The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Kabul/Baghdad

Six U.S. troops and three Afghan soldiers died when insurgents ambushed their foot patrol in eastern Afghanistan, one of the deadliest attacks on American forces this year, officials said Saturday.

The troops were returning from a meeting with village elders Friday afternoon in Nuristan province when militants attacked them with rocket propelled grenades and gunfire, said Lt. Col. David Accetta.

"They were attacked from several enemy positions at the same time," said Accetta, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force and the U.S. military. "It was a complex ambush."

Eight more Americans and 11 Afghans were wounded. The 14 total U.S. casualties was the highest number of wounded and killed from a battle in Afghanistan this year, Accetta said.

Mohammad Daoud Nadim, Nuristan deputy police chief, said the ambush happened in the remote province's Waygal district. He said military aircraft fired on enemy positions but had no information on any casualties among the militants.

Baghdad report adds: At least 14 Iraqis were killed and 20 wounded, including policemen, civilians and militants, while two US soldiers were reported killed in separate acts of violence across Iraq, sources said Friday. In Khalis, located in Diyala province, three Iraqi civilians and four gunmen were killed in an armed attack Friday by a group belonging to the al-Qaeda terrorist network, news reports said.

Three civilians were also injured in the attack, independent Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency reported, citing a police source.

Several villages in the area are still controlled by militants from the al-Qaeda affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq.

Khalis is some 75 kilometres north-east of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Also Friday in Diyala province, four Iraqis were killed and 10 wounded, including policemen, in three separate blasts, VOI reported citing an official security source.

An explosive charge went off in the afternoon in a village in Baquba, killing one civilian and injuring six, the source added.

A similar explosion occurred in the Khanaqin region in north-east Baquba on the border with Iran, killing two border guards and seriously wounding a third.

Also in Khanaqin, an explosive device detonated in the Saadiya area targeting a police patrol, killing a policeman and injuring three, the source said.

Diyala has recently witnessed recurrent acts of violence. Joint Iraqi-US forces had launched the Operation Arrowhead Ripper in Diyala in June in a bid to rid the provincial capital Baquba and other cities of al-Qaeda militants.

In south-west Kirkuk province, 250 kilometres north-east of Baghdad, an Iraqi military officer was killed and three security guards were wounded when an explosive charge exploded targeting his patrol on the road to Riyad region, VOI reported citing an official military source.

In Howayja, also in Kirkuk, at least one policeman was killed and four wounded when a car bomb went off Friday afternoon, targeting a police patrol, VOI reported, quoting a security source.

A medical source said the wounded policemen were in a stable condition.

Meanwhile, the US Defence Department announced Friday the death of two soldiers in separate attacks in Iraq.

Captain Benjamin D Tiffner, 31, of West Virginia, died Wednesday in Baghdad of wounds suffered in a bomb explosion, the US military said.

Sergeant Lui Tumanuvao, 29, of Fagaalu, American Samoa, died Wednesday in the town of Arab Jabour of wounds suffered in another bomb explosion during combat operations. Arab Jabour is just south of Baghdad.

In other news, a ceremony was held in Baghdad Thursday marking the planned release of almost 500 detainees, the US military in Iraq reported Friday.

An average of 50 detainees are being released daily, but only after they are no longer deemed to be an immediate threat to Iraqi and coalition forces and the security of Iraq, the military said.

Some 2,050 prisoners have been freed since the start of the Muslim month of Ramadan in mid-September.

As of Thursday, approximately one third of the detainees have been released, while the remaining two thirds are due to be released within the next several days.

Separately, nine Iranian detainees were released Friday by the multinational forces in Iraq, the US military in Iraq reported.

Witnesses, meanwhile, said Friday US forces backed by helicopters launched a wide-scale crackdown in Baghdad's southern district of Jisr Diyala.

AP, Islamabad

Pakistan will lift its state of emergency within one month, a senior government official said Saturday, amid sharp U.S. criticism of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's step back from democracy.

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, meanwhile, left her home for the first time after a day under house arrest, traveling to a meeting with party colleagues. Aides said she would meet later with foreign diplomats.Musharraf insists he called the week-old emergency to help fight Islamic extremists who control swathes of territory near the Afghan border.

But Pakistan's secular opposition, as well as its increasingly independent courts and media, have been the main target of the subsequent repression.

Under growing international pressure, Musharraf has announced that parliamentary elections initially slated for January will be held no more than a month later.

And on Saturday the government's top lawyer said the state of emergency would be short-lived.

"The state of emergency will end within one month," Attorney General Malik Mohammed Qayyum told The Associated Press in a brief telephone interview. He provided no further details and would not say when a formal announcement might come. Security forces threw a cordon around Bhutto's villa in an upscale neighborhood of the capital Friday, and rounded up thousands of her supporters to prevent a planned demonstration against the crackdown.

