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Four terror suspects die in police raid

By TIMES WIRES
Published April 11, 2007

CASABLANCA, MOROCCO

Acting on a tip, Moroccan police surrounded a building where four terrorism suspects were holed up Tuesday, causing three to flee and blow themselves up with explosives. The fourth was shot dead by a police sharpshooter as he apparently tried to detonate his bomb. A police officer was killed and 10 people, including a young child and a police officer, suffered injuries. Coming just weeks after a bombing at an Internet cafe, the series of explosions revived memories of five near-simultaneous suicide bombings that killed 45 people in the country's biggest city in May 2003 - this North African kingdom's first brush with Islamic terrorism.

STRASBOURG, FRANCE

Woman denied embryo access

A British woman left infertile after being treated for ovarian cancer has no right to frozen embryos against the wishes of her former fiance, who provided the sperm, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday. The court's Grand Chamber, a panel of 17 European judges, confirmed a lower court ruling upholding a British law that stipulates consent from both parents is needed at every stage of the in vitro fertilization process. Tuesday's verdict cannot be appealed, and the frozen embryos will be destroyed.

MONTREAL

Victim testifies in Rwanda trial

A woman testified Tuesday that she was raped four times by a man on trial in Canada for war crimes during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The witness, known as C17 under a court order protecting her identity, is the first person to testify that she was a victim of violence at the hands of Desire Munyaneza, who is accused of leading attacks on members of the Tutsi ethnic minority at the National University of Rwanda and south of the capital, Kigali. Munyaneza is the first person charged under Canada's War Crimes Act.

MOGADISHU, SOMALIA

Death toll soars in new clan count

Recent fighting between Ethiopian-backed government troops and Islamic insurgents in Somalia's capital killed more than 1,000 civilians and wounded 4,300, according to a report by the largest clan in the battle-scarred city. The estimate was a significant escalation in the death toll from four days of bloodshed that started in late March, the country's worst violence in more than 15 years. An earlier estimate by a Somali human rights group said more than 1,000 civilians had been killed or wounded. Mogadishu's dominant clan, the Hawiye, said it gathered the data from the radio, human rights groups and hospitals, but did not elaborate.

Elsewhere

Egypt: Turnout for a referendum on amendments to Egypt's constitution last month was only 5 percent, far lower than the 27 percent reported by the government, and the voting was marred by widespread fraud, Egyptian human rights groups said Tuesday. The government has touted the amendments, which were passed in the March 26 referendum, as a democratic reform.

El Salvador: Waves topping 10 feet battered Pacific beaches from El Salvador to Mexico, carrying people out to sea and prompting authorities in some places to order swimmers out of the water Tuesday. At least two people were killed.

[Last modified April 11, 2007, 02:29:57]