World briefs 9/16/06

Suicide bombers try to attack Yemen oil facilities

SAN'A, Yemen -- Authorities foiled an attempt by suicide bombers to blow up two oil installations with explosives-laden cars Friday, days after al-Qaida threatened to strike facilities in the Persian Gulf. The four attackers and a guard were killed. No group claimed responsibility for Friday's attacks.

Italian writer Oriana Fallaci dies at age 76

ROME -- Oriana Fallaci, a journalist whose merciless questioning succeeded in making some of the world's most powerful and inaccessible people lower their guard, from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to Henry Kissinger, has died. She was 76. Fallaci, who wrote about her long battle with breast cancer, died overnight at a private clinic in her native Florence, Paolo Klun, an official with the RCS publishing group said Friday. Virtually all of the literary energy and passion of her final years were consumed in vehement attacks on a Muslim world she judged to be the enemy of Western civilization.

Hurricane Lane heads for Baja Calif. peninsula

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico -- Tropical Storm Lane became a Category 2 hurricane Friday as it roared toward the tip of the Baja California Peninsula, lashing Mexico's Pacific coast, flooding port cities and causing a landslide that killed a 7-year-old boy. Mexico issued hurricane warnings for the southern tip of Baja and for a stretch of mainland Pacific coastline between El Roblito to Altata.

-- From wire reports