The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Baghdad

Suicide atacks killed thirty-seven in Iraq in two days.

A suicide driver killed three Iraqi policemen and wounded 20 people when he detonated his car at the entrance of police headquarters Tuesday in Basra, raising more fears over the southern city's deteriorating security situation.

Also Tuesday morning, two parked car bombs went off nearly simultaneously in a shopping street in eastern Baghdad, killing six civilians and wounding 20 people, just yards away from a line of pensioners outside a local bank, the police said.

The blasts followed a deadly night in Baqouba, where a suicide bomber struck a U.S.-promoted reconciliation meeting of Shiite and Sunni tribal sheiks after sunset Monday, killing at least 28 people, including the city's police chief, and wounding about 30 others.

At least 28 people were killed and 34 wounded in a devastating atack by a suicide bomber inside a mosque near Iraq's restive city of Baquba, police and a medical official said on Tuesday.

The atack Monday evening targeted a reconciliation meeting between two feared militias at Shifta village west of Baquba during the evening meal that breaks the daytime fast observed by Muslims during Ramadan.

Seven policemen, including three high ranking officers, were killed when the suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest in the crowded mosque.

"We have a total of 28 people killed and 34 wounded," police Brigadier General Khaider al-Timimi told AFP, updating an earlier toll.

His casualties figures were confirmed by the chief of the morgue in Baquba, Ahmed Fouad.

An Iraqi security official said the reconciliation meeting was between the Shiite Mahdi Army militia and the Sunni insurgent group, the Brigades of the 1920 Revolution.

In recent months the Brigades of 1920 Revolution has been joining forces with the US military in securing volatile Sunni Arab regions across Iraq.

The violence comes amid continued friction between Iraqi and U.S. officials over the Sept 16 killing of 11 Iraqi civilians allegedly by Blackwater USA security guards in Baghdad, and the U.S. troops' arrest last week of an Iranian officer who the Iraqis claim was here by official invitation.

The U.S. military said the man is suspected of being a member of Iran's paramilitary Quds Force, accused by the United States of arming Shiite militias in Iraq.

The arrest has drawn condemnation from Iraqi leaders. President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd who has been one of America's staunchest allies in Iraq, called it "illegal" and said he met with American leaders to demand the Iranian's release.

He said the Americans did not have the right to arrest somebody inside the autonomous Kurdish area in northern Iraq because the U.S. had handed over security responsibilities to the Kurds.

"Arresting a person inside the Kurdish region is illegal because the security file was handed over to the Kurdish government months ago," he said.

Talabani spoke at a news conference at the Sulaimaniyah airport before departing for New York, where he said he was to atend an international reconciliation conference on the U.N. General Assembly sidelines at the invitation of former President Clinton.

Two U.S. soldiers also were wounded in the blast at a mosque in Baqouba where Shiite and Sunni tribal leaders were meeting with senior provincial officials to discuss peace measures. The atack in the city, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida in Iraq and posed a major challenge to U.S. efforts to bring together members of the rival Islamic sects in Diyala province, the scene of some of the most biter fighting in Iraq.

Witnesses and officials said the bomber struck when most of the victims were gathered in the mosque courtyard after Iftar, the daily meal in which Muslims break their sunrise-to-sunset fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

AP Television News footage showed piles of clothes and other debris in pools of blood and broken white plastic chairs scatered on the floor of the mosque's entrance, with three bowls of grapes left over from the feast still siting on a counter.

Police Maj. Salah al-Jurani said he believed provincial Gov. Raad Rashid al-Tamimi was the intended target in the explosion. The governor was wounded and his driver was killed. The dead also included Baqouba's police chief, Brig. Gen. Ali Dalyan, and the Diyala provincial operations chief, Brig. Gen. Najib al-Taie, according to security officials. The officials spoke speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to release the information.

