World in brief

Sudanese violate cease-fire

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Sudanese government troops launched a new assault in the strife-torn Darfur region that sparked fighting with rebels on the eve of renewed peace talks to end the crisis this week, the African Union said Friday, condemning the military for the attack.

Alpha Oumar Konare, chairman of the African Union, condemned the "serious and unacceptable" violation of the cease-fire agreement between the government and the rebels, particularly because it came a day before peace talks began in Abuja, Nigeria.

The peace talks, sponsored by the African Union, aim to find a political solution to the conflict that has claimed about 70,000 lives.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - U.S. officials have agreed to investigate the death of an 81-year-old Haitian pastor who died last month in the custody of immigration authorities, Rep. Kendrick B. Meek, D-Fla., said Thursday.

The Rev. Joseph Dantica fled to the United States in October, seeking asylum after gangs ransacked his Port-au-Prince church and threatened to kill him.

He died five days later while in U.S. custody.

Relatives accused authorities of taking away his medication. The Department of Homeland Security said at the time that his death was unrelated to his detention.

MILAN, Italy - A Milan court acquitted Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi of corruption charges Friday, a major victory in the billionaire business baron's decadelong battle with legal woes he has blamed on left-wing prosecutors.

He was acquitted of the first charge, that he had bribed judges in connection with the sale of a state food conglomerate. Prosecutors said Berlusconi had wanted to stop the company from being sold to a rival top industrialist in Italy.

The statute of limitations had run out on the second charge. Berlusconi was accused of keeping a different judge on his payroll in case of criminal charges against his business empire.

QUETTA, Pakistan - Assailants set off a powerful time bomb next to an army truck parked in a teeming outdoor market in southwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing at least 11 people, mostly civilians, and injuring more than two dozen others, police and hospital officials said.

The bomb, which was hidden on a bicycle, struck the market in Quetta, the main city in Baluchistan province, said police chief Rehmat Ullah.

A little-known group, the Baluchistan National Army, claimed responsibility hours after the blast but said it never wanted to kill civilians.

"Our target was the army truck and the soldiers," said the group's spokesman, Mir Azad Baluch, to a journalist.

Baluch's group is opposed to plans to set up new Pakistan Army garrisons in the province and has been trying to pressure authorities to get more returns from gas extracted from their region.

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