U.S. & WORLD NEWS DIGEST | 6 dead, 37 injured in attack in Mexico

6 dead, 37 injured in attack in Mexico

GUADALAJARA, Mexico

Armed men opened fire and hurled a grenade into a crowded nightclub early Saturday, killing six people and wounding at least 37 in a western city whose former tranquility has been shattered by escalating battles among drug cartels.

The attack in Mexico’s second-largest municipality took place just hours after a shootout between soldiers and presumed cartel gunmen left eight people, including an innocent driver, dead in the northeastern city of Monterrey. Monterrey is Mexico’s third-largest city.

In the Guadalajara attack, assailants in a Jeep Cherokee and a taxi drove up to the Butter Club, located in a bar and restaurant district popular with young people, and sprayed it with bullets.

Pakistani court accuses Musharraf

ISLAMABAD

A Pakistani court issued an arrest warrant for ousted military leader Pervez Musharraf on Saturday over allegations he played a role in the 2007 assassination of an ex-prime minister and rival. It was a major setback for the onetime U.S. ally, who was plotting a political comeback from outside the country.

Musharraf, who has not been charged, described accusations that he had a hand in the attack on ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto as a smear campaign by a government led by her aggrieved husband.

The stunning allegation that Musharraf — a self-declared opponent of Islamic militancy — was linked to extremists accused in the attack was likely to keep him out of Pakistan, at least in the short term.

Police: Man kills 4 in NYC stabbings

NEW YORK

A graffiti artist armed with five knives went on a bloody 28-hour rampage across New York City, fatally stabbing his stepfather, ex-girlfriend and her mother, running down a pedestrian with a stolen Lexus and knifing a subway passenger before being arrested in Times Square, police said.

Maksim Gelman, 23, was armed with a bloodied kitchen knife when he was taken into police custody about 9 a.m. Saturday after a nightlong manhunt from Brooklyn into Manhattan, police said.

Palestinians to have elections by Sept.

RAMALLAH, West Bank

The Palestinian leadership in the West Bank on Saturday promised to have long-overdue general elections by September, a surprise move spurred by political unrest rocking the Arab world and embarrassing TV leaks about peace talks with Israel.

In principle, elections could help end the deep political split between West Bank-based President Mahmoud Abbas and the Islamic militant Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, the other territory the Palestinians want for their state.

26 killed in attack in Iraq

BAGHDAD

A suicide bomber blew himself up Saturday on a bus carrying Shiite pilgrims, officials said, killing 26 people headed back from a revered shrine that has been a flashpoint in Iraqi sectarian strife.

It was the second attack in three days targeting visitors to the al-Askari mosque in the former insurgent stronghold of Samarra, north of Baghdad, for commemorations of the death of a ninth-century religious figure who is buried there.

Witness Kamil Mamdoh described mayhem, with police shooting into the air to disperse the hysterical crowd.

Associated Press