An avalanche kills at least 16 people

DUSHANBE - An avalanche killed at least 16 people in the mountains of Tajikistan yesterday, and more people were trapped under snow, an Interior Ministry official said. The avalanche occurred after several days of heavy snowfall along a road that connects the capital, Dushanbe, with another city, Khudjand. Heavy tractors cleared snow from a mountain road in an effort to free an unknown number of trapped people. (Reuters)

TEHRAN - The wife of a missing former FBI agent said yesterday that she was unable to find out what happened to her husband while visiting the Iranian island where he was last seen. The Iranian government said it had no information on Robert Levinson, 59, of Florida. He was last seen March 8 on Kish Island, where he was investigating cigarette smuggling for a client of his security firm. (AP)

TEHRAN - Mohammad Khatami, former president, has resumed his attacks against hard-line Iranian clerics threatening to disqualify opponents from upcoming elections. In comments published yesterday, Khatami was quoted as telling residents in the northwestern town of Tabriz that arbitrarily banning candidates was against Iran's constitution and Islam. The hard-liners include his successor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (AP)

CAIRO - Sixteen Egyptians drowned yesterday after a minibus they were riding in plunged into the Nile river from the deck of a ferry in central Egypt. Officials said 13 bodies had been pulled from the river near the town of Minya. (Reuters)