World datelines

Afghanistan: Blasts kill 2

KANDAHAR — A series of blasts killed at least two civilians and wounded several others Saturday in Afghanistan's main southern city, the scene of several recent deadly attacks on police.

Helicopters patrolled above the city as NATO and Afghan troops were deployed to seal off the attack sites. Ambulances with sirens wailing ferried victims to local hospitals. In one attack, a motorized rickshaw carrying explosives detonated behind police headquarters in the center of the city, said Zelmai Ayubi, spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province.

Armenia: Longest tram

TATEV — Armenia on Saturday opened a $45 million aerial tramway that it claims is the world's longest, beating out a rival in New Mexico.

The tramway across the Vorotan River gorge in the country's south spans 3.5 miles, Armenian officials said, longer than the 2.7-mile Sandia Peak Tramway at the eastern edge of Albuquerque, known as the world's longest passenger tramway. The new tramway links the highway from Armenia's capital of Yerevan with the 9th-century Tatev Monastery.

Iran: Hand amputation

TEHRAN — An Iranian judge has ordered the amputation of the hand of a man who confessed to robbing a candy shop, local media reported Saturday.

Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency said the chief judge of a Tehran court also sentenced the 21-year-old man, who was not identified, to a year in jail and ordered him to return the stolen items. The ruling comes days after Iranian authorities amputated the hand of another man convicted of theft in the northeastern city of Mashhad.

Iraq: PM seeks support

BAGHDAD — Iraq's prime minister will travel to Iran and Jordan to seek support for his bid to win a second term more than seven months after national elections, an adviser said on Saturday.

Nouri al-Maliki is struggling to remain in power since his Shiite alliance narrowly lost the March 7 vote to a Sunni-backed bloc led by rival Ayad Allawi. Sunni Arab states like Jordan have supported Allawi because of his ties to Iraq's Sunni minority and out of fear that al-Maliki's Shiite-dominated government was too friendly with Iran.

Ireland: Remains found