JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan police opened fire on protesters on Wednesday in violent demonstrations which left four dead and dozens wounded after a report that U.S. interrogators had desecrated the Koran, a health official said. U.S. troops stationed in the conservative Muslim city of Jalalabad, 130 km (80 miles) east of the capital, Kabul, were confined to base during the protest, witnesses said. Government offices in Jalalabad were set on fire, shops looted, and U.N. buildings and diplomatic missions attacked as thousands took to the streets, witnesses and officials said. Police fired to disperse crowds several times, witnesses said. Four people had been killed and 52 wounded, provincial health chief Fazel Mohammad Ibrahimi said after compiling information from three city hospitals. "Police had to open fire on the protesters, they were destroying the city," provincial police chief Hazrat Ali told Reuters. He declined to comment on casualties. About 1,000 school students demonstrated in nearby Laghman province. In Khost city, also in the east, protesters burned a picture of U.S. President George. W. Bush and a U.S. flag. There was also a report of a protest in Wardak province, southwest of the capital. Kabul was quiet. Newsweek magazine said in a recent edition that investigators probing abuses at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay had discovered that interrogators "had placed Korans on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet."

SEOUL North Korea intensified its nuclear confrontation with the United States on Tuesday, calling President George W. Bush "Hitler, Junior," while South Korea warned the Communist state against taking "extreme measures," in an apparent reference to a nuclear test. "It is a wise decision for our republic not to expect any settlement of the nuclear issue or any improvement in its relations with the United States during Bush's term of office," said the commentary in Rodong Sinmun. "Bush is the world's worst fascist dictator, a first-class warmaniac and Hitler, Junior, who is jerking his hands stained with blood of innocent people." The newspaper said Washington's threat of persuading the UN Security Council to impose sanctions against the impoverished country would not affect its determination to "stick fast to the path we have chosen." "The dog barks, but the caravan continues," it said.

BEIJING - The United States has asked China to cut off fuel supplies to North Korea to pressure Pyongyang to return to the six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, but the Washington Post reported officials in Beijing rejected the request.

JERUSALEM - Jonathan Pollard, an American imprisoned in the United States for spying for Israel, is seeking to be declared a Prisoner of Zion — a status that would require Israel to do all it can to get him released, his lawyer said Sunday.

As of Sunday, May 8, 2005, at least 1,599 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,216 died as a result of hostile action, according to the Defense Department.