Suicide bomber attacks

Suicide bomber attacks
JEBALIYA, Gaza Strip -- A 64-year-old Palestinian grandmother blew herself up near Israeli troops sweeping through northern Gaza on Thursday, and eight other Palestinians were killed in a day of clashes and rocket fire. Two soldiers were slightly wounded by the bomber.
The militant Hamas, which is in charge of the Palestinian government, claimed responsibility for the suicide attack and identified the bomber as Fatma Omar An-Najar. Her relatives said she was 64 -- by far the oldest of the more than 100 Palestinian suicide bombers who have targeted Israelis over the past six years.
Sailor to be rescued
LONDON -- British skipper Alex Thomson was set to be rescued from his capsized yacht early today by a rival sailor in a solo round-the-world yacht race.
Thomson's yacht capsized early Thursday in the Southern Ocean, but he was not hurt. He had been trying to repair damage to his keel when he decided to abandon ship.
Mike Golding, who was in second place ahead of Thomson, responded to a request for assistance and turned upwind to pick up Thomson.
Race organizers said late Thursday that the two yachts were in sight of each other, about 1,000 miles southeast off the Cape of Good Hope.
Ex-Times official dies
NEW YORK -- Gerald M. Boyd, who became the first black managing editor of The New York Times and was forced to resign amid a reporter's plagiarism scandal, has died. He was 56.
Boyd had been diagnosed with lung cancer in February and died Thursday at his home, said his wife, Robin Stone. He had been sick for most of the year and had kept the condition private from most friends and colleagues, Stone said.
Boyd and executive editor Howell Raines were brought down by the scandal caused by Jayson Blair, a journalist they had groomed, and criticism of their management style at one of the world's most distinguished newspapers. Boyd resigned in 2003.
Iran offers concessions
VIENNA, Austria -- Iran has agreed to crack open the books on its uranium enrichment activities, the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Thursday -- a move that could give experts a better grasp of a program the Security Council fears could be misused to produce atomic bombs.
The concession appeared timed in hopes of heading off a rejection by the International Atomic Energy Agency of Iran's request for technical help in building its Arak plutonium-producing reactor. Unmoved, the IAEA's 35-nation board denied the aid for at least two years.
2 women taken hostage
CHICAGO -- Two women were taken hostage inside their Chicago apartment building early Thursday, sparking a police standoff that stretched more than 14 hours.
The women were being held by a gunman in his 20s or 30s who fired at police at least once, and officers were negotiating with the suspect by phone, police spokeswoman Monique Bond said.
The standoff in the city's South Shore neighborhood began about 2:30 a.m. after a 911 call about gunshots in the building. The police department's hostage barricade terrorist team responded, and officers surrounded the three-flat building, police said.
No injuries were reported, Bond said.
Ruling on gay rights
CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- South Africa's highest court ruled Thursday that gay partners must have the same inheritance rights as married couples, a decision in line with its landmark 2005 judgment that same sex marriages should be legalized.
The 10-member Constitutional Court ruled unanimously that existing succession laws were illegal because they excluded gay partners from provisions giving spouses automatic inheritance rights if a partner dies without leaving a will. The order was to have immediate effect.
It said the law should be changed to insert after every mention of the word spouse, the phrase "or partner in a permanent same-sex life partnership in which the partners have undertaken reciprocal duties."
Pope, archbishop talk
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI and Anglican leader Rowan Williams acknowledged there were "serious obstacles" to closer ties between their churches, a blunt reference to Vatican disapproval of gay bishops, women priests and blessings of same-sex unions in the Anglican church.
The pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury, talking privately in the papal library and then praying together in a chapel, came together Thursday to celebrate 40 years of dialogue aimed at uniting the churches split apart in 1534 by King Henry VIII's anger over the Vatican's refusal to annul his marriage.
Associated Press