Nation/world roundup
Bush rebukes Muslim violence, chides press
WASHINGTON -- President Bush condemned the deadly rioting sparked by cartoons of the prophet Muhammad on Wednesday, and his secretary of state accused Iran and Syria of trying "to inflame sentiments" across the Muslim world.
Bush urged foreign leaders to halt the spreading of violence and to protect diplomats in besieged embassies.
Cargo ship blocks Suez Canal
CAIRO, Egypt -- A 93,000-ton cargo ship drifted at the wrong angle inside the Suez Canal during a sandstorm Wednesday and blocked all transit on the waterway between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, a canal authority official said.
The Hong Kong-flagged Okal King Dor was traveling north during the sandstorm when it veered at right angles to the canal about six miles south of the city of Ismailiya, the official said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
The cause of the accident was not immediately known, but the official said high winds were a factor.
Dark SUV sought in Ala. church fires probe
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Federal agents said Wednesday they were looking for a dark sport utility vehicle in the investigation of nine rural Alabama church fires.
Two members of Old Union Baptist Church in Bibb County said they saw just such a vehicle driving slowly by the church at Brierfield when they arrived moments after the fire was set around 4:05 a.m. Friday.
International observers abandon Hebron
HEBRON, West Bank -- Dozens of international observers abandoned this volatile West Bank city on Wednesday after irate crowds smashed windows and threw stones at their headquarters -- the most violent Palestinian protest yet aimed against Danish newspaper cartoons depicting Islam's revered prophet.
The unrest came as the violent Islamic Jihad declared it would forge ahead with its attacks against Israel and stay out of any future government headed by Hamas.
The announcement signaled that even if international pressure succeeds in persuading Hamas, which won Jan. 25 parliamentary elections, to moderate its violent ideology, other Palestinian radicals won't.
White House gives details on surveillance
WASHINGTON -- After weeks of insisting it would not reveal details of its domestic eavesdropping, the White House reversed course Wednesday and provided a House committee with highly classified information about the program.
The White House has been under heavy pressure from lawmakers who wanted more information about the National Security Agency's monitoring.
Democrats and many Republicans rejected the administration's implicit suggestion that they could not be trusted with national security secrets.
U.S. officials meet Iraq insurgent groups
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. officials have met figures from some Sunni Arab insurgent groups but have so far not received any commitment for them to lay down their arms, Western diplomats in Baghdad and neighboring Jordan said Wednesday.
Three more U.S. troops were killed in Iraq -- two of them in roadside bombings, the U.S. command said.
U.S. citizen may be handed over to Iraqis
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government wants an Iraqi court to prosecute an American citizen who is being held in Iraq on suspicion that he is a senior operative of insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The man's lawyers said he is innocent and likely to be tortured if handed over.
Cartoon protesters direct anger at U.S.
QALAT, Afghanistan -- Police killed four people Wednesday as Afghans enraged over drawings of the Prophet Muhammad marched on a U.S. military base in a volatile southern province, directing their anger not against Europe but America. The U.S. base was targeted because the United States "is the leader of Europe and the leading infidel in the world," said Sher Mohammed, a 40-year-old farmer who suffered a gunshot wound while taking part in the demonstration in the city of Qalat.
From wire reports. E-mail news@thesantaclara.com.