World news
Inquiry continues in resort bombing
Taba, Egypt Investigators lifted fingerprints, swabbed dust and collected tissue from the wreckage of three car bombings Saturday and detained dozens of Bedouin tribesmen, including quarry workers who could have provided the explosives that killed at least 34 people.
Israel blamed al Qaeda for the Thursday night attacks in two Sinai resorts, and Egyptian investigators were leaning toward an al Qaeda connection as well.
Egyptian investigators said they suspected eight to 10 terrorists targeting Israeli tourists carried out the attacks, possibly slipping in from Saudi Arabia or Jordan on speedboats. They also said there was a chance a local sleeper cell of Egyptians might have been activated to stage the attacks, Egypt’s first terrorist strike in seven years.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the investigators said such a group would almost certainly be linked to Ayman al-Zawahri, who led the extremist Egyptian Islamic Jihad before merging the group with al Qaeda in 1998. The Egypt-born Zawahri is Osama bin Laden’s top deputy.
Sunni clerics killed in attack on vehicle
Karachi, Pakistan Unidentified gunmen killed two prominent Sunni Muslim clerics in an attack on their vehicle in this southern Pakistan city Saturday, police said.
The killings of Mufti Jamil and Nazir Ahmed Taunsvi come amid fears of escalating sectarian violence in Pakistan following two bombings against religious targets this month that killed more than 70 people.
Both Jamil and Taunsvi were close associates of another Sunni cleric, Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, whose shooting death in Karachi in May sparked riots by followers in the city.
There was no immediate word on who was behind Saturday’s assault, but suspicion would likely fall on minority Shiite militants.
Chinese engineers abducted in Pakistan
Islamabad, Pakistan Two Chinese engineers helping Pakistan build a dam in a tense tribal region were kidnapped early Saturday along with at least one Pakistani security guard and their driver, officials said.
The engineers were on their way to Tank, in the remote South Waziristan region where al Qaeda-linked militants are active, when five gunmen ambushed their two vehicles, police and intelligence sources said.
Pakistan’s Interior Ministry said law enforcement agencies were chasing the kidnappers and had sealed the area.
“Our security forces are trying to rescue them without getting them harmed,” Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told the Associated Press.
South Waziristan, bordering Afghanistan, has been wracked by violence this year as the army has conducted a series of operations against suspected foreign militants and local supporters, killing scores of them.
Americans advised to avoid travel to Haiti
Washington Security in Haiti remains unpredictable and dangerous, and Americans should not travel to the Caribbean nation except for emergencies, the State Department said Friday.
“Travel in Haiti still involves serious risks,” the State Department said, warning of random violent crimes such as kidnapping, carjacking and assault.
It said the dangers were significant because of “the absence of an effective police force … the potential for looting (and) the presence of intermittent roadblocks set up by armed gangs or by the police.”
Even within the capital, Port-au-Prince, travel can be so hazardous that some areas are off-limits to staff of the U.S. Embassy, which has imposed a 1 a.m.-5 a.m. curfew for its staff, the warning said.