Sweden

Witness recalls politician’s stabbing

A witness described how Sweden’s foreign minister was pushed against a clothes rack and stabbed to death while shopping, but prosecutors ran into a stone wall when prodding the confessed killer for more answers Thursday.

“I am not going to answer any more questions,” Mijailo Mijailovic said during the second day of his trial in the death of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh.

Earlier, Lindh’s former press secretary recounted how their Sept. 10 shopping trip at an upscale Stockholm department store turned to tragedy.

Eva Franchell said she and the 46-year-old Lindh were shopping for clothes for a television debate when she saw Mijailovic approach them.

“He ran — rushed rather — at high speed directly at Anna,” Franchell said. “He pressed her against the clothing rack.”

Moscow

Oil magnate ordered to remain in jail

A court ordered Russia’s richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, to remain in jail until March 25, rejecting an appeal to move the oil tycoon into house arrest.

The Moscow City Court upheld a ruling last month by another court to keep the former head of Yukos oil company in jail for another three months. Khodorkovsky has been in pretrial detention since his Oct. 25 arrest, with prosecutors arguing that if freed he could flee or attempt to influence the outcome of the criminal investigation into his business dealings.

Russia’s richest person according to Forbes magazine, Khodorkovsky is facing fraud and tax evasion charges widely seen as part of a Kremlin-backed effort to curb his political clout.

Pakistan

Car bomb injures 15

A car bomb exploded Thursday outside a Christian Bible society in southern Pakistan, leaving 15 people injured and damaging the wall of a nearby church, officials said.

The attack in the port city of Karachi occurred after police received an anonymous phone warning that the Pakistan Bible Society would be targeted, police said. Shortly after officers arrived, assailants in a car drove up and lobbed a small explosive device at them.

Fifteen minutes later, a bomb hidden in a nearby parked car exploded, police said.