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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In brief: Bomb kills eight; drone kills four

From Wire Reports

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – A bomb blast killed eight people Sunday in northwestern Pakistan as a U.S. drone strike nearby killed four suspected militants, officials said.

The bombing struck a refugee camp on the outskirts of the city of Hangu, police officer Anwar Saeed Kundi said.

He said the bomb was rigged to a motorcycle and killed eight people, including three children. It wounded 17 people, he said.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blast.

Meanwhile, the U.S. drone strike killed four suspected militants in South Waziristan tribal region of Pakistan along the Afghan border, intelligence officials and Taliban fighters said.

Those killed included two Arab militants and two of their local allies in a compound in the town of Wana, they said.

Air France pilots end two-week strike

PARIS – Despite no deal in sight, Air France’s main pilots union on Sunday unilaterally ended a 14-day strike that grounded roughly half of the airline’s flights, stranded passengers worldwide, cost tens of millions of dollars and led France’s prime minister to decry a “selfish” walkout.

After a late-night, 15-hour negotiating session with management, leaders of the SNPL pilot union walked away with no accord, but with the realization that the strike “is not an end in itself,” union spokesman Antoine Amar said. In a later statement, the union said it was ending the strike “in the interests of the company and passengers.”

The walkout, which began Sept. 15, was the longest in more than four decades initiated by pilots at Air France, a union official said.

Conservatives take French Senate

PARIS – Conservatives won French Senate elections Sunday to take control of parliament’s upper house, handing President Francois Hollande’s Socialists a new setback.

The far-right National Front party also gained its first two Senate seats in the balloting.

The Senate press office said a final count will await tallies from all of France’s overseas holdings – not likely until today, but it was already clear that the conservatives were back in control of the 348-seat chamber.

Socialists still control the National Assembly, which has final say in drafting laws.

The showing confirms pockets of strong popularity for the National Front and a political turnaround for France’s recently embattled mainstream right.

Suicide bomber attacks Shiite rebels

SANAA, Yemen – A suicide car bomber rammed into a field hospital run by Shiite rebels in Yemen on Sunday, killing one person and wounding others, a security official said.

The field hospital some 100 miles northeast of the capital was used by Shiite rebels, known as the Hawthis, to treat their wounded from battles in recent months against rival Sunni Islamists. The Hawthis swept through the capital earlier this month after consolidating their grip over northern provinces.

The attack came as hundreds demonstrated in Sanaa, urging state security forces to return to the streets and demanding the Hawthis’ exit.