In the World
U.S. search dogs at Iraq blast site
BAGHDAD - The U.S. military sent search dogs yesterday to help find a dozen people still missing and feared dead after the country's worst bombing this year.
The truck bombing Saturday near Kirkuk, a city riven with ethnic tensions, flattened a Shiite Turkmen mosque and mud-brick houses around it, killing at least 75 people. Iraqi police blamed al-Qaeda in Iraq, saying it was trying to stir sectarian strife.
Maj. Derrick Cheng, a spokesman for U.S. forces in northern Iraq, said the Americans were sending military dogs to help, along with food, water, blankets, fuel, and clothing. - AP
More troops sent to Ciudad Juarez
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - Mexico added 1,500 troops to thousands already patroling the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, where homicides related to the drug trade have surged.
The soldiers will begin patrolling the city today, said Enrique Torres Valadez, spokesman for the joint security operation of soldiers and state police in Ciudad Juarez.
A total of 2,500 troops arrived Saturday night, Torres said, though 1,000 of them will relieve soldiers already on duty there. Last week, the Chihuahua state Attorney General's Office said killings in Ciudad Juarez, after dipping for a while, had risen again to eight to nine per day. - AP
Elsewhere:
Pope Benedict XVI said yesterday that countries must continue receiving refugees despite the difficulties they create while also addressing the causes that drive so many from their homes. Vatican officials and the U.N. refugee agency have denounced a new Italian accord with Libya to turn back refugees.