advocate for both the victims of Tiananmen and for mainland dissidents jailed by the Chinese government.

It continued to criticize the Tiananmen crackdown and called on Beijing to apologize, even after Hong Kong became a semiautonomous Chinese territory in 1997. Every June 4 the alliance hosts a candlelight vigil to mourn the victims which typically draws tens of thousands of people.

Don't count on foreign troops, Gbagbo tells rival

(Reuters) - Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo told his presidential rival on Saturday not to expect foreign troops to install him in power by force, and repeated his call for talks to end the country's violent political stand-off.

Gbagbo has refused to step down as president, even though the country's electoral commission and world leaders have recognized his challenger Alassane Ouattara as the winner of a November presidential election. The dispute has triggered violence in a country still divided after a 2002-3 civil war.

Three presidents from West African regional bloc ECOWAS are planning a second round of talks on January 3 with Gbagbo in a bid to convince him to cede power to Ouattara. Gbagbo has shrugged off a threat by the regional body to unseat him by force.

"You should not count on foreign armies to come and make him (Ouattara) president," he said in an interview broadcast on state television on Saturday.

"I therefore extend my hand so we can talk," he said. He repeated an offer for a recount, which Ouattara's camp rejects.

Ouattara's Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, confined with the rest of Ouattara's government to the lagoon-side Golf Hotel under the protection of 600 U.N. troops, told reporters Gbagbo has only days in which to leave power peacefully.

The message the African neighbors were bringing "seems clear," he said. "This is the last chance for Mr. Gbagbo to get a peaceful departure from power and a guarantee of immunity."

Israeli military: Palestinian killed after advancing with glass bottle

(CNN) -- Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man who approached a checkpoint with a glass bottle and did not stop, the Israeli military said.

The man approached the soldiers at a checkpoint near Nablus in the West Bank from an unauthorized lane holding a gas bottle, according to the military.

The soldiers called on him to stop, but the man did not comply and continued to approach the soldiers, the military said. The man came a few meters away from soldiers "who then operated according to (Israeli military) rules of engagement, firing towards him," the military said in a statement.

The Israeli military said it was still investigating the incident, but reported that the soldiers feared that the man was going to stab them with the glass bottle.

Worshippers back in Egyptian church hit in attack

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (AP) -- Christians are back praying in a church targeted a day earlier by an apparent suicide bomber in an attack that killed 21 and wounded 97.

Dozens attended Sunday Mass at the Saints Church in Egypt's Mediterranean port city of Alexandria while riot police backed by armored vehicles were deployed outside.

The attack Saturday was the worst violence against Egypt's Christian minority in a decade. It sparked clashes between Christians who say the government hasn't done enough to protect them and riot police.

The Interior Ministry blamed the bombing on "foreign elements."

The Alexandria governor accused al-Qaida, pointing to the terror network's branch in Iraq, which has attacked Christians there and threatened Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Christian community.

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