WORLD IN BRIEF

THE MIDDLE EAST

· ISTANBUL -- A group of suspected Kurdish militants stopped a bus and tossed gasoline bombs at it, sending the vehicle careening into a crowd and killing three in Istanbul as pro-Kurdish riots continued to spread. In the heavily Kurdish southeast, a pro-Kurdish demonstrator was killed; local officials blamed police.

ASIA

· KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Suspected Taliban militants shot dead five policemen and wounded three others in southern Afghanistan, a hospital doctor said. A purported Taliban spokesman telephoned the Associated Press to assert responsibility for the attack.

Earlier Sunday, an official said a Taliban rebel posing as a traveler shot dead four policemen as they slept at a checkpoint late Friday in the southern province of Helmand.

The governor of Nimruz province said Taliban gunmen killed a Turkish engineer, the second attack in a week on foreigners working on a road project in the west.

· QUETTA, Pakistan -- Bombings and shootings killed at least nine people, including six policemen, in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan region, while Islamic militants gunned down a cleric near the Afghan border on suspicion he was spying for the United States and Britain.

· BEIJING -- A blast at an explosives plant in Zhaoyuan in eastern China killed at least 20 workers, the government said. Nine were missing.

An explosion Saturday at a firecracker factory in north China's Shanxi province killed eight people and left one missing, the New China News Agency reported.

THE AMERICAS

· TORONTO -- One person was killed when an explosion triggered a flash fire at a downtown Toronto coffee shop, police said. A busy block close to one of the city's main shopping districts was closed much of the day as police investigated.

AFRICA

· NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania -- A boat packed with West Africans trying to reach Europe collided with a fishing vessel, leaving 32 migrants missing and believed drowned, Mauritanian officials said.

-- From News Services