World News: 80 police recruits killed in suicide bomb blasts at base

The Pakistani Taliban said today it carried out the twin blasts at a Frontier Corps training centre that killed at least 80 people, nearly all of them recruits, to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden.

The attack is the bloodiest in Pakistan since the US raid that killed the al-Qaida chief on May 2. Ahsanullah Ahsan, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, said its fighters conducted the attack on the Frontier Constabulary in Shabqadar in retaliation for bin Laden's death.

A suicide bomber detonated at least one of the blasts at the main gate of the centre for the Frontier Constabulary, a poorly equipped, but front-line force in Pakistan's battle against al-Qaida and allied Islamist groups close to the Afghan border.

Dozens of people were wounded, said police official Nisar Khan. He said a suicide bomber, a man in his late teens or early 20s, set off one blast.

Many recruits were boarding vehicles to go home for a short break at the end of a recent training session. A vegetable seller at the site said some recruits were sitting in minivans as others loaded luggage. "There was a big blast," he said. "I saw smoke, blood and body pieces all around."

Famed preacher on the mend

Doctors say evangelist Billy Graham is continuing to improve in a North Carolina hospital where he is being treated for pneumonia.

A spokesman for Mission Hospital in Asheville said Graham, 92, had resumed a normal routine a day after being admitted.

Tanks roll in for protests

Syrian soldiers rolled into flashpoint cities in tanks and set up barriers topped with machine guns as President Bashar Assad's deadly crackdown on dissent pulled the country deeper into international isolation.

On the eve of another round of large protests, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton slammed the government's assault on demonstrators and said the violence showed Assad was weak. However, she stopped short of saying that he must quit.

Sacked cashier attacks staff

A CASHIER sacked for stealing money hurled a petrol bomb inside a bank in north-western China today, injuring dozens of people, some of whom jumped from a fifth-floor window to escape.

Employees were meeting at about 8am local time when the employee threw the bomb.

Baby animals found in luggage

Authorities at Bangkok's international airport in Thailand have arrested a first-class passenger from the United Arab Emirates whose suitcases were filled with baby leopards, panthers, a bear and monkeys.The animals had been drugged and were bound for Dubai.

Quake fears see thousands flee from city

Spain: Thousands have fled the small agricultural city of Lorca, fearing destruction by major aftershocks after the country's deadliest earthquakes in 55 years killed nine people and caused extensive damage.

Kansas: Police say a 57-year-old man lived with the body of his dead fiance for several days, praying she would be brought back to life. Calls from neighbours concerned about her welfare sent police to their home in Wichita.