Nation and world in brief Nov. 10

The Associated Press |

11/9/2008 - 11/10/08

Attacks across Iraq kill at least 8

BAGHDAD — Bombs killed at least eight people Sunday across Iraq and wounded dozens of others, officials said. Syria's president blamed the U.S. military presence for Iraq's instability and called on U.S. troops to leave.

In the northern city of Mosul, a roadside bomb ripped through an Iraqi army patrol soon after sundown, killing three soldiers and wounding four others, police said.

U.S. and Iraqi troops have been fighting for months to clear al-Qaida in Iraq and about a dozen other Sunni insurgent groups from Mosul, Iraq's third largest city.

To the south, a bomb attached to a bike wrapped in a trash bag exploded outside a cafe in Khalis, 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Baghdad, killing at least two people and wounding 13, including the city mayor, police said.

The cafe is located in a market area that includes a public health clinic and the precise target was unclear. Khalis is a mostly Shiite town surrounded by Sunni communities and was a hotbed of Sunni-Shiite fighting in 2006 and 2007.

Doctors fight cholera in Congo

KIBATI, Congo — Doctors struggled Sunday to contain an outbreak of cholera in a sprawling refugee camp near Congo's eastern provincial capital of Goma, as renewed fighting ignited fears that patients could scatter and launch an epidemic.

Congolese soldiers and rebels were seen less than 800 meters (yards) apart near Goma, where rebel leader Laurent Nkunda declared a cease-fire on Oct. 29 as his forces reached the edge of the city.

Rebels and soldiers clashed Thursday just north of the Kibati refugee camp, seven miles (12 kilometers) from Goma, and soldiers who retreated last week were digging in Sunday at a new front line.

Some 50,000 refugees have crowded around Kibati, some taken into log cabins by villagers, others living in tents or hastily built beehive-shaped huts. Thousands who sleep out in the open huddled under plastic sheeting Sunday as curtains of rain pounded down.

Doctors Without Borders said it treated 13 new cases of cholera in Kibati on Sunday and has seen 45 cases since Friday. The agency's Dr. Rafaela Gentilini said shortages of water and latrines were making the outbreak "really dangerous."

Canadian reporter finally freed

KABUL, Afghanistan — Mellissa Fung says captors kept her blindfolded for four weeks in an underground cave so low the Canadian journalist could barely stand. Chains bound her hands and feet during her last week as a prisoner.

Afghan tribal elders and government officials won her safe release late Saturday, 28 days after she was taken from a refugee camp in Kabul while conducting interviews for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

In a video released Sunday, Fung was seen meeting with Afghanistan's intelligence chief and Canada's ambassador. Fung insisted she was fine, but apologized for the situation, despite the fact the refugee camp where she conducted interviews had been visited by many journalists previously and was considered safe to visit.

"I'm sorry for all the trouble," Fung said.

A Canadian official sitting nearby responded: "We're just glad you're here." Fung replied: "Yeah, so am I."

Community rallies around boy's family

ST. JOHNS, Ariz. — People in this small, tight-knit community are reeling from the killing of a well-liked man police say was shot by his own 8-year-old son, and they will likely turn out in droves for his funeral.

"I don't think this church is big enough to handle it all," said the Very Rev. John Paul Sauter of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church.

Vincent Romero, 29, and Timothy Romans, 39, a co-worker who also rented a room from him, were found dead inside Romero's home — one at the entrance and one in an upstairs room. Police charged Romero's son with two counts of premeditated murder.

"The recent tragedy in our community has been very sad, an incident that makes us ask 'Why?' yet pulls our citizens together with love and support," said Ross Overson, mayor of the town in eastern Arizona. "Without exception, the entire community has been affected by this tragic loss. No community can begin to understand how something like this could happen."