In Rawalpindi, the nearby garrison town where she had hoped to address the rally, police used tear gas and batons against hundreds of Bhutto loyalists who staged wildcat protests and hurled stones.

The action further dimmed the prospect of the two U.S.-friendly leaders forming an alliance against militants - a rising threat underlined by a suicide bombing on Friday at the home of a Cabinet minister. Four people died, though the minister escaped unhurt.

The Bush administration called for the restrictions on Bhutto to be lifted, and Pakistan's government said late Friday she was again free to move about.

On Saturday morning, police pulled aside the metal barriers blocking the street leading to her villa to let her four-vehicle convoy pass.

Three police vehicles escorted her to the headquarters of her Pakistan People's Party for a meeting with other leaders.

Bhutto aides said the former premier would discuss Pakistan's political crisis with foreign ambassadors at a dinner later Saturday.

In Washington, some lawmakers called for aid to Pakistan to be curtailed unless Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, quickly relaxes his crackdown and presses ahead with long-promised democratic reform.

As Musharraf's chief international backer, the Bush administration is deeply concerned about the deteriorating situation in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation of 160 million people on the front lines of the U.S.-led campaign against al-Qaida and its allies.

AP, Peshawar

A suicide bombing at the home of a Pakistan government minister in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed at least four people on Friday, police said. The minister was unhurt.

The attack happened at the residence of the minister for political affairs, Amir Muqam, and also wounded three people, said Aslam Khan, a local police official.

Muqam said he saw two or three dead in the blast - members of his security staff - and one of his brothers was wounded.

"I saw two, three bodies on my veranda," Muqam said on state-run Pakistan Television.

Muqam is the provincial chief of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party and a close ally of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Tahir Khan, the city's police chief, said it was a suicide attack.

"I can confirm that it was suicide attack, but the minister is safe," he said.

He said the attacker, who was on foot, blew himself up just inside the gate of Muqam's house when security personnel tried to stop him.

Pakistan, particularly its northwest, has been wracked by Islamic militant violence, with bombings targeting the military or top officials, and clashes between security forces and pro-Taliban fighters.

In April, a suicide bomber blew himself up just a few feet from Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao, killing 28 other people, at a political rally in the northwestern town of Charsadda.

Sherpao, Pakistan's top civilian security official, escaped with minor injuries.

Also Friday, a bomb exploded at a military checkpoint, killing at least two soldiers and wounding five in Kambal, a town about 120 miles north of Peshawar, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said. He said the victims were from the paramilitary Frontier Corps.

Amid the deteriorating security, authorities evacuated to Islamabad about 300 Chinese, mostly engineers working on three hydropower projects in remote parts of North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan.

Ataullah Wazir, a senior police official, said the Chinese were shifted for "security reasons," but did not say if there were any specific threats against them.

In 2004, Taliban militants kidnapped two Chinese engineers in the lawless tribal region of South Waziristan. One of the Chinese was freed, but the other was killed in a rescue attempt by Pakistani commandos.

Three Chinese engineers were also killed last year by another group of insurgents in the neighboring province of Baluchistan, where a separatist rebellion is festering.

Reuters, Washington

North Korea is offering the United States evidence that it never intended to produce uranium for nuclear weapons, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

Quoting unnamed South Korean and U.S. officials, the paper said Pyongyang was granting U.S. experts access to equipment and documents in closely held talks to back its case.

It said North Korean officials were hoping Washington would lift its sanctions against the reclusive Communist state when Pyongyang makes the declaration as part of the disclosure of its nuclear activities before the end of the year.

The disclosure is part of a deal struck by North Korea last month with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States to disable its Soviet-era nuclear facilities in exchange for aid and an end to its international isolation.

The agreement requires North Korea to disable its three key nuclear plants by the end of 2007, provide a list of its nuclear arms activity, account for all its fissile material and answer U.S. suspicions that it has a clandestine program to enrich uranium for weapons.

In exchange, the destitute country will receive 1 million tonnes of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid.

"They have shown us some things, and we are working it through," the paper quoted a senior U.S. official as saying on Friday, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the talks are confidential. "We are having a discussion about things.

Some explanations make sense; some are a bit of a stretch."

The paper quoted an unnamed South Korean official as saying North Korea was attempting to show that materials it had imported had been intended for conventional weapons programs and other dual-use projects, not for nuclear weapons.

The South Korean official said North Korea's efforts marked an important shift. "In the past, North Korea simply said no," he said. "Now they are trying to convince us," he was quoted as saying.

The Bush administration branded North Korea part of an "axis of evil" and accused it in 2002 of pursuing a uranium-enrichment program to produce a nuclear weapon.

AP, United Nations

Against a backdrop of heavy fighting and growing insecurity, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opposed the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers to Somalia and suggested instead a robust multinational force or a coalition of willing nations.

