Around the world
COUP: Mutinous soldiers in Gambia declared a military government Saturday, and the elected president of continental Africa's smallest nation took shelter on an American warship. Four lieutenants who proclaimed themselves the new government of the West African nation said the overthrow was bloodless. They suspended the constitution and political parties and declared a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew. Senegal, which nearly surrounds Gambia and intervened to put down a coup in 1981, ordered its military on alert and moved troops to the border.STRIKE: Thousands of European vacationers spent some of their precious holiday hours stranded in airports Saturday after French air traffic controllers walked off their jobs. Controllers went on strike at the Aix-en-Provence regional center in Paris, which usually handles some 900 takeoffs and landings a day. It also is a flyover region for many flights headed to popular vacation spots.
RAID: Israeli soldiers struck deep inside Lebanon to kidnap a militant accused of plotting attacks against Israel, the army said Saturday. He was the second Lebanese militant Israel has abducted in three months. The army said soldiers kidnapped Kassem Re-han on Friday night.
ATTACK: Hundreds of Shiite Muslims beat their chests and wailed curses at their Sunni rivals Saturday for an attack on a bus filled with Shiite worshipers that killed six people and wounded 25 in Karachi, Pakistan. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the ambush, but witnesses and victims blamed militant Sunni Muslims.
TAIWAN: China expressed "utmost indignation" Saturday at Taiwan's decision to seek membership in the United Nations and hinted strongly that it would block the move. Twelve Central American, African, Caribbean and Pacific states proposed to the U.N. General Assembly on July 15 that Taiwan's bid for membership be discussed in September. A similar proposal was rejected last September.
Across the nation
CONVICTED: A woman was convicted of killing her ex-lover's bride in a case in Denver that the prosecutor described as Shakespearean in its deceit, passion and betrayal. The man, Ron Griffin, committed suicide two months after Darcy Matlock shot his bride to death. Matlock was convicted Friday of killing 24-year-old Andrean Hanks by firing two bullets through the window of an apartment in December. Matlock, who was married during her affair with Griffin, was sentenced to life.
AWARD: A federal jury in Rutland, Vt., has awarded $500,000 in back pay to a former theater professor, Leroy Logan, who sued Bennington College for dismissing him after he was accused of sexually assaulting a male student. In making the award, the jurors disregarded the instructions of Judge Franklin S. Billings of U.S. District Court, who told them they must limit the amount of compensatory damages to the terms of Logan's five-year contract, $272,712. The jury was not asked to rule on whether Logan actually assaulted the student.