World

Muslim terrorists struck with ferocity in both Iraq and Saudi Arabia, exploding car bombs that killed at least 82 people, wounded hundreds of others, and caused massive property damage:

• The casualties were greatest in normally calm Basra, Iraq's third-largest city, where almost simultaneous blasts went off outside three police stations. The bombers and 68 other people, 17 of them children passing in a school bus, died. The violence was the city's worst since major combat ended there last year.

• Another bomb exploded at a police academy in mostly Sunni Zubair, near Basra, killing at least three people.

• Early reports put the number of deaths from an explosion in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, at 10, but that was expected to rise because many of the more than 60 other people wounded were in critical condition. The blast went off in front of police headquarters, leaving it in ruins. A purported message from Al Qaeda, seen on the Internet last month, warned that targeting Saudi security officials "is a very easy matter."

Two days after pledging that his nation's 300 troops would remain in Iraq, the president of the Dominican Republic reversed course and announced they would be brought home "in the next couple weeks." Spain and Honduras also have announced withdrawals.

For security's sake, the identities of seven judges and four prosecutors who will try former dictator Saddam Hussein are to be kept secret as long as possible, the director-general of the tribunal said Tuesday. Salem Chalabi said other judges will be appointed later. No date was set for the start of the trial.

Tribesmen hunting foreign terrorists and their supporters in remote northwestern Pakistan were granted a 10-day extension by government officials. Reports said they were negotiating with a representative of some fugitives who wanted until week's end to consult on whether to surrender. Hundreds of fugitives are believed to have escaped last month during fighting with government troops in South Waziristan Province, bordering Afghanistan.

Saying, "I'm proud and happy," ex-Israeli scientist Mordechai Vanunu left prison after serving 18 years on a treason conviction for leaking state secrets that revealed his country as a nuclear power. He was expected to move into a luxury apartment in Tel Aviv, although residents said he wasn't welcome and there were concerns for his safety.