World
A huge car bomb exploded at the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, killing at least eight people and injured 52 others. Jordan backed the US-led coalition that toppled Saddam Hussein, but last week granted asylum to two daughters of the former Iraqi dictator. Elsewhere in the city, US forces fired into nearby buildings after their Humvee was destroyed, possibly by a rocket-propelled grenade. Witnesses said an Iraqi bystander was killed and two American soldiers were wounded in the firefight. Two US soldiers died in a separate clash overnight.
An Indonesian court convicted the first suspect tried in the Bali bombings that killed 202 people in October, sentencing Amrozi bin Nurhasyim to death. His lawyers said they will appeal. A local TV station, meanwhile, reported the arrest of two suspects in Tuesday's blast at the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, and police said they would use DNA tests to try to identify remains of the suspected driver in the car-bomb attack.
Protesters angry at the Brazilian government's proposed pension reforms smashed windows at the national Congress in Brasilia Wednesday, after the lower house gave initial approval to the bill. An estimated 25,000 people took part in what were largely orderly demonstrations. The benefit cuts to public-sector workers would save $18 billion over 20 years, but they've put populist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former union leader, at odds with his traditional supporters.
A raid by suspected Taliban fighters killed six Afghan soldiers and a driver for the US aid group Mercy Corps. The attack in the Deshu district of Afghanistan's southern Helmand province was the latest in a series targeting the US-backed government and aid workers.
The head of a dissident Irish Republican Army faction was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Special Criminal Court in Dublin, Ireland. The three-judge panel convicted Michael McKevitt of directing terrorism. His group, the Real IRA, is one of two blamed for the 1998 bombing in Omagh, Northern Ireland, which killed 29 people and injured more than 200 others.
A team of Italian scientists announced the first successful cloning of a horse Wednesday. The foal, Prometea, was born May 28 and is the genetic twin of her mother, said the Laboratory of Reproductive Technology in Cremona, Italy.
