World datelines

Iraq: Bomb kills 5

BAGHDAD — A bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded on Sunday near a popular cafe in a largely Sunni district of Baghdad killing five people, Iraqi police said.

The blast in Baghdad's Azamiyah district also injured 16 civilians, an officer at the al-Risafa police station said. Officials at two hospitals that received the wounded said most of the injured were young men.

Baghdad's northern Azamiyah district was a Sunni stronghold during sectarian violence in the Iraqi capital in 2006 and 2007. But as in other parts of the city, violence has eased considerably since then and residents have resumed going to sidewalks cafes and dining in riverside restaurants.

Puerto Rico: Attack

SAN JUAN — Gunmen opened fire on a crowd celebrating the reopening of a newly renovated neighborhood bar and grocery, killing at least seven and injuring 20, police said Sunday.

Dozens of people had crammed into the tiny La Tombola bar in Toa Baja, a municipality just west of San Juan, and were waiting for the band to resume playing when the assailants attacked, police Col. Jose Morales said. Among those seriously wounded were a 9-year-old girl and a pregnant woman who lost her 8-month-old fetus, he said.

Sudan: 2 freed

KHARTOUM — Two foreign aid workers seized at gunpoint more than three months ago in Sudan's Darfur were released Sunday by their captors in the third — and longest — kidnapping of aid workers in the arid region.

The Irish and Ugandan women were in good health and were having medical checkups at a hospital in northern Darfur, said Sudan's state minister for humanitarian affairs, Abdel-Baqi al-Jailani.

Britain: Climate

LONDON — Representatives of the world's 17 biggest and most polluting nations were holding talks Sunday to search for a breakthrough on financing efforts to contain climate change and reduce gas emissions causing global warming.

Pressure has been mounting for the United States to finalize its position before a decisive December conference in Denmark meant to cap two years of negotiations on a global climate change treaty.

El Salvador: Cuba ties

SAN SALVADOR — The first Cuban ambassador to El Salvador since the early 1960s has presented his credentials, the government of leftist President Mauricio Funes said Sunday.

Funes re-established diplomatic relations with the island after taking office in June, almost a half-century after ties were broken at the height of the Cold War.

South Korea: Aid

SEOUL — South Korea will consider resuming humanitarian aid to impoverished North Korea but it has ruled out assistance on the large scale of previous, more liberal administrations, a senior official said Sunday.

Any such assistance would be the first from the conservative administration of President Lee Myung-bak, who has linked aid to the North's progress in getting rid of its nuclear programs.

Thailand: Billboard

BANGKOK — A highway billboard using a saluting Adolf Hitler to advertise a Thai wax museum has been covered up after complaints from the Israeli and German ambassadors, the museum's manager said Sunday.

"The idea came from a creative (advertising) agency, and we did not mean to cause any offense," said Somporn Naksuetrong, the manager of the Louis Tussaud's Waxworks in the seaside resort town of Pattaya.