GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip

Three killed in fourth day of cross-border fighting

Cross-border fighting between Gaza and Israel, touched off by Israel’s killing of a top militant leader, showed no signs of letting up on its fourth day.

Gaza militants fired dozens of rockets at Israeli towns, and Israeli airstrikes killed three Gazans, including a boy and a farm guard.

Egypt tried to mediate but failed to end the worst violence in more than a year that has killed 18 Gazans, all but two of them militants, and disrupted the lives of some 1 million Israelis living in Gaza rocket range.

Hamas has kept its large rocket arsenal and thousands of fighters out of the confrontation, though it has not tried to stop two smaller Gaza groups from launching rockets and mortars.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak acknowledged that Hamas did not take part in the rocket salvos.

Up to now Israel has blamed Hamas for all violence from Gaza because it rules the territory.

LONDON

English Catholics campaign against same-sex marriage

The Catholic Church in England intensified its campaign against government plans to legalize same-sex marriage Sunday, urging the faithful to protect the “true meaning” of matrimony for future generations.

In a letter read in 2,500 parish churches across the country during Sunday Mass, the church’s senior archbishops argued that the proposed change would reduce the significance of marriage.

“The law helps to shape and form social and cultural values. A change in the law would gradually and inevitably transform society’s understanding of the purpose of marriage,” Archbishop Vincent Nichols and Archbishop Peter Smith said in the letter.

“There would be no recognition of the complementarity of male and female or that marriage is intended for the procreation and education of children,” they wrote.

Britain’s government plans to allow everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation, to have the option of a civil marriage. Prime Minister David Cameron has openly backed the plans.

CAIRO

Egyptian parliament moves toward U.S. aid cutoff vote

Egypt’s parliament moved Sunday toward a vote to order an end to more than $1 billion in U.S. aid, a reflection of tensions with Washington over the case of Americans charged with illegal activity by their pro-democracy groups.

The U.S. was angry enough over the charges against the American workers that it threatened to cut off aid to Egypt. The measure in the Islamist-dominated Egyptian parliament, probably just symbolic, showed that there is considerable anger in Cairo over charges that U.S. pressure led to interference in the judicial process.

The chamber also voted to start the process of a no-confidence vote in the military-backed government, a move that, if successful, could spark a political crisis with just under four months left before the military is scheduled to hand over power to a civilian administration.

COLLEGE PARK, Md.

Maryland college student charged in rampage threat

A 19-year-old University of Maryland student has been arrested and charged with posting an Internet threat claiming he planned to go on a shooting rampage on campus hoping to kill as many people as possible.

Campus police said in a statement that Alexander Song of Fulton, Md., has been identified as the person who posted on a website plans for a rampage that would “kill enough people to make it to national news.” The message also warned people to “stay away from the mall.” Police did not elaborate.

Song was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation after his arrest Sunday. Song, who was not armed when he was arrested, faces a misdemeanor charge of disturbing school activities.

Police said the university administration has moved to immediately suspend Song and ban him from campus pending a review.

– From news service reports