WORLD BRIEFS

CHINA: 7 kindergartners killed

Seven children were hacked to death and at least 20 others injured Wednesday morning in a violent rampage at a kindergarten in northwest Shaanxi province, Xinhua News Agency reported. Three attacks at schools and kindergartens last month left dozens of children injured, raising questions on security and issues of massive social inequalities believed to cause the violence.

IRAQ: Rethinking pullout schedule

American commanders, worried about increased violence following Iraq's inconclusive elections, are reconsidering the pace of a major troop pullout this summer. The first major wave of withdrawal is expected to be delayed about a month, U.S. officials said Tuesday. The Iraqis have still not formed a new government, and militants aiming to exploit the void have carried out attacks like Monday's bombings and shootings that killed at least 119 people. The threat has prompted military officials to look at keeping as many troops on the ground, for as long as possible, without missing the Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline.

AFGHANISTAN: Bomb kills 2 Americans

A bomb attack killed two U.S. service members in the south Tuesday, while Afghan officials said at least 18 militants died in a recent operation in the same region. In northern Kunduz province Tuesday, 50 students at a girls' school were hospitalized after losing consciousness or vomiting in a suspected poison gas attack.

FRANCE: Vote forbids face coverings

Lawmakers unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday asserting that face-covering Muslim veils are contrary to the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity. The nonbinding resolution, passed 434-0, lays the groundwork for a planned law forbidding face-covering veils in public. The resolution, sponsored by President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative party, was backed by rival Socialists. Sharp criticism has accompanied France's nearly yearlong debate on banning burqa-style veils, with those opposed saying the process has stigmatized the nation's 5 million Muslims, the largest Muslim population in western Europe. Earlier yesterday, a Council of Europe commission opposed a blanket ban on face coverings, saying such a ban would rob women of their freedom of expression and could violate their religious freedoms. The panel also urged Switzerland to end its ban on the construction of Islam minarets.

EGYPT: Emergency law extended

The government extended the country's emergency law Tuesday for another two years, saying it would limit its use, a promise dismissed by human rights activists who say the law would continue to be used to suppress dissent. The law, in place since the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat by Islamic militants, gives police broad powers of arrest and indefinite detention. In Washington, the White House expressed disappointment and called instead for a promised counterterrorism law to protect civil liberties.

RUSSIA: Grim search for 32 miners

Thirty-eight Siberian coal miners are buried so deep in Russia's largest underground coal mine that rescuers used up most of their oxygen tanks trying to reach them, the regional governor said Tuesday. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin traveled to the Raspadskaya mine, about 1,900 miles east of Moscow. The death toll rose to 52 and prospects of finding any survivors nearly three days after explosions in the mine were dimming.