China recalls tainted leukemia drugs By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer

China recalls tainted leukemia drugs By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer
26 minutes ago



BEIJING - Chinese authorities ordered the recall of tainted leukemia drugs blamed for leg pains and other problems, state media reported Sunday, the latest crisis to strike the country's embattled food and drug industries.

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Most of the drugs involved — methotrexate and cytarabin hydrochloride — have been recovered and authorities have traced the remainder, the Xinhua News Agency said. The report did not say if any of the drugs had been exported.

Authorities have banned the sale and distribution of the drugs, produced by the Shanghai Hualian Pharmaceutical Co., it said.

China, a major global supplier, has been facing growing international pressure to improve the quality of its exports after dangerous toxins — from lead to an antifreeze ingredient — were found in goods including toys and toothpaste.

China has been eager to cast itself as a victim, too, of unsafe imports. Xinhua on Saturday announced that inspectors recently found residue of the banned stimulant ractopamine in frozen pig kidneys imported from the United States and frozen pork spareribs from Canada. The names of the exporting companies were not identified. Ractopamine is forbidden for use as veterinary medicine in China.

Xinhua said the 18.37 tons of frozen pork kidneys and 24 tons of frozen pork had been returned to importers exporters, said the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ).

Ractopamine, a hormone that promotes the growth of lean meat in pigs and cattle, is banned by China and most other countries as a health hazard, although its use in stock animals is permitted in the U.S. and Canada. China has also recently banned imports of U.S. meat contaminated with salmonella, additives, and veterinary drugs.

Xinhua said the State Food and Drug Administration and Health Ministry banned the two leukemia drugs after several child leukemia patients who were taking them complained of leg pains and difficulty walking. Xinhua said some patients also complained of urine retention.

It said the Health Ministry and drug administration had traced the problems with the drugs to their being tainted with vincristine sulfate, an anticancer drug. Xinhua said factories manufacturing the drugs had been closed.

China has taken a series of steps to crackdown on tainted drugs and other unsafe products, in part due to concern over the reputation of its exports.

In the harshest action so far, the country's former top drug regulator was executed in July for taking millions of dollars in bribes to approve substandard medicines, including an antibiotic that killed at least 10 people.

63 arrested in Copenhagen clashes 1 hour, 16 minutes ago

63 arrested in Copenhagen clashes 1 hour, 16 minutes ago



COPENHAGEN, Denmark - A protest by hundreds of youth activists turned violent early Sunday, with protesters setting fire to street barricades and cars and smashing shop windows, police said. Officers used tear gas to disperse the crowd.

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Authorities said 63 people were arrested as riot police clashed with rock-throwing youth in the Noerrebro district of Copenhagen.

The unrest started after a demonstration late Saturday commemorating the Youth House, a makeshift cultural center for the city's anarchists and disaffected youth that was demolished in March.

"It's six months since we cleared the house there, and they want to show they've not forgotten," police spokesman Mads Firlings said. "Almost immediately they started building barricades and throwing rocks through the windows of shops and banks."

He said police used tear gas to disperse the crowds who set fires to barricades and cars, including a police vehicle that had been abandoned by officers fleeing the angry mob.

The situation had calmed down Sunday morning as crews started cleaning up streets charred by fire and littered with broken glass and garbage, police spokesman Gunnar Noerager said.

He said one police officer received minor injuries when a tear gas canister accidentally exploded inside a police van.

In March, hundreds of people were arrested in several days of street violence when police evicted squatters living in the graffiti-sprayed brick building.

Lebanese army kills 28 militants By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer

Lebanese army kills 28 militants By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 21 minutes ago



BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese troops killed 28 al-Qaida-inspired militants and captured 15 others in a massive gunfight Sunday after they broke out of a northern Palestinian refugee camp devastated by over three months of fighting, a senior security official said.

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The official spoke on condition of anonymity because no official casualty figure was released.

Heavy gunbattles that began during the dawn breakout continued through early afternoon, with troops engaging Fatah Islam fighters in buildings, fields and roads around Nahr el-Bared camp, residents and television stations reported.

In a statement, the military said troops were attacking the remaining militant strongholds inside Nahr el-Bared and "chasing the fugitives outside the camp" who had staged "a desperate attempt to flee."

It called on Lebanese citizens to inform the nearest army patrol of any suspected militants in their area, but gave no specifics on casualties excepting saying "a large number" had been killed or captured.

Lebanese security officials, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because no official casualty figures had been released by the military, said two Lebanese soldiers were killed in the fighting, raising to 155 the total number of troops who have died in the conflict.

Before Sunday's battle, Lebanese officials had said up to 70 Fatah Islam fighters remained in the camp. When the fighting broke out more than three months ago, the number was estimated at 360.

Sunday's developments indicated the battle was almost over for the camp, large parts of which have been reduced to rubble.

According to security officials and television reports, the breakout began early Sunday when a group of militants sneaked through an underground tunnel to an area of the camp under army control and fought with troops. At the same time, another group of militants struck elsewhere to try to escape, reportedly receiving help from militants outside the camp.

State-run Lebanese television said the militants inside the camp were aided by outside fighters who arrived in civilian cars to attack army positions around the camp.

Residents said troop reinforcements deployed close to the camp and blocked roads to prevent fighters from sneaking out. Helicopters provided aerial reconnaissance.

State television reported Lebanese residents of nearby villages, armed with guns and sticks, fanned out to protect their houses and prevent militants from seeking refuge and melting into the local population.

Army officials said they did not know whether Fatah Islam leader Shaker al-Absi was among those who attempted to break out. Al-Absi has not been seen or heard since early in the fighting. His deputy, Abu Hureira, was killed by security forces in Tripoli recently, apparently after escaping the siege.

Fighting erupted May 20 between troops and Fatah Islam militants holed up in Nahr el-Bared camp near Tripoli, becoming Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war.

The battles have killed more than 20 civilians and scores of militants. Families of the militants — women and children — were evacuated late last month, the last civilians to leave the camp.

Prior to Sunday, the army had inched its way into the camp under artillery and rocket fire, destroying buildings and capturing militants' fortified positions one by one while facing tough resistance from the Islamic fighters.

In recent days, the army has cornered the militants in a small area of the camp and has been pounding it with bombs dropped by helicopters.

Iran: Uranium centrifuge goal reached 9 minutes ago

Iran: Uranium centrifuge goal reached 9 minutes ago



TEHRAN, Iran - Iran has reached its long-sought goal of running 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium for its nuclear program, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Sunday in a report on state media.

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The U.N. Security Council had threatened a third round of sanctions against the country if it did not freeze the uranium enrichment program — which Iran maintains is for peaceful energy purposes, but the U.S. says is to hide a weapons program.

"The West thought the Iranian nation would give in after just a resolution, but now we have taken another step in the nuclear progress and launched more than 3,000 centrifuge machines, installing a new cascade every week," the state television Web site quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

Still, Ahmadinejad's comments seemed at odds with independent assements of the status of his country's enrichment program.

