h Bastille Day in France

h Bastille Day in France

PARIS — The leaders of Syria and Israel, countries with a bitter enmity, as well as the Palestinian and Lebanese presidents together marked France’s Bastille Day on Monday in a diplomatic coup for French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Other leaders from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, also attended the traditional Bastille Day parade, where troops in their finery marched down the tree-lined Champs-Elysees, and jets trailing smoke of red, white and blue roared over the Arc de Triomphe.

Magazine angers Obama

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama’s campaign says a satirical New Yorker magazine cover showing the Democratic presidential candidate dressed as a Muslim and his wife as a terrorist is “tasteless and offensive.”

The illustration on the issue that hits newsstands Monday, titled “The Politics of Fear” and drawn by Barry Blitt, depicts Barack Obama wearing sandals, robe and a turban, and his wife, Michelle, dressed in camouflage, combat boots and an assault rifle strapped over her shoulder — standing in the Oval Office.

3 admit to bomb plot

LONDON — In a case that changed the face of air travel, three men charged with a plot to kill trans-Atlantic airline passengers with bombs in soda bottles admitted Monday they intended to cause explosions.

But the men appealed to the jury to believe their story — that they wanted to stage an elaborate publicity stunt at one of London’s iconic sites to promote a film, rather than commit mass murder.

The men are charged with a plot to kill hundreds of passengers at the height of the summer vacation season. When police discovered the plot in August 2006, airports around the world immediately changed their security procedures.

Genocide charges filed

UNITED NATIONS —The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court filed genocide charges Monday against Sudan’s president, igniting a debate over whether the move would help end the long-standing violence in the country’s Darfur region or undermine prospects for peace.

The prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, submitted evidence intended to show that Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmad Bashir intentionally tried to wipe out a “substantial part” of three tribes in Sudan’s western region based on their ethnicity.

Worries over Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — An insurgent raid that penetrated an American outpost in eastern Afghanistan, killing nine soldiers, has deepened doubts about the U.S. military’s effort to contain Islamic militants and keep locals on its side.

Moving in darkness before dawn Sunday, some 200 fighters surrounded the newly built base in a remote area near the Pakistan border without being spotted by the troops inside, said Gen. Mohammad Qasim Jangalbagh, the provincial police chief.

Crackdown on nudity

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Westerners were getting too racy on the beaches of this Persian Gulf tourist haven, and a police crackdown on topless sunbathing, nudity and other indecent behavior has resulted in 79 arrests in recent days.

Cadets for Iraq graduate

BAGHDAD — Some 650 cadets from four military academies in Iraq graduated Monday in a ceremony that underlined what U.S. officials say is the growing self-sufficiency of Iraqi forces. The ceremony in Baghdad was attended by Gen. David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq. Petraeus told the cadets that Iraq needs less help from the U.S. military but promised that the United States remains ready to assist when needed.

Associated Press