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U.S. visit to Sudan welcome

AL-FASHER, Sudan - Secretary of State Colin Powell came Wednesday to this hard-baked land that has been brutalized by roving horsemen with guns, disease and an unrelenting sun to offer his hand in help.

Thousands of refugees from recent violence swept like water across a sandy plain to meet the convoy of jeeps and SUVs carrying the Powell entourage to a camp of 40,000 displaced people from the western Darfur region.

Youths eager for a glimpse of Powell climbed atop pallets of American-donated wheat and vegetable oil for a better vantage, only to be shooed off by a soldier flailing a whip. Women draped in veils herded wide-eyed children chasing after the spectacle.

Young men - survivors in an ethnic war that has unleashed the power of the mostly Arab government and their allies against black African rebels and their people - sidled up to American reporters to confide their fear. Powell's visit seemed to offer a momentary shield from intimidation.

"We want this government out," whispered one man, who said he had lost 14 relatives to the violence. "They kill our families." He disappeared as quickly as he had come. "They watch me," he said, melting into the crowd.

The United States Wednesday called for U.N. sanctions on the Arab militias in western Sudan whose attacks have sparked the crisis and indicated it may seek penalties against Sudan's government if it doesn't stop the conflict.

DOHA, Qatar - A court on Wednesday convicted two Russian secret agents in connection with the assassination of a former president of Chechnya in February, a killing that the presiding judge said had been ordered by the Russian government.

In his statement, the judge, Ibrahim al-Nisf, accused senior Russian officials of orchestrating the assassination of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, a Chechen rebel leader in exile, who died when a bomb exploded in his Land Cruiser as he left a mosque in Qatar's capital, Doha.

"The Russian leadership issued an order to assassinate the former Chechen leader Yandarbiyev," the judge said, according to news reports from the courthouse in Doha. The judge did not implicate President Vladimir Putin or any other official by name.

Russia has repeatedly denied involvement in Yandarbiyev's murder, but the trial of the agents, identified as Anatoly V. Belashkov and Vasily A. Bogachyov, has become a political and diplomatic embarrassment for the Kremlin. It has also strained relations with Qatar and the Arab world.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - A firebrand cleric who issued religious decrees for an al-Qaida-linked terrorist group was killed Wednesday during a car chase and shootout with police that also killed a police officer.

Abdullah Mohammed Rashid al-Roshoud, believed to be the chief ideologue for al-Qaida in the region, died in the clash in the al-Quds neighborhood in eastern Riyadh, the Associated Press reported, quoting an unnamed security official.

Al-Roshoud has called for a holy war against the Saudi royal family and Western interests in the Persian Gulf. He is the latest high-ranking member of an al-Qaida-linked group killed in Saudi Arabia's crackdown on homegrown militants after a spate of terrorist attacks on Saudi soil.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Two bombs hidden in crates of fruit exploded at security checkpoints in downtown Jalalabad on Wednesday, killing a man and wounding 26 other people.

The blasts occurred a few minutes apart, shattering the windows of nearby homes and shops in the city, 80 miles east of Kabul.

One man died at a hospital. Five police officers and five children were among the wounded.