As recently as Thursday, a report drawn up by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, put the number of centrifuges enriching uranium at closer to 2,000 at its vast underground hall at Natanz.

The 2,000 figure is an increase of a few hundred of the machines over May, when the IAEA last reported on Iran. Still the rate of expansion is much slower than a few months ago, when Tehran was assembling close to 200 centrifuges every two weeks.

As well, Iran continued to produce only negligible amounts of nuclear fuel with its centrifuges, far below the level usable for nuclear warheads, the report said.

"They have the knowledge to proceed much more quickly," said a U.N. official.

While Iran has denied stalling, the official and others suggested it could have decided to proceed at a slower pace as it increases its cooperation with agency investigators looking at past suspicious activities so as to reduce any sentiment to impose new U.N. sanctions.

Former U.N. nuclear inspector David Albright and Jacqueline Shire of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security said the slowdown could be a combination of both "technical difficulties" and "political considerations."

"Iran likely has managed to learn how to operate individual centrifuges and cascades adequately. However, it still may be struggling to operate a large number of cascades at the same time in parallel," they wrote in a report e-mailed to The Associated Press. "In addition, Iran's leadership may have decided to slow work to overcome technical problems in order to forestall negative reactions that would lend support for further sanctions by the UN Security Council."

Felix becomes Category 2 hurricane By MARGARET WEVER, Associated Press Writer

Felix becomes Category 2 hurricane By MARGARET WEVER, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 40 minutes ago



ORANJESTAD, Aruba - Felix gathered strength and became a Category 2 hurricane early Sunday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The storm was forecast to pass just north of the Dutch Caribbean island.

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Felix was upgraded from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane Saturday evening, becoming the second Atlantic hurricane of the season. By early Sunday, it had sustained maximum winds of about 100 mph and threatened to become a major hurricane as the day went on, the center said.

A tropical storm warning and hurricane watch were in effect for the islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao.

Franklin Yarzagarag, a staffer at Aruba's airport, said it was closed until Felix passes.

On Saturday, a line of jittery residents and hotel employees snaked through a hardware store in the capital of Oranjestad to purchase supplies.

"This kind of weather doesn't usually make it to Aruba, so people are definitely worried," said store cashier Mark Werleman.

At 5 a.m. EDT, Felix was centered about 85 miles east-northeast of Aruba and was moving westward at about 18 mph, the hurricane center said.

On Saturday, Felix brought heavy rains and strong winds to Grenada as a tropical storm, snapping small boats loose from their moorings, temporarily knocking out local radio and TV stations and toppling utility lines. No injuries were reported.

A tropical storm watch also was issued by the government of Jamaica, which was battered by Hurricane Dean on Aug. 19.

Felix was on track to pass near Honduran resort islands Tuesday and plow into Belize on Wednesday.

On Honduras' Roatan Island, home to luxury resorts and pristine reefs, the weather was normal and guests were simply enjoying their vacations, said Mayan Princess Beach Resort & Spa employee Arturo Rich.

"We aren't evacuating people yet, but maybe on Monday" as the storm gets closer, he said.

The storm ripped roofs off at least two homes and destroyed a popular concert venue in the southern Caribbean island of Grenada. Orchards were left in ruin.

Jess Charles, 29, said he and his family hunkered down in their house in the town of Calliste as the storm's winds howled outside.

"It was really very, very scary," Charles told The Associated Press. "The wind was blowing so hard we thought our roof might come off."

Felix also spawned thunderstorms and downed trees in Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the twin-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Those islands reported only minor damage.

Rebecca Waddington, a meteorologist at the hurricane center, advised employees of oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico to monitor Felix's progress and said the storm could reach the area in four to five days.

Along the Pacific coast of Mexico, meanwhile, authorities discontinued storm warnings as Tropical Storm Henriette moved out to sea.

Henriette dumped heavy rain on western Mexico earlier, loosening a giant boulder that smashed into a home in Acapulco, killing an adult and two children and injuring two other people.

A teenager and her two brothers also were killed when a landslide slammed into their house in a poor neighborhood of the resort city.

With maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, the storm was expected to become a hurricane Sunday. But forecasters put it on a path that would not threaten land until Thursday, when it could hit a remote section of the Baja California peninsula.

___

Associated Press Writer Linda Straker in St. George's, Grenada, and Sofia Mannos in Washington contributed to this report.

60 suspected Afghan militants killed By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writer

60 suspected Afghan militants killed By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 49 minutes ago



KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan police and foreign forces killed around 60 suspected Taliban fighters, many in the region where the insurgents recently released a group of South Korean church workers they had been holding, authorities said Saturday.

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Meanwhile, South Korea's foreign minister defended direct negotiations with the Taliban to free the hostages amid concern the move violated international principles and could spur more abductions.

Police attacked a group of Taliban late Friday who were planning to strike security forces in the central Afghan province of Ghazni, killing 18 and arresting six others, said provincial police Gen. Ali Shah Ahmadai.

Taliban militants abducted 23 South Koreans in Ghazni district six weeks ago. They killed two male hostages, released two women last month and the final 19 were freed last week after the Taliban held unprecedented negotiations with the government in Seoul. They left Afghanistan Friday and were due in South Korea early Sunday.

South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon on Saturday emphasized that South Korean negotiators were tasked with protecting the "innocent lives of hostages." He also denied claims that South Korea paid a ransom to the Taliban, saying "there is no such thing," according to Yonhap news agency.

South Korea drew praise at home for saving the remaining hostages, but many in the country are also concerned that its international reputation may suffer because of the direct talks — considered a breach of the widely accepted international principle of not negotiating with terrorists.

Further embarrassing Seoul, the Taliban have claimed that the kidnapping of the South Koreans were "successful" and vowed to continue with similar actions.

In southern Helmand province on Friday, a combined police and U.S.-led coalition patrol came under attack with mortar, rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms fire. In the fight that ensued, "almost two dozen" insurgents were killed, the coalition said in a statement Saturday.

No Afghan or coalition soldiers, or civilians, were killed, the statement said.

The fighting took place in Musa Qala district, parts of which have been under the control of Taliban militants for several months.

U.S.-led troops and Afghan security forces also raided compounds late Friday in three villages in the remote Pitigal Valley border region, where intelligence showed that top militant leaders take refuge as they travel between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

More than 20 insurgents were killed and 11 others were detained, while officers also discovered a bomb-making factory, the U.S.-led coalition said in a statement.

It was not possible to independently verify the death tolls in the three incidents because travel in the areas is extremely dangerous. Taliban commanders were not available for comment.

The Taliban ruled most of Afghanistan from the mid-'90s up until 2001, when they were ousted by a U.S.-led coalition following the Sept. 11 attacks.

They are now leading an increasingly bloody campaign against the country's Western-backed government. More than 4,200 people — most of them insurgents — have been killed this year alone, according to an Associated Press count.

___

Associated Press Writer Jae-Soon Chang in Seoul, South Korea, and APTN Senior Producer Fernando Sepe in Incheon, South Korea contributed to this report.

