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World briefs: Prophet film protests rage
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ISLAMABAD -- Muslims protested in Nigeria, Iran, Greece and Turkey on Sunday to show anti-Western anger against a film and cartoons insulting Islam had not dissipated.
Pakistan's government issued a strong disavowal of remarks made by a federal minister who offered up to $100,000 to anyone who would kill the maker of the anti-Islamic film made in the U.S. that's seen as derogatory to the Prophet Muhammad.
"If any international court declares me guilty for announcing the bounty, then I am ready to be hanged in the name of the holy prophet Muhammad," Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour said. "We are not against freedom of expression, but the misuse of that right to hurt the religious sentiments of others is totally wrong and intolerable."
In Nigeria's northeast, a suicide bomber killed at least three and wounded 47 in an attack on a Catholic church.
Authorities in Nigeria have blamed Boko Haram, a movement that wants to impose strict Islamic law, for attacks in the mainly Muslim north and the capital Abuja that have killed hundreds of people this year.
In Athens, Greek riot police used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse Muslim protesters who clashed with officers Sunday during a rally. About 300 Iranian students protested against caricatures that appeared in a French weekly. They rallied in front of the French Embassy in Tehran, burning French, U.S. and Israeli flags.
KATMANDU, Nepal -- An avalanche hit climbers on a high Himalayan peak in Nepal on Sunday, leaving at least nine dead and six others missing, officials said. Many of the climbers were French or German.
Police official Basanta Bahadur Kuwar said the bodies of a Nepalese guide and a German man were recovered and that rescue pilots had spotted seven other bodies on the slopes of Mount Manaslu in northern Nepal, the eighth highest mountain in the world.
Ten other climbers survived the avalanche but many were injured and were flown to hospitals by rescue helicopters, Mr. Kuwar said.
TORONTO -- Ford Motor Co. employees represented by the Canadian Auto Workers ratified a four-year contract that eliminates most cost-of-living raises in favor of bonuses, extends the time it takes for a new employee to reach full pay and adds 600 jobs.
The vote was 82 percent in favor, the Toronto-based union said Sunday in an e-mail statement. Ford has about 4,500 CAW- represented workers in Ontario at locations such as Oakville, near Toronto, where it runs an assembly plant, and Windsor, where it builds V-8 and V-10 engines.
MINSK, Belarus -- Belarus will announce results today from parliamentary elections that will probably show deputies aligned with President Aleksandr Lukashenko won after the opposition boycotted saying the vote wasn't free and fair.
Opposition groups called on the country's 7.1 million voters to stay away from polling stations yesterday because some opposition activists remain in jail, while foreign observers from European Union members Germany and Lithuania were denied visas to monitor the proceedings. The outcome will be announced by the Electoral Committee at 10 a.m. in Minsk, which said that turnout was 74.2 percent.
First Published September 24, 2012 12:00 am
