World Briefs

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Taliban militants stopped a bus traveling on Afghanistan's main highway through a wild and dangerous part of the country's south, captured some 50 people on board and slaughtered around 30 of them, officials said Sunday.

A Taliban spokesman said the militia's fighters carried out the attack but that the insurgents killed 27 Afghan army soldiers riding on the bus.

Militants stopped one bus in a two-bus convoy in the Maiwand district of Kandahar province — a Taliban-controlled area about 40 miles west of Kandahar city, said Matiullah Khan, the provincial police chief. Around 50 people were taken hostage, though several were freed, he said. Officials offered varying death tolls from the attack, which occurred in an area of Afghanistan that is not safe.

CAIRO, Egypt – An Egyptian tycoon and an associate sat side-by-side in metal cage in a packed Cairo courtroom Saturday and denied charges that they orchestrated the murder of a Lebanese pop star famed for her striking green eyes.

Plainclothes policemen surrounded billionaire Hisham Talaat Moustafa and Mohsen el-Sukkary as they sat separated by a partition in the cage to prevent scuffles since each is expected to blame the other for Suzanne Tamim's killing.

The case has mesmerized millions across the Middle East. They were shocked by the allegations against Moustafa and just as surprised that authorities arrested the real estate mogul and lawmaker. Moustafa is a close friend of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's son, Gamal, and part of a powerful group long known as the untouchables because they were seen as above the law.

PARIS - – French officials on Sunday backed International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who is facing an investigation into whether he abused his position in an affair with a subordinate.

President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling UMP party, which put Strauss-Kahn forward for the job, praised his work, as did members of the IMF chief's Socialist party, where he is seen as a possible future presidential candidate.

In France, the private lives of public figures are often considered to be off-limits and several officials speculated about the motivation behind bringing the case at a time of financial crisis.

"Dominique Strauss-Kahn showed all the way through this crisis that he was on top of things," government spokesman Luc Chatel said on Radio J.

The IMF said on Saturday it was investigating whether Strauss-Kahn abused his power in an affair with Piroska Nagy, a former senior economist.