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 HONIARA, Solomon Islands (AP) - Scores of Australian troops landed in the Solomon Islands on Wednesday to try to restore peace after rioters angered by the election of an unpopular new prime minister attacked police and laid waste to a neighborhood.
The first troops, armed and dressed in combat fatigues, touched down in a military transport plane in Honiara, the capital of the South Pacific archipelago. A dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed across the city, and police were authorized to arrest people on suspicion of inciting violence and hold them without charge for up to a week.
The city was dotted with smoldering piles of rubble after a rampage by about 1,000 rioters that started the night before and continued into daylight hours.
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