ROSARIO, Philippines -- Police suspected dynamite blasting caps caused a blast Monday that killed at least three people, injured 12 and destroyed six apartments in the Philippines.Rosario Vice Mayor Jose Hernandez said the explosion occurred near a school, causing parents to panic, Pacific News Center reported."Our initial suspicion is that the explosion was caused by dynamite fishing blasting caps," Rosario Police Chief Superintendent Edgar Roquero told Pacific News Center. "The blast has totally wrecked the ... [full story]

CORNWALL, Ontario -- Canadian authorities said they arrested a trucker for driving a trailer with $1.5 million worth of contraband cigarettes in southeastern Ontario.In a joint operation involving the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Border Security Agency and the Ontario Provincial Police, the unidentified 47-year-old man was pulled over on a highway Sunday, the Ottawa Sun reported Tuesday.There were more than 900 cases of cigarettes in the trailer valued at $1,526,250, which under the Excise ... [full story]

LONDON -- British families whose non-European relatives visit would pay a $2,000 bond under immigration proposals announced Tuesday.Non-European tourists also could stay only three months versus the current six months under the plans, which aim to curtail illegal immigration and employment, London's Daily Telegraph said.Similar measures where shelved in 2000 due to protests. Some deemed the plan impractical."If you have for example a big wedding in Leicester you are dealing with 20 people coming and ... [full story]

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Eight years after a Canadian boy was born brain-damaged, a Vancouver, British Columbia, court has awarded his mother $4 million in damages. The provincial Supreme Court ruled in favor of Monica Cojocaru, who sought the damages from the British Columbia Women's Hospital in Vancouver. The court heard that the woman had once before had a child by caesarean section, but wanted to deliver her second child vaginally, The Province newspaper reported. ... [full story]

MANILA, Philippines -- A U.S. foundation has donated $50,000 to help fishermen displaced by a 2006 oil spill off the Philippines island of Guimaras, observers said. Citi Foundation Wednesday turned over a check to Petron Corp. President Eric Recto to fund the second phase of a fisherman livelihood program for people in Nueva Valencia, Philippines, who were affected by oil spill from the Petron-chartered ship MT Solar I, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported. The newspaper said the ... [full story]

UNITED NATIONS -- The anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International in Sri Lanka said there is no explanation for more than $500 million in missing tsunami relief funds.The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Networks released a statement Friday saying Transparency International Sri Lanka has "no precise evidence to explain the missing sum of (nearly $535 million)."TISL said there is a gap in the amount distributed by aid agencies and the ... [full story]

EDMONTON, Alberta -- Police in Edmonton, Alberta, were trying Tuesday to determine why a trucker wreaked traffic havoc before driving off a bridge and dying in a fiery crash.Motorists called city police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police about 1 p.m. Monday, reporting that a tractor-trailer was weaving into oncoming westbound traffic on the Yellowhead Trail highway, the Edmonton Sun reported.Witness Zack Novak, 45, told the newspaper he followed the truck for about 10 miles."He ... [full story]

GRENOBLE, France -- Four Caterpillar executives "bossnapped" by workers were to be freed after French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to save the plant, union leaders said. A spokesman for the Confederation Generale du Travail union told The Times of London that the executives, taken Tuesday and held overnight at the Caterpillar plant in Grenoble, France, would be released as soon as company officials, at the behest of Sarkozy, agreed to renegotiate severance packages for laid-off workers. In ... [full story]

TORONTO - The father of a teenager whose accused killers were let go despite a videotape of the shooting said he's taking his wife and remaining children back to Somalia. "Canada is nothing. ... The Canadian government is nothing," Ahmed Abdikarim Mohammed told the Toronto Sun in front of his modest bungalow. "I go," said Mohammed, a 58-year-old Toronto cab driver. "My plan is this week to go, all together." Mohammed's 18-year-old son Abdikarim Ahmed ... [full story]

BAGHDAD - The war criminal known as "Chemical Ali" remains in U.S. military custody as Iraqi officials debate the legality of his execution by Iraq.Ali Hassan al-Majeed, Sultan Hashem Ahmed and Hussein Rashid were to be executed within 30 days after an Iraqi appeals court upheld their sentences in early September, CNN reported Tuesday. The three Sunnis were convicted of war crimes against the Kurds in the late 1980s during the reign of Saddam Hussein.Various ... [full story]

BAGHDAD - The trial of Saddam Hussein’s cousin “Chemical Ali” and other top aides has been put on hold until Oct. 21.The final witness before Thursday’s adjournment was Emma Nicholson, a member of the European Parliament from Britain and author of a book on the Marsh Arabs, the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA reported. She described visiting refugee camps in Iran for Iraqi Shiites after the 1991 Gulf War."During my visits to the refugee camps, I ... [full story]

HARTLEPOOL, England -- The sons of a British man and woman accused of faking his death have disowned their parents and been cleared as suspects by police.Police in the northeastern city of Hartlepool said Mark Darwin, 32, and his brother Anthony, 29, had been questioned during the weekend, Sky News reported Monday."The result of these lengthy interviews was that there was nothing to suggest they are anything other than witnesses and, of course, victims in ... [full story]

TEHRAN -- Many Iranian youths rallied in streets across the country, shouting "Death to Ahmadinejad," in celebrations marking the end of the Persian calendar year.The last Wednesday of the Persian calendar is celebrated as the Fire Festival in Iran, with bonfires and firecrackers marking the occasion.In the western city of Ahvaz, angry mobs declared "Freedom is our legitimate right" while demonstrators in the western city of Sanandaj shouted "Death to (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad," Ynetnews ... [full story]