AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN

Pakistani Intelligence Accused in Karzai Plot

An Afghan official on Wednesday accused Pakistan's premier spy agency of organizing a recent attempt to assassinate Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the most serious in a string of allegations against Pakistan.

Karzai was unharmed when assailants fired guns and mortars toward the president, senior officials and foreign diplomats during a military parade in Kabul on April 27. Three Afghans were killed.

A spokesman for Afghanistan's intelligence chief asserted Wednesday that there was proof of involvement by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI. Pressed at a news conference for details, the spokesman, Saeed Ansari, said one piece of evidence was a secret code used during phone conversations between militants. He also cited confessions of suspects in custody.

There was no immediate response from Pakistan.

Pakistan's new government, meanwhile, gave its strongest commitment yet on containing Islamist militancy, vowing to prevent attacks on Afghanistan but insisting that foreign forces would not be allowed to operate on Pakistani soil.

The statement came as the latest violence left 37 people dead in tribal regions of northwestern Pakistan, a stronghold of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters. Pakistani officials have rejected suggestions that its security agencies are colluding with the guerrillas. Karzai recently threatened to send troops into Pakistan to hunt Taliban leaders.

SAUDI ARABIA

Raids Net Hundreds

Saudi authorities have arrested 701 people this year suspected of links to al-Qaeda, some of whom planned a car bomb attack on an oil installation, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday. It was the highest such number announced to date. Some suspects were released for lack of proof, but 520 remain in custody, it said.

The ministry said police found money and weapons owned by the suspects, some of it buried in remote areas. The men, from areas including Africa and Asia, were organized into cells whose leaders were based outside Saudi Arabia, it said.

BRAZIL

Truckers Launch Strike

Truckers across Brazil started an open-ended strike Wednesday, protesting high fuel prices and a proposed peak-hour ban on trucks in Sao Paulo to ease the grinding traffic jams in the business capital.