Bhutto drops plans to leave country

KARACHI - Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto abruptly canceled plans to travel abroad yesterday, saying she had heard rumors the government could impose a state of emergency during her absence. The opposition leader, who was targeted by suicide bombers when she returned home on Oct. 18 following eight years in exile, had been preparing to go to Dubai to see her husband and three children. She said that senior party aides told her President Pervez Musharraf might impose emergency measures if the Supreme Court found that his recent election win was unconstitutional. A ruling is expected later this week. The government denied any such plans. The violence continued today when a suicide bomber attacked a bus carrying Pakistan Air Force employees, killing at least five people and wounding about 40, police said. The attack occurred in Punjab province. (AP)

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah will meet Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday in the first encounter between a pope and a Saudi monarch, the Vatican said. Abdullah is on a European tour, and Benedict has been trying to increase dialogue between Catholics and Muslims. The Vatican and Saudi Arabia do not have diplomatic relations, but the Holy See has ties with many other Islamic nations. (AP)

MADRID - Parliament condemned General Francisco Franco's nearly 40-year dictatorship yesterday in historic legislation addressing a dark chapter of Spanish history that had been largely off-limits. The bill sponsored by the Socialist government and passed by the lower house of parliament also makes symbolic amends to victims of the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War. It formally denounces Franco's regime and mandates that local governments fund efforts to unearth mass graves from the civil war. (AP)