SERBIA

An explosion killed two people and injured 12 when it tore through shops today in the capital of Serbia’s breakaway Kosovo province.

The explosion scattered glass and debris from a dozen shops on Pristina’s Bill Clinton Boulevard. Part of a building collapsed.

The cause of the blast was not known. It came at a time of rising tension within Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority over its stalled bid for independence from Serbia.

The territory has been run by the United Nations and patrolled by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization since 1999, when NATO airstrikes drove out Serbian forces to halt atrocities against ethnic Albanians.

Leaders of Serbia and Kosovo are due to hold direct negotiations on the territory’s fate on Friday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

INDONESIA Militant escapes prison, reports say

An Indonesian militant serving a 20-year prison term for a deadly cafe bombing has escaped from jail in the east of the country, media reports said today.

Jasmin bin Kasau apparently used a rope to climb the walls of Gunung Sari prison on Sulawesi island late Friday, the Jakarta Post and other newspapers reported, quoting prison officials.

Authorities were not immediately available for comment.

Bin Kasau and several other Islamic militants were serving prison terms for the 2004 bombing of a cafe on Sulawesi that killed four people.

CHINA Six jailed in corruption case

China has jailed six former officials and business executives in connection with a graft scandal that toppled the Communist Party chief of Shanghai, a Hong Kong paper reported today.

The six were sentenced to terms from three years to life for taking or giving bribes and abusing Shanghai’s social security funds, the mainland-controlled Ta Kung Pao newspaper reported.

Chinese officials say the six belonged to a web of suspected corruption centered on Chen Liangyu, the former party secretary of Shanghai who was sacked in September 2006 and now faces a criminal investigation.

NIGERIA Rebel group threatens attacks

A powerful Nigerian armed group threatened to resume attacks on oil facilities and abductions of foreigners, ending a four-month cease fire.

The threat to disrupt oil supplies from Africa’s top producer follows the arrest of a factional leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, Henry Okah, in Angola on arms trafficking charges on Sept. 3.

“With effect from 12 midnight today, Sunday, Sept. 23, 2007, we will commence attacks on installations and abduction of expatriates,” the group said in a statement e-mailed to the media.

Since last year, dozens of troops, militants and civilians have been killed, thousands of foreign workers have left, and oil output from the world’s eighth-largest exporter has been cut by a fifth, affecting world prices.

AFGHANISTAN 3 guards killed, 10 others missing

Three Afghan guards with a U.S. private security firm were killed in an ambush by Taliban insurgents in western Afghanistan and 10 were missing, officials said today.

A provincial official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that 13 guards had died in the attack in Farah province.

Elsewhere, gunmen killed 12 police and government employees in the northeastern province of Badakhshan. Two Italian soldiers captured in Herat province were freed in a military operation, the Italian Embassy said today.

From Times Wire Reports