Three people were killed and 43 others sustained gunshot wounds during a Hezbollah-led protest that paralyzed Lebanon Tuesday. The protesters clashed with government supporters and burned tires and cars on roads to enforce a general strike aimed at toppling U.S.-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora. What had been planned as a peaceful work-stoppage around the country turned into the worst violence since the pro-Syrian Shiite Hezbollah and its allies launched a campaign two months ago to oust the government.
China has decided not to relax its one-child policy, although a top family planning official acknowledged Tuesday the policy has accelerated the nation's growing gender gap. At least 118 boys were born for every 100 girls in 2005, said Zhang Weiqing, minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission. He called the imbalance, which could deprive many Chinese men of a spouse in the coming decades, a "very serious challenge for China."
A senior Iraqi defense official said a private U.S. security company helicopter was shot down Tuesday over central Baghdad. The official, who would not allow use of his name because the information had not been made public, said a gunman with PKC machine gun downed the small helicopter Tuesday afternoon over the heavily Sunni Fadhil neighborhood in north-central Baghdad. There were casualties, the official said, but would give no details.
A suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his chest blew himself up in a crowd of workers outside a U.S. military base in eastern Afghanistan Tuesday, killing as many as 10 people, officials said. The suicide bomber struck as hundreds of Afghan workers lined up to enter the base known as Camp Salerno outside the city of Khost, said provincial Gov. Jamal Arsalah.
Five civilians died in the Baghdad crash of a helicopter owned by the private security company Blackwater USA, according to a U.S. military official. The helicopter was shot down Tuesday over a predominantly Sunni neighborhood, a senior Iraqi defense official said. The crash came three days after a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter crashed northeast of Baghdad, killing all 12 soldiers aboard. The deaths of three more U.S. troops also were announced, including a Marine who was killed Sunday south of Baghdad, raising the weekend death toll to 28 as American casualties mount ahead of a U.S.-Iraqi security push to try to secure the capital.
