In brief: Protesters’ deaths in Syria reported

BEIRUT, Lebanon – Syrian security forces and pro-government gunmen killed four protesters Sunday in the port city of Banias after the army sealed off the city as hundreds of protesters gathered, undaunted by the regime’s use of deadly force to quell more than three weeks of unrest, witnesses said. State TV reported that nine soldiers were killed in an ambush near the city.

Details were sketchy because telephone lines, Internet access and electricity apparently were cut to most parts of the city. Army tanks and soldiers circled the city, preventing people from entering.

But one witness, reached by telephone, said hundreds of protesters had gathered near the al-Rahman mosque when security forces and armed men in civilian clothes opened fire on them. The names of the dead were read out on mosque loudspeakers.

He said dozens of people were wounded, but most of them asked to be treated at a small clinic instead of at the main hospital, which was under the control of the feared security forces.

Several other human rights activists, also citing witnesses, reported shooting in Banias on Sunday.

Bomb kills elders going to meeting

KABUL, Afghanistan – A roadside bomb killed three tribal elders in western Afghanistan on Sunday, possibly in retaliation for their cooperation with the government.

The men were driving to a meeting with villagers and other tribal elders to discuss what sort of projects the Afghan government and international donors should fund when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb, killing all of them, officials said.

One of the dead, Sayid Ahmad, was the head of the group of tribal elders who organized the meeting, said Abdul Basir Kherkywi, the head of Farah Province’s local council.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Taliban and other insurgent groups regularly target Afghans working with the government or international forces.

Also Sunday, a NATO service member was killed in an attack in the north of the country, the international military coalition said. It did not provide further details or the nationality of the dead.

Leftist ex-officer, Fujimori in runoff

LIMA, Peru – An anti-establishment military man who promises to redistribute Peru’s wealth won the most votes in Sunday’s presidential election and will face the daughter of imprisoned former President Alberto Fujimori in a runoff, unofficial results showed.

Keiko Fujimori, 35, could end up beating Ollanta Humala in the June 5 runoff as he was the only candidate who advocated altering Peru’s free-market-oriented status quo by giving the state a greater role in the economy.

Unofficial results representing 100 percent of the vote released by the nonprofit electoral watchdog Transparencia gave Humala 31.7 percent in Sunday’s election – well short of the simple majority needed to win outright.

Keiko Fujimori got 23.3 percent.