Militant leader sought in bombings is caught

DHAKA -- An Islamic militant leader blamed for recent deadly bombings tried to blow himself up yesterday to avoid capture, officials said. Siddiqul Islam was captured at his hideout in northern Mymensingh district, said Mashuk Hasan, an official of Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion. Islam is one of the top leaders of Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, a militant group blamed for a wave of bombings in recent months that killed at least 26 people. (AP)

Afghanistan

KABUL -- Taliban militia fatally shot a UN engineer in western Afghanistan over the weekend, police said yesterday. Mohammad Hashim was killed Saturday in the Bala Buluk district of Farah Province, police chief General Sayed Aqa Saqib said. A special representative of the UN secretary general for Afghanistan, said six armed men dragged Hashim from a car and shot him. (AP)

Russia

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin signed a measure into law yesterday that allows the military to shoot down hijacked planes, the latest in a series of bills passed in response to terrorist attacks. The bill authorizes the shooting down of hijacked planes if it appears possible that terrorists may intend to attack key facilities or populated areas. (AP)

China

BEIJING -- A Chinese legislator called yesterday for police to tape interrogations in possible death penalty cases after widespread complaints of confessions being forced by torture, state-run media said. Yu Min, a delegate to China's National People's Congress, said measures were needed ''to curb inquisition by torture," according to the Xinhua News Agency. (AP)

Canada

OTTAWA -- The Canadian government, under increasing pressure to explain why 2,300 troops were sent to a violent part of Afghanistan, said yesterday that soldiers could stay there longer than intended. Most of the troops, who are in Kandahar as part of a NATO mission, are due to return by early 2007. But the foreign minister, Peter MacKay, speaking after senior Canadian military officials said the NATO mission would have to last at least a decade, conceded the schedule for the return of the troops was now unclear. (Reuters)

MONTREAL -- A lack of oxygen to the brain probably played a role in the death of a teenager once thought to have died of a peanut allergy after kissing her boyfriend who had just eaten peanut butter, a Quebec coroner said yesterday. Coroner Michel Miron said it appeared that Christina Desforges, 15, had suffered from ''cerebral anoxia," or a lack of oxygen to the brain, which caused serious damage. He provided no further details -- other than to say that no foul play was suspected in Desforges's death -- because he has yet to submit a final report to the provincial coroner's office. (AP)

Mexico

MEXICO CITY -- It may take months to recover the bodies of 65 miners trapped in a Feb. 19 explosion at a northern Mexico coal mine, but authorities are committed to digging the bodies out, Ruben Aguilar, the presidential spokesman, said yesterday. Aguilar said that there is ''a categorical commitment to get to the point where the explosion occurred and recover the bodies." (AP)