The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Islamabad

A suicide attack killed at least seven people, including the bomber, less than a kilometer from Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's army headquarters in Rawalpindi on Tuesday, police said.

Three policemen and three passersby were among those killed, while 11 people were wounded in the blast, city police chief Saud Aziz said. The policemen were manning a checkpoint on a road leading to the army headquarters.

"Our policeman challenged the attacker who exploded himself near their picket," Aziz said. "The police were the target."

Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim Khan said General Musharraf was safely in his office some two km away at the time of the blast.

"I could see several scattered body parts," a witness, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the location, told Reuters.

"The blast took place near the house of the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff committee," Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said.

U.S. ally Musharraf has survived at least three assassination attempts -- two in December 2003, and one in July as his plane took off from Rawalpindi's airport.

Suicide and roadside bomb attacks on security forces have multiplied since commandos stormed the Red Mosque in the capital, Islamabad, in July to crush a Taliban-style movement. More than 100 people were killed in the fighting.

The security situation in the country has continued to deteriorate, and scores of people have been killed in fighting between security forces and militants in the scenic valley of Swat in North West Frontier Province during the past few days.

AFP, Jalalabad

A roadside bomb struck the vehicle of a district intelligence chief in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing him and three colleagues, officials said.

The head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) for the Qarghai district of Laghman province was on his way to work as his vehicle was blown up, provincial spokesman Nizamudin Mangal told AFP.

"The security director and his three friends including his driver were martyred in the blast," Mangal said.

Southern and eastern Afghanistan have been hard hit by a wave of Taliban-led violence, hampering the reconstruction of the country in the wake of the militia's ouster in late 2001 by a US-led invasion.

The insurgency has claimed thousands of lives so far, mostly militants, with hundreds of Afghan and foreign soldiers also killed.

Reuters, New Delhi

India needs to follow its political processes to resolve internal disputes over a nuclear energy deal with the United States, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Paulson said the U.S. valued the fact that India was "a vibrant democracy" and said democratic processes needed to work for the country to come to a conclusion on the nuclear deal.

"Let's let the process in India work on the civilian nuclear deal," Paulson said at a global business conference.

Another report adds: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice emphasized U.S. support for a stalled civil nuclear deal with India in a conversation with Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday, the State Department said.

The agreement aims to give India access to U.S. nuclear fuel and equipment, overturning a three-decade ban imposed after New Delhi, which has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, conducted a nuclear test in 1974.

The accord has been become entangled in Indian domestic politics because the communist coalition allies of Prime Minister Mahmohan Singh have threatened to withdraw their parliamentary support for his government if it goes ahead.

AP, Jerusalem

Israel's attorney general has temporarily halted the government's plan to cut back on electricity to the Gaza Strip, demanding more work to prevent humanitarian harm.

Attorney General Meni Mazuz's decision Monday came after 10 human rights groups petitioned Israel's Supreme Court to stop the cutbacks, charging they are collective punishment.

On Sunday, Israel reduced fuel supplies to Gaza, but government officials said the planned electricity cuts would have to await the outcome of the court case. Last month, the Israeli government declared Gaza a "hostile entity" and approved the plan for cutoffs in an effort to halt the daily rocket barrages into southern Israel. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak gave the final go-ahead for the sanctions last week.

The Justice Ministry said in a statement late Monday that Mazuz determined that "in the case of electricity cutoff, more staff work needs to be done by the defense establishment to determine the possibility of implementing this measure to comply with the government decision in the matter, which qualified these measures over humanitarian harm to the civilian population."

AFP, Baku

Azerbaijani authorities have foiled a "terrorist" attack by a radical Islamic group against government facilities and diplomatic missions, including the US embassy, the Ministry for National Security said Monday.

"We averted attempts at terrorist acts against some state structures in the city of Baku, as well as embassies and diplomatic missions of member countries of the international anti-terrorist coalition," it said.

Ministry spokesman Arif Babayev told AFP the US embassy in Baku was among the targets.

Security was tight outside the embassy late Monday, with dozens of police standing guard.

Hours before the statement from the Azerbaijani government, Britain said it had closed its embassy in Baku, while the United States said it was limiting operations at its mission. Both cited security concerns.

