The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Quetta

Seven people were killed and 15 others were injured when a bomb exploded in a market in troubled Baluchistan province in the latest violence to hit Pakistan, police said.

The blast happened as passengers were waiting at a mini-van stand in the main market in Dera Bugti town in the southwestern province, which is in the grip of a low-level insurgency.

"There was a bomb explosion in the main bazaar and seven people were killed and six are wounded," local police officer Hazoor Baksh told AFP.

Another police officer said 15 people were wounded and a van was completely destroyed in the blast in Dera Bugti about 250 kilometres southeast (155 miles) of provincial capital Quetta.

"We are investigating if the bomb was planted in the van which was parked near a passenger van," local officer Mohammed Baluch said.

The attack comes after 138 people were killed in a suicide bombing targeting former premier Benazir Bhutto during her homecoming parade in the southern port city of Karachi late on Thursday.

The blasts -- the worst suicide bombing in Pakistan's history -- ripped through a crowd numbering tens of thousands of supporters welcoming her return to Pakistan after eight years in self-imposed exile.

Bhutto has since pledged to stay in Pakistan to combat militancy and fight general elections in January, seen as a key step to returning the Islamic republic of some 160 million people to civilian rule.

Police were probing Saturday a list of possible suspects given by Bhutto.

Bhutto has said that she received a prior warning about members of Al-Qaeda, Pakistani and Afghan Taliban and a Karachi-based militant group who may plan to attack her. Pakistan has been hit by a wave of Islamist violence, including suicide attacks, unleashed after the government ordered troops to storm the Al-Qaeda-linked Red Mosque in Islamabad in July.

The operation, ordered by President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led "war on terror", killed more than 100 people. Another 300 people have since died in the Islamist violence.

AFP, Srinagar

Thousands of villagers set fire to government vehicles in noisy demonstrations in northern Kashmir over the killing of a Muslim school teacher by Indian troops, officials said.

Residents accused Indian troops of killing Abdul Rashid Mir in cold blood during frisking of civilians near a forest on Friday.

The army has expressed its regret over the death and ordered an enquiry into what it called an "unfortunate incident."

An army statement, however, insisted Mir was killed accidentally after refusing to cooperate with a security check.

"Instead of showing his identity papers the individual got into an argument with the soldier. In this confusion the weapon got accidentally discharged, which caused unfortunate fatal injuries," it said.

Police and residents said thousands of villagers have been holding noisy demonstrations against the army on Friday and Saturday.

"They have kept the body on a stretcher and refuse to bury the dead until a murder case is registered against the accused," a police officer said, adding more and more villagers were joining in the protests.

He said the angry villagers set fire to two government vehicles and forced a shutdown in one area, adding police used batons and tear gas to attempt to disperse the crowd early Saturday but that failed.

AFP, Tokyo

The head of a UN climate panel that shared the Nobel Peace Prize warned that Asia was particularly vulnerable to global warming, with the continent set for more disasters unless action is taken.

Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, warned that fighting greenhouse gasses entailed more than adopting new technologies, with individuals required to change their lifestyles.

"Asia being the rapidly growing continent with the largest share of the human population located over here, clearly vulnerabilities in Asia are going to be of importance," Pachauri told an environmental conference in Tokyo. The Indian scientist said Asia risked floods and diminished access to fresh water and food supply if global warming continued unabated.

"Poor communities are of course at the highest risk," he said, explaining that they did not have the capacity to adapt to climate change.

"In the case of coastal areas, flooding of the residences of millions of people could take place in South, Southeast and East Asia." He warned that the vital agricultural production of Asia's densely populated delta regions would be in jeopardy if temperatures kept rising.

Pachauri's panel, a network of 3,000 experts regarded as the world's top scientific authority on global warming, shared this year's Nobel Peace Prize with former US vice president turned environmental activist Al Gore.

AFP, Yangon

Military-run Myanmar was under renewed pressure Saturday after the United States announced a new round of sanctions following the junta's bloody crackdown on dissent here.

US President George W. Bush's new penalties targeted the country's military leaders late Friday and also urged China and India, Myanmar's neighbours and main allies, to step up pressure on the military government.

It is the second time in four weeks that the United States has increased sanctions on the junta following the regime's clampdown on protests. State media in Yangon has yet to speak about the latest US action, while detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), also declined to comment on the move.

However, a Yangon-based diplomat voiced scepticism over the impact of the latest US sanctions designed to pressure the junta into ending its repression of pro-democracy activists.

"The junta leaders may feel nervous because the United States was stepping up pressure very quickly," said the diplomat, who declined to be named. "But the impact of the latest US sanctions is limited at best. I don't think Myanmar's top leaders still hold vast assets in the United States," he said.

