World briefs

GAZA STRIP

Blasts hit Fatah homes

A series of coordinated explosions targeted the homes of several leaders of President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party early today, a party official said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Fayez Abu Eitta, a Fatah leader in Gaza's Jebaliya refugee camp, said no one was hurt in the near-simultaneous attacks, but his car was destroyed and the homes and cars of two other Fatah officials in Gaza City were damaged. Hamas and Fatah have recently pledged to reconcile, but there are still deep differences. Fatah officials are planning to commemorate the death of party founder Yasser Arafat on Nov. 11 for the first time since 2007.

THE HAGUEReport on Gaza boat attack

Israeli forces may have committed war crimes when they stormed an aid flotilla boat heading to Gaza in 2010, but the possible crimes are not grave enough to merit a prosecution at the International Criminal Court, the court's prosecutor said yesterday. Eight Turks and a Turkish-American were killed and several other pro-Palestinian activists were wounded when Israeli commandos stormed the ship Mavi Marmara on May 31, 2010.

UKRAINE2 soccer-playing teens killed

The shelling of a high school in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk killed two teenagers as they were playing soccer Wednesday, a stark reminder that the cease-fire agreed upon in September has really existed only on paper. Four other students were wounded. The warring sides -- government troops on one side and pro-Russian separatists on the other -- now look as far from any lasting settlement as they ever were. In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki condemned the shelling of the school. In Kiev, security spokesman Andriy Lysenko said preliminary information indicated the shells flew into the school from a location controlled by separatist forces.