China replaces 5 Cabinet ministers By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer

China replaces 5 Cabinet ministers By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 11 minutes ago



BEIJING - China replaced five Cabinet ministers — including the finance minister and the head of the secret police — the government said Thursday, just weeks ahead of a major Communist Party meeting that will set the country's policies for the next five years.

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Jin Renqing, finance minister since 2003, has been replaced by Xie Xuren, government spokesman He Shaoren told a news conference. He also announced that Geng Huichang had replaced Xu Yongyue as state security minister in charge of China's secret police.

The others replaced were the ministers of supervision and personnel, and the minister in charge of the State Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, He said.

The changes were announced at the end of a meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's legislature. The committee meets to decide laws and personnel changes when the legislature is not in its annual sitting.

One official said Jin stepped down for personal reasons, but no reasons were given for the other changes.

"For personal reasons, Jin Renqing requested to resign. The central government agreed to his request and approved appointing him to be deputy director of the Development Research Center of the State Council," a spokeswoman for the State Council told The Associated Press earlier on condition of anonymity in line with department policy.

The State Council is China's Cabinet.

Jin's transfer comes six weeks before the opening of a twice-a-decade Communist Party congress. Besides setting policy, the meeting is also expected to result in new appointments of senior party and government positions.

Xie, Jin's replacement, has been director of the tax administration since March 2003. He is also an alternative member of the party's Central Committee.

Jin, 63, is one of about 200 members of the Communist Party's Central Committee, and formerly headed the tax administration.

There was no immediate word on what factors had influenced Jin's resignation, but similar cases in the past have been attributed to marital, health or family problems. Jin is still two years below the official retirement age for officials at the central government level.

Asked Wednesday about rumors of Jin's departure, Central Bank Vice Governor Su Ning said monetary policy would not be affected by personnel changes at the Finance Ministry, a reflection of how decisions about the direction of China's economy are determined at a higher level.

Geng was vice minister of the State Security Ministry. Few other details were known about him.

Ma Wen was appointed supervision minister, replacing Li Zhilun, who died of an illness in April, He said.

Zhang Qingwei was appointed director — a ministerial-level position — in charge of the State Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, replacing Zhang Yunchuan.

The fifth change was the appointment of Yin Weimin as minister of personnel, replacing Zhang Bolin, who is retiring.

Jin's time in office saw huge growth and development in the economy as well as concerns about overheating.

On Wednesday, the central bank said inflation was likely to exceed the government's 3 percent target for the year despite a series of credit tightening measures to tamp down prices and cool enthusiasm for buying shares.

Jin's tenure at the Finance Ministry also saw China's foreign currency reserves surge past $1.3 trillion, a sign both of China's foreign trade juggernaut and the government's failure to balance flows of money into and out of the economy.

He oversaw preparations for the creation of one of the world's largest investment funds to make more profitable use of its foreign currency reserves that are now parked in safe, but relatively low-yielding U.S. Treasury securities and other dollar-denominated assets.

China's massive trade surplus with the United States which hit $235 billion last year and is expected to grow this year, has put Beijing under pressure to revalue its currency. Critics say the Chinese yuan is deliberately undervalued against the U.S. dollar and other currencies to spur trade by making Chinese exports unfairly cheap.

Beijing says its currency regime is fair, but has allowed a gradual strengthening of the yuan.

Also Thursday, China removed four officials accused of corruption from its legislature, the official Xinhua News Agency said, apparently signaling the ruling Communist Party's resolve to battle the widespread problem.

Chen Liangyu, a former party boss of Shanghai who has been jailed and is awaiting trial on corruption charges, was stripped of his last official post as a deputy to the National People's Congress, Xinhua said. Chen was kicked out of the party last month and fired from all government positions after he was dismissed as Shanghai party secretary in 2006.

He is the highest-level Chinese official to be dismissed in a decade. His ouster reflects the ruling Communist Party's push to crack down on deeply rooted corruption ahead of a major, twice-a-decade meeting of party leaders in October.

Also kicked out of the People's Congress were Duan Yihe, head of the city council in Shandong's capital, Jinan; Sun Shengchang, a former mayor in northeast China's Heilongjiang province; and Bao Jianmin, former director of the Henan Provincial Bureau of Quality Supervision, Xinhua said.

___

Associated Press writer Audra Ang contributed to this report.

Report: Iran cooperates on nuke probe By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer

Report: Iran cooperates on nuke probe By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer
16 minutes ago



VIENNA, Austria - The U.N. nuclear agency on Thursday called Iran's cooperation with its investigation of past suspicious atomic activities "a significant step forward," in a report expected to hamper U.S.-led efforts for new sanctions on Tehran.

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At the same time, the report confirmed that Iran continued to expand its uranium enrichment program, reflecting the Islamic republic's defiance of the U.N. Security Council. Still, U.N. officials said, both enrichment and the building of a plutonium-producing reactor was continuing more slowly than expected.

IAEA Deputy Director General Olli Heinonen, who brokered the cooperation deal with Iranian officials, highlighted the importance of the agreement, noting that Tehran's past refusal to answer the agency's questions triggered Security Council sanctions in the first place.

But he cautioned that Iran still needed to fully implement its commitments, telling reporters that "the key is that Iran ... provides the information that we need" in a time frame that foresees clarity for the first time about Iran's past suspicious activities by year's end.

Drawn up by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, much of the report focused on the already publicized action plan finalized just a few weeks ago between the agency and Iran, restating progress in some areas and agreed on time frames for Iran to respond to additional questions.

In that plan, Iran agreed to come up with information sought by agency experts on past secret aspects of its enrichment program by November.

If that, and all other deadlines are adhered to and Iran provides all the information sought, the agency should be able to close the file on its more than four-year probe of Tehran's past nuclear activities by year's end, said a senior U.N. official.

He and other U.N. officials — all demanding anonymity because they were not authorized to comment to media — declined comment, however, whether a clean bill that banishes suspicions about Iran's former nuclear programs and experiments would be enough to stop the threat of new U.N. sanctions.

Two such sets of penalties have been imposed since last year, and the U.S. and its closest allies said more are needed because of Tehran's defiance of council demands that it mothball its uranium enrichment program and stop building a plutonium-producing reactor. Both can create the product that can serve as the fissile component of nuclear warheads.

Pakistan's Musharraf rejects 'ultimatum' By STEPHEN GRAHAM, Associated Press Writer

Pakistan's Musharraf rejects 'ultimatum' By STEPHEN GRAHAM, Associated Press Writer
59 minutes ago



ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - President Gen. Pervez Musharraf rejects "any pressure or ultimatum" to decide whether to quit as army chief, his spokesman said Thursday, after an opponent said he would step down as head of the military under a pact to restore Pakistan to democracy.

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Still, officials were either unavailable or declined to comment directly on the accuracy of Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's assertion Wednesday that Musharraf had already decided to leave his powerful military post.

Musharraf and Bhutto are in the midst of negotiating an agreement that could end military rule eight years after Musharraf seized power in a coup and see him share power with the opposition.

Musharraf's office released a statement rejecting reports that Bhutto's call for concrete commitments by the end of this week amounted to an ultimatum to decide whether to remove his uniform.

