World datelines

Afghanistan

KABUL — President Hamid Karzai on Monday urged Afghanistan's foreign backers to speed its economic recovery at the start of a donor conference at which the United States pledged to double its aid.

Austria

VIENNA — Joerg Haider and his supporters broke Monday with the once-powerful populist Freedom Party to form a new movement meant to reflect the former rightist firebrand's turn toward relative moderation.

Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO — Authorities on Monday arrested 11 police suspected of participating in death squad killings that left 30 people dead in two towns on Rio's poor outskirts. Four of the officers were charged with murder in Thursday night's shooting, while seven are being confined at the police barracks, Rio de Janeiro State Security Secretary Marcelo Itagiba said.

Britain

LONDON — Prince Charles' wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles — beset by problems since it was first announced — now has been postponed a day to avoid conflicting with the funeral of Pope John Paul II. The wedding, which had been scheduled for Friday in Windsor, west of London, will be held Saturday, Buckingham Palace announced Monday after the Vatican set the pope's funeral for Friday.

France

PARIS — The world's most enigmatic smile was getting a change of scene on Monday as the Louvre shifted Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" to a renovated larger section of the museum.

Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE — U.N. troops battled street gangs in firefights near a lawless Haitian slum, the latest in a series of clashes between peacekeepers and armed groups that some fear could disrupt fall elections. At least five gang members were wounded or killed in the gunfight late Sunday in the Port-au-Prince slum of Cite Soleil, soldiers said.

Iran

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami appealed Monday to the United States to drop its opposition to his country's nuclear activities — programs Washington says are directed at making weapons.

Israel