Also wounded was the governor's brother, Sheik Mazin Rashid al-Tamimi, who has spearheaded Sunni-Shiite reconciliation efforts in the province.

The U.S. announced this month that top leaders of 19 of the 25 major tribes in Diyala - 13 Sunni and six Shiite - had agreed to end sectarian violence and support the government in its fight against al-Qaida in Iraq, although the province remains one of the most dangerous in the country with frequent kidnappings and armed clashes.

Basra, Iraq's second largest city, also has been tense amid violence between rival Shiite militias linked to political parties, raising security concerns after the British military last month pulled back its troops out of the city to a nearby airport to allow Iraqi security forces to take over.

Fearing deteriorating security, Baghdad last weekend dispatched Iraq's minister of state for national security, Sherwan al-Waili, to take over Basra's security operations center, following the assassination of a local representative of Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

The minister of state said it was a temporarily measure, until a new security plan is implemented in this city, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad.

AP, Islamabad

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf will stay on as army chief if he is not re-elected president, the atorney general said Tuesday, as the Supreme Court prepared for a ruling that could decide the fate of his bid for another five-year term.

Musharraf, a close U.S. ally who seized power in a 1999 coup, has pledged to step down as military chief if lawmakers award him a new presidential mandate in a ballot on Oct 6.

At a Supreme Court hearing, a judge asked Atorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum what would happen if Musharraf was not re-elected. Qayyum said Musharraf's position was that "If I am not elected, then I will remain chief of army staff."

He said Musharraf could continue as army chief under a law that allows him to hold both positions at the same time and suggested he could retain the powerful military post as long as he remains president The law expires at the end of 2007 although his presidential term ends Nov. 15. The remarks could sharpen criticism of Musharraf's re-election plan and also of a crackdown on opposition parties who argue that he is ineligible to run, particularly while he remains army chief. They also could fuel persistent talk - encouraged by hard-liners in Musharraf's camp - that the general could impose a state of emergency or impose martial law if the court blocks his way.

Security was tight for the second consecutive day near the Supreme Court building, with a ban on gatherings of more than five people and police checkpoints on roads leading into the capital.

A nine-judge panel was considering several challenges to Musharraf's re-election bid after rejecting a few on Monday, mostly on technical grounds. A decision was expected within days.

The opposition claims Musharraf can't run as long as he also retains his role as chief of the army.

Musharraf has seen his popularity and power erode since his botched effort to fire the Supreme Court's chief justice earlier this year. His administration is also struggling to contain a surge in Islamic militancy.

Police began arresting leaders and rank-and-file members of opposition parties in late-night raids Saturday, a move that drew a sharp rebuke from the U.S. - Musharraf's biggest foreign backer because of his support of Washington's global war on terrorism.The U.S. Embassy on Monday called the arrests "extremely disturbing" and urged the detainees' immediate release to help ensure a free, fair and representative vote by federal and provincial legislators.

AP, Yangon

Tens of thousands of Buddhist monks defied orders from the military junta to stay out of politics, relaunching mass protests Tuesday in the country's two biggest cities.

The monks, cheered on by supporters, marched out for an eighth day of peaceful protest from Yangon's soaring Shwedagon Pagoda, while some 700 others staged a similar show of defiance in the country's second largest city of Mandalay.

"The protest is not merely for the well being of people but also for monks struggling for democracy and for people to have an opportunity to determine their own future," one monk told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity fearing reprisals from officials. "People do not tolerate the military government any longer."

The demonstrations came despite orders to the Buddhist clergy to halt all political activity and return to their monasteries, and as pro-junta supporters in pickup trucks cruised Yangon warning that large crowds were illegal.

The protests in Yangon reached 100,000 on Monday, becoming the biggest demonstrations since a pro-democracy uprising 19 years ago. The authorities did not stop the protests Monday, even as they built to a scale and fervor that rivaled the 1988 uprising when the military fired on peaceful crowds and killed thousands, terrorizing the country.