The alert was unusual in Azerbaijan, a relatively peaceful corner of the troubled Caucasus region, despite the country's unresolved conflict with neighbouring Armenia over the tiny Nagorny Karabakh province.

According to the Ministry for National Security, one suspect was killed and two detained during a raid Saturday against alleged extremists near Baku. News agencies reported that the suspect had been shot and killed while trying to throw a hand grenade at police.

Large quantities of weapons and "extremist" literature were seized during the operation, the ministry said.

AP, Karachi

Benazir Bhutto likes to list Osama bin Laden and schemers in Pakistan's shadowy intelligence services among her deadly enemies - yet some of the former premier's most implacable foes are members of her family. As Bhutto launches her political comeback, her greatest asset is the name she inherited from her father, whose tomb she visited this weekend on her first trip to Pakistan's provinces since the deadly suicide attack that greeted her return to the country. But her claim to the legacy of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a giant figure in Pakistani history who was ousted as prime minister and executed by the military three decades ago, remains bitterly contested. "She has disgraced not only the family but also the Bhutto tribe," said Mumtaz Bhutto, Benazir's 73-year-old uncle and the patriarch of the 700,000-strong Bhutto clan. Benazir lost no time in tying the Oct. 18 bombing which marred her homecoming from eight years in exile to that legacy.

AFP, Tokyo

Japan's two largest parties failed to agree Tuesday on continuing a naval mission in the Indian Ocean, dealing a setback to the government which has pledged to support the US-led "war on terror".

With legislation allowing support for the "anti-terror" mission expiring Thursday, Japan's refueling on Monday of a Pakistani destroyer was likely to be the country's last contribution to the military effort for the time being. The suspension comes amid growing opposition to the "war on terror" across countries which are part of the coalition, which is battling a deadly insurgency by remnants of the extremist Taliban regime ousted in 2001. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda failed to reach a breakthrough in a meeting with opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa, who has vowed to fight the legislation allowing Japan to provide fuel and other support to US-led forces in Afghanistan. "I asked for his party's cooperation regarding the new anti-terrorism bill and explained the situation, but as of today we did not reach any agreement," Fukuda told reporters after the meeting.

AFP, London

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah said Britain failed to act on intelligence from his country which may have stopped the London bombings, before arriving here Monday for a controversial state visit. The king -- the first Saudi monarch to make a state visit to Britain in 20 years -- accused London and other nations of failing to take terrorism seriously enough. His three-day visit formally starts Tuesday, but it has already provoked angry protests from some politicians and campaigners over alleged human rights abuses and corruption in Saudi Arabia. Asked about the terrorist threat in an interview broadcast hours before his arrival, he told the BBC through an interpreter: "I believe most countries are not taking this issue too seriously including, unfortunately, Great Britain.

AFP, Damascus

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki on Monday pledged their support for efforts to defuse a crisis between Ankara and Baghdad over PKK rebels based in northern Iraq. "The Iranians have initiated efforts which complement those of Syria, because we want to give a political solution a chance," Muallem said of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters based in Iraqi Kurdistan. "The PKK terrorists threaten not only Turkey but also Iran and Syria," said Mottaki, who arrived in Damascus earlier Monday and held talks with President Bashar al-Assad. "The terrorist operations from the north of Iraq create a destabilising effect throughout the region," said Mottaki, whose country like Syria has its own sizeable Kurdish minority. After coming under criticism from Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Syria earlier this month denied that Assad had during a visit to Ankara given his backing for a Turkish military strike against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.

AFP, Bangkok

An immediate regime change in Myanmar would be "impossible", France's foreign minister said Tuesday, suggesting that the world focus instead on a gradual move towards democracy in the military-run nation. "We are starting a process. We don't want to change the regime immediately, overnight. This is impossible, ridiculous and counter-productive," Bernard Kouchner said after meeting with Thai officials over the Myanmar crisis. Kouchner was in Bangkok on the second leg of an Asian tour to step up international pressure on Myanmar's junta after its bloody crushing of anti-regime protests in September. At least 13 people were killed and thousands arrested when Myanmar's leaders violently broke up the largest protests to challenge its rule in nearly 20 years, sparking international outrage. The United States and the European Union tightened sanctions intended to force the junta onto the path of democracy, and the UN issued a statement deploring the crackdown.