The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Islamabad

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle rammed into a Pakistan Air Force bus on Thursday, killing at least eight men and wounding about 40, the latest in a wave of attacks against the military, officials said.

The bomber struck around 7 a.m. near an air base in Sargodha, about 125 miles south of the capital Islamabad, said air force spokesman Sarfraz Ahmed. Local police chief Hamid Mukhtar Gondal said the bus was destroyed and that investigators had collected body parts of the attacker.

Sahid Malik, an official at the air force's hospital in Sargodha, said the dead men were air force employees. Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad called the attack "an act of terrorism."

The bombing came just two days after a suicide attacker blew himself up at a police checkpoint near the army office of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in Rawalpindi, a garrison city just south of the capital, killing seven.

There have been no claims of responsibility for this week's attacks, which have rattled a country wracked by a wave of Islamic militant violence.

Musharraf, a key U.S. ally, is under pressure from Washington to crack down pro-Taliban and al-Qaida militants hiding in the country's border regions near Afghanistan.

In the northwestern district of Swat, where recent clashes between security forces and supporters of a militant cleric have killed scores, fighting has resumed after a two-day lull.

An army helicopter attacked militants in the Sambad area of the mountainous region Wednesday after it came under fire. Eighteen militants were killed, including an aide to the hardline cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, said provincial home secretary Badshah Gul Wazir.

Early Thursday, militants attacked hilltop positions of security forces in the Khwaza Khela area, triggering a gunbattle, an official in the district's police control room said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists.

There was no immediate word on casualties. Swat lies about 80 miles northwest of Islamabad.

AP, Baghdad

Three US soldiers were killed in a bomb attack southeast of Baghdad yesterday, the military said.

The troops were killed when their patrol was struck by the bomb, it said.

Iran yesterday denied involvement in killing US soldiers in Iraq, rejecting allegations that it supplies deadly explosives to insurgents attacking Americans in the war-torn country.

Meanwhile, US helicopters opened fire after a ground patrol came under attack southeast of Baghdad on Wednesday, and Iraqi police said three officers were killed and one wounded in the strike.

The fighting occurred near Salman Pak, a predominantly Sunni area that has been the subject of a U.S. military campaign aimed at routing insurgents from rural strongholds and disrupting the flow of weapons to the capital.

Ground forces called for air support after coming under small-arms fire near the city, some 15 miles southeast of Baghdad, a U.S. military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the information hasn't been formally released. A U.S.-Iraqi joint security station in the area had come under fire three times earlier in the day, the official said.

A local policeman, who also declined to be identified because he wasn't authorized to release the information, claimed three officers were killed and one wounded when an Iraqi patrol vehicle was hit in the airstrike.

The policeman said the patrol was near a police station, but the military official denied that.

"It was not an actual police station. It was a claimed Iraqi police checkpoint," the official said, adding there were casualties but details were not immediately available.

It was the latest in a series of claims that U.S. airstrikes have killed innocent Iraqis. The American military says it takes several measures to prevent civilian casualties while insisting that it will strike back when attacked.

Iraqi police forces also have been accused of being infiltrated by extremists, a major obstacle in the U.S. strategy to develop the national security apparatus so American troops can go home.

AFP, Qandil

A top Kurdish rebel based in northern Iraq called on Ankara to present a peace plan that could end his group's armed rebellion against Turkey, in an interview with AFP on Thursday.

"I call upon Turkey to be courageous and present a peace plan to solve the problem. In this way it is possible to have a ceasefire," said Abdul Rahman al-Chadirchi, a senior leader in the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Turkey, which is pressing Iraq to crack down on PKK guerrillas based there, has not closed its airspace to flights to and from northern Iraq, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday.

Turkish broadcaster NTV television reported earlier that flights to and from northern Iraq had been closed as part of economic sanctions targeting groups supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) operating in northern Iraq. Erdogan also told reporters sanctions against groups supporting the PKK had not yet been put into force.

