The world in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“It is curious that under an emergency rule when security operatives are on red alert, this mayhem still persists.”

David Mark, the Senate president in Nigeria, where Islamic extremists killed dozens of people after soldiers reportedly abandoned their checkpoints Article, this page

Palestinian won’t step out, so he’s slain

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Israeli troops trying to arrest a wanted Palestinian opened fire and killed him Thursday after he refused to emerge from a house they had surrounded, the army and witnesses said.

The raid happened on the same day rights group Amnesty International said in a report that Israeli soldiers have used unnecessary lethal force against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and that it has found evidence of willful killings that could amount to war crimes.

The Israeli military rejected the allegations by the London-based group, saying troops operate to contain Palestinian-initiated violence and are told to use live fire only as a last resort.

The raid in the West Bank town of Bir Zeit began about 6 a.m. when troops called on two brothers and one of their cousins to give themselves up, witnesses said. Two complied, but the third man, 24-year-old Moataz Washaha, remained in the building.

Troops demolished part of the outer wall of the house with a bulldozer and fired projectiles into the building, the witnesses said. Several hours after the start of the standoff, Washaha’s body was removed from the building.

Pakistan party ends NATO-cargo shut-off

A major Pakistani political party announced Thursday that it was ending its blockade of NATO supply routes through the northern part of the country, capping a three month protest over U.S. drone strikes on Pakistani soil.

In a statement, the Movement for Justice Party said it was halting the demonstration in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province out of respect for the country’s judiciary. On Tuesday, the Peshawar High Court ruled that the protest, which forced the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan to use safer transport routes, was unconstitutional.

The Movement for Justice Party, led by former cricket star Imran Khan, began the protest Nov. 24 after the United States conducted several drone strikes in northwest Pakistan.

Last year, Pakistan’s government signed an agreement with the United States allowing coalition forces to use Pakistani highways through 2015.

But Khan used his authority as the chief political figure in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to rally local opposition to U.S. drone policy. Movement for Justice Party workers established 24-hour checkpoints on highways that cross the province and searched for trucks carrying NATO supplies.

In early December, U.S. and coalition officials suspended use of those routes because they feared for the safety of drivers, and diverted supplies through southern Pakistan or through a route using Uzbekistan territory.

Car bomb kills 11 at Mogadishu tea shop

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A car-bomb blast Thursday in a normally quiet Mogadishu neighborhood blew the facade off a tea shop where intelligence officers are known to congregate, killing at least 11 people, police said.

A ball of smoke rose into the sky as survivors ducked for cover. One man broke his arm when, startled by the blast, he jumped out of a moving car near the attack.

Police Capt. Mohammed Hussein said he saw 11 bodies.

The tea shop is frequented by members of Somalia’s intelligence unit, but it wasn’t immediately known how many of the victims were government employees.

The al-Qaida-linked group al-Shabab has increased the frequency of attacks in Somalia’s capital in recent weeks, raising the specter of a return to daily violence. Last week an al-Shabab team attacked the presidential palace with two car bombs and seven gunmen.

31 die in market, bus blasts in Baghdad

BAGHDAD - A bomb hidden on a motorcycle exploded at a secondhand market in Iraq’s capital, the deadliest of a series of bombings Thursday around Baghdad that killed at least 31 people, authorities said.

The market blast struck Baghdad’s Sadr City district as night fell, killing at least 22 people and wounding 45, officials said.

Meanwhile, two other bombs struck in the capital, targeting minibuses ferrying home laborers at the end of the workday. In Sadr City, officials said a bomb attached to a minibus exploded, killing five civilians and wounding 14. Another bomb stuck on a minibus killed four and wounded 11 in the northern Shaab neighborhood, authorities said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 02/28/2014

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