While the president believed in dialogue "on all important national issues, he never worked under any pressure or ultimatum," his spokesman Rashid Qureshi said in a faxed statement.

Musharraf will make "all decisions only in national interest at appropriate times and according to the constitution and the law," Qureshi said.

At stake is a pact that would protect Musharraf's troubled re-election bid from looming legal challenges and public disenchantment with military rule. In return, Musharraf is expected to give up his role as army chief and let Bhutto return from exile in London to contest year-end parliamentary elections.

Bhutto told The Associated Press on Wednesday in London that she was "very pleased that Gen. Musharraf has taken the decision to listen to the people of Pakistan by taking the decision to take off the uniform."

"I expect that he will step down (as army chief) before the presidential elections, but that is for the president to say," she said in a telephone interview.

Ministers in Pakistan have confirmed that the two sides were close to finalizing an agreement.

Musharraf has insisted that the constitution allows him to be army chief until the end of 2007 but has never made clear when — or if — he will step down.

However, Bhutto and other opposition leaders argue the constitution obliges him to give up that post before he asks lawmakers for a fresh presidential mandate in September or October.

Bhutto said that while Musharraf had also agreed to drop corruption charges against her and dozens of other parliamentarians, a remaining stumbling block is the balance of power between Parliament and the president, who can currently dismiss the prime minister and dissolve the legislature.

Bhutto said she hoped for a breakthrough in the negotiations "in the next few days" and that Musharraf's silence on his military role "could be a tactical rather that strategic retreat" until all issues have been resolved.

Musharraf has seen his authority erode since March, when he tried unsuccessfully to remove the Supreme Court's top judge. The move triggered protests that grew into a broad pro-democracy campaign.

The court reinstated the judge in July, raising expectations that it will uphold legal challenges to Musharraf's re-election plan.

Officials say the pact with Bhutto would include constitutional amendments to forestall those challenges.

Last week, the court ruled that Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister toppled in 1999 who is also living in exile, can return to Pakistan.

The prospect of Sharif, who denounces Musharraf as a tyrant, making a tumultuous return has added to the urgency of an accommodation between Musharraf and Bhutto, who share a relatively liberal, pro-Western outlook and stress the need to prevent the political crisis from destabilizing the nuclear-armed nation.

Musharraf had vowed to prevent either former leader from re-entering Pakistan. He blames them for the corruption and economic problems that nearly bankrupted the country in the 1990s, when Bhutto and Sharif each had two short-lived turns as prime minister.

But with the United States pressing for more democracy as well as a redoubled effort against al-Qaida and Taliban militants near the Afghan border, Musharraf recently began calling for political reconciliation and an alliance of moderates to defeat extremists.

___

Associated Press writer Paisley Dodds in London contributed to this report.

Pakistan's Musharraf, Bhutto reach deal By STEPHEN GRAHAM, Associated Press Writer

Pakistan's Musharraf, Bhutto reach deal By STEPHEN GRAHAM, Associated Press Writer
13 minutes ago



ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf and former political rival Benazir Bhutto have reached agreement regarding Musharraf's military role, a key step toward a power-sharing agreement, a senior official said Wednesday.

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"Both sides have agreed on the issue of uniform," Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a close Musharraf ally, told reporters. Bhutto was quoted in a British newspaper making a similar comment, though neither she nor Ahmed elaborated.

Envoys for the U.S.-allied military president and former Prime Minister Bhutto, who is planning a return from exile abroad, are trying to work out a pact that would help Musharraf secure another five-year presidential term.

Bhutto and other opposition leaders argue that the constitution obliges Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, to give up his post as military chief before he asks lawmakers for a fresh mandate in September or October.

Musharraf, however, has insisted that the constitution allows him to remain in uniform until the end of 2007 and has left open what will happen after that.

Bhutto was quoted in Wednesday's Daily Telegraph as saying that the "uniform issue is resolved."

"The uniform issue is key and there has been a lot of movement on it in the recent round of talks," Bhutto told the London-based daily.

Both Bhutto and Rashid said the two sides were close to an agreement but that there were still outstanding issues.

Musharraf's future is clouded by a clamor for an end to military rule, fallout from a lost battle against the judiciary and the plans of Nawaz Sharif, another former premier, to also mount a dramatic political comeback.

Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N party insisted Tuesday that it was not involved in reported talks in London with envoys sent by Musharraf.

Sharif's party and Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party have scheduled crunch meetings in the next few days in London — where the two former premiers have been living — to decide when their leaders will return.

In the past, Musharraf vowed to prevent them from re-entering Pakistan. He blames them for the corruption and economic problems that nearly bankrupted the country in the 1990s, when Bhutto and Sharif each had two short-lived turns as prime minister.

But with the United States pressing for more democracy and redoubled efforts against al-Qaida and Taliban militants near the Afghan border, Musharraf recently began calling for political reconciliation and an alliance of moderates to defeat extremists.

Musharraf's authority has greatly eroded since March, when he tried unsuccessfully to remove the Supreme Court's top judge. The move triggered protests that snowballed into a broad campaign against Musharraf's rule.

The court reinstated the judge in July, raising expectations that it also will uphold legal challenges to Musharraf's re-election plan likely to be filed by Sharif as well as religious parties opposed to Pakistan's close alliance with Washington.

Last week, the court ruled that Sharif, the prime minister Musharraf toppled in 1999, can come home, despite a promise in 2000 that he would stay away for a decade in return for his release from jail.

Olmert, Abbas tackle top divisive issues By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer

Olmert, Abbas tackle top divisive issues By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer
16 minutes ago



JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas tackled the biggest issues dividing the two sides at their meeting on Tuesday — final borders, Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, an Israeli official said.

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It was the first time the two men discussed these matters in depth, the official said.

"These core issues have to be discussed on the way to finding a diplomatic solution of two states for two peoples," an official in the prime minister's office quoted Olmert as saying. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the two leaders spoke privately.

Olmert, who has met several times with Abbas in the past few months, has been reluctant to take on these big issues, preferring to focus on general outlines. Israel's approach has riled the Palestinians, who want to go straight to the core issues of Palestinian statehood.

Heading into the meeting, Abbas warned that an international Mideast peace conference scheduled for November would be a "waste of time" if it failed to address the big three issues, which have stymied peace efforts in the past.

As he entered Olmert's Jerusalem residence for the meeting, Abbas signed the guestbook in Arabic with a wish for peace between the two peoples, the Israeli official said.

The official in Olmert's office said the two sides hoped by the end of October to outline a framework for the end of the conflict and the establishment of a Palestinian state. The three major issues will be at the heart of this document, he said.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters the two leaders did not discuss the issues in detail or prepare any documents. But he said the sides must gird themselves to act, not talk.

"We are at a stage to reach decisions," Erekat said.

He did not deny that Israelis and Palestinians were conducting backchannel talks to try to move peacemaking ahead, but said they were not official negotiations.

