World and Nation

Israel agrees to route fence around university

JERUSALEM -- Bowing to international opposition, Israel has agreed to route its controversial security barrier around a prominent Palestinian university rather than directly through the campus as originally proposed, school officials said Monday.

But the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon also signaled its intention to include a sprawling Jewish settlement in the West Bank on its side of the fence, a move likely to incur Washington's wrath and possible cuts in U.S. loan guarantees to Israel.

The decision not to slice Al Quds University in two came after weeks of pressure from the Bush administration, other foreign powers and an almost nonstop peaceful protest on the southeast Jerusalem campus by students, professors and administrators.

-- Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times

Russian refusal to

commit leaves gobal- warming pact in doubt

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin refused on Monday to commit Russia to ratification of the Kyoto pact on global warming, brushing aside entreaties from the United Nations and single-handedly holding up enactment of the landmark environmental accord.

Since the Bush administration's refusal two years ago to endorse the international agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions, Russia has essentially held the final veto on the agreement, which cannot come into effect until ratified by enough countries to account for 55 percent of the world's emissions. Many scientists believe the gases are causing harmful climate change.

-- Susan B. Glasser, The Washington Post

Deportation push raises cross-border objections

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico -- In what U.S. officials call a rescue mission and critics dismiss as costly folly, thousands of illegal immigrants caught in Arizona this month are being flown in handcuffs to four Texas cities for deportation to Mexico -- in the hope that they will not try again to sneak across the border in Arizona's killer desert heat.

The U.S. Border Patrol's "Lateral Repatriation Program" has drawn fire from both sides of the Rio Grande. It has opened a new rift between the Bush administration and President Vicente Fox, whose top foreign-policy goal is better treatment for millions of undocumented Mexican laborers in the United States.

Border mayors in Texas and Mexico say the sudden influx of deportees could overwhelm their communities. Migration specialists warn that the effort will not work as a long-term deterrent. A Texas congressman opposed the initiative. So did Fox, whose government has also protested the use of handcuffs.

-- Richard Boudreaux, Los Angeles Times

Americans without health insurance rises to 15.2 percent

WASHINGTON -- The number of Americans who lack health insurance climbed by 5.7 percent in 2002 to 43.6 million, the largest single increase in a decade, according to figures to be released Tuesday by the Census Bureau.

Overall, 15.2 percent of Americans were uninsured last year, up from 14.6 percent in 2001. The largest jump came among people who had received health benefits through their jobs, as some firms laid off workers and others reduced coverage. Young adults and Latinos once again were the least likely to have medical coverage. Primarily because of government-run health programs, children and the elderly have the highest rates of coverage.

-- Ceci Connolly, The Washington Post

2 new moons around Uranus

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have discovered two more tiny moons, one eight miles in diameter and the other 10 miles in diameter, circling the planet Uranus, which already boasts the most satellites in the solar system. The two moons are orbiting close to the gas giant planet and had escaped detection when the Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by in 1986.

-- Marc Kaufman, The Washington Post