Mine explosion kills one Marine, injures three

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A U.S. Marine was killed and three others were injured Wednesday while clearing mines near the south central Iraqi city of Karbala, the U.S. military said.

An Iraqi fire department technician accompanying the Marines was also injured, said a statement from U.S. Central Command.

The injured were taken to a nearby medical facility.

The names of the dead and injured were being withheld pending family notification.

No other details were immediately available.

More than 65 Americans have been killed since President Bush declared an end to major hostilities May 1, about a third of them in combat.

German teen shoots teacher, kills self

COBURG, Germany -- A 16-year-old student armed with a pistol and a revolver opened fire in his classroom Wednesday, wounding a school psychologist and fatally shooting himself.

Two students were slightly injured in the rush to flee the public school in this Bavarian town at about 9 a.m., state police said. One pupil jumped from a first-floor window but landed unhurt.

The teenager walked into the classroom and fired a first shot toward the chalkboard, which ricocheted into the ceiling, sending the teacher and her pupils fleeing, police said, revising earlier accounts that the classroom teacher was shot.

A second teacher who serves as school psychologist tried to enter the room to calm the student. He shot her in the thigh, said Bernhard Schmitt, a police officer at the scene. The 16-year-old then turned the revolver on himself, police said.

Saudis arrest militant linked to suicide attacks

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- Police captured an alleged militant linked to suicide bombings in the Saudi capital, days after he shot a police officer while eluding arrest, a security official said Wednesday.

The arrest came amid a nationwide sweep that has nabbed at least 125 people since May 12 attacks blamed on al-Qaida that horrified the nation. In addition to arrests, police in bulletproof vests now man checkpoints in major cities, checking ID, searching cars, and keeping watch from behind machine guns.

The latest arrest brought in Zafer Abdul Rahman al-Shihri on Tuesday night in an abandoned house in the southern province of al-Namas, said an Interior Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Harry Potter novel tops best-seller list in France

PARIS -- The latest Harry Potter novel has become the first book in English ever to be No. 1 on France's best seller list.

Since the release of J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" on June 21, more than 41,000 copies have been sold in France, according to Ipsos polling institute.

Sophie Martin, the institute's culture director, said she was surprised at the book's popularity.

"There was so much curiosity," she said. "People waited with great impatience in France."

Pakistanis arrest man in killing of Christians

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistani authorities have detained a suspected Islamic militant who allegedly masterminded three attacks on Christians last year, killing nearly a dozen people including two Americans, intelligence officials said Wednesday.

More than 50 people were wounded in the attacks in Islamabad and two other locations.

Abdul Jabbar was picked up during a raid in a remote village near the city of Sargodha, 120 miles southwest of Islamabad, the capital, an intelligence official said.

The official said Jabbar played a key role in the attacks on two churches and a missionary school in 2002.

-- From wire reports