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7 die in Pakistani clashes

KARACHI, Pakistan, April 9 (UPI) -- Rival groups of lawyers fought Wednesday in Pakistan, triggering greater mob violence that left at least seven people dead in Karachi, police said.

Five of the victims, including a woman, were burned alive when rioters set fire to Tahir Plaza, the Press Trust of India reported. Fifteen more people were reported injured, and a bank and several vehicles were torched, PTI said.

The confrontation between the lawyers started near the office of the Sindh High Court Bar Association over the alleged manhandling of former federal minister Sher Aftgan in Lahore the previous night. The violence then spread elsewhere in the city with armed men exchanging gunfire at several locations, PTA reported.

President Pervez Musharraf called on people to cooperate with authorities to return calm to the city and police to capture the "perpetrators and disruptive elements to justice."

Gitmo detainee decries hearing

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, April 9 (UPI) -- A Saudi defendant accused of plotting to destroy ships in the Straits of Hormuz Wednesday denounced the U.S. war crime court where he was charged.

Ahmed Haza al-Darbi said the hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was an unlawful "theatrical piece" and refused to participate in the remainder of the proceedings.

Al-Darbi, 33, told the judge presiding over the military commissions the court was "a crime against divine justice and a crime against earthly justice."

The brother-in-law of a Sept. 11, 2001, hijacker, according to the U.S. military, al-Darbi was arrested in Azerbaijan in 2002 on charges he had aided al-Qaida in an attempt to blow up ships off the coast of the Arabian Peninsula. He was transferred to Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, where he claims he was tortured by U.S. soldiers.

Al-Darbi's attorney said his client told him he was bound in handcuffs and hung during lengthy interrogations.

"I believe there is no international court or local court in the United States that treats detainees or accused people the same way we are treated here," said al-Darbi, who has been a prisoner at Guantanamo for six years.

Haitian demonstrators won't drop protest

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, April 9 (UPI) -- Haitian President Rene Preval told angry demonstrators Wednesday to end their violent protests, Haitian radio reported.

However, Preval's efforts to quell the violence that has left at least five people dead appeared to fall on deaf ears, as protesters erected barricades and blocked major roads throughout Port-au-Prince.

The protests over rising foods prices began last week in southern Haiti and spread northward to the capital.

Anti-Semitism said on rise in Canada

TORONTO, April 9 (UPI) -- Anti-Semitic incidents have jumped 400 percent in the past 10 years in Canada, a B'nai Brith Canada study released Wednesday indicates.

The group said in its annual survey that there were 1,042 incidents reported in 2007, up 11.4 percent from 2006 alone, the Canadian Broadcast Corp. reported. The group also noted a 51.9 percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents on university and college campuses in Canada.

Allan Adel, president of B'nai Brith's human rights league, said the audit reveals that over the years the majority of reported cases consistently occurred in Ontario, though there was a spike in Quebec this year, as well.

"Each incident has a victim behind it," said Anita Bromberg, director of B'nai Brith Canada's legal department. "What is anti-Semitism in Canada today? It's the victims, the young, the elderly, the university student, the professor at work, the professional at work, or at home or on the streets."