World News

BAGHDAD - A suspected al-Qaida in Iraq suicide bomber smashed a truck loaded with TNT and toxic chlorine gas into a police checkpoint in Ramadi on Friday, killing at least 27 people — the ninth such attack since the group's first known use of a chemical weapon in January.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - An Israeli helicopter launched an airstrike along the Gaza Strip's border with Israel early Saturday, killing a Palestinian militant and wounding two others, officials said.

BAGHDAD - One U.S. soldier was killed and four others were wounded by a sophisticated roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad, the military said Saturday.

BAGHDAD - A British-led raid on a police intelligence headquarters in southern Iraq last month violated Iraq's sovereignty as well as a U.N. Security Council resolution, the government said on Friday.

JERUSALEM - Some in agony, others in ecstasy, Christians around the world marked Good Friday with prayer, processions and pleas for peace.

ROYAL MARINE BASE CHIVENOR, England - British sailors and marines held captive in Tehran for nearly two weeks were blindfolded, bound and forced against a wall as guards cocked weapons, members of the freed crew said.

ATHENS, Greece - Navy divers searched the sunken wreckage of a cruise ship on Friday for the bodies of a Frenchman and his daughter who disappeared after the vessel foundered on a volcanic reef — the only two people missing despite what passengers described as a chaotic evacuation in the Aegean Sea.

LONDON (AFP) - London should respond to Tehran freeing 15 British captives with a goodwill gesture of its own, Iran's ambassador to Britain said in an interview published Saturday.

LONDON (AFP) - British newspapers on Saturday praised the conduct in captivity of the freed sailors, but turned their guns on British and Iranian leaders for their handling of the crisis.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - A group of around 20 gunmen tried to bust an Italian held for drug trafficking out of a Brazilian prison hospital on Friday, but police foiled the movies-like escape attempt.

ACAPULCO, Mexico - The Acapulco correspondent for Mexico's top television news network was shot to death late Friday, the latest in a wave of journalist killings that has made Mexico one of the most dangerous countries for reporters in the Western Hemisphere.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Some 400 illegal migrants have been intercepted entering the U.S. Virgin Islands over the past six months, officials say.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay - Thousands of admirers come to see the fleeting seconds when the valiant gaucho manages to hang on, perched atop a wild, bucking colt.

NORMAN ISLAND, British Virgin Islands - In an April 4 corrective, The Associated Press gave the wrong name of the U.S. agency that said departing passengers pass through an immigration checkpoint at the U.S. Virgin Islands. The information came from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, not Immigration and Naturalization Service, which was replaced by ICE.

LA PAZ, Bolivia - Rewrite the constitution: check. Redistribute idle land: check. Rail against U.S. imperialism: check. Nationalize the phone company: check.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AFP) - Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar is looking forward to an improved all-round performance from his team in their World Cup Super Eights match against South Africa here on Saturday.

CHINGUETTI, Mauritania - In an April 5 story about encroaching sands, The Associated Press erroneously described the annual distance shift of sand dues in Mauritania. According to government data, the dunes are said to be moving about two to 2 1/2 miles per year, not four to six miles per year. The incorrect figure came from a faulty metric conversion.

ALGIERS (AFP) - Transport in Africa is lagging far behind the rest of the world, the African Union's infrastructure commissioner stressed Friday at the start of a meeting of transport ministers.

BIKITA, Zimbabwe (AFP) - Winnie Mupunga normally produces 40,000 kilogrammes (40 tonnes) of the staple corn cereal on her smallholding in southwestern Zimbabwe but this year she does not expect to harvest even 500.

KIGALI (AFP) - Rwanda's first post-genocide president, Pasteur Bizimungu, was freed from prison Friday after a presidential pardon three years into a 15-year sentence for charges including fanning ethnic hostility.

KABUL (AFP) - Two French aid workers who went missing this week have been kidnapped by Taliban militants in southwest Afghanistan and taken to volatile Helmand province, a provincial governor said Saturday.

BEIJING - China published new rules governing human organ transplants in its latest effort to clean up a business critics say has little regard for medical ethics.

WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - The Pakistan army moved into a known stronghold of foreign al Qaeda militants near the Afghan border after a tribal militia battled the Islamist militants this week, residents and officials said on Saturday.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - Sectarian clashes continued despite a curfew in a remote northern Pakistani town Saturday, leaving at least eight people dead and 45 wounded in two days, officials said.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Electronic Arts Inc. has reached an agreement with The9 Ltd. to buy a 19 percent stake in the Chinese online game operator for about $200 million, a local newspaper said on Saturday.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Conservatives have boosted their lead over the official opposition Liberals but do not have enough support to guarantee a majority of seats in Parliament, according to a poll released on Thursday.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The French-language exhibit at a major military memorial will be removed after a reporter discovered it was riddled with grammatical errors, Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson said on Thursday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese company at the centre of a contamination scare that has led to a recall of pet foods in North America and Europe said on Friday it had never exported wheat gluten to the United States.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Some of the payments at the center of Conrad Black's criminal fraud trial were reported to U.S. government regulators in a timely fashion and not hidden as prosecutors have suggested, jurors were told on Thursday.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - A Canadian woman who went through six months of chemotherapy after falsely being told she had cancer is suing the doctor who made the wrong diagnosis, CBC television said on Thursday.

DILI (AFP) - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday called on all parties in East Timor to make the country's first presidential election since independence a free and fair one.

DILI (Reuters) - East Timor's political and religious leaders appealed on Friday for calm after supporters of candidates contesting next week's presidential elections clashed during campaigning, sparking fears of further electoral unrest.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian police Thursday charged two men, including an army captain, with stealing military rocket launchers, some of which ended up in the hands of a suspected terrorist, officers said.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian police Thursday arrested three men including an army captain suspected of stealing military rocket launchers, some of which ended up in the hands of a suspected terrorist, officers said.

DILI (AFP) - A low-key former resistance fighter and a high-profile Nobel laureate are strong contenders for the presidency in East Timor, where voters will cast ballots Monday in a poll shadowed by violence.

ATHENS, Greece - Navy divers searched the sunken wreckage of a cruise ship on Friday for the bodies of a Frenchman and his daughter who disappeared after the vessel foundered on a volcanic reef — the only two people missing despite what passengers described as a chaotic evacuation in the Aegean Sea.

ROYAL MARINE BASE CHIVENOR, England - British sailors and marines freed by Iran said Friday they were blindfolded, isolated in cold stone cells and tricked into fearing execution while being coerced into falsely saying they had entered Iranian waters.

NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar (AFP) - Myanmar's vast new capital has many oddities in an otherwise poor country, such as smooth multi-lane highways, luxury cars and new apartment blocks seemingly modelled on western suburbia.

BAGHDAD - A suspected al-Qaida in Iraq suicide bomber smashed a truck loaded with TNT and toxic chlorine gas into a police checkpoint in Ramadi on Friday, killing at least 27 people — the ninth such attack since the group's first known use of a chemical weapon in January.

BERLIN - Thousands of people line up at the Berlin Zoo each day to see Knut the polar bear cub, and his button-eyed face has become inescapable for many others who live far from the capital.