World datelines

Canada: Bombing charge

TORONTO — Police on Saturday charged three alleged members of an anti-establishment group in the firebombing of an Ottawa bank last month, an attack that has raised fears of violence during the upcoming G-8 and G-20 economic summits.

Police said the accused are members of an obscure activist group known as the Fighting For Freedom Coalition, or FFFC-Ottawa, which has threatened to protest the summits next weekend in Toronto and Huntsville, Ontario. The men, Roger Clement, 58, Claude Haridge, 50, and Matthew Morgan-Brown, 32, all from Ottawa, were arrested Friday.

China: Exchange rate

BEIJING — President Barack Obama welcomed China's announcement Saturday that it will allow a more flexible exchange rate for its currency, saying it would help protect the economic recovery.

The announcement by China's central bank suggested a possible break from the yuan's two-year peg to the U.S. dollar — a source of friction between the two countries — but ruled out any large-scale appreciation.

Iran: Insurgent hanged

TEHRAN — The official IRNA news agency says the leader of the Iranian Jundallah insurgent group Abdulmalik Rigi has been hanged after months of interrogation and trial.

Rigi, whose insurgency in the southeast had destabilized Iran's border region with Pakistan, was captured in February as he was flying over the Persian Gulf en route from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan. IRNA said today, Rigi pleaded guilty to charges of killing dozens of Iranians in several bombing attacks.

Italy: Cheese confiscated

ROME — Italian police confiscated some 70,000 balls of mozzarella in Turin after consumers noticed the milky-white cheese quickly developed a bluish tint when the package was opened, authorities said Saturday.

Agriculture Minister Giancarlo Galan ordered ministry laboratories to investigate what he called a "disturbing" development. No cases of illness were immediately reported.

Mexico: Crash kills 11

MEXICO CITY — Eleven Mexican soldiers have died in the crash of a military helicopter carrying troops for anti-drug missions.