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Who is the best juggler? It’s a toss-up Participants balance balls during a Jugglers’ festival in Dresden, Germany on Saturday.
AP PHOTO
ISLAMABAD
Spy chief term extended
Pakistan’s government will extend the term of the country’s powerful spy chief, the CIA’s main partner in the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban and a major player in the country’s policies toward Afghanistan, an official said Saturday.
Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha has headed the Inter Services Intelligence, or the ISI, since 2008.
The ISI and the army — rather than the civilian government — formulate Pakistan’s foreign and defense policies, especially concerning Afghanistan and India. The agency has significant influence over domestic political developments.
Defense Minister Ahmad Mukhtar told reporters Pasha would stay on as ISI chief when his term expires March 18, but he did not say how long the extension would be. Media reports in recent days suggested he will get a one or two-year extension.
BISMARCK, N.D.
Blizzard traps motorists
The North Dakota Highway Patrol says about 800 people have been rescued from vehicles stuck on ice-slicked roads and in drifting snow after a blizzard struck the state, creating white-out conditions.
Lt. Jody Skogen says only minor injuries have been reported after pileups and crashes that left more than 500 cars abandoned on roads.
The town of Medina has seen its population of 335 double with 400 stranded drivers who were brought to a church and school there.
North Dakota National Guard spokesman Capt. Dan Murphy says 70 soldiers used military trucks that could plow through huge snow drifts to collect scores of stranded drivers and take them “to any warm building that was available.”
SANAA, Yemen
Forces kill 6 during protest
Yemeni security forces killed six people Saturday and wounded hundreds in the second day of a harsh crackdown on anti-government protests, witnesses said. One of the dead was a 15-year-old student.
The assault with gunfire and tear gas was the toughest yet by the Yemeni government in a month of protests aimed at unseating President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power for 32 years.
The violence began with a pre-dawn raid on a central square in the capital, Sanaa, where thousands of pro-democracy protesters have been camped out.
COVINGTON, Ky.
Drifting eatery rescue made
Firefighters rigged a makeshift gangplank of ladders to safely rescue 83 people, including former Cincinnati Bengals star Cris Collinsworth, from a floating restaurant that broke free from its dockside mooring on the rain-swollen Ohio River, authorities said Saturday.
Covington Fire Department Capt. Chris Kiely said Jeff Ruby’s Waterfront restaurant drifted about 85 to 100 yards downriver to a towering bridge nearby but a rear mooring line held it firmly as nervous dinner patrons awaited rescue.
“Luckily the people on the boat called,” he said.
Kiely said some of those aboard for a night of dining on the popular floating restaurant called emergency authorities for help when the restaurant shifted and broke away after 10 p.m. Friday. He said the river was in a mild flood stage after recent winter storms.