AP, Baghdad

A roadside bomb exploded near a minibus south of Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least three people and wounding nine, police said.

The minibus was carrying passengers from Baghdad to the predominantly Shiite city of Hillah at about 6:30 a.m. when it was struck by the explosion, police said. The attack occurred in Iskandariyah, 30 miles from Baghdad.

Travelers on the main highway linking the two cities have frequently suffered attacks in the mainly Sunni southern belts of Baghdad, although the volatile area seen a recent lull in violence as local Sunni tribal leaders joined forces with U.S.-led forces against al-Qaida in Iraq.

AFP, Chennai

Twelve people died and eleven sustained severe injuries in southern India when an apartment building collapsed after heavy rain, police said Saturday.

Three women and a boy were among those who died in the accident late Friday in southern Coimbatore city.

Around 500 policemen were deployed to clear the debris and help with rescue work, city police commissioner C.K Gandhirajam said.

The apartments -- built by the government 30 years ago -- had developed deep cracks and residents had been advised to move out for repair work.

"The building collapsed even as the victims were still busy packing all that they considered valuable," said a senior police official, who did not wish to be named.

AP, Tehran

Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, has resigned, a government spokesman said Saturday.

The spokesman, Gholam Hossein Elham, gave no specific reason for the resignation, effective immediately, but said Larijani had cited a desire to focus on "other political activities."

"Larijani had resigned repeatedly. Finally, the president accepted his resignation," Elham told a press conference.

Elham said Saeed Jalili, a deputy foreign minister for European and American affairs, was to succeed Larijani.

The United States and its allies accuse Iran of secretly trying to build a nuclear weapon. Tehran denies the charge, saying its program is peaceful and aims to generate electricity, and has refused to give in to international demands that it halt uranium enrichment.

Elham stressed that Iran's nuclear policy would not change because of Larijani's resignation.

AFP, Kuala Lumpur

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas met with Malaysia's prime minister Saturday as he began a tour of key Muslim powers in Asia to drum up support ahead of a US-sponsored meeting with Israel.

Abbas said the talks with Malaysian premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi focused on establishing a co-ordinated approach to the meeting in order to find a "good, peaceful solution".

"We seek the coordination and help from others in order to get the best results in the conference," he told reporters. "From now until the conference, this is what we will do." "The conference is to be held t in November -- this is what we heard but there is no confirmation," he added.

AP, San Diego

The highest-ranking U.S. serviceman to face court-martial involving combat since Vietnam was ordered to trial Friday for failing to investigate the killings of 24 Iraqis, including women and children, in Haditha two years ago.

Another Marine was also ordered to face court-martial for charges including involuntary manslaughter.

Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani faces charges of dereliction of duty and violation of a lawful order on allegations that he mishandled the aftermath of the Nov. 19, 2005, shootings, which followed a roadside bombing that killed a Marine driver. Chessani was commander of the Camp Pendleton-based 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment that has been the focus of the biggest prosecution of U.S. troops in the Iraq war. He is the most senior U.S. serviceman since the Vietnam War to face a court-martial for actions or decisions made in combat, said Gary Solis, a former Marine Corps prosecutor and judge who teaches law of war at Georgetown University Law Center.

AFP, Washington

US President George W. Bush certified Saudi Arabia as an anti-terrorism ally on Friday, weeks after a top US Treasury official sharply criticized the kingdom's record.

Bush's move came in a memorandum to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, required under US law to free up aid from Washington to Riyadh, that the White House released to reporters. "I hereby certify that Saudi Arabia is cooperating with efforts to combat international terrorism and that the proposed assistance will help facilitate that effort," the president said. His memorandum came a little more than a month after the US Treasury undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Stuart Levey, charged that Saudi Arabia has failed to prosecute the bankrollers of terrorist groups. Levey, the undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, told the US network ABC that not a single individual identified by the United States or the United Nations as a terror financier had been prosecuted by Saudi Arabia.

Reuters, New Delhi

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has dismissed calls from opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to resign after his apparent climb-down on sealing a landmark nuclear deal with the United States, saying he hoped the deal could move ahead.

"Well, the BJP of all parties has the least moral right to make such a demand," Singh was widely quoted on Friday in Indian newspapers as saying.

The prime minister said he hoped the nuclear deal would still go forward.

"I have mentioned that there are some difficulties. We are working in a coalition. We have to find a way out and I have not given up hope," he said.

The controversial agreement -- which aims to give India access to much-needed but long-denied U.S. nuclear fuel and reactors -- had pushed Singh's coalition to the brink of collapse after its communist allies rejected the pact.