Gwinnett Daily Post

Rebel bombings kill 11, wound 162 in Myanmar

YANGON, Myanmar - Three explosions rocked Myanmar's capital on Saturday, killing 11 people and wounding 162 others in the latest bombings blamed on ethnic rebels in the military-ruled country.

The blasts occurred in rapid succession at a convention center and two bustling supermarkets in neighborhoods across the city of 5 million people starting around mid-afternoon. It was not immediately known how many people died at each site.

State television said several ethnic rebel groups, including the Karen National Union and the Shan State Army, were behind the attacks. It called the perpetrators "terrorists" who were trying to disrupt "stability and tranquility."

Nobel laureate resigns as leader of Ulster Unionist party

BELFAST, Northern Ireland - Nobel Peace Prize laureate David Trimble, a key backer of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord, said Saturday he will resign as Ulster Unionist Party leader after losing a decade-long battle to steer fellow Protestants toward compromise with Roman Catholics.

Trimble's decision to quit followed the Ulster Unionists' worst-ever performance in British parliamentary elections Thursday. The party that once dominated politics in this predominantly Protestant territory retained just one of Northern Ireland's 18 seats - and the highest-profile loser was Trimble himself.

In a statement issued by Ulster Unionist headquarters in Belfast, the 60-year-old Trimble said he told senior party colleagues: "I do not wish to continue as leader."

Dominican order says Polish priest wasn't a spy

VATICAN CITY - A priest accused of spying for Poland's communist government while he was close to Pope John Paul II's entourage spoke too loosely about the inner workings of the Vatican but was not an informer, a Roman Catholic official investigating the allegations said Saturday.

The Rev. Maciej Zieba, who is head of the Dominican order in Poland, had harsh words for the Polish institute that made the accusations against the Rev. Konrad Stanislaw Hejmo, who also is Dominican, saying the accusations were made out of context.

Zieba flew to Rome to question Hejmo shortly after Poland's National Remembrance Institute, which guards communist-era police files, accused the priest of collaborating with Polish secret services when the nation was under communist rule.

Climbers caught in avalanche rescued from Mount Everest

KATMANDU, Nepal - Two Americans, two Canadians and a Sherpa climber were evacuated from Mount Everest on Saturday, two days after they were hit by an avalanche on the world's highest peak and then stranded because of treacherous weather.

Snow and high winds abated sufficiently for a rescue helicopter to land at the base camp, where it picked up American climbers James Bach and Jason Barilla and Canadians Jowan Gauthier and Pierre Bourdeau. They were brought to Katmandu and hospitalized for treatment of injuries.

"I don't know how I survived," said Bourdeau, who was carried about 100 yards from his tent. "I thought I was dead," he said.

No one was killed early Thursday when the avalanche swept through the first of four camps between the base and the mountain's 29,035-foot summit. The Nepalese Sherpa suffered a broken back, and the four other climbers were at the least badly bruised.

Twenty-three expeditions have been attempting to scale Everest this spring amid treacherous conditions.

Anti-Syrian leader Aoun returns to Beirut

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Defeated in a battle against Syrian control of his country 15 years ago and sent into exile, Gen. Michel Aoun returned Saturday to a rousing welcome from thousands of supporters in a homeland recently freed of Syrian troops.

The former army commander already was emerging as a player in upcoming parliamentary elections.

"Here I am today, returning to you, and Lebanon has become sovereign, free and independent," he told a flag-waving crowd of at least 20,000 in a central Beirut square who cheered wildly, danced, hugged, kissed and even wept in joy.

- From wire reports