2 suicide blasts kill dozens in Syria

2 suicide blasts kill dozens in Syria

DAMASCUS, Syria

Two suicide bombers detonated cars packed with explosives in near- simultaneous attacks on heavily guarded intelligence and security buildings in the Syrian capital of Damascus on Saturday, killing at least 27 people. There have been a string of large-scale bombings against the regime in its stronghold of Damascus that suggest a dangerous, wild-card element in the year-old anti-government revolt.

Pope of Coptic Christians dies

CAIRO, Egypt

Pope Shenouda III, the patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church who led Egypt’s Christian minority for 40 years during a time of increasing tensions with Muslims, died Saturday. He was 88.

The state news agency MENA said Shenouda died Saturday after battling liver and lung problems for several years, and a doctor who treated him several years ago said he suffered from prostate cancer that had spread to his lungs.

“Baba Shenouda,” as he was known to his followers, headed one of the most- ancient churches in the world, tracing its founding to St. Mark, who is said to have brought Christianity to Egypt in the first century.

Romney heads to Ill.

BAYAMON, Puerto Rico

Looking toward the critical primary in Illinois, Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney wrapped up a shortened campaign trip to Puerto Rico on Saturday as he prepared for more tough contests against chief rival Rick Santorum. The former Massachusetts governor dramatically curtailed his trip to the U.S. territory, which has its primary today, in favor of spending more time in Illinois, where polls have shown him slightly ahead of Santorum. Romney had planned to spend the weekend and visit a polling place today but instead left the island immediately after a morning appearance.

500K pack Dublin for St. Pat’s parade

DUBLIN

An estimated 500,000 people crowded Saturday into central Dublin for the St. Patrick’s Day parade, a focal point for Irish celebrations worldwide and the start of the tourist season in debt-battered Ireland.

Bands from Britain, the United States and Russia joined thousands of Irish volunteers in the two-hour procession through Ireland’s capital of 1.3 million. It was the biggest of more than 50 parades and street festivals across the island.

The parade in Armagh, Northern Ireland, the island’s ecclesiastical capital for both Catholics and Protestants, had to be diverted and cut short when Protestant extremists claimed to have left a bomb in the town center. British Army experts using a remote-controlled robot dismantled a suspicious package but deemed it a hoax.

Occupy Wall Street marks 6 months

NEW YORK

Chanting and cheering down Wall Street on Saturday to mark six months since the birth of the Occupy movement, some protesters applauded the Goldman Sachs employee who days ago gave the firm a public drubbing, echoing the movement’s indictment of a financial system demonstrators say is fueled by reckless greed.

On Saturday, six months after the protesters first took over Zuccotti Park near the city’s financial district, the protesters gathered there again, drawing slogans in chalk on the pavement and waving flags as they marched through lower Manhattan.

Associated Press