WORLD
TEHRAN, Iran-About 200 students threw rocks and firecrackers at the British Embassy on Sunday, calling for the expulsion of the country’s ambassador because of the standoff over Iran’s capture of 15 British sailors and marines.
Several dozen policemen prevented the protesters from entering the embassy compound, although a few briefly scaled a fence outside the compound’s walls before being pushed back, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.
The protesters chanted “Death to Britain” and “Death to America” as they hurled stones into the courtyard of the embassy. They also demanded that the Iranian government expel the British ambassador and close down the embassy, calling it a “den of spies.”
Britain’s Foreign Office said there had been no damage to the compound.
A British Foreign Office spokeswoman in London, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government rules, said diplomats were working normally inside the embassy.
“There is a police presence outside, and there is no risk to those inside,” the spokeswoman said.
Britain and Iran are at a standoff over the 15 seized sailors and marines. Britain said they were in Iraqi waters when detained, but Iran has contended the Britons entered its waters illegally.
NATION
NEW YORK-Two children, injured in a house fire that killed five of their siblings and five other people, are to return to school Monday, and their father says he plans to rebuild their house.
“Everything is OK,” said their father, Moussa Magassa. “We moved to a new home. We’re doing fine. We’ve got everything we needed.”
Magassa, his surviving children and their mothers have moved into two apartments near their home in the Bronx, which was gutted on March 7, the New York Post reported Sunday.
The Magassas plan to rebuild the house, which they shared with the family of fellow Malian immigrant Mamadou Soumare. The fire killed Soumare’s wife and four children.
Several surviving members of the Magassa family were hospitalized after the blaze, including 5-year-old Hatouma and 6-year-old Kadiatou. The girls have been released, and their father said they were eager to return to their elementary school.
“Every day they came to me and said ‘Dad, let’s go (to school),’ ” Magassa said.
The girls’ school is still mourning three of his sons, Bandiougou, 11, Abdubucary, 5, and Mahamadou, 8, who were remembered Friday at a memorial attended by teachers and classmates.
STATE & LOCAL
RICHMOND-Ethiopian Teferi Bacha won his first American race Saturday, edging two Kenyans in the Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10K.
Bacha’s time of 28:29 was the second-fastest time in the eight-year history of the event, behind Reuben Chebii’s 28:07 in 2004. Bacha, 21, has been in the country for only a week and now lives in West Chester, Pa.
Fred Mayaka Tumbo and Joseph Koskei finished second and third, respectively. Both were clocked in 28:34.
In the women’s division, Kenyan Magdalene Makunzi, 24, set a course record in winning for the second consecutive year. Makunzi’s time of 32:24 was 4 seconds better than the record set by Edna Kiplagat in 2003.
Kenyans Florence Jepkosgei (32:48) and Caroline Cheptanui (33:06) were second and third.
Koskei, Makunzi and Jepkosgei all live in West Chester. Tumbo and Cheptanui live in Santa Fe, N.M.