Israel: IDF chief targeted in mortar fire
GAZA, April 13 (UPI) -- A top Israeli general avoided a Palestinian mortar attack Sunday in the western Negev region, officials said.
One of three mortar shells launched from northern Gaza struck about 65 feet from Brig. Gen. Yoav Galant, chief of Israel's Defense Forces Southern Command, and other officials with whom he was touring the region, including Haim Yalin, head of the Eshkol Regional Council, Ynetnews.com reported. No deaths were reported.
"This tour has been pre-planned and was aimed at demonstrating what local farmers had to deal with on a daily basis. This barrage demonstrated very well what their life's routine looks like," Yalin said.
Previously this month, Palestinian gunmen shot at the convoy of Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter in southern Israel, wounding Dichter's assistant.
Kenya to have power-sharing Cabinet
NAIROBI, Kenya, April 13 (UPI) -- Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki says he has worked with opposition leaders to create a new power-sharing Cabinet to end his country's political crisis.
Kibaki said opposition leader Raila Odinga would serve as Kenyan prime minister and the two sides would work together to move Kenya forward, the BBC reported Sunday.
"My challenge to the new Cabinet members and the entire national leadership at all levels is: let us put politics aside and get to work," Kibaki said.
"Let us build a new Kenya where justice is our shield and defender, and where peace, liberty and plenty will be found throughout our country."
Of the 40 Cabinet posts named under the new power-sharing agreement, half belong to opposition officials and half to the Party of National Unity.
The dispute over the makeup of the Cabinet triggered widespread violence since last December's presidential elections. The BBC said that violence left 1,500 dead across Kenya.
Thousands protest Turkey's Islamist tilt
ANKARA, Turkey, April 13 (UPI) -- An estimated 20,000 protesters demonstrated in Ankara against the Islamist agenda of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party, police said.
The Saturday rally was organized by the National Solidarity Platform, an umbrella group of non-profit organizations, Hurriyet reported Sunday.
A representative for the group, Selda Talay Tosum, said their goal was a government based on the nationalistic ideals of the country's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and not one based on Islamic principles, Hurriyet said.
Similar rallies were staged last year to protest the presidency of Abdullah Gul, who has strong links to political Islam.
Turkey's chief prosecutor, Abd a-Rahman Yalcınkaya, charged the ruling Justice and Development Party of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan with pushing an anti-secular agenda and moved to close it down.
The Constitutional Court in Turkey agreed to hear Yalcinkaya's case, although it could take several months.
Maoists wins not predicted, analysts say
KATHMANDU, Nepal, April 13 (UPI) -- Maoists guerrillas won more seats than expected in a test of the group's decade-long insurgent campaign, election observers said.
Nepal held elections Thursday to decide whether to end King Gyanendra's monarchy and make the Himalayan nation a republic. International observers called the election a success despite violence that left two people dead.
The BBC Sunday said the Maoists won 42 out of 76 seats declared and the Maoist leader, Prachandra, won a seat in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.
Further results for the 601-seat national assembly are expected in the coming days, although more than half of those decided by proportional representation may not be decided for several weeks.
