LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Our preference is diplomacy, but the military option is no doubt a method in the struggle against terrorism." Ali Babacan, Turkey's foreign minister, on the use of troops to confront Kurdish guerrillas along the Iraq border Article, 1A
Kyrgyzstan president dissolves parliament
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan - The president of Kyrgyzstan dissolved the parliament Monday, moving to strengthen his control after voters overwhelmingly approved constitutional changes that his critics called a grab for power.
The move by President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was his latest battle with lawmakers - a dispute that has persisted in the Central Asian country of 5 million since a popular uprising ousted its longtime leader in 2005.
The confrontation has hindered efforts to reduce poverty and social problems in the strategically important country, home to a U.S. air base as well as a growing Russian base.
The parliament passed two sets of constitutional changes last year curtailing the president's powers.
But lawmakers reversed them after Bakiyev threatened to dissolve the legislature and returned to the president the authority to form the Cabinet.
After the parliament held its final session Monday, former Deputy Speaker Erkinbek Alymbekov said the changes could lead to a "strict, totalitarian system of power" in the ex-Soviet republic.
There were no immediate signs, however, that Bakiyev's moves would bring opposition protesters into the streets, as during previous disputes.
Polish opposition party sweeps elections
WARSAW, Poland - An opposition party that wants Poland's troops out of Iraq has ousted the ruling conservatives in elections, and the incoming government promises to negotiate a tougher deal with the U.S. when it comes to hosting a missile defense base.
With more than 90 percent of votes in the previous day's parliamentary ballot counted, Monday's results showed pro-business Civic Platform beating Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski's nationalist conservatives by nearly 10 percentage points, enough to allow them to form a coalition government with an allied party.
Civic Platform leader Donald Tusk, like Kaczynski, favors good relations with the United States. But Tusk argues Poland has not gotten enough from its close ties with Washington, and he wants the country's 900-strong detachment in Iraq to come home soon.
"We've said that the mission should be completed in a very calm, responsible way," the party's parliamentary chief, Bogdan Zdrojewski, told The Associated Press.
He declined to give a date, saying "the decision will come once a government is formed" after parliament meets Nov. 5.
First lady addresses cancer in Emirates
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates - First lady Laura Bush began her quest to raise breast cancer awareness in the Middle East on Monday with several events in this oil-rich Persian Gulf nation that highlighted the challenges of combating the disease in the region.
Breast cancer is the No. 1 killer of women in the United Arab Emirates, according to official statistics, but many succumb because the stigma surrounding the disease prevents them from seeking early detection.
In the U.S., 80 percent of women with breast cancer detect the disease in stages one or two, but the comparable figure in the Emirates is only 30 percent, Bush said in a speech at Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed hospital in the capital of Abu Dhabi.
The Emirates offers free health care for its citizens and has one of the highest per capita income rates in the world, but several Emirati women with breast cancer told the first lady that some women are abandoned by their husbands after they're diagnosed and their daughters can have trouble marrying.
Navy man shoots, kills 2 female sailors
CAIRO, Egypt - A male U.S. Navy sailor shot and killed two women sailors early Monday in the barracks an American military base in Bahrain, officials said.
The gunman was critically wounded in the shooting at the U.S. Naval Support Activity Bahrain base, said a Navy official who was not authorized to release the information to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Navy said the shootings, which forced the base to close for about an hour, were not terror-related and involved only U.S. military personnel.
The wounded sailor apparently shot himself, the Navy said. The Navy declined to release the names of those involved, saying their families had not been notified.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 10/23/2007