World Briefs

AMMAN, Jordan – Nearly five years after Yasser Arafat died from what French doctors called a massive brain hemorrhage, Arab doctors will meet in Jordan to look into lingering suspicious the Palestinian leader was poisoned.

Arafat's death at a military hospital outside Paris quickly spawned speculation he'd been killed by Israel, which viewed him as an obstacle to a peace treaty.

The 75-year-old Arafat, who led the Palestinian movement for almost 40 years, fell violently ill in October 2004 at his West Bank compound in Ramallah. He was moved to a French hospital where he died Nov. 11, 2004.

MEXICO CITY – A Mexican business leader says "a significant number" of businessmen working along the U.S.-Mexican border have transferred their offices to U.S. cities to escape a wave of crime and extortion threats in Mexico.

The head of the Mexican Employers' Federation says business owners in the border cities of Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez have moved their operations to San Diego and to El Paso, Texas.

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran dismissed American government reports that senior U.S. and Iran envoys had a cordial — and promising — face-to-face exchange at an international conference, saying Wednesday that no "talks" took place.

The competing accounts of Tuesday's encounter in the Netherlands appeared to reflect the different approaches to overtures to end the United States' and Iran's nearly 30-year diplomat standoff.

SYDNEY – A woman, Katrina Megan Whitmore, was convicted Wednesday of fatally stabbing a neighbor who complained about her barking dog.

Joseph Durrant, 47, of Sydney, was on his way home when he argued with Whitmore in her yard about her dog. Prosecutors said Whitmore threatened Durrant then attacked him with a knife.

"She does say that she told people not to speak to her dog like that," prosecutor Chris Maxwell told the court.

ISLAMABAD – A SUSPECTED U. S. drone fired two missiles Wednesday at an alleged hide-out connected to a Taliban leader who has threatened to attack Washington, killing 14 people and wounding several others, officials said.

The attack came a day after Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a police academy in the eastern city of Lahore, saying it was retaliation for U.S. missile strikes on militant strongholds along the Afghan border. Mehsud also vowed to launch an attack on Washington.