British engineer kidnapped

British engineer kidnapped
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Gunmen kidnapped a British engineer and his interpreter after attacking their convoy in western Afghanistan and killing three policemen guarding them, the latest in a string of assaults ahead of crucial elections, officials said Thursday. U.S. commanders in the volatile east, meanwhile, said they expect violence to spike a week before the Sept. 18 vote for a new legislature, but remain confident it will go ahead without major disruptions. Militants have stepped up attacks over the past six months, leaving more than 1,100 people dead and raising fears that the fighting may disrupt the polls.
Israel and Pakistanmeet for the first time
ISTANBUL, Turkey -- The foreign ministers of Israel and Pakistan, a Muslim country that has long taken a hard line against the Jewish state, met publicly for the first time Thursday, a diplomatic breakthrough that both ministers linked to Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom hailed the meeting as an "historic first" and said that after the Gaza pullout, it was "time for all of the Muslim and Arab countries to reconsider their relations with Israel." Shalom also said he hoped the Istanbul meeting -- initiated by Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf -- would result eventually in full diplomatic relations with Pakistan and all other Arab and Islamic countries. Israel has open diplomatic relations with only four Muslim countries, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Mauritania, Shalom said.
Suspect to be released
ORANJESTAD, Aruba -- A judge on Thursday ordered the conditional release of a Dutch teenager in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, but he remains a suspect, his defense attorney said. Joran van der Sloot, 18, could be released from jail as early as Saturday and remain free pending the outcome of the probe, said Antonio Carlo. The judge's decision "only has to do with the pretrial detention. The primary condition is he has to remain available to police," Carlo said. Court officials couldn't be reached and the prosecutors office declined to comment, saying it hasn't received the entire order. Van der Sloot was arrested June 9 along with two friends, Surinamese nationals Satish Kalpoe, 18, and Deepak Kalpoe, 21, on suspicion of involvement in Holloway's disappearance. All three have denied any connection to the disappearance.
Bodies of missing menare found in Canada
LAVAL, Quebec -- Police found the bodies of two young American men Thursday who have been missing for 10 days, but couldn't tell if foul play was involved in their deaths, authorities said. The remains of Steve Wright, 20, of Santa Rosa, Calif., and Mark Kraynak, 23, of Uniontown, Pa., were found at the bottom of a rock quarry near a nightclub, where the men had said they were headed, said Guy Lajeunesse, a police spokesman for the city of Laval, just north of Montreal. He said that the men's parents, who have been working with police on the investigation, were able to make the identifications. The men were last seen at 3 a.m. Aug. 22 outside a nightclub in Montreal. Kraynak was a former U.S. soldier who was award a Purple Heart while serving in Iraq, his parents said. He was due to start his sophomore year of college this week.
Scientists discover thousands more genes
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Scientists from around the world have unlocked a genetic secret they say could bring new treatments for devastating illnesses as cancer and Alzheimer's disease. The researchers, including two from Scripps Florida in Palm Beach County, Fla., have discovered thousands of genes that weren't mapped during the Human Genome Project. These genes don't create protein building blocks for the body as "classical" genes do. But they apparently exercise control over cell activity, perhaps regulating hormone and enzyme levels and turning other genes on or off. The work, detailed in two articles in today's issue of the journal, Science, is generating excitement as well as skepticism.
That's because finding thousands of new genes, scientists say, also needs to result in treatments for human disease.
Machinists vote to strike
SEATTLE -- Boeing Co. Machinists voted Thursday to strike as union members overwhelmingly rejected a three-year contract proposal their leaders had deemed "insulting."
Union members voted 86 percent in favor of a strike beginning at 12:01 a.m. today.
Under union rules, the contract would have been automatically ratified -- and workers would have stayed on the job -- unless two-thirds of the union members voted to strike.
The strike will affect about 18,400 Machinists who assemble Boeing's commercial airplanes and some key components in the Seattle area, Gresham, Ore., and Wichita, Kan.
Combined dispatches