Authorities in India sealed off the center of their normally frenetic capital Thursday with 15,000 police to protect the Olympic torch relay from anti-China protesters who held their pro-Tibet demonstrations elsewhere in the country. By the time the torchbearers had traversed the shortened New Delhi route of the round-the-world relay, protesters had come nowhere near the Olympic flame, and only a few hundred selected guests had managed to see it at all.
Palestinian militants attacked a crossing on the border with the Gaza Strip on Thursday, setting off a clash with Israeli troops that thwarted the third such assault this week, the army said. The army said troops killed one militant and wounded a second at Kerem Shalom, a crossing used to deliver humanitarian supplies into Gaza. A third militant escaped. Gaza’s ruling Hamas militant group is furious over Israel’s economic blockade of the area and has threatened to violently break through the border to lift what it derides as the Israeli “siege.” Militants consider the crossings humiliating symbols of Israel’s economic blockade of Gaza.
A suicide attack in front of a mosque in southwestern Afghanistan killed 16 people and wounded more than 30 others on Thursday, a provincial governor said. The attack took place as men were getting ready for the evening prayer at the central mosque in Zaranj, the capital of Nimroz province, Gov. Ghulam Dastagir Azad said. Azad said there may have been more than one bomber. “I’m not sure if it was single attack or a double attack,” he said, noting that a district police chief and border reserve police commander were among the dead.
A suicide attack in front of a mosque in southwestern Afghanistan killed 16 people and wounded more than 30 others on Thursday, a provincial governor said. The attack took place as men were getting ready for the evening prayer at the central mosque in Zaranj, the capital of Nimroz province, Gov. Ghulam Dastagir Azad said. Azad said there may have been more than one bomber. “I’m not sure if it was single attack or a double attack,” he said, noting that a district police chief and border reserve police commander were among the dead.
Pope Benedict XVI praised America as a land of opportunity and hope Thursday as he celebrated the first public Mass of his U.S. pilgrimage, but he lamented that the nation’s promise fell short for blacks and Indians. Hope for the future, he said, “is very much a part of the American character.” Tens of thousands of worshippers filled Nationals Park on a clear spring day and cheered Benedict as he arrived in a white popemobile, standing in the back and waving. The crowd grew to 46,000, and the demand for tickets doubled the supply, organizers said.
A court hearing to decide the fates of hundreds of children seized from a Texas polygamist retreat came to a halt almost as soon as it began Thursday as hundreds of lawyers demanded to study the first piece of evidence before it could be introduced. State District Judge Barbara Walther called a recess 40 minutes after the hearing began in what could be the nation’s largest child custody case. She wanted to allow the 350 lawyers spread out in two buildings to read the evidence and decide whether to object en masse or make individual objections.
A Pentagon investigation scheduled for release this week will be highly critical of Air Force leadership, including its top officer, in connection with efforts to steer a $50 million contract to promote the Thunderbirds aerial stunt team, The Associated Press has learned. A report compiled by the Defense Department’s Inspector General finds that the 2005 contract for Thunderbirds’ publicity wasn’t awarded through a fair and open competition.
