The News in 2 Minutes

From The Associated Press

29 killed as blasts hit western India

AHMADABAD, India—At least 29 people were killed and 88 wounded when a series of small explosions hit the western Indian city of Ahmadabad on Saturday, a top official said, a day after seven similar blasts struck a southern city.

Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat state where Ahmadabad is located, said at least 16 bombs went off Saturday evening in several neighborhoods of the busy city.

Modi called the blasts “a crime against humanity,” and said the state government would cover the medical costs of all those wounded in the attacks.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either set of blasts, and it was not clear if they were connected but Modi said that the attacks appeared to be masterminded by a group or groups who “are using a similar modus operandi all over the country.”

McCain vows to back changes to disabilities law

COTTONWOOD, Ariz.—Republican presidential candidate John McCain pledged support Saturday for a proposal to expand protections for disabled people under an 18-year-old landmark civil rights law.

Speaking by satellite to a disabilities forum in Columbus, Ohio, the Arizona senator said revisions to the Americans With Disabilities Act must leave no doubt that it was intended to protect from any discrimination that’s based on physical or mental disabilities.

Supporters of the law say the Supreme Court has limited the law’s reach.

A month ago, the House passed a bill to extend protections to people who take medicine to control epilepsy, diabetes or cancer or use prosthetic limbs.

McCain, a supporter of the 1990 law, says he intends to support a similar bill in the Senate.

Obama defends tour, says McCain shifting on war

LONDON—Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama brushed aside Republican criticism of his overseas trip on Saturday and stood outside the famed 10 Downing Street to say that both President Bush and Sen. John McCain were moving his way on the key issues of Iraq and Afghanistan.

McCain has long opposed Obama’s call for a 16-month timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq. On Friday, though, McCain said, “I think it’s a pretty good timetable, as we should — or horizons for withdrawal,” echoing a phrase Bush used in recent days. “But they have to be based on conditions on the ground.”

At his news conference, Obama jumped on that to say there was now some convergence “around a proposal that we have been making for a year and a half.” He also said McCain supports sending additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan, “and the Bush administration acknowledges that as well. I have been talking about that since last year,” he said.

Republicans have criticized Obama throughout his trip, and McCain’s campaign said recently the Democrat was taking a “premature victory lap” with more than 100 days remaining in the presidential campaign. “John McCain has visited every one of these countries post-primary that I have,” Obama said Saturday. “So it doesn’t strike me that we have done anything different than the McCain campaign has done, which is to recognize that part of the job of the next president, commander in chief is to forge effective relationships with our allies.”

American jazz saxophonist Griffin dies in France

PARIS—Jazz saxophonist Johnny Griffin, who played with America’s greats from Thelonious Monk to Lionel Hampton but chose to live in France, died hours before a concert, his agent said Saturday. He was 80.

Griffin, whose career spanned more than a half-century, was found dead in his home by his wife Miriam, said Helene Manfredi, his agent for 28 years. The exact cause of death was not clear.

A Chicago native, the diminutive Griffin took up the sax early on, eventually preferring the tenor saxophone and taking on the nickname “the Little Giant” for the big sounds he blew out of the instrument at breakneck speed. Griffin’s 1958 album “A Blowing Session,” a hard bop jam session with John Coltrane, drummer Art Blakey and others, remains among his signature works.