LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY "There is no such thing as a free ride to peace and security." Dutch Defense Minister Eimert van Middelkoop, calling on other European countries to shoulder more of the fight in Afghanistan Article, this page
Drilling rig slams oil platform; 10 killed
MEXICO CITY - At least 10 oil workers were killed when a mobile drilling rig hit an oil platform, spilling gas and oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the state-owned oil company said Wednesday.
Rescuers have pulled 58 oil workers from storm-tossed waters but have yet to control the oil leak, Mexico's oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said in a news release.
Ten workers were killed and at least 18 other employees of the state oil company were still either floating at sea in life rafts or were unaccounted for, it said. The company said it had located a raft but "weather conditions in the area have made it impossible to reach the vessel."
Pemex said the gas and oil leak was continuing Wednesday but that it was not immediately clear how much had spilled.
The company said 81 workers and five rescue personnel abandoned a subcontractor's Usumacinta drilling rig Tuesday after it hit the Kab 101 light-production platform amid 25-foot waves and winds gusting to 80 mph.
Spain suspects 6 of recruiting fighters
MADRID, Spain - Spanish authorities arrested six North Africans on Wednesday on suspicion of belonging to an international network that promotes holy war on the Internet and recruits fighters, the Interior Ministry said.
The Civil Guard, Spain's rural police force, said it detained five men and a woman in the province of Burgos in northern Spain. The authorities were searching six houses and a butcher's shop run by the suspects and confiscated documents and computer hard drives, the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said it was the first time Spanish authorities have broken up a suspected recruiting and propaganda network operating chiefly on the Internet.
The group was using private chat rooms and Internet forums to disseminate radical propaganda, the authorities said, and was recruiting people to fight in various locations, particularly Iraq.
It was also collecting money for Islamist prisoners, including some of those jailed in Morocco in connection with the May 2003 bombings in Casablanca that killed dozens and injured more than 100 people.
Afghan governor OK after bomb attack
KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide car bomb went off near the convoy of cars carrying a provincial governor in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, wounding two of his bodyguards and two civilians, the governor said.
Arsallah Jamal, the governor of Khost province, survived the blast unhurt in the city of Khost.
U.S. troops surrounded the area and took the wounded to a hospital at their base near the city, said Gen. Mohammad Ayub, the provincial police chief.
It was at least the third attempt to kill Jamal, who was returning from a visit to districts near the border with Pakistan when he was targeted Wednesday.
The U.S.-led coalition, meanwhile, said its forces clashed with suspected militants in central Afghanistan, killing several insurgents and detaining two.
Government coalition sought in Poland
WARSAW, Poland - Poland's new prime minister-designate reached out to a centrist, EU-friendly party Wednesday as he opened talks on forging a government coalition three days after victory in parliamentary elections.
Donald Tusk's Civic Platform party - itself pro-European Union, as well as pro-business and socially conservative - won the most seats Sunday, beating Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski's Law and Justice conservatives in an election that drew the largest turnout since the fall of communism.
Kaczynski, who has served as prime minister since 2006, said his Cabinet would resign Nov. 5 when the new parliament convenes.
However, center-right Civic Platform did not win enough seats to govern on its own. On Wednesday, Tusk met with Waldemar Pawlak, head of the Polish People's Party - which wants quick adoption of the euro, as well as less bureaucracy for small businesses - to discuss forging a coalition government.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 10/25/2007