KABUL, Afghanistan -- An Afghan police chief said a suicide bomber on foot blew himself up near a German Embassy vehicle in Afghanistan's capital and killed two Afghans.

Kabul police chief Gen. Mohammad Ayub Salangi said no German diplomats were injured.

Gen. Salangi said two Afghan civilians died in the blast and three others were wounded. The blast took place yesterday near an American-built high school in Kabul.

German soldiers responded to the attack, and dozens of Afghan police surrounded the blast site.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Government supporters converged on the capital yesterday, in a counter to rival protesters who seized control of Bangkok's two airports and forced the prime minister to run the country from afar.

Neither the army nor Thailand's revered king have stepped in to resolve the crisis -- or offered the firm backing that Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat needs to resolve the leadership vacuum.

Political violence has added to the sense of drift bordering on anarchy that pervades the country's administration.

Explosions yesterday hit the prime minister's compound, which protesters from the People's Alliance for Democracy have held since August, an anti-government television station, and a road near the main entrance to the occupied domestic airport. At least 51 people were injured, officials said.

GENEVA -- The world's most comprehensive legalized heroin program became permanent yesterday with overwhelming approval from Swiss voters who simultaneously rejected the decriminalization of marijuana.

The heroin program, started in 1994, is offered in 23 centers across Switzerland. It has helped eliminate scenes of large groups of drug users shooting up openly in parks that marred Swiss cities in the 1980s and 1990s and is credited with reducing crime and improving the health and daily lives of addicts.

The nearly 1,300 selected addicts visit one of the centers twice a day to receive the carefully measured dose of heroin produced by a government-approved laboratory.

They use the equipment and clean needles to inject themselves under the supervision of a nurse, and also receive counseling from psychiatrists and social workers.

The aim is to help the addicts learn how to function in society.

The United States and the U.N. narcotics board have criticized the program as potentially fueling drug abuse, but it has attracted attention from Australia and Canada, which in recent years have started or are considering their own programs modeled on the system.

BUCHAREST, Romania -- Leftist Social Democrats promising to soften the impact of the global economic crisis won the most votes in Romania's parliamentary elections yesterday but not enough to take power outright, projections showed.

The party, which includes former communist-era leaders, could still wind up in opposition, according to two exit polls giving it roughly 36 percent.

The exit polls, which have been reliable in past elections, projected President Traian Basescu's centrist Democratic Liberal Party in second place, with just under 31 percent.

The Social Democrats had hoped for much stronger support, and it remained unclear whether they would join forces with another party and manage to rule.

Initial official results will be released today.