Briefly

Iraqi truck bomber attacks police station

BAGHDAD -- A suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden truck struck a police station north of Baghdad on Saturday. The truck was allowed through the main gate of the complex in Beiji, the site of Iraq's largest refinery. The driver detonated his payload when two policemen approached him as he tried to enter a parking lot, police said. The blast killed eight people and wounded 16, police said.

Human rights debated at Europe, Africa summit

LISBON, Portugal -- Debates over human rights caused friction Saturday at a summit of European and African leaders attempting to build a new alliance on economic and environmental issues. The two-day summit in Portugal's capital drew leaders of the 53-member African Union and 27-nation European Union for their first such meeting in seven years. "We cannot turn a blind eye when human rights are being trampled," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who described the EU as "united" in condemning Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe for economic mismanagement, failure to curb corruption and contempt for democracy.

U.S. 'not ready' to agree to emissions cuts

BALI, Indonesia -- The United States will come up with its own plan to cut global-warming gases by mid-2008 and won't commit to mandatory caps at the U.N. climate conference here, the chief U.S. negotiator said Saturday. "We're not ready to do that here," said Harlan Watson, the State Department's senior climate negotiator and special representative. The U.S. leadership instead favors a more voluntary approach, in which individual nations determine what they can contribute to a global effort without taking on obligations under the U.N. climate treaty.

-- From wire reports