The world in brief

Saturday, February 2, 2013

— QUOTE OF THE DAY

“A suicide bombing on the perimeter of an embassy is by definition an act of terror. It is a terrorist attack.”

Jay Carney, White House spokesman, after a suicide bombing at the American Embassy in Ankara, Turkey Article, 1A

Bombing kills 21 at Pakistan market

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - An explosion in a market in northwestern Pakistan on Friday killed at least 21 people and wounded 33 in what police described as a suicide bombing.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack about 70 miles west of Peshawar in Hangu, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Abu Omar, a Taliban commander in the tribal region of North Waziristan, said in a telephone interview that the attack was in revenge for the killing on Thursday of a Sunni cleric.

The cleric, Mufti Abdul Majeed Deenpuri, 60, was shot in the southern port city of Karachi, setting off fears of reprisals against Shiites.

Deenpuri was a senior teacher at Jamia Binoria, one of the largest seminaries in Pakistan. A gunman opened fire on the vehicle carrying the cleric and a colleague at a busy intersection and then escaped.

Shot hopeful: Hold off Armenian vote

YEREVAN, Armenia - The shooting of a presidential candidate threw Armenia’s election into disarray Friday, with the wounded victim saying he will call for a delay of the vote.

Paruir Airikian, 63, was shot and wounded by an unidentified assailant outside his home in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, on Thursday just before midnight. Airikian said from the hospital after surgery Friday that he would initiate proceedings as allowed by the constitution to delay the vote for 15 days because of his condition, but not longer.

He is one of eight candidates in the Feb. 18 race in this landlocked former Soviet republic and wasn’t expected to get more than 1 percent of the vote. But postponing the election could help opponents of President Serge Sarkisian, who was expected to easily win a second five year term.

Sarkisian said after visiting Airikian in the hospital that the perpetrators of the attack “obviously had an intention to influence the normal election process.”

Fireworks explode, fell roadway; 9 die

BEIJING - An elevated part of highway in central China collapsed on Friday after a truck loaded with fireworks for Lunar New Year celebrations exploded, killing at least nine people and sending vehicles plummeting about 100 feet to the ground.

The official Xinhua News Agency said nine people were confirmed dead and another 13 injured, including four in serious condition. It said the collapse smashed and buried at least 25 vehicles.

Earlier reports by China National Radio and some other outlets of 26 people killed were later removed from websites, without explanation.

A 260-foot stretch of the major east-west highway collapsed in Mianchi County in Henan province. It scattered blackened chunks of debris.

Fireworks are an enormously popular part of Chinese Lunar New Year festivities. To meet the demand, fireworks are made, shipped and stored in large quantities, sometimes in unsafe conditions.

Front Section, Pages 5 on 02/02/2013