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China detains commander in killings

By wire services
Published December 12, 2005

DONGZHOU, China - The commander of troops that shot and killed people protesting land seizures in a southern village has been detained, the Chinese government said Sunday, after what could be the deadliest known use of force since the killings around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

The government said three people died Tuesday; witnesses put the death toll as high as 20.

The commander's "wrong actions" were to blame for the deaths, said a statement issued by the government of Guangdong province, where Dongzhou is located. It did not identify the commander or specify his actions.

The detention of such an official is almost unprecedented for the communist government and suggested Chinese leaders were trying to mollify angry villagers.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber set off explosives near a U.S. and Afghan military convoy in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar on Sunday, killing himself and wounding three civilians, police said.

The attacker approached a U.S. vehicle as the convoy passed through a crowded part of the city and detonated his bomb, said Kandahar province Deputy Police Chief Haji Abdul Hakim.

One of the wounded was in serious condition, he said.

Hakim said the attacker did not appear to be Afghan, a possible suggestion of involvement by an international terrorist group.

A tape that surfaced Sunday in Egypt, purportedly issued by al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri, credits Taliban leader Mullah Omar with leading a three-year campaign "against the Crusaders and apostates in Afghanistan."

The tape, believed to have been made in September, could not be immediately authenticated.

JERUSALEM - Israel's defense minister Shaul Mofaz, a prominent Likud leader, quit the party Sunday to join Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new centrist faction Kadima, saying his former party had been hijacked by right-wing extremists.

The defection further marginalized the increasingly hard-line Likud Party.

Weekend polls showed Mofaz badly trailing former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom in the race to become Likud's candidate for prime minister, but he said the party's direction, not the polls, influenced his decision.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran opened the door Sunday for U.S. help in building a nuclear power plant, a move designed to ease American suspicions that Tehran is using its nuclear program as a cover to build atomic weapons.

In Washington, neither the State Department nor the White House issued a comment.

On Sunday, Israel denied a British newspaper report it has plans to attack Iran in March, but officials would not rule out a military strike if Iran makes advances in building nuclear weapons.

LAHORE, Pakistan - A firecracker thrown by a celebrant at a wedding set fire to a bus filled with guests on Sunday, killing at least 40 people in eastern Pakistan, police said.

The firecracker exploded under the vehicle's fuel tank, setting it and the fireworks inside on fire in central Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, said Amir Zulfikar, a senior police officer.

"It took seconds until the bus was engulfed by flames and people hardly had any chance to rescue anyone," he said.

Forty bodies were pulled from the burned bus and 12 people were injured, Zulfikar said.

"Everyone was crying for help," said Naseem Khan, who jumped out of a broken window in the bus. He was treated for burns and cuts.

[Last modified December 12, 2005, 01:11:08]