President Bush has called for a Mideast peace conference, expected to take place in November, to advance a final Israeli-Palestinian accord. Olmert and Abbas plan to meet three times before then, the Israeli official said.

A successful outcome of the international conference is far from assured. The violent seizure of the Gaza Strip by Islamic Hamas militants in June created dueling governments, with Hamas ruling Gaza and Abbas loyalists in charge in the West Bank. Olmert, weakened by last summer's botched war against Lebanese guerrillas, might not be able to make the sweeping territorial concessions a final accord would demand.

On the other hand, prospects for peacemaking have been boosted by Abbas' expulsion of Hamas, which killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings, from government. And the key players in this drama — Olmert, Abbas and Bush — all appear to be hungry for some kind of diplomatic achievement.

Olmert made it clear to Abbas in their meeting that Israel would break off all peacemaking if the Palestinian leader brought Hamas into his government, the Israeli official said.

The U.S. has been prodding Israel and the Palestinians to make progress before the November conference. Olmert's office said Tuesday's meeting was part of an attempt to reach understandings before then.

The meetings between Abbas and Olmert in recent months are an attempt to boost Abbas against Hamas. This was the first time a major development has been reported, sweeping aside official denials that the issues that have tormented peacemakers for decades were on the table.

The biggest obstacles in past peace negotiations have been what the final borders of a future Palestinian state would look like; whether Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war that accompanied Israel's creation would be allowed to return to their homes along with their millions of descendants; and whether the holy city of Jerusalem could be shared.

Islamic-rooted president wins in Turkey By SUZAN FRASER, Associated Press Writer

Islamic-rooted president wins in Turkey By SUZAN FRASER, Associated Press Writer
1 minute ago



ANKARA, Turkey - A devout Muslim with a background in political Islam won the Turkish presidency on Tuesday, in a major triumph for the Islamic-rooted government after months of confrontation with the secular establishment.

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Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul received a majority of 339 votes in a parliamentary ballot, Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan said. Ruling party legislators broke into applause.

"Abdullah Gul was elected Turkey's 11th president, with 339 votes," Toptan said. "I congratulate him."

The vote took place a day after the military, which has ousted four governments since 1960, issued a stern warning about the threat to secularism. Gul's initial bid for president was blocked over fears that he planned to dilute secular traditions.

"Our nation has been watching the behavior of those separatists who can't embrace Turkey's unitary nature, and centers of evil that systematically try to corrode the secular nature of the Turkish Republic," Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, chief of the military, said in a note on the military's Web site Monday.

Gul, 56, has promised to uphold secularism. But Turkey's president has the power to veto legislation, and Gul has failed to allay secularist fears that he would sign into law any legislation passed by the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan — a close ally — without concern for the separation of religion and politics.

Also, his wife wears an Islamic-style head scarf — which is banned in government offices and schools. Islamic attire has been restricted in Turkey since the country's first president, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, ushered in secularism and Western-style reforms in the 1930s.

Gul failed to win the presidency in two rounds of voting last week because the ruling Justice and Development party lacked the two-thirds majority in Parliament needed for him to secure the post. But the party — which holds 341 of the 550 seats — had a far easier hurdle on Tuesday, when only a simple majority was required.

Gul was scheduled to be sworn in as president in Parliament later Tuesday. He was to take over the presidency from outgoing President Ahmet Necdet Sezer soon after, in a low-key ceremony closed to the media.

Erdogan said he planned to submit his new Cabinet to Gul for his approval on Wednesday. Erdogan had presented his list earlier this month to Sezer, who said the new president should approve it.

In Gul's hometown of Kayseri, in Turkey's conservative heartland, hundreds gathered at a main square to celebrate his victory, private NTV television reported.

Secularist Turks staged mass rallies and the military threatened to intervene when Erdogan nominated Gul for president in the spring.

Gul insisted that he be re-nominated for president earlier this month, arguing that his party's victory in the elections gave him a strong mandate to run. He rejected calls from secularist parties to step aside in favor of a non-Islamist, compromise candidate.

"A person who has defied the (secular) republic, who has said he finds it to be wrong, is about to move to the top of the state. This is a contradiction," said Deniz Baykal, leader of the secular opposition. His party boycotted the vote on Tuesday and has said it would not take part in some state occasions, including presidential ceremonies.

As foreign minister, Gul — who speaks English and Arabic — has cultivated an image as a moderate politician.

In a recent meeting with foreign journalists, Gul said he would make use of his experiences as foreign minister to boost Turkey's EU bid and make the Turkish presidency more active on the international scene.

"Turkey will be more active; Turkey will be contributing more to world issues," he said.

Twin bombings kill 42 in southern India By OMER FAROOQ, Associated Press Writer

Twin bombings kill 42 in southern India By OMER FAROOQ, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 34 minutes ago



HYDERABAD, India - A pair of almost simultaneous bombings blamed on Islamic extremists tore through a popular family restaurant and an outdoor arena on Saturday night, killing at least 42 people in this southern Indian city plagued by Hindu-Muslim tensions.

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The restaurant was destroyed by the bomb placed at the entrance. Blood-covered tin plates and broken glasses littered the road outside.

The other blast struck a laser show at an auditorium in Lumbini park, leaving pools of blood and dead bodies between rows of seats punctured by shrapnel. Some seats were hurled 100 feet away.

Officials said Sunday that foreign-based Islamic extremists may have been behind the attacks.

"Available information points to the involvement of terrorist organizations based in Bangladesh and Pakistan," Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh state, where Hyderabad is located, told reporters after an emergency state Cabinet meeting.

Reddy did not name any groups, but Indian media reports, quoting unnamed security officials, identified the Bangladesh-based Harkatul Jihad Al-Islami. Reddy declined to provide more details. "It is not possible to divulge all this information," he said.

Harkatul, which is banned in Bangladesh, wants to establish strict Islamic rule in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation governed by secular laws.

The Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry said Dhaka had not been informed of these allegations.

Witnesses described chaotic scenes in the aftermath of the bombings.

"We heard the blast and people started running out past us. Many of them had blood streaming off them," said P.K. Verghese, the security manager at the laser show. "It was complete chaos. We had to remove the security barriers so people could get out."

Most of the dead were killed in the Gokul Chat restaurant at Hyderabad's Kothi market, said K. Jana Reddy, the state home minister. By Sunday morning, the death toll had risen to 42 as victims succumbed to injuries. Some 50 people were injured in the two blasts.

Hindu-Muslim animosity runs deep in Hyderabad, where a bombing at a historic mosque killed 11 people in May. Another five people died in subsequent clashes between security forces and Muslim protesters angered by what they said was a lack of police protection.

Two other bombs were defused in the city Saturday, one under a footbridge in the busy Bilsukh Nagar commercial area, and another in a movie theater in the Narayanguba neighborhood, a police official said. Late-night movie showings were canceled across the city.

"This is a terrorist act," said Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, the chief minister for Andhra Pradesh state, where Hyderabad is located.

Much of India's Hindu-Muslim animosity is rooted in disputes over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir, divided between India and mostly Muslim Pakistan but claimed in its entirety by both countries. More than a dozen Islamic insurgent groups are fighting for Kashmir's independence or its merger with Pakistan.