The government, has been handling the monks gingerly, wary of raising the ire of ordinary citizens in this devout, predominantly Buddhist nation. But diplomats said troops have been discreetly deployed in downtown Yangon and could easily be called in against the protesters. Some schools in Yangon, the country's largest city, were closed.

Joining the monks Tuesday were members of the pro-democracy National League for Democracy headed by Aung San Suu Kyi as well as university students.

They marched from Shwedagon to the Sule Pagoda in central Yangon - a distance of more than a mile - under a scorching sun.

Some party members carried flags of the fighting peacock, a symbol of the democracy movement, while students held a banner saying "Nonviolence, peaceful expression" in Burmese.

Following Monday's march, authorities in cars cruised Yangon's streets Tuesday, announcing that the clergy have been directed not to take part in "secular affairs" and saying that certain elements were trying to instigate unrest in the country.

Warnings also were sent out against all illegal gatherings in a country where an assembly of more than five can amount to breaking the law.

The government's New Light of Myanmar newspaper quoted Religious Affairs Minister Brig. Gen. Thura Myint Maung as saying that protests by monks also had spread to cities like Mandalay, Hinthada and Monywa in seven of the country's 14 states and divisions.The demonstrations have escalated in just one week from a marginalized movement to mass protests drawing not only the monks but people from all walks of life.

In Mandalay, ordinary people were starting to join the monks or follow them on foot, motorcycles, bicycles and trishaws, though many still appeared too afraid to show their open support

"I support the monks. However, if I join them, the government will arrest me," said a man selling belts at a Mandalay market He declined to give his name, fearing reprisals from officials.

The head of the country's official Buddhist organization, or Sangha, issued a directive Monday ordering monks to stick to just learning and propagating the faith, saying young monks were being "compelled by a group of destructive elements within and without to break the law," the newspaper said.

AFP, Kathmandu

Nepal's embatled king was to stay away Tuesday from a centuries-old festival where a child "goddess" traditionally blesses his rule, in yet another bad omen for the endangered monarchy.

Officials said King Gyanendra, who has been increasingly isolated following a peace deal that brought former Maoist insurgents into the political mainstream, would remain in his palace during the Royal Kumari festival.

"The king is not going to atend the festival," a palace official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "There is too much politics involved." It will be the first time in the history of his 238-year-old Shah dynasty that a royal has not received blessings from a young girl selected and worshipped as a living reincarnation of a powerful Hindu goddess.

The annual public ceremony is considered in the conservative Hindu-majority nation to be an important seal of approval for the palace, and Gyanendra's absence will be a symbolic blow to the throne.

AFP, Colombo

Heavy fighting between security forces and Tamil rebels in northern Sri Lanka has left at least 27 people dead, military officials said.

The LTTE lost at least 20 men in pre-dawn clashes Monday on the Jaffna peninsula, according to the defence ministry. Another three Tigers were killed in the Wanni region further south, it added.

Government troops were atempting to break into territory in Wanni where the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) run a mini-state.

The fighting also left two security personnel, including an officer, dead and 30 soldiers wounded on Sunday. Another two were killed and 15 wounded in Jaffna early Monday, officials said.

There was no immediate word from the LTTE about its losses, which could not be confirmed independently.

The pro-rebel Tamilnetcom website said both sides traded artillery fire in the Mannar district, part of the Wanni region.

"The Sri Lanka army had suffered casualties in a ground operation launched Sunday in Thampanai area (in the Wanni)," Tamilnet said without elaborating.

Reuters, Beijing

China has sounded a fresh warning to self-ruled Taiwan over a planned referendum on its bid to join the United Nations, saying such a move by an island it considers sovereign territory would endanger regional peace.

Successive bids by Taiwan, recognized by just a handful of countries around the world, for U.N. membership have failed for the past 15 years. Beijing has threatened to atack the island if it moves towards formal independence.

