World

Compiled from wire service reports by Ross Atkin

Taliban guerrillas made a failed attempt to kill Afghan President Hamid Karzai with a rocket attack on Sunday, narrowly missing a building where he was giving a speech, Taliban and government spokesmen said. No one was hurt, and Karzai, who has already survived two assassination attempts in recent years, was whisked away under heavy security after his speech.

Commercial, high-speed train service was introduced on a dedicated TGV line from Paris to Strasbourg, Germany on Sunday, cutting the travel time from four hours to just over two. In April, the TGV broke its own world speed record for conventional rail trains on the tracks when the bullet train reached 357 m.p.h. Trains on the new line travel at speeds up to 199 m.p.h., with several branch lines designed to cut travel time from Paris to other European cities.

Flooding and landslides triggered in China by heavy rains that began June 7 have killed at least 40 people and left 178,000 homeless, according to the state news agency. Although large cities are sheltered by giant dikes, farmlands in low-lying central and southern rural areas have been especially vulnerable. Meanwhile, thousands of Australians were evacuated from their homes along the east coast north of Sydney on Sunday as floodwaters left towns cut off and farms isolated.

Indonesian authorities said Sunday that they think they're "getting closer" to tracking down the country's most-wanted terrorist after arresting Yusron Ahmahmud, a close aide to Abu Dujana. The militant group Jemaah Islamiyah is led by Dujana. The Al Qaeda-linked group is blamed for a string of terrorist attacks that have killed more than 240 people, many of them foreign tourists. Ahamhmud was wounded but in good condition after his hideout was raided.

Nigeria's new President Umaru YarAdua has offered to hold conciliatory talks with one of the main opposition parties that is challenging his victory in court, a spokesman for the party said on Sunday. The Action Congress had refused to accept the election outcome, citing what it said was widespread vote-rigging.

Sri Lanka's government said on Sunday it regretted evicting hundreds of minority ethnic Tamils from the capital this week on security grounds and promised it would not happen again. Police on Thursday swept boarding houses in Colombo and deported 376 Tamils deemed to be without valid reason to stay in the capital to the war-torn north, but returned many of them on Saturday after the Supreme Court issued an order blocking such evictions.

The Iraqi high tribunal said it will issue a verdict June 24 in the trial of Saddam Hussein's cousin known as "Chemical Ali" and other former regime officials. They face a possible death sentence if convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their roles in a 1980s military campaign against the Kurds.

Israel's air force held a joint drill with visiting US pilots on Sunday. Some observers in the region interpreted the exercise as saber rattling as tensions rise over Iran's escalating nuclear activity. An Israeli military spokesman said the drill was "unconnected" to that situation. Iran has condemned a G-8 warning that it could face more sanctions over its controversial nuclear program.

A suicide truck bomber struck an Iraqi police agency in northern Iraq on Sunday, killing at least seven people and wounding 50, police in the village of Albu Ajil said.