World
Survivors of the supermarket fire in Paraguay that killed at least 296 people Sunday said locked doors hampered their escape from the blaze. Officials are calling the fire in the capital, Asuncion, Paraguay's worst disaster since the 1947 military insurrection left 8,000 dead. Hundreds were able to escape the multilevel market, many with severe burns. Citing a "moment of great anguish," President Nicanor Duarte declared three days of national mourning.
Both Christians and Muslim leaders in Iraq condemned Sunday's church bombing that killed at least 11 people and wounded dozens at five churches in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul. The Pope called the explosions "unjust aggression against those whose only aim is to collaborate for peace...." A spokesman for Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said, "This is a cowardly act and targets all Iraqis." Iraqi officials blamed Al Qaeda-linked Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for the bombings, which were the first attack on the Christian minority living in Iraq.
A videotaped shooting death of a Turkish hostage circulated on Islamist websites Monday in the ongoing kidnapping crises facing foreign contractors in Iraq. The hostage, Murat Yuce, is among several Turks who have been kidnapped or killed in recent weeks. The masked militants on the tape have been linked to Al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Monday a Lebanese hostage was freed after police raided his captors' hideout. Also, militants said they would release a Somali truck driver after his Kuwaiti company said it would leave Iraq. On Sunday, two Turkish trucking companies agreed to cease operations in Iraq after two of their drivers were kidnapped the day before.
In the fiercest fighting in months, US and Afghan forces clashed with Taliban fighters in Afghanistan Monday near the Pakistani border. At least two Afghan soldiers and two suspected Taliban rebels were killed in the battle. Afghan officials say the area of Pakistan near the district of Gurbuz in Afghanistan is used as a sanctuary by Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters, but Pakistan denies that accusation.
Pakistani officials uncovered new plans for a terrorist attack on the US and Britain after searching the computer belonging to a suspected senior member of Al Qaeda. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian wanted for the 1998 twin US embassy bombings in East Africa, was captured after a gunbattle in the city of Gujarat, Pakistani officials said Monday. The new information about attacks was found after agents read e-mail files on Ghailani's computer. Also arrested was a computer engineer, who, according to intelligence officials, sent messages to Al Qaeda operatives. Agents would not confirm whether information from these suspects led to the increased terror alerts in the US.
