World

Al Qaeda posted photos of a kidnaped Egyptian diplomat's identity cards on an Internet site and threatened his execution. An accompanying audio tape called the envoy, Ihab al-Sherif, "the ambassador of the tyrants." It also said Iraq's newly trained security forces are as great an enemy as American troops and thus are as legitimate a target for terrorist attacks. The posting came as Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and the US Embassy in Baghdad urged foreign diplomats in Iraq not to leave, despite the kidnaping of Sherif and attacks from ambush on envoys from Bahrain and Pakistan. Pakistan said it was relocating its ambassador to Jordan, at least temporarily.

Security police reconsidered an order halting a planned protest outside the Group of Eight summit site in Scotland and said it could go ahead after all. The original decision came after anticapitalists and other demonstrators went on a rampage in and around the town of Gleneagles, smashing the windows of cars and businesses, throwing rocks at police, and attempting to block a road approaching the summit venue. Organizers threatened to take their protest to nearby Edinburgh if the order had not been reversed. The G-8 conference is due to end Friday.

A nationwide alert was ordered in India to try to prevent further violence as furious Hindus reacted to the terrorist attack Tuesday on a holy site in the city of Ayodhya. Police in New Delhi fired tear gas and water cannon to subdue protesters; other incidents were reported in the cities of Indore and Ranchi. The raiders were killed by security forces before they reached their apparent target, a Hindu temple. The government's home minister said "it would have led to a nationwide catastrophe" if the attack had succeeded. There was no claim of responsibility, but Hindus blamed Islamic militants they said were supported by rival Pakistan and demanded that peace efforts between the two nations be halted.

London's Trafalgar Square erupted in cheers as thousands of people watched special big-screen TV coverage of the International Olympic Committee's announcement that their city would be the host of the 2012 Summer Games. The selection was widely viewed as a surprise, and the margin of victory over Paris in the fourth and final round of balloting was four votes. Paris had been considered the favorite. New York, Madrid, and Moscow were eliminated in earlier rounds.