Moldova: Thousands protest Communist leadership

About 80,000 protesters gathered Sunday in Moldova’s capital calling for the resignation of the Communist government and accusing it of trying to turn the country into a Soviet-style dictatorship under Russian domination.

The protesters in the former Soviet republic’s capital, Chisinau, carried Moldovan and European Union flags and chanted: “Down with the Communists,” “Freedom!” and “We want to be in Europe, not in Russia.”

Most of Moldova, a small and poor country of 4.5 million people sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, was part of Romania until 1940, and two-thirds of its people are of Romanian descent.

Since the Soviet collapse in 1991, Moldova has struggled over whether to cast its future with Romania  seen as a doorway to Europe and the West  or align itself with Russia again. Communists who won elections last year favor closer ties with Russia.

Canary Islands: Flash floods kill five

Five people died Sunday as torrential rains triggered mudslides and flash floods as high as traffic lights, sweeping away cars and toppling walls and trees, authorities said.

Thirty people were injured and taken to hospitals that were struggling to function because of power outages.

Santa Cruz Mayor Miguel Zerolo told the Spanish news agency Efe that the dead included a young girl who was crushed by a falling wall. Two men who ventured out in a jeep to save family members died in the attempt, the agency said.

The floods made roads across the island impassable, stranding thousands of people who were returning to Santa Cruz, the island’s capital, after the Easter holiday, Efe said. Many people unable to reach their homes or whose houses were flooded spent the night in a convention center.

France: Anti-Jewish attacks increase in last week

A gunman opened fire on a kosher butcher’s shop in southern France  the fourth anti-Semitic attack over the weekend  drawing pledges for increased security at Jewish sites and appeals for religious tolerance.

French President Jacques Chirac added his voice Sunday to the growing condemnation of the violence, calling it “unspeakable” and “inadmissible.”

No one was hurt in the attack Saturday evening in the town of l’Union, near Toulouse, regional officials said.

The owner of the shop was inside, with his front gate partially closed, when an identified gunman fired two shots and sped off in a car, officials from the Haute-Garonne region said.

The shooting is part of a wave of anti-Semitic attacks in France coinciding with intensified Israeli-Palestinian violence in the last week.

Mexico: Deadly bus crash blamed on bad brakes

A bus with failing brakes slammed into an oncoming pickup on a crowded highway in central Mexico, killing 12 people and injuring 46, officials said Sunday.

The oversold bus left the city of Meztitlan in Mexico State bound for Mexico City late Saturday afternoon and crashed just outside Pachuca, 60 miles northeast of the Mexican capital.

Jose Pilar, a spokesman for Mexico state authorities, said police believe the bus’ s brakes failed, causing the driver to lose control. Survivors said the driver, who did not have a license and could not be immediately identified, swerved around several slower cars and tried to pull off the highway in an attempt to slow the vehicle before the crash.

The bus driver and four passengers were killed on impact. Another seven people died at Pachuca’s largest hospital late Saturday and early Sunday, Pilar said.