In brief: Bomb wounds U.N. peacekeepers

Beirut – A roadside bomb blew up next to a United Nations convoy carrying French peacekeepers in south Lebanon on Tuesday, wounding at least five of them in the second attack on the U.N. force in two months, the United Nations said.

The bomb went off at the southern entrance of the port city of Sidon as a U.N. convoy with several vehicles was passing by.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack. But political tensions are rising in Lebanon over a U.N.-backed tribunal’s indictment last month of four Hezbollah members in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Al-Qaida affiliate pledges loyalty

Sanaa, Yemen – The leader of al-Qaida’s Yemeni offshoot on Tuesday pledged his group’s allegiance to Osama bin Laden’s successor, and vowed to continue the fight against corrupt Western-backed leaders.

In a 10-minute audio message posted on extremist websites, Nasser al-Wahishi said his group – al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula – recognizes Egyptian-born doctor Ayman al-Zawahri as the new chief of al-Qaida. Al-Zawahri took over command of al-Qaida following the death of bin Laden in a U.S. raid in Pakistan in May.

Al-Qaida-linked militants have taken advantage of the political turmoil engulfing Yemen to seize control of at least two towns and surrounding territory in the country’s south.