Chávez threatens to expel US diplomat

CARACAS -- President Hugo Chávez said the US ambassador was ''provoking the Venezuelan people" and threatened yesterday to expel the American diplomat, whose convoy was chased by pro-government protesters on motorcycles. Chávez condemned protesters for pelting US ambassador William Brownfield's car with eggs and tomatoes, saying his government ''rejects any kind of aggression." But he suggested Brownfield, who was returning from a visit to a ballpark in Caracas's poor Coche neighborhood, a Chávez stronghold, sought a confrontation by failing to advise authorities adequately of his travel plans and venturing into a place where his presence was unwelcome. (AP)

Pakistan

KARACHI -- A stampede at the end of a religious gathering yesterday to mark the birth of Islam's Prophet Mohammed left at least 29 women and children dead in southern Pakistan. The stampede occurred as thousands of women were leaving the Sunni Muslim Faizan-e-Medina center in the port city of Karachi after listening to sermons, said Hanees Billu, a spokesman for the center. Witnesses said the fatal crush happened inside the center's compound, when a woman bent down to pick up a young girl who had fallen, causing other people behind her to trip. Hospital officials said 29 people died and more than 70 others were injured. (AP)

Italy

ROME -- Italians finish voting today in a bitter election that could end Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's five-year rule and return the center-left to power. A second day of voting runs from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and exit polls will quickly tell whether opposition leader Romani Prodi takes office at the head of a wide coalition ranging from Roman Catholic centrists to communists. Opinion polls indicated that Prodi, a former prime minister and European Commission president, was leading during a campaign that saw candidates trade insults but left many voters wondering whether either side had answers to Italy's woes. Opinion polls have not been published in two weeks but Prodi has led the race since returning to Italian politics in 2004 after five years as head of the European Commission. (Reuters)

ROME -- A century-old tree fell on a group of deaf tourists in central Italy yesterday, killing a man and injuring seven people who were unable to hear a bus driver's shout of alarm, police said. The Italian tourists had finished a day of sightseeing and were about to board a bus in a square outside the L'Aquila train station to return to their homes near Rome, police said. A 47-year-old man from Valmontone, a suburb of Rome, was killed instantly when he was struck by the horse chestnut tree, police said. Two women were hospitalized with broken bones and five of the tourists were treated at a hospital and released, police said. (AP)

Canada

TORONTO -- Police investigating the deaths of eight men found stuffed inside abandoned vehicles in a remote wooded area near the US border descended on a farmhouse a few miles down the road yesterday, blocking traffic to and from the area. Police refused to discuss what was happening beyond the roadblock, which was set up about 3 miles from where the bodies were found inside four vehicles deserted in a farmer's field Saturday morning. The farm in Shedden, Ontario, is about 90 miles northeast of Detroit. The victims knew one another and were all from the Toronto area, said police, who characterized the deaths as homicides. Autopsies of the bodies are pending. Ross Bingley of the Ontario Provincial Police declined to speculate on the cause of death. No details about the victims were released. (AP)