World/nation briefs

In protest, Wikipedia plans a blackoutWikipedia will black out the English-language version of its website for 24 hours on Wednesday to protest anti-piracy legislation under consideration in Congress, the foundation behind the online encyclopedia said. An unprecedented move, the blackout would bring added muscle to a growing base of critics of the legislation. Wikipedia is considered one of the Internet's most popular websites.

Fuel transfer begins in iced-in NomeCrews began transferring 1.3 million gallons of fuel from a Russian fuel tanker to this iced-in western Alaska city. Earlier, crews laid the hoses along a stretch of Bering Sea ice. On Monday, they hooked the hoses to a pipeline that begins on a rock causeway 550 yards from the tanker, which is moored about half a mile offshore. The city of 3,500 didn't get its last pre-winter barge fuel delivery because of a massive November storm. The Coast Guard is monitoring the effort.

Hackers wage attacks on Israeli websitesIsrael faced an escalating cyberwar as unknown attackers disrupted access to the symbolically strategic websites of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and El Al, the national airline. A hacker identifying himself as oxOmar, already notorious for posting the details of more than 20,000 Israeli credit cards, sent an overnight warning to the Ynet news outlet that a group of pro-Palestinian cyberattackers planned to bring down the sites in the morning. The attackers didn't break into the sites' operating systems, but used a far simpler tactic: creating an overload of access attempts.

Police seize chemicals in terrorism casePolice units seized what they said was a large stash of two chemicals that can be used to make rudimentary bombs. A top Bangkok police official said ammonium nitrate and urea were found in a commercial building on the outskirts of Bangkok. They were meant to be shipped out of the country, the official said, allaying fears of a pending terror attack on Thai soil. But the U.S. Embassy said it stood by the emergency message it issued on Friday, saying that foreign terrorists might be planning attacks against "tourist areas in Bangkok in the near future."

Church offices raided in sex abuse inquiryBelgian authorities searched the offices of bishops in three cities, removing documents as part of an investigation into child sexual abuse that has plunged the country's Roman Catholic church into crisis. The raids took place in Antwerp, Hasselt and Mechelen.