Meanwhile, Turkey announced a blitz of sanctions targeting Kurdish PKK rebels on Wednesday in a move expected to affect members of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish administration.

The move came after Turkey said it had killed another 15 Kurdish separatists near the Iraqi border and the United States revealed it was providing Ankara with intelligence on the rebels holed up in northern Iraq.

Turkish vice prime minister and government spokesman Cemil Cicek said the cabinet had adopted "simultaneous military, political, diplomatic and economic measures" targeting the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and "its associates." He declined to give more detail about the sanctions, but defined associates as "those who help it (the PKK) and who shield it."

Ankara accuses the Iraqi Kurdish administration of harbouring the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and has been threatening an invasion of northern Iraq to pursue the separatists.

On Wednesday, the Turkish military reported new fighting in an area bordering Iraq, the Cudi mountains of Sirnak province, in which 15 separatists and three soldiers have been killed since Monday.

AP, Tehran

The head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps warned the U.S. Wednesday against attacking the Islamic Republic, saying if it did, Washington would be "stuck in a quagmire" worse than Iraq or Afghanistan.

Revolutionary Guards commander Mohammad Ali Jafari said his forces were prepared to strike back with a "crushing response" if attacked, according to comments carried by the semiofficial Fars news agency.

"If enemies prove to be naive enough to invade Iran, they will be slapped hard," Fars, which is deemed close to the Guards, quoted Jafari as saying.

"The enemy knows that if it attacks Iran, it will certainly get stuck in a quagmire deeper than Iraq and Afghanistan and will be defeated," he added.

His comments come a day after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shrugged off new U.S. sanctions imposed last week that ban dealings with companies connected to the Guards.

Tensions are high between Iran and the U.S. over allegations that Tehran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons and supplying insurgents in Iraq with deadly weapons that kill American troops. Iran denies both claims.

Concerns have been mounting in recent months that the United States might attack to prevent Iran from developing atomic bombs. The U.S. has said it is trying to resolve its disputes with Iran diplomatically but also says it has not ruled out any options.

AFP, Santo Domingo

Floods and landslides triggered by Tropical Storm Noel have killed at least 80 people in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, as the weather system Thursday slowly headed towards the Bahamas.

At least 56 people were killed and dozens are missing in the Dominican Republic, said Luis Luna Palino, who heads the Dominican Republic's National Emergencies Center (CNE).

In neighboring Haiti, at least 24 people were killed, Civil Protection officials said.

The center of Noel ripped through central and eastern Cuba on Wednesday, where no casualties were reported though more than 20,000 people were evacuated from the storm's path.

With dams full, rivers bloated and the soil saturated from weeks of rain, Cuban Civil Defense authorities warned of possible floods and landslides.

At 0600 GMT Thursday the center of Noel was located about 200 kilometers (125 miles) southwest of Nassau, in the Bahamas, and about 315 kilometers (195 miles) southeast of Miami, the Florida-based National Hurricane Center reported.

Noel was crawling north at eight kilometers (five miles) per hour, packing maximum sustained winds near 95 kilometers (60 miles) and hour, with higher gusts.

Noel barreled across the Dominican Republic on Sunday, slamming Haiti on Monday. By Wednesday, Noel's sequels continued to wreak havoc over Hispaniola, the island the two countries share.

"The situation is still dangerous and the number of deaths could rise," said Palino.

"Rescuing people is becoming difficult because the rains are continuing," Palino told local radio, adding that floods had cut off 39 communities in the south of the country, where more than one-third of the population was left without power.

AP, Arghandab

Afghan civilians piled belongings onto trucks Wednesday and fled two villages infiltrated by hundreds of Taliban militants outside Afghanistan's second-largest city. U.S., Canadian and Afghan troops had about 250 of the insurgents surrounded. The troops killed 50 militants in three days of fighting 15 miles north of Kandahar city, the provincial police chief said. Three policemen and one Afghan soldier also died.

