Progress reported on new coalition

JERUSALEM - Israel's Kadima and Labor parties are close to a deal on a coalition government led by Tzipi Livni, a move that sets her on course to form a new centrist administration, Army Radio said yesterday. Foreign Minister Livni still needs to persuade other parties to join her to build a workable parliamentary majority. She was named by President Shimon Peres to take over from Ehud Olmert, who quit over a corruption inquiry but continues to serve as caretaker prime minister. If Livni cannot form a government by the start of November, an early parliamentary election is likely. (Reuters)

ANKARA - Turkish warplanes attacked a group of Kurdish rebels, including senior commanders, in northern Iraq yesterday, the military said, in another raid in retaliation for a guerrilla attack that killed 17 soldiers. The military said its fighter jets pummeled the Zap region - which was the main target of a weeklong ground offensive in February by the military - after intelligence indicated that a group of rebels had gathered there. The warplanes "hit the mark" and returned safely to base, the military said. (AP)

MANAGUA - Police raids of two nongovernmental organizations critical of Nicaragua's leftist government provoked an outcry yesterday from opposition leaders who called them a throwback to dictatorship. A judge ordered the raids as part of an investigation against the two groups for "crimes against the state," prosecutor Jose Abraham Rojas told reporters. Critics have called the investigations an attempt to silence dissent. (AP)