WORLD IN BRIEF

Monday, April 3, 2006

Iran Tests Missile It Says No Ship Could Escape

TEHRAN -- Iran conducted its second major test of a new missile within several days on Sunday, firing a high-speed torpedo it said no submarine or warship could escape. The tests came during war games that the elite Revolutionary Guards have been holding in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea.

On Friday, Iran said it successfully tested the Fajr-3 missile, which can avoid radar and hit several targets simultaneously using multiple warheads.

The new torpedo, called the "Hoot," or whale, could raise concerns over Iran's power in the Gulf, a vital corridor for oil supplies and where the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet is based. During the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, Iranian ships attacked oil tankers in the Gulf, and Iran and the U.S. military engaged in clashes.

Iran's state television stopped its normal programs to break news of the torpedo test. Gen. Ali Fadavi, deputy head of the Revolutionary Guards' navy, said that the ships that fire the Iranian-made Hoot had radar-evading technology and that the torpedo -- moving at 223 mph -- was too fast to elude.

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EUROPE

· VATICAN CITY -- Tens of thousands of people from around the world flocked to a candlelight service at the Vatican to mark the first anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II and pray that he be made a saint soon.

Pope Benedict XVI spoke at about 9:37 p.m., the time at which John Paul died a year ago. "He continues to be present in our minds and in our hearts," Benedict told the crowd from his window overlooking St. Peter's Square. He said John Paul had taught the world the value of life even in its final stages.

A sea of Polish flags filled the square as dusk settled and some of the late pope's countrymen held up a huge banner from his home town of Wadowice in southern Poland. Benedict read part of his address in Polish. Dozens of banners bore the name of Solidarity, the union that John Paul supported in the early 1980s.

· PARIS -- President Jacques Chirac signed into law a contested measure reducing job protections for young people even though he has said it would be replaced by a modified version to defuse a crisis that has led to massive demonstrations.

Unions hoped that another round of strikes and demonstrations Tuesday would provide a more powerful push to get the measure withdrawn.

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