A roundup of today's other world news in brief:
27 killed by earthquake in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD- At least 27 people were killed and about 40 injured when a strong earthquake struck southwest Pakistan yesterday, a district chief and hospitals said.
"Two areas are badly hit," said Dilawar Khan, chief of the Ziarat district in Baluchistan province. Some houses had collapsed and 11 people were killed in one area and 14 in another he said. Another official said two people were killed in Pishin district.
- (Reuters)
Widespread unrest in Peru
LIMA- Thousands of people demonstrated in five provinces in Peru yesterday, threatening politicians and burning a police station, in a crucial first test of President Alan Garcia's new cabinet.
- (Reuters)
Five killed by Baghdad bomb
BAGHDAD- A roadside bomb killed five people and wounded 17 others when it exploded outside an ice cream shop in central Baghdad's Palestine Street yesterday, police said.
Three policemen were among the wounded, although police said they thought civilians were the main target.
- (Reuters)
Crisis boosts Sarkozy's ratings
PARIS- The response by French president Nicolas Sarkozy to the global financial crisis has boosted his popularity at home, according to a new opinion poll.
The number of people expressing confidence in Mr Sarkozy's ability to solve problems facing the country rose to 39 per cent from 36 per cent a month earlier, according to a poll by TNS Sofres for Figaromagazine.
- (Reuters)
Train bombing trial opens
DUSSELDORF- German prosecutors have demanded a life sentence for one of two Lebanese men accused of trying to set off bombs on German trains two years ago.
The planned attacks in western Germany could have caused up to 75 casualties, the state prosecutors told a court in Düsseldorf yesterday.
- (Reuters)
Colombian army purged of officers
BOGOTA- Colombia has purged the army of 25 officers after a probe implicated the armed forces in the disappearance of a group of young men whose bodies later turned up in mass graves hundreds of miles away from their homes.
President Alvaro Uribe and his top commanders announced the dismissals after rights groups reported Colombia's US-backed security forces were involved in killing civilians to present them as rebels who died in combat to inflate army successes.
- (Reuters)
Jesuits found dead in Moscow
MOSCOW- Two Roman Catholic priests, one Russian and one from Ecuador, have been found dead in a Moscow apartment amid signs of an attack, investigators said yesterday.
The bodies of the two Jesuits were found by police late on Tuesday in the apartment owned by their order in Petrovka Street.
- (Reuters)