■INDIA
Serial bombs kill at least 48
Eleven bomb blasts in quick succession yesterday ripped through the main city of India’s troubled northeastern Assam state and three other towns, killing at least 48 people and wounding 235, police said. No one has claimed responsibility for the bomb blasts. Assam has been a focus of a separatist insurgency for decades, but it has also recently suffered bomb attacks blamed on Islamist militants from Bangladesh. Firefighters doused the smoldering remains of cars and motorcycles at one of the blast sites in Guwahati. One of the blasts targeted a high-security zone with a court as well as offices and the homes of senior police officials. Many of the blasts were in crowded markets in the state. Twenty-five people were killed in four blasts in Guwahati and the remainder in the other three towns in the state.
■ISRAEL
Oldest Hebrew text found
A ceramic shard found in the ruins of the ancient town of Khirbet Qeiyafa south of Jerusalem bears the oldest Hebrew inscription ever discovered, an archeologist said. He says the find could provide an important glimpse into the culture and language of the Holy Land at the time of the Bible. Archeologist Yossi Garfinkel of Hebrew University says the five lines of faded characters written 3,000 years ago suggest a powerful Israelite kingdom existed at the time of the Old Testament’s King David. The shard was found in a site that overlooks the scene of the slingshot showdown between David and Goliath. Other scholars are reluctant to embrace Garfinkel’s interpretation. His understanding of the finds were made public yesterday.
■UKRAINE
Russia accused of info war
Russia is waging an “information war” against Ukraine to try to push it out of lucrative arms markets, the head of Ukraine’s main arms export agency was quoted as saying on Wednesday. In comments posted on the Ukrainian president’s Web site, Serhiy Bondarchuk said Russian allegations that Ukraine had made illegal arms sales, specifically to Georgia, were aimed at trying to secure control over key markets. “Russia has launched an unprecedented, large-scale information war on Ukraine,” Bondarchuk, head of the Ukrspetsexport agency, said in a statement. “Although Russia is formally our strategic partner, it is also trying, through rough and often dirty means, to compete with Ukraine on the key sections of today’s arms market.” He said this was reflected in the recent “wave of hysteria” of allegations that Ukraine had supplied arms illegally to Georgia. Russia fought Georgia in a five-day war in August.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Troops deafened by combat
Hundreds of British soldiers who have served in Afghanistan have had their hearing permanently damaged because of the noise of intense combat, a newspaper reported yesterday. Requests by the Times under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that in one regiment, nearly one in 10 soldiers have hearing defects that could bar them from further frontline service and hamper their chances of a civilian job. The Royal British Legion veterans organization said it had dealt with 1,195 hearing loss claims against the Ministry of Defense in the past three years. The Times reported 37 out of 411 soldiers in the Grenadier Guards have severe hearing problems. Nearly 240 of 691 soldiers in the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglians, back from Afghanistan last October, also suffered difficulties.
■PERU
Mob torches police station
Angry villagers in the northern jungle torched a police station a day after 71 people were hurt in a clash between police and protesters in the south. RPP radio says a 1,000-strong mob set fire to the station and took 25 officers captive in San Martin province. They reportedly were angered when police threw tear gas near a school and several children were affected. Mounting unrest has spread to five provinces as demonstrators press a variety of demands with local authorities or the central government.
■PERU
Faith healers back Obama
US presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama apparently can count on the support of a majority of Peruvian faith healers. Each of the 11 shamans in a faith-healing organization said on Wednesday that they had foreseen victory in the election: nine for Democrat Obama and two for his Republican rival John McCain. Blowing incense over a sacred llama fetus perched on a bed of coca leaves next to posters of the leading candidates, the shamans shook rattles, chanted “up, Obama, up!” and threw flowers at their images. “Obama is growing stronger, I’ve seen that he has the spiritual support of Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy to protect him,” said Juan Osco, president of the Apus-Inka healers association. “He’s going to win.”
■MEXICO
Man admits to killings
A man temporarily extradited from the US has told a court he and two other men killed at least 10 women in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez. Thirty-year-old Jose Granados acknowledged to a judge on Wednesday that they killed the women from about 1993 to 2006. He testified that one was buried in his back yard. Granados said Edgar Alvarez, who was sentenced to 36 years in prison in one of the killings, masterminded the kidnappings and killings. Chihuahua state prosecutor’s spokesman Alejandro Pariente said Granados would be sent back to the US to finish serving a three-year term for immigration violations while his trial continues in Mexico.
■UNITED STATES
Oil well explosion kills two
Authorities say an oil well explosion in southern Illinois killed two people and injured five. Medical helicopters flew four of the injured victims from the scene of the explosion on Wednesday morning west of Crossville. Anita Sullivan of the White County Sheriff’s Department said Mason Well Servicing was working to cement a finished well when the explosion occurred. The fire was under control by the afternoon. Messages left for the company and the county coroner were not immediately returned.
■UNITED STATES
Security system delayed
A major Bush administration post-Sept. 11, 2001, security program is facing another delay. This time an important system collapsed, and no backup was in place to continue operations. Last week, a power surge hit a government building in Maryland that houses the technology to activate special identification cards for workers with access to seaports. The surge knocked out a computer system needed by some 120,000 workers to activate their cards today. The system was created to help ensure potential terrorists lack access to sensitive security areas of US seaports. The deadlilne has been pushed back to Dec. 1, according to the Transportation Security Administration, which oversees the program.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
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