World datelines

Afghanistan

KANDAHAR — Suspected Taliban rebels detonated a car bomb near a mosque in southern Afghanistan, killing a deputy provincial police chief and one of his bodyguards, while an aid worker and an intelligence agent were slain in other violence, officials said Friday.

Azerbaijan

BAKU — Authorities said Friday a second former government minister was arrested on charges of involvement in a coup plot against President Ilham Aliev, deepening political tensions ahead of next month's key parliamentary elections.

Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO — The bullet-riddled body of the suspected mastermind of one of the world's biggest bank robberies, a $70 million heist from a branch of Brazil's Central Bank, has been found on an isolated road west of Rio de Janeiro, police said Friday.

Britain

LONDON — A former Cabinet member who resigned over Britain's participation in the Iraq war tried Friday to limit the government's power to send troops to war.

China

SHANGHAI — Police raided a religious retreat in northern China and detained more than 50 leaders of the country's independent Protestant church movement, a U.S.-based support group said Friday.

Egypt

ALEXANDRIA — Thousands of Muslims rioted outside a Coptic Christian church Friday to denounce a play deemed offensive to Islam, prompting police to beat protesters and fire tear gas into the crowd, officials said. One person died, and more than 90 were injured.

India

NEW DELHI — India's top pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. said Friday it is talking to Roche of Switzerland for a license to manufacture a generic version of the anti-flu drug Tamiflu, a move that could ease supplies of the drug in the event of a bird flu pandemic.

Iran

TEHRAN — Iran's supreme leader, long a critic of the United States, praised the U.S.-backed constitutional referendum in Iraq as "blessed" Friday and urged Iraqis to participate December's parliamentary elections.

Italy