Foreign briefs

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli tanks drove deeper into a West Bank town and a refugee camp Monday, drawing heavy Palestinian fire on the fifth day of Israel's broadest military strike against the Palestinians in years.

The violence came a day after the Palestinian Authority outlawed the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical PLO faction that has claimed responsibility for the assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister.

Israel has said it launched the military strike, including incursions into six West Bank towns, in order to pressure the Palestinian Authority to arrest and hand over the assassins of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi and the PFLP leaders.

Tajikistan has bigger worries than war next door -- drought

KHAUZAKO, Tajikistan (AP) -- When a rare rain comes to this drought-plagued village, Avgombi Muradova's spirits soar -- and plummet.

Rain means she might be able to grow crops to stay alive. But it also drenches the inside of her mud house, whose roof she sold for money to survive.

Muradova is among the 1 million people in Tajikistan, which aid agencies say are on the brink of starvation after a two-year drought. The groups have appealed for extensive and immediate help, but fear their call isn't being heard amid the clamor over the fighting in neighboring Afghanistan.

Aid workers say some Tajiks have become so desperate for food they are stealing from rats -- raiding their holes to get at the small amounts of grain the rodents have hoarded.

Berlin election boosts ex-communists

BERLIN (AP) -- Berlin voters gave a sharp boost to the former East German communists, rewarding their opposition to the U.S.-led strikes on Afghanistan and presenting the newly confirmed mayor with tough choices on who should help him run the German capital.

Led by Klaus Wowereit, the first openly gay mayor of a German metropolis, the Social Democrats won 29.7 percent in city elections Sunday to become the strongest force in Berlin. Wowereit, in office since June, now is set for a five-year term.

But the victory for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's party could become a headache as Wowereit grapples with a strong showing by the ex-communist Party of Democratic Socialism, which hasn't been in power in Berlin since German reunification in 1990.

While Schroeder has staunchly backed the U.S. war on terrorism, the reformed communists have opposed the attacks on Afghanistan.