More than 80 percent of India's 1.1 billion people are Hindu and 13 percent are Muslim. But in Hyderabad, Muslims make up 40 percent of the population of 7 million.

There has been little progress in the investigation into the May mosque bombing. Underlying the divide, Muslim leaders have said they do not trust local police to handle the investigation into the attack.

A series of terrorist bombings have ripped across India in the past two years. In July 2006, bombs in seven Mumbai commuter trains killed more than 200 people, attacks blamed on Pakistan-based Muslim militants.

Iraqi leader lashes back at U.S. critics By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer

Iraqi leader lashes back at U.S. critics By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer
41 minutes ago



BAGHDAD - Iraq's beleaguered prime minister on Sunday lashed out at American critics who have called for his ouster, saying Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Carl Levin need to "come to their senses."

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Nouri al-Maliki, who is fighting to hold his government together, issued a series of stinging ripostes against a variety of foreign officials who recently have spoken negatively about his leadership. But those directed at Democrats Clinton, of New York, and Levin, of Michigan, were the most strident.

"There are American officials who consider Iraq as if it were one of their villages, for example Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin. They should come to their senses," al-Maliki said at a news conference.

Al-Maliki launched the verbal counteroffensive in the final days before the American commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker are due in Washington to report to Congress on progress in Iraq since the introduction of 30,000 more America troops.

The Shiite prime minister said a negative report by Petraeus would not cause him to change course, although he said he expected that the U.S. general would "be supportive of the government and will disappoint the politicians who are relying on it" to be negative.

Al-Maliki appeared stung by the recent series of critical statements about his government, including one from President Bush, who said he was frustrated that al-Maliki had failed to make progress on political benchmarks. Crocker has said the lack of movement had been "highly disappointing."

And most recently Sen. John Warner, R-Va.,said the United States should order a token withdrawal of forces by Christmas. The former chairman of the Armed Services Committee said such a move would show al-Maliki that Washington was serious about progress on reconciliation among the country's religious sects and ethnic groups.

Warner and Levin traveled to Iraq together earlier this month as part of the multitude of Congressional delegations who are visiting the country before the expected heated debate on Capitol Hill about U.S. troop levels and plans for a withdrawal.

Al-Maliki also criticized some U.S. military actions.

"Concerning American raids on Shula (a northern Shiite neighborhood) and Sadr City (the Shiite slum enclave in east Baghdad). There were big mistakes committed in these operations. The terrorist himself should be targeted not his family.

"When they want to detain one person, they should not kill 10 others. These are mistakes which we have to deal with. We will not allow the detaining of innocent people. Only the criminals should be detained," the angry al-Maliki declared.

Two nights ago the U.S. military raided the Shula neighborhood and said it killed eight "terrorists" who had attacked an American patrol from rooftops. Some Iraqis reported many civilians were killed and wounded.

U.S. forces also are routinely raiding Sadr City, often calling in helicopter fire. The U.S. says it targets only Shiite militia fighters. Iraqi officials regularly report civilians killed in the raids.

Meanwhile, waves of Shiite pilgrims descended on Karbala on Sunday for a festival marking the birth of the 9th century Hidden Imam. A woman making the 50-mile trek from Baghdad was shot to death by men in a passing car in the southwest of the capital.

More than a million Shiite faithful from throughout the world were expected to converge on the Shiite holy city for the celebrations, which reach their high point late Tuesday and early Wednesday. The Shabaniyah festival marks the birth of Mohammed al-Mahdi, the 12th and last Shiite imam who disappeared in the 9th century.

Religious Shiites refer to al-Mahdi as the "Hidden Imam," believing he was spared death and will return to Earth to bring peace and justice.

Six men were wounded as they walked toward Karbala with the woman who was gunned down, according to Baghdad police officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

In the past, Sunni religious extremists, including al-Qaida in Iraq, have launched massive and deadly attacks against pilgrims during Shiite celebrations, which have drawn huge crowds since the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime.

Last March, about 340 people were killed in a weeklong wave of bombings and shootings. Most of the dead were Shiite pilgrims en route to religious ceremonies in Karbala.

To prevent a repeat, Iraqi authorities Saturday banned motorcycles, bicycles and horse-drawn wagons from the streets of Baghdad indefinitely. Earlier in the day, state television announced that the ban applied to all vehicles, including cars and trucks.

Later, the chief military spokesman for Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Mousawi, said cars and trucks would be allowed but other forms of transport that could slip into smaller places were banned until further notice.

All vehicles were banned from the Karbala city center and each pilgrim entering the district was subjected to a security pat-down by the thousands of police on duty.

"I was hesitant to come because I feared a terrorist attack, but when I saw these strict security I felt safe," said Haji Sabeeh Raheem, a 61-year-old pilgrim from Najaf, another Shiite holy city to the south.

Greek fires race toward ancient sites By JOHN F.L. ROSS, Associated Press Writers

Greek fires race toward ancient sites By JOHN F.L. ROSS, Associated Press Writers
21 minutes ago



AMALIADA, Greece - The fires consuming southern Greece raced toward Ancient Olympia and the nearby Temple of Apollo on Sunday, engulfing entire villages and the parched forests blocking their path toward some of the most revered sites of antiquity.

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At least 51 people were confirmed dead, including a woman found with her arms around the bodies of her four children, and more were feared lost in the country's worst wildfires in decades.

Church bells rang out in the village of Kolyri, near Ancient Olympia, as residents gathered their belongings and fled through the night. Villagers returned to find at least seven gutted houses.

"It's hell everywhere," said Costas Ladas, who said the fire covered more than a mile in three minutes. "I've never seen anything like it."

Fotis Hadzopoulos, another resident, said the evacuation was chaotic. "Children were crying, and their mothers were trying to comfort them, " he said.

The worst fires — 42 major fronts — were concentrated in the mountains of the Peloponnese in southern Greece and on the island of Evia north of Athens. Arson has been blamed in several cases, and seven people have been detained.

The flames surrounded and isolated villages, prompting inhabitants to plead for help on television and radio as the fires neared towns near Ancient Olympia in the south.

"We're going to burn alive here," one woman told Greek television from the village of Lambeti. She said residents were using garden hoses in an attempt to save their homes.

Efforts to contain the inferno were initially helped by a drop in the gale-force winds that swept fires through thousands of acres of forest and scrub since Friday, the fire department said. But the winds revived early in the afternoon

"Fires are burning in more than half the country," department spokesman Nikos Diamandis said. "This is definitely an unprecedented disaster for Greece."

The government, which has come under harsh criticism for its response to the fires, on Sunday decided to give up to $13,000 in aid to people who lost relatives or property.

"All these areas have suffered an economic and social catastrophe," Economy Minister George Alogoskoufis said. "We can all sense the grief and pain of afflicted people."

Firefighters began to reach burned-out villages and there were fears the death toll would rise. Diamandis said it was impossible as yet to estimate how large an area had been burned and how many homes had been destroyed.

