A round-up of today's others stories in brief.
Hamas rejects Abbas call for referendum
JERUSALEM - The Hamas government has rejected as "illegal" plans by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to call a referendum unless the Islamist group agrees in principle by tomorrow to recognise Israel and negotiate a two-state solution.
Hamas appears paralysed by Mr Abbas's ultimatum for it to accept a document drawn up by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails that accepts a final settlement with Israel of two states living side by side.
Hamas says it is unable to agree to the document in its present form, but it is also concerned about the political damage it will suffer if, as opinion polls suggest, a large majority of Palestinians back Mr Abbas and the prisoners' document. - (Guardian service)
Mosque targeted after arrests
TORONTO - Vandals smashed windows of a Toronto mosque after a weekend police sweep that netted 17 suspected al-Qaeda sympathisers accused of plotting bomb attacks. Canadian Muslims expressed fear yesterday that a backlash had begun.
Mohammad Alam, the president of the Islamic Foundation of Toronto, said the incident may be the beginning of religiously motivated reprisals against the country's Muslim population, estimated at more than 600,000.
The suspects, all from Ontario, remained in custody ahead of their next court appearance tomorrow. Police say the men had amassed explosives and were planning to blow up targets in Ontario, Canada's political and economic heart. - (Reuters)
Eight oil workers freed in Nigeria
ABUJA - Kidnappers in Nigeria have freed eight foreign oil workers, two days after they were seized in an unprecedented raid on a rig far offshore that heightened fears in an oil industry hurt by a series of militant attacks.
Gunmen had captured six Britons, one American and one Canadian from a rig 40 miles out to sea on Friday. The abductions followed a series of attacks earlier this year that have shut down a quarter of Nigeria's oil output . - (Reuters)
Somalia militias capture town
MOGADISHU - Islamic militias have captured a strategic town north of Mogadishu, strengthening their grip on Somalia during some of the worst violence in nearly 15 years of anarchy.
At least 15 people were killed and 20 wounded in the three-hour fight for Balad, about 20 miles from the capital. The town had been a base for a secular alliance of warlords that is fighting the Islamic militias for power in Somalia.
The growing power of the Islamic militias is raising fears that the nation could follow the path of Taliban Afghanistan into the hands of al-Qaeda. - (Reuters)
Women to run in Kuwait elections
KUWAIT CITY - Thirty- two women will be among 402 parliamentary candidates standing for election in Kuwait on June 29th, the first time in the history of the Gulf Arab state that women will be allowed to seek office.
Some 340,000 voters of whom 195,000, or 57 per cent, are women, are eligible to choose the new 50-seat house that replaces the previous assembly. - (Reuters)
Pakistan bans 'Da Vinci Code'
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has banned The Da Vinci Code following calls from both minority Christians and majority Muslims. "The film is sacrilegious to all religions, that's why we did this," said Jalil Abbas, secretary of the ministry of culture.
Police had been ordered to conduct raids and confiscate pirated copies of the film available in markets. - (Reuters)