24 Pakistanis hurt in Iraq blast
BAGHDAD - Iraqi officials say a roadside bomb blast outside Baghdad has injured 24 Pakistani pilgrims. Their bus overturned as it headed to a Shiite shrine.
Police say the bomb exploded Sunday evening as the bus was passing by the predominantly Sunni suburb of Saqlawiyah, 45 miles west of Baghdad.
The bus was filled with Pakistanis headed from Syria to the gold-domed shrine to a Shiite imam in the Baghdad neighborhood of Kazimiyah. - AP
2 from Basque group arrested
MADRID - The military chief for the violent Basque separatist group ETA was arrested Sunday in southern France along with another man accused of being his assistant, Spanish authorities said.
Oroitz Gurruchaga Gogorza and Xabier Aramburu were taken into custody in the small rural town of Cauna by French police working with Spanish authorities, Spain's Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Both men were armed with handguns and traveling in a stolen car with falsified license plates when they were arrested, the ministry said.
Gurruchaga, 30, joined ETA in 2008 and rose to become its top military commander, the ministry said. Aramburu, 32, fled to France in 2010 after being accused of carrying out several attacks, the ministry said.
ETA has killed more than 800 people since the 1960s in a bloody campaign aimed at forcing creation of a Basque homeland. But the group declared in October that it was laying down its weapons for good. - AP
Candidates file appeals in Egypt
CAIRO - Three top candidates in Egypt's presidential race filed appeals to the election commission ahead of the deadline Sunday, alleging violations in the first round vote that they say could change the outcome. Preliminary results from last week's election placed Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi and Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, as the two candidates entering a June 16-17 runoff. Thirteen candidates were on the ballot.
Hamdeen Sabahi, a socialist and a champion of the poor, called for a partial vote recount after he placed third by 700,000 votes. Official first-round results are expected Monday or Tuesday. - AP