Winds abruptly intensified early Sunday afternoon, whipping flames in the direction of Ancient Olympia — where the Olympic Games were held in antiquity.

The fire blazed into the nearby village of Varvasaina, destroying several houses. As residents rushed to battle the flames, others, stunned, walked the streets holding their heads in their hands. One man dashed out of his house clutching a shotgun.

Dozens of charred bodies were found across fields, homes, along roads and in cars. The fire department confirmed 51 deaths, and there were fears the toll could increase as rescuers searched burned areas.

Flames were also approaching the ancient temple of Apollo Epikourios, near the picturesque town of Andritsaina in the southwestern Peloponnese.

Andritsaina Mayor Tryphon Athanassopoulos said the fire was less than two miles from the 2,500-year-old monument — and less than a mile from his town.

"We are trying to save the Temple of Apollo, as well as Andritsaina itself," he told state NET television.

Much of the Peloponnese was ablaze, and churches across the country were filled with people praying for the fires to relent.

Nearly 1,000 soldiers and military helicopters reinforced firefighters stretched to the limit by Greece's worst summer of wildfires. In the most ravaged area — a string of mountain villages in southern Greece — rescue crews picked through a grim aftermath that spoke of last-minute desperation as the fires closed in.

By sea and by land, authorities evacuated hundreds of people trapped by the flames.

At least 12 countries were sending reinforcements for Greece's overstretched firefighters, and six water-dropping planes from France and Italy were due to start operations later Sunday.

"So many fires breaking out simultaneously in so many parts of the country cannot be a coincidence," Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said in a nationally televised address. "The state will do everything it can to find those responsible and punish them."

___

Associated Press writers Elena Becatoros and Nicholas Paphitis in Athens contributed to this report.

Hot air balloon crashes in Canada 18 minutes ago

Hot air balloon crashes in Canada 18 minutes ago



SURREY, British Columbia - A hot air balloon caught fire and crashed in an RV park and campground Friday evening, injuring as many as 11 people, police and a witness said. Two other people were unaccounted for.

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The cause of the accident wasn't known. Weather conditions were clear at the time of the sunset flight. At least three 30-foot RVs caught fire, said Don Randall, a witness who lives in the RV park. No one was reported hurt in those blazes.

Witnesses said passengers screamed and jumped to the ground as the balloon's basket caught fire. The balloon reportedly took off from a grassy field with 12 passengers.

"The thing went up about 400 feet in the air at which point it melted enough of the balloon — it collapsed," said Randall, who saw the balloon as it was on its way up and took pictures of the fiery scene. "The basket was basically a fireball, it just dropped like a stone."

"I'm just thinking, 'Oh geez, I hope there's nobody in that thing. It's basically a burning death up there,'" he said.

People who had been riding in the balloon suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries and were taken to hospitals in the nearby Vancouver area, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Roger Morrow said in a statement.

Fifteen ambulances, two air ambulances and eight fire trucks raced to the scene at the Hazelmere park, he said. Smoke could be seen billowing from the crash site from miles away, CTV said.

Randall said at least two vehicles were damaged along with the RVs. He said he ran to his RV and grabbed a small fire extinguisher, but it proved of little use.

The hot-air balloon, which CTV reported was operated by Fantasy Balloons Charters based in Langley, British Columbia, was one of several balloons in flight at the time.

7 killed, dozens hurt in Baghdad blast By DAVID RISING, Associated Press Writer

7 killed, dozens hurt in Baghdad blast By DAVID RISING, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 45 minutes ago



BAGHDAD - A car bomb exploded in northern Baghdad on Saturday, killing seven passers-by and wounding dozens of others in an apparent sectarian attack near the capital's most important Shiite shrine.

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The attack in Kazimiyah came even as parts of Baghdad were shut down to vehicular traffic in an effort to protect Shiite pilgrims leaving for an annual religious commemoration in the southern city of Karbala next week.

The curbs on traffic were imposed late Friday and were expected to continue through the weekend to allow the pilgrims safe passage on their trek to celebrate the birthday of the "Hidden Imam," a 9th century religious figure who devout Shiites believe will return to Earth to usher in the rule of peace.

Just after noon, a bomb hidden in a parked car exploded in busy Oruba Square about 500 yards from the shrine of Imam Musa Kadhim, another revered Shiite figure.

A medic at the local hospital said seven people were killed in the explosion and 30 others were wounded.

No group claimed responsibility, but suspicion fell on Sunni religious extremists who consider Shiites as heretics and collaborators with the Americans.

Elsewhere, U.S. and Iraqi forces killed two insurgents and arrested seven others Friday during raids on two villages along the road linking Baghdad with the northern oil city of Kirkuk, police Col. Abbas Mohammed said.

Three stolen cars believed to be intended to be used for car bombs, as well as ammunition and bomb-making materials were also seized, Mohammed said. There were no reports of U.S. or Iraqi casualties, he said.

Iraqi security forces also killed a man suspected of links to the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida front group, Mohammed said. Ten other al-Qaida suspects were arrested in the Friday raid which occurred in a village northeast of Baghdad.

Also Friday, U.S. helicopters blasted rooftops in a Shiite neighborhood of north Baghdad in a gunfight that left eight Shiite gunmen dead, according to the U.S. military's count. Shiites claimed some civilians died and radicals castigated Iraq's Shiite-dominated government as being too weak to rein in the Americans.

The U.S. military said the battle in Baghdad erupted when a U.S. Army patrol came under fire shortly after midnight from gunmen on rooftops in Shula, a rundown Shiite neighborhood that is a stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Troops called in attack helicopters, which raked the rooftops with automatic weapons fire, a U.S. spokesman, Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, said.

Bleichwehl said all the dead had been "identified as hostile."

But Iraqi police and hospital officials said the dead included a woman and a young boy. Sixteen other people were wounded, including four women and three boys in their early teens who had been sleeping on the roofs to escape the summer heat, an official at Noor Hospital in Shula said.

The Iraqi officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release such information.

In Najaf, the leader of the pro-Sadr bloc in parliament, Nasser al-Rubaie, claimed 21 civilians were killed in Shula. He blamed Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government, saying it is "weak and can do nothing in the face of the occupation."

The verbal barrage by Shiites comes as al-Maliki is drawing increasing criticism in the United States over his government's inability to forge unity among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.

A report released Thursday by U.S. intelligence agencies predicted more turmoil over the next six to 12 months because Iraqi political leaders "remain unable to govern effectively."

Bombers target Afghan police chief By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writer

Bombers target Afghan police chief By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 1 minute ago



KABUL, Afghanistan - Insurgents detonated a roadside bomb next to a convoy carrying the police chief in Afghanistan's violence-plagued Helmand province on Thursday, killing three civilians and wounding 13 others.

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The blast in the southern province, which supplies much of the opium used in the world's heroin trade, followed an attack Wednesday that killed two Canadian soldiers and wounded a radio journalist.

The bomb was triggered by remote control in the town of Gereshk when Helmand police chief Mohammad Hussein passed by in a convoy of several cars, said Hussein, who was not hurt in the attack. Five of the injured were in critical condition, he said.

