World in brief

Nation preparing for invasion

Venezuela is beefing up its troop strength along the Colombian border, negotiating with Russia to set up arms factories, and preparing for a possible invasion, the army commander said Friday.

The army has increased its force along the Colombian border by about 6,000 men, Gen. Raul Baduel said at a news conference. He said 1,000 troops are now guarding the 1,370-mile border, which is plagued by drug trafficking, smuggling, and guerrilla and paramilitary activities.

Baduel declined to specify what country the army was preparing against for a possible invasion. President Hugo Chavez has repeatedly accused the United States of plotting an attack to unseat his government – charges U.S. officials deny.

TORONTO

Ten arrested in explosives plot

At least 10 suspects were arrested in the Toronto area on terrorism-related charges, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said late Friday.

The Canadian Press quoted an unnamed police source as saying the charges were related to an explosives plot in Ontario, Canada’s largest province. The arrests were made throughout the day and more were expected overnight, with some 400 officers involved, said RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Michele Paradis.

The national police force said it would reveal more details at a news conference today.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan

Suicide bomber kills three civilians

A suicide car bomber apparently targeting a Canadian military convoy detonated a vehicle packed with explosives Friday in southern Afghanistan, killing himself and three civilians, police said.

The attack, 15 miles north of the city of Kandahar, killed the bomber and three nearby civilians, said Zmarai Khan, a district police chief.

Dawood Ahmadi, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar, said a convoy of Canadian military vehicles had passed near the suicide car bomber before the explosion and that those vehicles were the likely target.

ABUJA, Nigeria

Eight kidnapped from oil rig

Eight foreign workers, including one American, were kidnapped from a drilling rig off Nigeria’s oil-rich southern delta Friday in the latest incident highlighting the tenuous security of oil operations in Africa’s largest crude producer.

The kidnappers have offered to negotiate the release of the hostages – six Britons, the American and a Canadian – taken before dawn from the drilling rig Bulford Dolphin, according to the company that operates the rig.

Police spokesman Haz Iwendi said in the capital, Abuja, that no group had claimed responsibility.