40 factories shut over air quality

With Beijing struggling to clear polluted skies before the Olympics in August, the nearby industrial port of Tianjin has ordered 40 factories to suspend some operations for two months as part of a broader effort to improve air quality for the games, state news media says.

Beijing's air quality remains a major concern for the games as the city continues to struggle with pollution, despite a $20 billion government cleanup campaign. Beijing is also a victim of its neighborhood: Pollution blows in from surrounding regions that are dotted with coal mines, coal-fired power plants, steel mills, cement factories and other clusters of heavy industry.

The Olympics' opening ceremony is Aug. 8, and meteorologists have said officials must begin closing factories a few weeks beforehand to make a difference.

Kabul, Afghanistan

Suicide car bomb kills 28, wounds 141

An Afghan health official says 28 people have died and 141 others are wounded after a suicide car-bomb attack today outside the Indian Embassy in central Kabul.

Public-health ministry spokesman Abdullah Fahim said casualties included civilians and security forces.

The bomb exploded during this morning's rush hour near the Indian Embassy, which sits across the street from Afghanistan's Interior Ministry on a tree-lined street in the city center.

Dozens of Afghan men line up outside the embassy every morning to apply for visas to India.

Bogotá, Colombia

Hostages urged to keep hope alive

Freed after years as rebel-held hostages, French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and four Colombian police officers sent messages of hope in a radio broadcast Sunday to captives still detained in remote jungle camps.

The former hostages appeared on an all-night radio show aimed at rebel captives and wept as they recalled their ordeal, which ended four days ago when Colombian agents duped guerrillas and airlifted 15 hostages to freedom.

"Hostage brothers, what happened to us has more than proved that God exists," said police Cpl. John Jairo Duran. "Don't let yourselves be conquered by sadness. We never thought it would be our turn to be free, and it was. Your turn is very near."

Mogadishu, Somalia

U.N. official killed leaving a mosque

Gunmen opened fire on people leaving a mosque in Somalia's capital Sunday night, killing one of the country's senior U.N. officials and wounding his son and another man, a witness and a family member said.

Attacks on officials, including those working for the U.N. or aid agencies, are common in Somalia, where Islamic insurgents are fighting the country's weak and corrupt U.N.-supported government.

Osman Ali Ahmed, leader of the U.N. Development Program for Somalia, died at the African Union hospital after being shot in the head, said his wife, Masteho Abubakr Yusus.

Also

South Korea: President Lee Myung-bak named new ministers of welfare, agriculture and education today in his first government revamping.

Guyana: Authorities say a first-class Delta Air Lines passenger was so angry at seeing economy passengers leave a jetliner before him on a flight from New York that he yanked open an emergency hatch and slid down the chute.

Mexico: A tropical depression scattered rains across Mexico's Pacific Coast Sunday, and the U.S. National Hurricane Center said it was likely to reach tropical-storm force.

Mideast: Tractors were digging at a cemetery where Lebanese and Palestinian fighters are buried, as part of a prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbollah. Exhumation of bodies was to begin today.

Seattle Times news services