Also on Thursday, a German engineer kidnapped by Taliban insurgents more than a month ago was shown pleading for help in a videotape broadcast on a local television station. The man, who identified himself as Rudolf Blechschmidt, was shown lying on a black rug, clutching his chest and coughing.

"I am a prisoner of the Taliban," he said. "We live in the mountains, very high in a very bad condition, please help us.

"The Taliban try to negotiate with the Afghan government but the government not talk with the Taliban and the Taliban tried to get in connection with the embassy to release us. But if the time is over, they want kill us," said Blechschmidt, speaking in broken English.

The video was broadcast on privately owned Tolo TV. The station did not say how it obtained the footage, and there was no indication of when it was shot.

Blechschmidt is one of two German engineers and five Afghans taken hostage on July 18 in Wardak province in central Afghanistan. The other German was found dead of gunshot wounds on July 21, while one of the Afghans managed to escape. The captors have demanded in the past that Germany withdraw its troops from the country.

The German Foreign Ministry in Berlin said it was examining the content of the video.

Abductions have become a key insurgent tactic in recent months in trying to destabilize the country, targeting both Afghan officials and foreigners helping with reconstruction efforts. A group of 23 South Korean aid workers were taken hostage last month. Two of the Koreans were killed, two were released and the rest remain captive.

Violence in Afghanistan is currently running at its highest level since U.S.-led forces invaded the country in 2001 to oust the hard-line Islamic Taliban rulers who were accused of harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden following the Sept. 11 attacks.

On Wednesday, the Canadian soldiers were traveling in an armored vehicle that was hit by a roadside bomb in Zhari district of Kandahar province, NATO Brig. Gen. Guy Laroche told reporters at Kandahar Airfield.

Wednesday's casualties — who were from Quebec province's Royal 22nd Regiment — bring to 69 the number of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2002. Canada has about 2,300 soldiers in the country, mainly operating in Kandahar province, the former Taliban stronghold.

The Afghan mission is unpopular in the French-speaking province and rising casualties have cost Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government support there. Harper has said Canada's combat mission in Afghanistan will not be extended beyond 2009 without a consensus in Parliament.

Dean downgraded to tropical depression By RICHARD JACOBSEN, Associated Press Writer

Dean downgraded to tropical depression By RICHARD JACOBSEN, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 22 minutes ago



POZA RICA, Mexico - A weakening Dean dumped heavy rains across central Mexico, drenching mudslide-prone mountains as it pushed its way inland after slamming into the nation's Gulf Coast as a Category 2 hurricane.

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In the storm-lashed city of Poza Rica, neighbors banded together to clear the streets of fallen trees with axes and machetes, while workers began reconnecting downed power lines. Dean killed 20 people in the Caribbean but there were no reported deaths so far in Mexico.

"We have emerged in good shape because of our organization, because of our precautions," said Veracruz Gov. Fidel Herrera, while touring hurricane-battered coastal towns. "Now we enter the difficult phase of reconstruction and aid."

The National Hurricane Center in Miami downgraded Dean to a tropical depression late Wednesday and predicted it would dissipate Thursday as it passed over Mexico's high mountains. But with up to 20 inches of rain expected to fall, authorities worried there could still be floods or mudslides.

The mountain ranges near Mexico's coast are dotted with villages connected by precarious roads and susceptible to disaster. A rainstorm in 1999 caused floods that killed at least 350 people.

Dean slammed into Mexico for the second time in as many days Wednesday with top sustained winds of 100 mph. Its center hit the tourism and fishing town of Tecolutla. The wide storm's hurricane-force winds lashed at a 60-mile stretch of the Mexican coast in Veracruz state.

As it pushed inland, Poza Rica, located 30 miles from Tecolutla, became the area's command center, and hundreds of people remained in shelters there late Wednesday.

Maria Patricia Perez, a 40-year-old merchant in Poza Rica, had the tin roof ripped completely off her house. "We were afraid it would knock down everything," she said.

Exhausted residents described helping one another battle Dean's rains and winds.

Shopkeeper Joel Cruz's house was left without electricity or telephone lines after a 30-year-old pine tree gave way, but it could have been worse.

Amid the howling winds, his neighbors helped him tie ropes around the tree and they were able to direct its fall away from his home. They also managed to move two cars away just before the giant tree came down.

"It was an adventure we survived," the 30-year-old Cruz said.

Late Wednesday, Poza Rica residents took stock of the damage — and agreed it could have been much worse.

"A lot of homes were left without roofs," said Mariano Gutierrez, head of Civil Defense in Poza Rica. "Many trees fell on public streets and on houses. There are many fallen signs. But so far, thank God, we don't have anything serious."

At 11 p.m. EDT, Dean was about 95 miles northwest of Mexico City and was heading westward at near 21 mph.

Dean hit the mainland as a Category 2 storm after regaining some of the force it unleashed on the Yucatan. Its first strike on the peninsula Tuesday as a Category 5 tempest with 165 mph winds was the third most intense Atlantic hurricane ever to make landfall.

Mexico had suspended offshore oil production and shut down its only nuclear power plant as tens of thousands headed for higher ground. The state oil company said there was no known damage to any of its production facilities on shore or in the Gulf of Mexico.

Producers of corn and sugar cane likely suffered heavy losses in Veracruz, a key agricultural state. Coffee plantations at higher elevations also were threatened by the heavy rains, industry officials said.

Although Dean swept over Yucatan as a rare Category 5 hurricane, which is capable of causing catastrophic damage, the storm's top winds were relatively narrow and appeared to hit just one town: the cruise ship port of Majahual.

The few people who had not evacuated Majahual fled ahead of the storm. Dean demolished hundreds of houses, crumpled steel girders, splintered wooden structures and washed away parts of concrete dock that transformed what once was a sleepy fishing village into a top cruise ship destination.

Information still was sparse about dozens of inland Mayan Indian communities where people living in stick huts rode out the storm. President Felipe Calderon flew over Yucatan to survey damage Wednesday.

Greatly weakened from its trip across the peninsula, Dean moved across the southern Gulf of Mexico, home to 100 oil platforms, three major oil-exporting ports and the Cantarell oil field, Mexico's most productive. All offshore production was halted ahead of the storm, reducing daily production by 2.7 million barrels of oil and 2.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

But Pemex said its offshore platforms and loading facilities would emerge without major damage.

___

Associated Press writers Julie Watson and Paul Kiernan in Mexico City, Mark Stevenson in Majahual and John Pain in Miami contributed to this report.

Pakistani court rules Sharif can return 44 minutes ago

Pakistani court rules Sharif can return 44 minutes ago



ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif can return home after seven years in exile, the chief of the Supreme Court said.

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Sharif, who was overthrown by army chief General Pervez Musharraf in a 1999 coup, has vowed to oppose President Musharraf's bid for another term in office.

"They have an inalienable right to come back and stay in the country," Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry told the court, referring to Sharif and his brother, Shahbaz Sharif, who is also a politician and was exiled with his brother in 2000.