29 killed exiting Islamic ceremony

A stampede at the end of a religious gathering on Sunday to mark the birth of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad left at least 29 women and children dead in southern Pakistan.

The stampede occurred as thousands of women were leaving the Sunni Muslim Faizan-e-Medina center in the port city of Karachi after listening to clerics deliver sermons, said Hanees Billu, a spokesman for the center.

Witnesses said the fatal crush happened inside the center when a woman bent down to pick up a young girl who had fallen, causing other people behind her to trip.

Karachi police official Asif Ijaz Sheikh said that police would investigate the stampede, which appeared to have been an accident.

TORONTO

Police say eight bodies share link

Canadian police investigating the deaths of eight men found stuffed inside abandoned vehicles in a wooded field descended on a farmhouse a few miles down the road on Sunday.

Police refused to discuss what was happening beyond the roadblock they had set up around the farmhouse, about three miles from where the bodies were found inside four vehicles deserted in a farmer’s field Saturday morning.

A former member of the Bandidos motorcycle gang said he had talked to current members in the area who recognized the vehicles from the media coverage.

“I can tell you that it’s Bandidos that got killed,” said Edward Winterhalder, who left the gang in 2003.

The eight victims knew each other and were all from the Toronto area, said police, who characterized the deaths as homicides but declined to release further details.

CARACAS, Venezuela

Chavez threatens to expel envoy

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the U.S. ambassador was “provoking the Venezuelan people” and threatened Sunday to expel the American diplomat, whose convoy was chased by pro-government protesters on motorcycles.

Chavez condemned the protesters for pelting U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield’s car with eggs and tomatoes, saying his government “rejects any kind of aggression.”

But he suggested Brownfield, who was returning from a visit to a ballpark in Caracas’ poor Coche neighborhood, a Chavez stronghold, sought a confrontation by failing to advise authorities adequately of his travel plans and venturing into a place where his presence was unwelcome.

“I’m going to throw you out of Venezuela if you continue provoking the Venezuelan people,” Chavez said in a nationally televised speech addressed to Brownfield.

“If the Washington government takes some measure against Venezuela motivated by provocations, you will be responsible, you will have to leave here, sir. I will declare you persona non grata in Venezuela,” Chavez said.

Compiled from wire reports