World briefs 4/9/06

Car bomb kills 6 near Iraqi Shiite shrine

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A car bomb killed six people Saturday near a Shiite shrine south of Baghdad, and the death toll from the deadliest attack of the year rose to nearly 90. A senior official warned Iraq was in an "undeclared civil war" that can be curbed only by a strong government and greater powers for security services. With sectarian tensions rising, U.S. Marines on Saturday beat back the largest attack in weeks by Sunni Arab insurgents in the western city of Ramadi -- another sign of the crisis facing this country three years after Baghdad fell to U.S. forces.

Taylor's war crimes trial to move to Netherlands

UNITED NATIONS -- U.N. Security Council members agree the war crimes trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor should be moved from Sierra Leone to the Netherlands and could adopt a resolution next week to allow the transfer, the council president said. China's U.N. ambassador Wang Guangya said the Security Council was still debating several issues, including who should pay the costs.

Bodies found in cars on Canadian farmland

SHEDDEN, Ontario -- The bodies of eight men were found Saturday inside four vehicles abandoned in a remote wooded area on a farmer's property in rural southwestern Canada. Police were not disclosing many details about the deaths in rural Ontario, about 60 miles southwest of the city of London, except to say that four vehicles were involved, including a tow truck, and that the dead were all men.

Berlusconi may face defeat in Italian elections

ROME -- Will Premier Silvio Berlusconi keep his job? Italian voters will let him know in a couple of days. Defeat for Berlusconi would end a five-year government that is Italy's longest-serving since World War II, and deprive President Bush of a staunch ally who has sent troops to Iraq. Voters are in a foul mood, and they have reason: The economy is going nowhere, jobs are scarce and the health system is in crisis.

--From wire reports

Israeli missile strikes kill eight Palestinian militants

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Two Israeli air strikes killed eight Palestinian militants Saturday in the latest signs that Israel has stepped up its retaliation for Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza since the Islamic militant group Hamas assumed power last week. Six Palestinian militants were killed and five wounded when Israeli aircraft fired missiles after nightfall at a training camp in central Gaza, Palestinian officials said. Earlier Saturday, two members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent offshoot of the Fatah Party, were killed and a third was seriously wounded in an Israeli missile strike on their car in Gaza.

-- From wire reports