Jia Qinglin, ranked fourth in the Communist Party hierarchy, said "splitist activities" on the island remained "vehement" "The Chen Shui-bian administration has ignored the interests of Taiwan people and international condemnation to obstinately push forward the activities for personal gains," Jia told a conference. Chen is the island's independence-minded president

"It is set to damage the fundamental interests of compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and threaten peace and stability in the region and Asia-Pacific," Jia said, according to a report in the People's Daily.

AFP, New York

US President George W. Bush promised to strive for the creation of a Palestinian state, after meeting with the head of the Palestinian Authority Mahmud Abbas Monday over a planned peace summit "The United States of America will work as hard as we possibly can to help you achieve the vision" of a two-state solution to the Palestinians' historic conflict with Israel, Bush told Abbas at a news conference after their talks. "I believe that the vision of two states, side by side in peace, is achievable. And we want to help you realize that goal." The two leaders discussed a planned peace conference aiming to map a future Palestinian state, on the eve of the United Nations General Assembly. Abbas' Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was also at the talks.

AFP, Bournemouth

Afghanistan's Islamist Taliban militia will have to be involved in the country's peace process, Defence Minister Des Browne told delegates at the Labour Party conference. Browne also echoed comments made by the head of the British Army General Richard Dannat, who said in June that Britain faced a "generation of conflict" "In Afghanistan, at some stage, the Taliban will need to be involved in the peace process because they are not going away any more than I suspect Hamas are going away from Palestine," Browne told delegates at a fringe meeting late on Monday. "But in my view, those who convene that process are entitled to say there are some basic parameters that people ought to apply to their engagement" Browne said that he did not believe that a legal system with its roots in "a sort of Judeo-Christian or Romano-system" could be established in Afghanistan, adding that "some solution that has its roots in Islamic law" would likely emerge.

AFP, United Nations

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said a summit on climate change here on Monday had delivered "a clear call from world leaders for a breakthrough" at key talks looming in December. "This event has sent a powerful political signal to the world, and to the Bali conference, that there is the will and the determination at the highest level, to break with the past and act decisively," Ban added. He called it "a truly landmark event" The December 3-14 conference in Bali, Indonesia, is tasked with seting down a roadmap for negotiations towards a new planetary deal on global warming after the first phase of the UN's Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of 2012. "I now believe we have a major political commitment to achieving that," the UN secretary general said. Monday's summit was atended by around 150 countries, more than 80 of them at the level of head of state or government, making it the seniormost gathering in UN history on global warming.

Reuters, Beijing

Having coaxed North Korea to shut an aged reactor, disarmament talks resuming this week face the harder task of persuading Pyongyang to loosen its grip on broader atomic ambitions it has long held vital to survival. North Korea locked its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear plant and allowed U.N. atomic monitors back to the site in July, following a February 13 deal made at six-party talks in Beijing. In return, Pyongyang has received shiploads of heavy fuel oil and held bilateral talks with the United States that could eventually bring the impoverished fortress state out of diplomatic isolation. But having reached that milestone, negotiators meeting from Thursday must begin to line up a daunting set of decisions -- especially how to disable Yongbyon and what details North Korea must disclose in its declaration of atomic activities.

AP, New York

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended Holocaust revisionists and raised questions about who carried out the Sept 11 atacks in a tense showdown Monday at Columbia University, where the school's head introduced the hard-line leader by calling him a "pety and cruel dictator." Ahmadinejad portrayed himself as an intellectual and argued that his administration respected reason and science. But the former engineering professor, appearing shaken and irate over he called "insults" from his host, soon found himself drawn into the type of rhetoric that has alienated American audiences in the past He provoked derisive laughter by responding to a question about Iran's execution of homosexuals by saying: "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country t I don't know who's told you that we have this." Columbia's president, Lee Bollinger, set the combative tone in his introduction of Ahmadinejad: "Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a pety and cruel dictator."