Gunman holding 42 people hostage

GUATEMALA CITY - An armed man took 42 hostages in a Guatemala City call center yesterday and threatened to detonate an explosive, police said. National Police spokesman Donald Gonzalez said Luis Escobar, 29, overpowered a security guard and took his gun. He claimed to have an explosive and threatened to detonate it, Gonzalez said. Officer Miguel Tzoc said Escobar was in a jealous rage over a girlfriend or former girlfriend who worked in the call center. (AP)

VATICAN CITY - A top rabbi addressing a worldwide meeting of Roman Catholic bishops yesterday condemned the Iranian president's verbal attacks on Israel. Shear-Yashuv Cohen, a chief rabbi in Haifa, became the first Jew to address such a meeting, known as a synod of bishops. In his speech Cohen did not name Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but denounced "the terrible and vicious words" spoken by "the president of a certain state in the Middle East" at the UN General Assembly last month. Ahmadinejad lashed out at Israel and accused "Zionists" of controlling the world's economy. Cohen said the "false and malicious accusations" were an incitement to anti-Semitism. (AP)

GAZA CITY - Hamas will cease to recognize Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian president after Jan. 8 and replace him with one of its own leaders, according to a resolution approved by the Islamic movement's legislators yesterday. Abbas aides said the resolution appeared aimed at stepping up pressure on the president ahead of a new attempt by Egypt to mediate a power-sharing deal between the rival camps. (AP)