2 killed in protest

2 killed in protest

kabul, afghanistan

Two protesters died and four were injured as Afghans protested for a third day Sunday against a plan by an American pastor to burn copies of the Islamic holy book, despite his decision to call off the action.

Mohammad Rahim Amin, chief of the Baraki Barak district in eastern Logar province, said the deaths and injuries occurred when Afghan soldiers opened fire on hundreds of protesters who were trying to storm the local government headquarters.

During recent protests against the Quran burning, Afghans have regularly targeted the pro-Western government.

Hurricane Igor moves to Category 4

miami

Forecasters say Hurricane Igor has rapidly strengthened to a Category 4 storm in the open Atlantic. It doesn’t immediately threaten land, but is expected to get stronger as it moves west.

Meanwhile, a tropical depression off the coast of Africa prompted officials to issue a tropical storm warning for parts of the Cape Verde Islands on Sunday.

Igor had maximum sustained winds of 140 mph and was moving west at 14 mph. Some additional strengthening is expected in the next two days.

Residents return after pipeline blowout

san bruno, calif.

Residents returned Sunday to the ruined hillsides of their suburban San Francisco neighborhood, three days after a natural-gas pipeline exploded into a deadly fireball.

A nearby segment of the line was due to be replaced, the utility responsible said, because it ran through a heavily urbanized area and the risk of failure was “unacceptably high.” That 30-inch diameter pipe about two and a half miles north was installed in 1948, and was slated to be swapped for new 24-inch pipe.

California regulators ordered the utility, Pacific Gas and Electric, to survey all its natural-gas lines in the state in hopes of heading off another disaster.

Investigators still don’t know what caused Thursday night’s blast. Officials tried to confirm just how many people died.

Outcry over China vaccination plan

beijing

China’s plans to vaccinate 100 million children and come a step closer to eradicating measles has set off a popular outcry that highlights widening public distrust of the authoritarian government after repeated health scandals.

Since the Health Ministry announced the World Health Organization-backed measles vaccination plan last week, authorities have been flooded with queries and Internet bulletin boards have been plastered with worried messages. Conspiracy theories saying the vaccines are dangerous have spread by cell-phone text messages.

Newborn found alive at airport in Manila

manila, philippines

An airport security officer found a newborn baby in a garbage bag apparently unloaded from an airplane that landed in the Philippines on Sunday from the Middle East, officials said.

Security officials brought the boy, who was covered in blood and wrapped in tissue paper, to an airport clinic, where doctors and nurses examined him and cleaned him, wrapped him in cloth and gave him a bottle of milk, airport officials said.

A security officer noticed something moving in a garbage bag that was reportedly unloaded from a Gulf Air plane that arrived from Bahrain and found the baby inside, an airport statement said. The baby was later turned over to social workers.

Associated Press