Around the world
CAR MISSING: U.N. observers said Monday that one of their cars used to patrol Kuwait's tense border with Iraq is missing, but they refused to comment on a newspaper report that the vehicle was stolen by Iraqi troops. If confirmed, the theft would be the latest in a series of border incidents the past two months that have coincided with work on a defensive trench being dug along the 130-mile border by Kuwait.CONVOY RAMMED: A Muslim militant rammed a stolen garbage truck into a convoy of Israeli military cars in the occupied Gaza Strip on Monday, and the army said the driver was shot to death by soldiers. The attacker, identified by Palestinian reporters as Moammar Saleh Hussein, 20, belonged to Islamic Jihad, a Muslim fundamentalist group that wants to derail the Israel-PLO peace talks.
HONORS: Two Moscow correspondents for Atlanta-based Cable News Network were honored Monday by the Russian government for their coverage of last month's armed revolt by Parliament hard-liners. Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev arranged a ceremony to decorate CNN Bureau Chief Steven Hurst and his wife and fellow correspondent Claire Shipman with "Defender of Free Russia" medals. Although Hurst and Shipman were not the only journalists decorated for their coverage of the Oct. 3-4 insurgency, they are the only foreign correspondents to get medals.
Across the nation
PLANE CRASH: A sky diver near Northampton, Mass., struck a plane on his way down, damaging it so severely that it went into a spin and crashed, killing the four people aboard. The parachutist, Alfred Peters, 51, survived after hitting the tail of the single-engine Piper on Sunday. Authorities said he was free-falling, hit the plane at about 7,500 feet and then deployed his parachute. It was not immediately clear why the plane was in the sky-diving area, said Mary Culver, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration.
WORSHIPERS ROBBED: Two masked gunmen burst into a Nashville, Tenn., church, robbed worshipers of their wallets and purses and told them to "say your prayers." Police arrested one suspect Sunday after firing tear gas into a nearby house where he had barricaded himself for six hours. Police were searching for the other suspect. Police charged Gary Bell, 30, of Nashville, with violating his parole for second-degree murder.