World Scene

SAUDI ARABIA

Third car bomb found in a week

RIYADH — Saudi police defused a car bomb in the capital, Riyadh, yesterday, the third explosive-rigged vehicle found in the Gulf state in less than a week.

An Interior Ministry official said police had been looking for the four-wheel-drive car, and security sources said it was discovered early yesterday morning in an eastern Riyadh neighborhood where militants have often clashed with police.

On Tuesday, police found two similar car bombs north of Riyadh. Five policemen were killed in fierce clashes in and around the capital last week, as well as two neighborhood patrol guards.

On Thursday, the United States ordered nonessential diplomats out of Saudi Arabia and warned all Americans they should leave.

JORDAN

Terror attacks foiled, government says

AMMAN — A dismantled terrorist network planned to attack Jordan’s intelligence headquarters with a chemical bomb, which would have killed 20,000 people living in the surrounding area in west Amman, an official involved in the inquiry said yesterday.

The official said another operation planned by the network targeted the U.S. Embassy and the prime minister’s office. He said the network was linked to Jordanian Abu Musaab Zarqawi, who is believed by the U.S. government to be in Iraq.

On Tuesday, Jordan’s King Abdullah II said the terror network was preparing to commit “a crime never before seen in the kingdom,” an incident that would have killed thousands.

AFGHANISTAN

8 killed in attack by Taliban suspects

KABUL — Suspected Taliban guerrillas opened fire on a security checkpoint in Afghanistan’s insurgency-gripped south, killing eight soldiers, a provincial official said yesterday.

Using machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, the militants ambushed the soldiers late Friday evening in Nimroz province, about 435 miles southwest of the capital, Kabul, said Nimroz provincial Gov. Abdul Karim Brawy.

IRAQ

General nearly faints during press briefing

BAGHDAD — The top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq appeared to lose consciousness briefly during a briefing for reporters yesterday, bumping his face into a podium microphone. He left the room for a period, but returned smiling and answered more questions.

There was no immediate explanation for the apparent fainting spell suffered by Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the deputy head of operations in Iraq, who delivers daily briefings to Baghdad-based journalists beside the top U.S. coalition spokesman, Dan Senor.

Gen. Kimmitt had left the podium for a few minutes earlier in the press conference, which was broadcast live internationally. He returned, looking pale, to take more questions.

AFGHANISTAN

Karzai breaks ground for five-star hotel

KABUL — Afghan President Hamid Karzai attended the groundbreaking ceremony for a $39 million, five-star hotel here yesterday. The four-story, 200-room Hyatt Regency Hotel, a rare taste of luxury in war-torn Afghanistan, will be a new Kabul landmark opposite the U.S. Embassy.

“The groundbreaking for the Hyatt hotel proves a very important fact: Afghanistan is open for business,” said U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.

Most building work in Afghanistan since the 2001 ouster of the former Taliban regime has focused on reconstruction after two decades of war.

The hotel is scheduled to be completed in 18 months.