WORLD BRIEFS

AFGHANISTAN: Driver kills 3 Spaniards

An Afghan driver working for Spanish police opened fire on a NATO base Wednesday, killing three Spaniards, two police trainers and an interpreter before dying in a hail of gunfire. Angry Afghans stormed the base in northwestern Badghis province and set a vehicle afire, underscoring brewing resentment over the presence of foreigners on their soil. Spain's interior minister, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, called it a "terrorist attack." The assailant had worked with the paramilitary Spanish Civil Guard since the unit arrived five months ago to train Afghan police.

CHILE: Advice for the trapped 33

Put on a show. Play cards. Sing. Get exercise. And whatever you do, don't get too fat to squeeze through an escape tunnel. Chilean officials are offering lots of advice to help 33 miners trapped underground keep their health and sanity as they wait to be rescued. But they're not sharing with them their estimate that it could take four months to drill them out of an emergency shelter nearly half a mile below. The miners were trapped by an Aug. 5 collapse. Rescuers established contact with them Sunday by drilling a 6-inch-wide hole to the shelter.

PAKISTAN: U.S. aid funds diverted for floods

The United States is diverting some of its five-year, multibillion-dollar aid package for Pakistan to flood recovery as the disaster dramatically altered the country's needs, the top U.S. aid official said Wednesday. "I fully envision some of the priorities will have to shift," Rajiv Shah, chief of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said in Sukkur.

CHINA: 8 coffins back from Manila

The eight Hong Kong victims of a deadly bus hijacking in Manila were returned Wednesday to the Chinese territory. Hong Kong Chief Secretary for Administration Henry Tang stood at attention on the tarmac along with a Chinese military official. With bagpipes playing, Tang laid a white wreath on each coffin. A citywide observance of a three-minute silence was ordered for Thursday morning.