Avalanche kills 2 on Mont Blanc

Annecy, France

An avalanche on Mont Blanc in the French Alps killed two French men and injured four Swiss climbers Saturday, the local government office said.

A group of 10 climbers from a Swiss sports club was swept away at an altitude of 12,800 feet shortly after midday as they were scaling Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in western Europe, according to the government office for the region of Haute-Savoie.

The two French men, ages 54 and 26, whose identities were not released, were killed, while the four Swiss who were injured were hospitalized in the nearby towns of Salanches and Chamonix. The others in the group were not injured.

80 rebels killed, government says

Two days of heavy artillery and mortar fire have killed more than 80 Tamil Tiger rebels, Sri Lanka's military said Saturday, and the U.N. warned of an impending humanitarian crisis in areas cut off by fierce fighting.

Sri Lanka's air force destroyed a strategic Tamil sea base in the north, killing an unknown number of rebels, said Maj. Upali Rajapakse, a military spokesman.

Despite the continuing violence, Sri Lanka's president told United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan the doors were still open for peace talks with the rebels, the government said.

Rajapakse said the separatist Tigers had been using the sea base to launch recent attacks on government positions in the Jaffna Peninsula, which the Tigers claim as the cultural homeland of the country's 3.2 million ethnic Tamils.

Lampedusa, Italy

Immigrants die as boat overturns

A boat loaded with illegal immigrants heading from North Africa to Italy sank south of the Sicilian island of Lampedusa early Saturday, killing at least 10 people and leaving 40 missing and presumed dead, officials said.

An Italian navy ship spotted the boat before dawn Saturday about 11 miles south of Lampedusa and sent rescue vessels, said Adm. Ferdinando Lavaggi, a port official.

The craft overturned after the migrants — mostly Moroccans and Egyptians — moved to one side of the 33-foot boat, he said.

About 70 people were rescued and 10 bodies were recovered, Lavaggi said. The rescued migrants told officials there were 120 people on board.

Tehran, Iran

Airstrikes introduce military exercises

Iran on Saturday launched a series of large-scale military exercises aimed at introducing the country's new defensive doctrine, state-run television reported.

The television report said the military exercise would occur in 14 of the country's 30 provinces and could last as long as five weeks.

The first stage of the maneuvers began with airstrikes in the southeastern province of Sistan va Baluchistan, the report said.

The military exercises come as Iran faces heightened international scrutiny because of its contentious nuclear program and for supporting the guerrilla group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Also

Government troops arrested about 100 people in a search for militants suspected of taking oil-industry workers hostage in Nigeria's petroleum-rich south, the army said Saturday. The forces set up roadblocks around the key city of Port Harcourt on Saturday, a day after the troops began house searches in one neighborhood.

Compiled from The Associated Press