World News

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide truck bomber sent a deadly storm of metal, stone and jagged plaster through worshippers leaving a Sunni mosque Saturday, girkilling at least 39 in a possible sign of escalating internal Sunni battles between insurgents and those who oppose them.

TEHRAN, Iran - The Iranian foreign minister said Saturday the United States was in no position for another war, and maintained that negotiations — not threats — were the only way to resolve the standoff over its nuclear activities.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Four Palestinians, including two supporters of rivals Hamas and Fatah, were killed in a family feud late Friday and early Saturday, threatening the calm that has accompanied a power-sharing deal between the two groups.

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - Kurdish authorities have agreed to back a draft law to manage and share Iraq's vast oil wealth, removing the last major obstacle to approving the measure and meeting a key U.S. benchmark in Iraq, a top Kurdish official said Saturday.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Thousands of Shiites on Saturday protested the U.S. detention of the son of Iraq's most powerful Shiite politician, and the country's Kurdish president deplored the "uncivilized" behavior of the American soldiers responsible.

LONDON (AFP) - The cost of staging the 2012 Olympics could soar to nine billion pounds - nearly four times the 2.35 billion estimated by London ahead of sealing the bid.

PARIS (AFP) - Reigning Six Nations champions France remain on target for the Grand Slam after overcoming an 11-point deficit to record a 32-21 win over Wales at the Stade de France here Saturday.

GRAYRIGG (Reuters) - A defective track may have caused a highspeed train crash in northern England in which an elderly woman was killed and five other people were seriously injured, according to investigators and the train company boss.

DARMSTADT, Germany - A European spacecraft was on course to zip past Mars on Sunday, a crucial maneuver in its meandering, 10-year voyage through the solar system to make the first soft landing on a comet.

BUCHAREST (AFP) - Dacia-Renault factory workers in Romania plan to strike Monday following failed negotiations for salary increases, the company's management said Saturday.

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala - A 330-foot-deep sinkhole killed two teenage siblings when it swallowed about a dozen homes early Friday and forced the evacuation of nearly 1,000 people in a crowded Guatemala City neighborhood.

BOGOTA, Colombia - It was like a macabre twist in a film noir: Confused hit men on the lookout for two men in a white sedan gun down the wrong people. Then they spot their intended targets, in the same traffic jam 20 yards away. And kill them, too. And it was all caught on a traffic camera.

BOGOTA, Colombia - The rebels holding a former presidential candidate hostage said Friday they were still willing to strike a deal for her release, five years to the day after her capture.

CIUDAD DEL ESTE, Paraguay - This city on the border where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay meet has for years battled a reputation as a trading post for weapons, drugs, pirated music and counterfeit designer brands.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - An American tourist who watched as a U.S. military veteran in his 70s used his bare hands to kill an armed assailant in Costa Rica said she thought the attempted robbery was a joke — until the masked attacker held a gun to her head.

CAIRO (AFP) - The trial of an Egyptian-Canadian accused of spying for Israel opened on Saturday amid tight security and was swiftly adjourned until February 28, an AFP photographer reported.

WARRI, Nigeria (AFP) - "We go to work with a military escort. We come back here with a military escort. It's like being in an open prison," said a British worker in this southern Nigerian oil town.

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - A cyclone that hit Mozambique only days after disastrous floods left at least 10 people dead and 70 injured in the east of the country, a Red Cross official said Saturday.

DAKAR, Senegal - The seaside highway, one of the Senegalese president's bold building initiatives, winds past the scruffy shop where a 62-year-old tailor and his two sons eke out a living sewing scraps of cloth into curtains.

GWERU, Zimbabwe (AFP) - Zimbabwe's veteran President Robert Mugabe has lavishly celebrated his 83rd birthday Saturday, with a warning to his opponents planning protests against a proposed extension to his rule.

LAHORE, Pakistan - The five small caskets were lined up head to foot at the border, each topped with a white wreath and scattered yellow flowers and holding the remains of a child killed in last week's train bombing in India.

SYDNEY, Australia - Vice President Dick Cheney, in a series of blunt and sometimes biting statements during a visit to Asia, defended the Iraq war, attacked administration critics at home and warned that the U.S. would confront potential adversaries abroad.

NEW DELHI (AFP) - India said Saturday it will ask Argentina to hand over an Italian businessman wanted in an arms scandal involving a 1.3-billion-dollar deal.

TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese automaker Nissan Motor plans to build a car plant in the Indian port city of Chennai with its French partner Renault SA and local firm Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd, a news report said Saturday.

SINGAPORE (AFP) - Singapore can take its place among the most prosperous nations in the world in the next two decades, founding father Lee Kuan Yew said, as it takes on the best features of top global cities.

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Conservatives are just ahead of their rivals in a new opinion poll, but no party has enough support to come close to winning a majority government.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's Supreme Court struck down a controversial anti-terror law on Friday that allows foreign suspects to be detained indefinitely without trial on the basis of secret evidence.

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany (Reuters) - Canadian Erik Guay collected his first World Cup victory on Saturday, winning the second Garmisch downhill under bright sunshine with a margin of half a second.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States pressed Canada this week about government assistance for the Canadian lumber industry that could violate a bilateral deal signed last year, a U.S. trade official said on Friday.

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian prosecutors have decided not to proceed with terrorism-related charges against one of the teenagers arrested in last summer's high-profile police sweep that netted 18 suspects.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia vowed Saturday not to send home a group of 85, mostly Sri Lankan boat people if it meant they would face persecution.

SYDNEY (AFP) - US Vice President Dick Cheney Saturday praised Australia's growing commitment to the Iraq war after key allies announced troop withdrawals, but insisted Washington would not try to strongarm its friends into cooperation.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia has begun talks with Indonesia and Nauru over the fate of 85 asylum seekers rescued from the Indian Ocean, the government said on Saturday as media reported that the group would be sent back to Sri Lanka.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Visiting US Vice President Dick Cheney and Australian Prime Minister John Howard were Saturday gagged by a technical glitch that left reporters and TV viewers desperately trying to read their lips.

DILI, East Timor - An Australian soldier opened fire on a group of East Timorese attacking him with steel arrows on Friday, killing one of the youths and critically wounding two, government and hospital officials said.

TEHRAN, Iran - The Iranian foreign minister said Saturday the United States was in no position for another war, and maintained that negotiations — not threats — were the only way to resolve the standoff over its nuclear activities.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide truck bomber sent a deadly storm of metal, stone and jagged plaster through worshippers leaving a Sunni mosque Saturday, girkilling at least 39 in a possible sign of escalating internal Sunni battles between insurgents and those who oppose them.

HAPPISBURGH, England - A 12-bedroom guest house, with beautiful views of the North Sea, a lighthouse and sandy beaches, sounds like prime real estate.

GRAYRIGG (Reuters) - A defective track may have caused a highspeed train crash in northern England in which an elderly woman was killed and five other people were seriously injured, according to investigators and the train company boss.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - An American tourist who watched as a U.S. military veteran in his 70s used his bare hands to kill an armed assailant in Costa Rica said she thought the attempted robbery was a joke — until the masked attacker held a gun to her head.