Violence cancels Hastert's visit to Nepal

Kathmandu

The United States canceled a planned visit Wednesday by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and a seven-member delegation and said embassy workers could leave Nepal due to increasingly violent pro-democracy demonstrations.

Hundreds of protesters in Parasi, 125 miles southwest of the capital, Kathmandu, pelted police with stones and bricks.

Officers opened fire, killing one and injuring five others.

King Gyanendra seized absolute power 14 months ago, saying he wanted to stamp out political corruption and end a communist insurgency that has left nearly 13,000 people dead in the past decade.

Vancouver, B.C.

Kidnapped man rescued; 6 arrested

Graham McMynn, who was abducted in broad daylight last week from a street in an exclusive neighborhood, was rescued Wednesday. Six people were arrested, police said.

McMynn, 23, was found at a house in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey after police raided more than a dozen homes in the Vancouver area.

Police did not say what the motive for the crime may have been, but noted the abductors knew McMynn came from a wealthy family, which leases buses to tour companies in the United States and Canada.

McMynn disappeared April 4 after he was grabbed by gunmen while driving to school with his girlfriend near his home in the Southlands neighborhood.

N'Djamena, Chad

Fighting erupts around capital

Chadian helicopters fired rockets at rebel forces around the capital, N'Djamena, today, and tank fire and mortar rounds echoed through the city as government troops attempted to hold off a rebel attack.

French fighter jets based in N'Djamena could also be heard, but it was unclear if they were overhead or just revving their engines at the airfield. The sounds of fighting could be heard coming from the north, south and southeast of the city.

The fighting began before dawn, when residents of eastern neighborhoods awoke to gunfire, sending panic through the city a day after reports that rebels were heading to the capital.

Government officials were not reachable and the state-run radio played music without any commentary or reports on the situation in the country.

Also

Sri Lanka violence: Two explosions and subsequent violence Wednesday killed 16 people in the restive town of Trincomalee in northeast Sri Lanka. Tuesday, an explosion in Trincomalee killed 11 people and wounded 11, including two British tourists. The military blamed the attacks on separatist rebels from the Tamil ethnic minority.

Plane diverted: Fighter jets Wednesday escorted a Ryanair Boeing 737 en route from Paris to Dublin, Ireland, with 172 people on board to an airport in Glasgow, Scotland, after a passenger passed the captain a note saying there was a bomb on board. The plane landed safely, authorities said. No bomb was found.

Cruise ship guarded: Police were guarding the Queen Elizabeth 2 luxury liner Wednesday after the ship's owner Cunard and British authorities reported an unspecified threat against it as it docked in the north Egyptian port of Alexandria.

Compiled from The Associated Press and Reuters