3 Iraqi soldiers die in bombing

3 Iraqi soldiers die in bombing

BAGHDAD

A roadside bomb killed three Iraqi soldiers responding to an earlier blast Saturday in an area south of Baghdad, officials said. One bystander also was killed.

The first explosion near municipal offices in the Rashid district did not cause casualties but was followed by a second bomb as security forces moved toward the scene — a common tactic of insurgents targeting police and soldiers.

Greek truckers refuse to end strike

ATHENS, Greece

Greeks and foreigners remained stranded across the country Saturday after truck drivers refused to end a six-day strike that has cut off fuel and food supplies at the peak of the busy tourist season.

Faced with a national emergency as medical, food and fuel supplies ran dangerously dry, the government turned to the military and navy to help restore supplies at remote islands, hospitals and electricity centers.

Truck drivers have ignored an emergency order to return to work.

Some 35,000 drivers walked off the job Monday to protest a bill that will cut license charges and open up their profession, a reform required by the European Union and International Monetary Fund in exchange for a multibillion-euro bailout that saved the country from defaulting on its debt.

Firefighters battle blaze in Calif. desert

PALMDALE, Calif.

A wildfire smoldered in the high desert north of Los Angeles on Saturday, spewing plumes of thick smoke into a nearby town as hundreds of firefighters worked to contain the 2-day-old blaze.

The fire has charred nearly 22 square miles of brush in the Antelope Valley. It was 62 percent contained Saturday afternoon, and no structures were threatened, said Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Sam Padilla.

3 Jamaican cops detained in slaying

KINGSTON, Jamaica

Jamaican police detained three of their own Saturday after a video surfaced allegedly showing them beating and shooting a suspect to death.

Police initially reported that the man stabbed a woman to death and then attacked the officers. They were said to have acted in self-defense.

That story changed after the amateur footage, recorded by an unidentified eyewitness, was broadcast on several television channels the following night.

Police Chief Owen Ellington said Saturday the man apparently was unarmed and subdued when he was killed.

Rare yellow lobster found in RI bay

PROVIDENCE, R.I.

It’s not made of gold, but a yellow lobster pulled from Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay is rare.

Lobsterman Denny Ingram says he found the lobster in one of his pots in the bay’s East Passage last week. It is golden on the top and bright yellow on both sides.

Experts say the genetic feature is rare, occurring in about 1 in 30 million lobsters.

Ingram says he plans to keep the yellow lobster on display at the fishermen’s co-op at the State Pier in Newport.

Kremlin opponent arrested at rally

MOSCOW

Russian police arrested a leading Kremlin opponent and dozens of fellow activists Saturday at a demonstration demanding freedom of assembly.

Several hundred protesters gathered in a Moscow square chanting “Freedom! Freedom!” at the rally, which city authorities tried to ban.

An Associated Press reporter saw Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov dragged to a police car and driven away. The rally barely had started. Three or four others appeared to have been detained.

Combined dispatches