Car bombs kill 10; 2 U.S. soldiers die
Car bombs killed 10 people in Baghdad on Thursday as violence persisted in the capital despite the U.S.-led security crackdown. Two more American soldiers were killed in combat, the U.S. command said.
Seven people were killed and 15 were wounded when a car bomb exploded at midday near an outdoor market in Sadr City, Baghdad’s biggest Shiite district, the Iraqi army general command said.
Another car bomb missed an Iraqi police patrol in the Mansour district of western Baghdad but killed three bystanders.
The Baghdad bombings occurred in areas of the city not yet targeted in a new U.S.-led security crackdown, which began this month with the arrival of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi reinforcements.
Moscow
Ex-oil exec found guilty of murders
The former security chief of Yukos Oil Co. was convicted Thursday of two murders and attempted murder, including the death of the mayor of the Siberian town where the now bankrupt company’s main production unit had its headquarters.
Although Alexei Pichugin was already serving time for other killings, the latest conviction could add to the pressure on imprisoned former Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who once was Russia’s wealthiest man.
Khodorkovsky turned into a leading voice for democratic reforms before his 2003 arrest on charges of tax evasion and fraud. His supporters say those charges also were politically motivated.
Some observers say they believe Khodorkovsky, now serving an eight-year sentence, could still play a significant role in the country’s politics. But if authorities link him to the murders for which Pichugin has been convicted, that would sharply reduce his influence and could lead to a much longer prison term.
Banos, Ecuador
Eruption destroys nearby villages
A volcanic eruption in Ecuador’s Andes Mountains showered incandescent rock and lava on nearby villages, smothering houses and burning residents as thousands tried to flee to safety. At least one person was killed and 60 were missing.
The Tungurahua volcano exploded overnight on Wednesday. Molten rock flowed down the slopes for hours before the explosions ended, but the volcano was still unleashing a blast of gas and ash Thursday that reached as high as 5 miles into the sky.
At least a dozen villages on the volcano’s western slopes were seriously damaged or destroyed – televised images showed just the tops of electricity poles jutting out from the smoldering pyroclastic flow that smothered 107 homes in the village of Juibe Grande, on the volcano’s northwest slope. Authorities said that village’s 600 residents escaped in time.
They were less sure about the many holdouts who refused to answer evacuation orders Wednesday in three hamlets high on the slopes of the 16,575-foot volcano.