Gwinnett Daily Post

Security chiefs say they knew of plot on Karzai

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's three top security chiefs managed to hold on to their jobs Tuesday despite admitting before parliament that they failed to prevent an attack on President Hamid Karzai even though they knew about the plot.

At least one policeman was arrested in the assassination attempt, deepening concerns the Taliban have infiltrated the country's poorly paid security forces. The attack also exposed the vulnerability of the capital to militants, who are strongest in the volatile south and east.

Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh gave an in-depth explanation to lawmakers of the assault Sunday on a ceremony in Kabul marking Afghanistan's victory over the Soviet occupation of the country in the 1980s.

China: Speed caused deadly train derailment

ZIBO, China - China could identify less than half the 70 people killed in its deadliest train accident in a decade but had already cleared the mangled cars and laid new track Tuesday, restoring service a day after the derailment.

Chinese state media showed hundreds of orange-jacketed workers mobilized at the crash site, clearing and fixing the fractured line linking Beijing to the seaside city of Qingdao - site of the sailing competition during the upcoming Olympics.

The official Xinhua News Agency cited an investigative panel set up by the State Council, China's Cabinet, as saying that speeding was to blame for Monday's crash.

Shiite ambush kills two dozen

BAGHDAD - Shiite militants ambushed a U.S. patrol in Baghdad's embattled Sadr City district on Tuesday and more than two dozen people were killed in the fighting, a U.S. military spokesman and Iraqi officials said. Six American soldiers were wounded.

The clashes broke out at 9:30 a.m. after U.S. troops were attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns, spokesman Lt. Col. Steve Stover said. As the troops were leaving the area, a vehicle was hit with two roadside bombs, Stover said.

Some get life in prison for actions in Tibet rioting

BEIJING - Six Buddhist monks were among 30 people sentenced by a Chinese court Tuesday to jail terms ranging from three years to life for taking part in deadly riots in Tibet.

The punishments were the first to be meted out by a Chinese court against Tibetans accused of taking part in a frenzy of assaults, burning, looting and vandalism mainly targeting Han Chinese and their businesses in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and nearby areas between March 14 and 16.