A Jewish settler was shot dead today in a roadside ambush in the Gaza Strip. The attack was claimed by Islamic militants, who said they were retaliating for two explosions that killed three Palestinian militants and two children. The Palestinians blamed Israel for the Monday night blast that killed the youngsters, ages 4 and 7. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office denied the allegations. Japan's public and private insurance programs guarantee medical care for virtually all the nation's 126 million people at a cost lower than most industrial nations.
Most people pay premiums and make co-payments, but patients can go anywhere they want for treatment.
Rioters target shops of ethnic Albanians Macedonians smashed and burned shops owned by ethnic Albanians today, enraged by the deaths of eight soldiers in a weekend clash with Albanian guerrillas, police said. A police report said several hundred Macedonians, mostly younger men, targeted about 40 Albanian-owned stores and businesses in the business district during the violence that lasted four hours. American among five killed in bus wreck Five people, including an American, were killed and 22 others injured when a bus drove off a road into a ditch today, officials said. A passenger train traveling from Nice, France, to Venice, Italy, crashed into a service rail car near the French-Italian border, injuring 40 people and derailing the locomotive and two passenger cars. Four people were in serious condition today at hospitals around Bordighera, a coastal city 45 miles east of Nice, Italian news reports said.