Algeria
ALGIERS - A bomb in a busy used-car market south of the capital killed at least 12 people Thursday, hours after security forces killed a dozen Muslim militants in the Casbah of Algiers. The car, parked among hundreds of other vehicles in Boufarik, 25 miles south of the capital, exploded as thousands of people shopped in a huge dirt lot.
Bulgaria
SOFIA - Parliament approved the emergency import of wheat Thursday to avert a looming bread crisis - and perhaps ease a political crisis, as well. The governing Socialist Party of former Communists, who are blamed for Bulgaria's status as the poorest country in Europe, have faced protests for more than a week by an opposition that wants early elections.
Argentina
BUENOS AIRES - An aide to Argentina's president says lawmakers - and not his government - are responsible for threatened U.S. trade sanctions over a drug patents dispute. "Obviously, nobody wants to be sanctioned. But it was parliament, not the government, that passed this law," Alberto Kohan, chief of staff for President Carlos Menem, told Radio de la Plata.
Taiwan
TAIPEI - Taiwan's vice president will travel to Ireland this week in defiance of Beijing's diplomatic embargo, Taiwanese and Hong Kong newspapers reported Thursday.
TAIPEI - King Hu, a Chinese director who won international recognition for martial arts movies including "A Touch of Zen" and "All the King's Men," died earlier the month after heart surgery at age 65.
Germany
FRANKFURT - Police searching for bank robbers who got away in a hijacked helicopter said they arrested two suspects Thursday. A robber wielding a pistol and what he said was a bomb forced the director of a savings bank in Offenburg near the French border to hand over more than $630,000 Wednesday. The man escaped in a rental helicopter with an accomplice who had hijacked the craft and forced it to hover above the bank's roof, police said.
Afghanistan
KABUL - Taliban soldiers said they broke through the front line north of Afghanistan's capital Thursday, overrunning a strategic military base and capturing a provincial capital.
Bangladesh
DHAKA - A court has charged 21 retired army officers and four civilians with the 1975 murder of Bangladeshi President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman during a military coup, police said Thursday.
India
NEW DELHI - India fired at a remote-controlled aircraft that crossed into its air space from neighboring Pakistan, the air force said Thursday. Pakistan denied that any intrusion or firing took place.
China
BEIJING - Chinese authorities have closed 25 illegal laser disc production lines in a campaign against pornography and pirated products, state-run media reported.
Albania
VLORA - Angry depositors in a failed get-rich-quick scheme fought with police and smashed windows of the municipal building in this port city Thursday. The unrest came a day after a woman who headed a similar pyramid scheme in the capital of Tirana declared her fund bankrupt and was arrested after protesters were beaten by police.
Turkey
ANKARA - Turkish Foreign Minister Tansu Ciller met Iraqi Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani Thursday to seek his cooperation in Ankara's fight against Kurdish rebels who use northern Iraq as a base to attack Turkey.