World Briefs

Colombia: Bomb blast misses election front-runner

Colombia’s leading presidential candidate was unharmed Sunday after a bomb exploded near his motorcade in an apparent assassination attempt, killing three bystanders and injuring 15 others.

Alvaro Uribe, a hard-liner running on pledges to crack down on leftist guerrillas, was traveling through the Caribbean coastal city of Barranquilla when a bomb placed under a bridge exploded just after his caravan and a passenger bus crossed over.

Five police officers and 10 civilians were injured, including two children and the bus driver and passengers, officials in Barranquilla said.

Uribe appeared on local television and radio moments later to confirm that he was unharmed in the blast, which occurred shortly after the motorcade pulled away from a campaign event at the city’s port.

Suspicion in Sunday’s attack was likely to turn on Colombia’s main rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Ukraine: Three people beaten in synagogue attack

A crowd of about 50 youths attacked the central synagogue in Kiev, beating three people with stones, hurling bottles and breaking windows, the rabbi said Sunday.

Kiev’s chief rabbi, Moshe-Reuven Azman, said the mob marched down the Ukrainian capital’s main boulevard shouting “Kill the Jews!” before attacking the synagogue shortly after 9 p.m. Saturday.

The assailants knocked the rector of Kiev’s yeshiva to the ground and beat him with stones, Azman said. The rector, Tsvi Kaplan, was hospitalized overnight and released Sunday.

Azman said his own 14-year-old son, Jorik, and a security guard were also injured and that the attackers broke 20 windows in the synagogue.

“I call this act a pogrom,” Azman said. “It’s a miracle that it was not worse.”

Germany: President to atone for Nazi massacre

In a long-delayed act of reconciliation, Germany’s president today begins a trip to Italy to commemorate the victims of a World War II massacre that has come to symbolize Nazi atrocities in that country.

President Johannes Rau’s gesture this week coincides with new attempts by prosecutors to track down those who committed war crimes in occupied Italy.

Rau will be the first postwar German leader to visit Marzabotto, one of several mountain villages southwest of Bologna where Nazi SS troops who claimed they were pursuing resistance fighters killed more than 700 people between Sept. 28 and Oct. 1 of 1944.

Accompanied by Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Rau plans to lay a wreath and give a speech Wednesday in front of the village church where the Nazis shot some of their victims. A number of survivors are expected to attend.

Afghanistan: King’s return now set for middle of week

After a delay last month, former King Mohammad Zaher Shah will return this week to Afghanistan after nearly 30 years.

The chief spokesman for interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai said Sunday that his boss would travel Tuesday to Rome to fetch the 87-year-old king. Yusuf Nuristani said Karzai and Zaher Shah, who are distant relatives, will return to Afghanistan together either Wednesday or Thursday.

It will be the first time Zaher Shah sets foot in Afghanistan since 1973, when he was deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan.

In June, Zaher Shah is expected to convene a loya jirga, or national council, that will choose a new government for Afghanistan.