Terrorism suspected as 3 blasts kill 10 in Mumbai (AP)

MUMBAI, India – India's home minister says three explosions at rush-hour in busy Mumbai have killed at least 10 people and injured 54.

Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said the number of dead and wounded could rise.

One blast Wednesday evening hit a crowded neighborhood in central Mumbai. The others were at a famed jewelry bazaar and a busy business district.

A terror seige in Mumbai three years ago that killed 166 people.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

MUMBAI, India (AP) — Three explosions rocked India's busy financial capital at rush-hour Wednesday, killing at least eight people and injuring 70 in what officials described as another terror strike on the city hit by militants nearly three years ago.

Television footage showed dozens of police officials, several of them armed, at the sites of the explosion and at least one car with its windows shattered. A photograph showed victims of a blast at the Jhaveri Bazaar crowding into the back of a cargo truck to be taken to a hospital.

Indian media reported the Home Ministry had called the separate blasts in three busy locations a terror attack. No officials there could be independently reached for comment.

One blast was in the crowded neighborhood of Dadar in central Mumbai. The others were at the bazaar, which is a famed jewelry market, and the busy business district of Opera House, both in southern Mumbai and several miles (kilometers) apart, a police official said.

The official in the city's Police Control Room spoke on condition of anonymity because of office policy.

"It must be a bomb blast," Chhagan Bhujbal, a state minister told a TV news channel.

All three blasts happened from 6:50 p.m. to 7 p.m., when all the neighborhoods would have been packed with office workers and commuters.

The blasts — if confirmed as a terror strike — would mark the first major attack on Mumbai since 10 militants laid siege to India's financial capital for 60 hours in November 2008.

That attack, which targeted two luxury hotels, a Jewish center and a busy train station, killed 166 people and was blamed on Pakistan-based militant groups. The attacks escalated tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals and prompted them to suspend peace talks.

However, the talks have recently resumed.

Pakistan's government expressed distress on the loss of lives and injuries soon after Wednesday's blasts were reported.

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6 suspected militants killed in Mauritania (AP)

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania – A Mauritanian military spokesman said six militants suspected of belonging to al-Qaida's affiliate in North Africa were killed during a clash earlier this week.

Col. Tiyid Ould Brahim said Mauritanian soldiers found their bodies after Tuesday's attack in the town of Bassiknou. The attackers were believed to belong to Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM. They opened fire on a Mauritanian military base, attacking in a convoy of more than 20 cars, but were pushed back.

The army said Thursday soldiers barricaded the base and fought back. There were no casualties on the Mauritanian side.

AQIM has become increasingly bold in recent years, leading attacks on foreign targets and on Mauritanian government buildings and military installations.

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Saudi trial opens for 85 suspected al-Qaida agents (AP)

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia's state news agency says 85 suspected members of al-Qaida accused of taking part in a deadly 2003 terrorist attack have gone on trial in a Riyadh court.

The SPA news agency says some of the defendants were charged with carrying out car bombings on three Riyadh housing compounds for foreigners that killed more than 30 people. Others were charged with attacking security forces, weapons possession, bomb making and armed robbery.

SPA did not say when the men were arrested or why they facing trial now, eight years after the attacks.

However, it claimed their arrest had foiled several plots to bomb two air bases and residential compounds in the eastern region.

It said security forces had confiscated videos documenting some of the defendants' operations.

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CIA role suspected in 2003 Iraq prison homicide (AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A secret US federal grand jury is looking into the role of CIA agents in several alleged "war on terror" abuse cases, including the November 2003 homicide of a prisoner at Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison, Time magazine reported Monday.

The dead man, Manadel al-Jamadi, became known as "the Iceman" when his CIA handlers placed his body in ice to slow decomposition in a failed attempt to hide the death.

Prosecutor John Durham has started calling witnesses, including US military personnel who served at Abu Ghraib, before the grand jury investigating the case, the magazine reported.

Durham spokesman Tom Carson had little to say. "This is an ongoing investigation," Carson told AFP.

US Attorney General Eric Holder appointed Durham in August 2009 to look into several cases of alleged harsh abuse by CIA agents on terror suspects that had been ignored for years.

Durham's grand jury mandate could involve charging CIA officers as well as contract employees in other cases, Time said.

"The grand jury is conducting an investigation of possible violations of federal criminal laws involving War Crimes (18 USC/2441), Torture (18 USC 243OA) and related federal offenses," the subpoena reads, according to Time.

Al-Jamadi's death at the US-run Abu Ghraib prison was officially classified as a homicide, but the only person ever charged in the case was found to be innocent.

Agents from the Central Intelligence Agency's Inspector General's office sent the case to the Justice Department for possible prosecution, but there has been no movement on the case, Time said.

The magazine first reported on the case in 2005, and ran pictures that included smiling US military personnel posing over the victim's body.

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