"The people are fleeing because the Taliban are taking over civilian homes," Sayed Agha Saqib said. "There have been no airstrikes. We are trying our best to attack those areas where there are no civilians, only Taliban." Saqib said 250 militants were surrounded, and 16 suspected Taliban have been arrested. In eastern Afghanistan, meanwhile, a nighttime raid on a compound sparked a gunbattle late Wednesday that left three people dead, including two children, officials said Thursday. The U.S. and Afghan troops clashed with suspected militants belonging to a suicide bombing network at a compound in Bati Kot district in Nangarhar province, said Maj. Chris Belcher, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition.

After the clash, a militant and two children were found dead inside the compound, Belcher said, and a woman and another child were wounded. The military has launched an investigation in the case, he said.

"It is regrettable that the civilian lives were put in danger by the militants and our sincere condolences goes to the families of the deceased and wounded," Belcher said.

AFP, Tokyo

Japan on Thursday ordered home ships engaged on a refuelling mission in the Indian Ocean, halting the close US ally's main role in the "war on terror" due to domestic opposition. Japan, which has been officially pacifist since the end of World War II, has supplied fuel to US and other forces operating in Afghanistan under legislation first passed after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. But the government failed to extend the mission as the main opposition party, which controls one house of parliament, has vowed that Japan should not take part in "American wars." Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba issued orders at 3:00 pm (0600 GMT) for Japan's two ships in the Indian Ocean -- the destroyer Kirisame and the supply ship Tokiwa -- to return to Japan. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, whose predecessor quit in September in part due to his failure to prolong the deployment, vowed to "do my utmost for the swift passage" of new legislation to resume the operation. "Terrorism is a challenge against free and open societies. The war on terrorism affects our national interests," Fukuda said in a statement.

"It is surely necessary for us to continue refuelling activities in order to fulfil our responsibilities in solidarity with the international community which is trying to eradicate terrorism," he said.

But public opinion on the mission is sharply divided in Japan, whose military has not fired a shot in combat since the United States imposed a pacifist constitution after World War II.

Coalition nations had tried for weeks with no success to persuade the opposition to change its mind.

AFP, London

Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir blamed Britain, France and the United States for "the problems in Sudan in general", particularly in Darfur, in an interview published Thursday. Speaking to The Guardian from Khartoum, Beshir also called on the British government to issue a public apology for undermining recent talks in Libya on the humanitarian crisis in the western Sudanese region of Darfur by threatening sanctions against the government if the talks failed. Beshir told the newspaper that in his eyes, "Britain, the United States and France, throughout, they adopted all the resolutions to punish the government of Sudan in the international arena and institutions." "What we suffer here and in Darfur in particular and the problems in Sudan in general are caused by these three powers, Britain, France and the United States." He said that if the peace talks in Sirte, Libya, failed, "it will be the responsibility of the external interventions, particularly from Britain, France and the United States."

Beshir also criticised comments made by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the weekend threatening sanctions against the Sudanese government if the Sirte talks failed to make progress, which the British government have since amended.

AFP, London

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia had a "meeting of minds" in talks Wednesday with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on taking forward the Middle East peace process, a spokesman said. On the second official day of the king's lavish state visit to Britain -- which has been marked by human rights protests -- the two leaders had "very positive" discussions on Middle East regional issues, a spokesman for the prime minister's office told AFP. Brown did not bring up human rights issues with the king, though they have been raised separately during his visit, the spokesman said. Britain sees Saudi Arabia as a key partner for economic ties, Middle East regional stability and combating Islamist extremism. However, critics of the kingdom's human rights record are unhappy at the welcome afforded to its octogenarian monarch. Getting down to business following Tuesday's pomp and ceremony, the king visited Brown at his office in Downing Street in London.

"They mainly discussed the Middle East peace process looking ahead to the Annapolis," the spokesman said, referring to the peace conference in Maryland scheduled for later this year.