Nation and world in brief Sept. 11

| New Mexican wire services

9/10/2008 -

Canada PM vows to pull troops from Afghanistan

TORONTO — Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised for the first time Wednesday that Canada's troops in Afghanistan will be withdrawn in 2011, as his minority government looks to win support in national elections next month.

Harper, who has been a steadfast ally of President Bush in the post-Sept. 11 fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan, said Canadians do not have the appetite to keep their soldiers in Afghanistan beyond 10 years.

Harper's pledge goes beyond an agreement Parliament passed in March stipulating only that Canada remove troops in 2011 from Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar, the former Taliban stronghold that has become the epicenter of fighting. The parliamentary agreement left the door open to moving them elsewhere in the country.

The prime minister's vow to leave Afghanistan comes as the Canadian death toll in the conflict approaches 100. Canada has lost 97 soldiers and one diplomat in Afghanistan, and the mission — largely unpopular domestically — was expected to be an issue in the campaign.

Russian bombers land in Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela — Two Russian strategic bombers landed in Venezuela on Wednesday as part of military maneuvers, President Hugo Chávez said, welcoming the unprecedented deployment at a time of increasing tensions between Moscow and the U.S.

The Venezuelan leader said the two Russian Tu-160 bombers will conduct maneuvers and that he hopes to "fly one of those things" himself.

Russian military analysts said it was the first time Russian strategic bombers have landed in the Western Hemisphere since the Cold War. The provocative foray into Venezuela was certain to add to the strain in U.S.-Russian relations created over Russia's war in Georgia.

Chávez called the deployment part of a move toward a "pluri-polar world" — a reference to moving away from U.S. dominance. "The Yankee hegemony is finished," Chávez said in a televised speech.

Strong quakes rattle Iran, northern Japan

A strong earthquake rocked southern Iran on Wednesday, sending tremors across the Persian Gulf and shaking the skyscrapers of Dubai. Iranian state television reported that seven people were killed and 40 others were injured.

The country's seismological center said the magnitude 6.0 quake struck at 3:30 p.m., with the epicenter about 850 miles south of the capital Tehran in the province of Hormozgan.

The region's main city, Bandar Abbas, is one of Iran's key ports and home to a large oil refinery that primarily serves the domestic market. People in the port city, reached by telephone, said panicked residents ran into parks when the tremors started.

In Japan, a tsunami warning was issued after Japan's Meteorological Agency says a magnitude 7 earthquake hit this morning off the eastern coast of Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island.

Authorities say there are no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

Episcopal bishops oppose California gay-marriage ban

California's six most senior Episcopal bishops Wednesday unanimously declared their opposition to a constitutional amendment on the statewide November ballot that would ban same-sex marriage.

The bishops argued that preserving the right of gays and lesbians to marry would enhance the "Christian values" of monogamy, love and commitment.

"We believe that continued access to civil marriage for all, regardless of sexual orientation, is consistent with the best principles of our constitutional rights," said the Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.

Bruno, flanked at a news conference by fellow clergy members and gay and straight couples, added: "We do not believe that marriage of heterosexuals is threatened by same-sex marriage."

Police: Bomb kills Lebanese politician

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A bomb tore through a car in the hills east of Lebanon's capital on Wednesday, killing a Druse politician who recently helped reconcile rival factions within that minority community, police said.

The bomb that killed Sheik Saleh Aridi, a senior member of the Lebanese Democratic Party, was planted under his car in the village of Baissour, police said.

It was the first political assassination in about a year in Lebanon and came less than a week before planned reconciliation talks among rival Lebanese factions. Prime Minister Fuad Saniora contacted Druse leaders and joined them in calling for calm.

Party clown pleads guilty to molesting children

David Albert Lemus, who performed as Trim-Trim the Clown at birthday parties and swap meets in the Fontana area of suburban Los Angeles, has pleaded guilty to molesting children and faces 12 years in prison.

Authorities say Lemus often committed the sexual assaults while dressed as the clown in heavy makeup, a red wig, floppy shoes and a big red nose.

He was arrested in 2005 after two girls, ages 12 and 14, said he had molested them.

Sgt. Jeffrey Decker, a spokesman for the Fontana Police Department, said the victims were known to Lemus, but he declined to provide further details.

"We have never received information from other victims to indicate that he had picked them up from his occupation as a clown," Decker said. "It wasn't like he was using his clown suit to attract victims."

There were at least three victims, all girls, authorities said. The last attack happened in a van outside a swap meet in San Bernardino, Calif. Lemus was wearing his costume.

Teen arrested for four slayings in burned home

LANCASTER, Calif. — A teenager was arrested for investigation of four counts of murder Wednesday in the killings of a woman and three girls whose bodies were found in a burning house, authorities said.

Bail for Corey King was set at $1 million, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Aura Sierra said.

Authorities had called King, 18, of Altadena, an associate or friend of the victims when he was brought in for questioning Tuesday. A telephone listing for King could not be immediately located.

Los Angeles County firefighters on Tuesday found the victims in different rooms of the burning house in Lancaster, a Mojave Desert city of about 145,000 residents about a 70-mile drive north of Los Angeles.