World Briefs

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – A suicide bomber demolished a mosque packed with hundreds of worshippers attending Friday prayers near the Afghan border, killing at least 48 people and injuring scores more, in the bloodiest attack in Pakistan this year.

The bomber struck at the climax of the service, as the mosque leader was starting the communal prayer. "As the prayer leader said 'God is Great', the bomb went off with a big bang," said Nadir Shah, a local solider. "Sometime later when I opened my eyes, I was lying among dead bodies."

BANGKOK – Deposed Premier Thaksin Shinawatra demanded Friday that Thailand's government resign, echoing the calls of his estimated 30,000 supporters who have surrounded the prime minister's office for two days.

Thaksin spoke from self-imposed exile, his image broadcast outside Government House, which he occupied for six years until he was ousted in a 2006 coup.

The demonstrators say PM Abhisit Vejjajiva's government came to power through illegal means and should step down so new elections can be held.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – A former State Department lawyer tells The Associated Press that the Bush administration panicked after 9/11 and tortured prisoners.

Former President George W. Bush denied anyone was tortured. But Vijay Padmanabhan is at least the second insider to publicly describe as torture the so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" used by the U.S.

Padmanabhan was the department's chief counsel on Guantanamo litigation.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Friday ordered 4,000 more military troops into Afghanistan, vowing to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat" the terrorist al-Qaida network in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan.

In a war that still has no end in sight, Obama said the fresh infusion of U.S. forces is designed to bolster the Afghan army and turn up the heat on terrorists that he said are plotting new attacks against Americans.

WASHINGTON – A federal judge on Friday ordered Iran to pay $25 million plus interest to the family of Israeli soldier Nachshon Wachsman, who was kidnapped and executed by Hamas in 1994.

Wachsman was a 19-year-old U.S. citizen and Israeli army corporal when he was taken by four members of Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the United States. His abduction damaged Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations at the time, as he pleaded on videotape for his life.