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Aid workers shot in Somalia; 1 dies

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A disgruntled former employee shot at least two international workers from the aid group Doctors Without Borders at the group's office in the Somalian capital, a security guard said Thursday. At least one person was killed.

Ahmed Ali, a security guard for the aid group known as MSF - its initials in French - said a Somalian employee who ran its logistics was dismissed from his job Wednesday. He returned Thursday and opened fire, hitting the two aid workers, killing one of them, Ali said.

The nationalities of the aid workers weren't immediately known, though Ali and a Nairobi security official said the person killed was believed to be French.

Mogadishu is one of the most dangerous locations for aid workers to conduct business. Many groups don't allow international workers to stay in the capital for long and rely primarily on Somalian employees. - AP

Anticorruption bill stalls in India

NEW DELHI - India's coalition government failed Thursday to push through legislation to create an independent anticorruption agency, possibly stalling the bill for months.

The drama in Parliament over the proposed agency, known as the Lokpal, has dominated the Indian media in recent days. But the larger issue of official corruption has dominated the political landscape since last summer, when anger boiled over into huge protests led by anticorruption campaigner Anna Hazare.

Thursday was the final day of the winter session of Parliament and was supposed to bring a decisive vote on the Lokpal legislation in the upper house, known as the Rajya Sabha. On Tuesday, the lower house of Parliament approved the government's bill.

- N.Y. Times News Service

Last Argentine dictator convicted

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Argentina's last dictator was convicted Thursday of more crimes against humanity, this time getting 15 years in prison for setting up a secret torture center inside a hospital during the 1976 military coup.

Reynaldo Bignone oversaw the takeover of the Posadas de Haedo hospital in Buenos Aires province 35 years ago, leading soldiers in tanks and helicopters in search of medical personnel who allegedly treated leftist guerrillas. The military dismissed all the doctors and nurses but kept some for questioning, including the hospital's medical director. Eleven hospital staffers disappeared. Bignone's trial involved 21 cases of kidnapping and torture.

Bignone, now 85, was the military junta's social-welfare delegate at the time. He was the junta's president in 1982 and 1983, ordering the destruction of vast stores of evidence, and dictating a military amnesty before democracy returned to Argentina. He already faces life in prison for other kidnappings and tortures. - AP

Elsewhere:

A judge in Chile has closed the case on the death of President Salvador Allende after an authoritative autopsy confirmed it was suicide.