Police defuse car bomb in southern Pakistan

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) - Police defused a bomb placed in a car in an upscale commercial area of southern Pakistan yesterday after a man telephoned and said he had planted it but had changed his mind, police said.

The bomb was found in a stolen car outside a shopping plaza in Karachi after the man called police, saying he had aborted the plan to detonate the bomb after seeing women and children in the area, said Azad Khan, a local police official.

He said the caller identified himself as militant.

Karachi is Pakistan's biggest city with 15 million people and has been the scene of scores of acts of terrorism since Pakistan threw its support behind Washington in its war on terror following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.