In August, the U.N. Security Council called on the secretary-general to begin planning for the possible deployment of U.N. peacekeepers to replace an African Union force that has struggled to put troops in the chaotic country.

But in a new report to the council, Ban on Friday said, "under the prevailing political and security situation, I believe that the deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping operation cannot be considered a realistic and viable option." Ban said a that "given the complex security situation in Somalia, it may be advisable to look at additional security options, including the deployment of a robust multinational force or coalition of the willing."

Such a force could initially be small and self-sustaining, Ban said, growing over time with the achievement of specific security and political milestones. "In due time, such a force could be built to a level that would enable Ethiopian.

forces to commence a partial, then complete withdrawal from the country."

Somalia has not had a functioning government since clan-based warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, sinking the poverty-stricken Horn of Africa nation of 7 million people into chaos.

The rout last December of the Islamic fundamentalist movement that controlled most of Somalia by Ethiopian troops and Somali government soldiers allowed the country's weak U.N.-backed transitional government to enter the capital, Mogadishu, for the first time since it was established in 2004. But heavy fighting between insurgents and Ethiopian troops has flared again, leaving hundreds dead and wounded.

The U.N. authorized the African Union to send an 8,000-strong peacekeeping force to Somalia in February to calm the country, but only 1,800 troops from Uganda are on the ground. Ban urged the international community to provide logistical help and funds to deploy the rest of the AU force as quickly as possible.

Reuters, Colombo

Sri Lankan troops killed 17 Tamil Tiger rebels in clashes in the north of the island, while a soldier was also killed in the fighting, a military spokesman said on Saturday.

The clashes, in the northern district of Vavuniya and northwestern district of Mannar on Friday, were the latest engagements in a renewed civil war between government forces and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fighters.

"Troops attacked terrorist bunkers in Vavuniya in two separate places. Intercepted communications said eight terrorists were killed," a spokesman at the Media Centre for National Security said. The military added that nine rebels and were killed and 14 wounded in further confrontations and artillery fire in Vavuniya and Mannar districts, while a soldier was also killed in the fighting in Vavuniya.

The Tigers, who say they are fighting for an independent state for minority ethnic Tamils in the north and east, were not immediately available for comment.

There was no independent confirmation of how many people were killed in the fighting or what had happened. Military analysts say both sides tend to exaggerate enemy losses and play down their own.

The fighting follows a major battle in the Jaffna peninsula on Wednesday in which the military said they killed 60 rebels. The Tigers said 20 soldiers were killed and more than 100 wounded in the clash, and that just one of their fighters was killed.

An air strike last week killed the leader of the Tigers' political wing in a body blow to hopes of ending the two-decade conflict soon.

The military has launched an offensive to drive out the rebels from Mannar, after evicting them from jungle terrain they controlled in the east earlier this year.

Around 5,000 people have been killed in fighting between the military and the LTTE guerrillas since early 2006. Nearly 70,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced since the war erupted in 1983.

AP, Yangon

Detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi received rare front-page billing Saturday in Myanmar's state-controlled press, which said the ruling military junta was "putting energy" into democratic reforms demanded by the international community.

Suu Kyi, under house arrest, was allowed to meet leaders of her opposition party Friday for the first time in more than three years and told them she believes the generals intend to work toward democracy.

The junta, which came under renewed international pressure after it crushed pro-democracy demonstrations led by Buddhist monks in September, allowed the meeting after the latest in a series of visits by U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari.Immediately before and after talks with her political allies, Suu Kyi met with Aung Kyi, the general appointed as the "minister for relations" with the opposition leader.

according to the New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

The regime's tightly controlled newspapers published a photograph of Suu Kyi and Aung Kyi, smiling and shaking hands at a government guest house - an indication the government was keen to publicize the meeting even though it has not commented on what was discussed.

It was the third time in a month that Suu Kyi's image has appeared in state-controlled media, which refused for years to print her picture or even refer to her by name. Suu Kyi has been detained for 12 of the past 18 years, and continuously since May 2003.

"While putting energy into the democratization process, the government has been making efforts for the national reconsolidation," the New Light of Myanmar wrote in its front-page story. It did not elaborate.

Outside observers said they were doubtful the meeting was a real sign of change.

"This meeting was conducted in a government-controlled guesthouse, which in all likelihood was bugged by Burmese intelligence services, inhibiting open discussion," Human Rights Watch said in a statement Saturday.

AFP, Crawford

US President George W. Bush welcomed German Chancellor Angela Merkel to his Texas ranch for two-day talks on issues like Iran and Afghanistan, with barbecue and maybe a hike on the menu.

Bush and Merkel -- who joined an elite group of world leaders invited to the "Prairie Chapel" property -- were expected to showcase diplomatic efforts to confront Tehran over what the West suspects may be a nuclear weapons program.

"In Texas, when you invite somebody to your home, it's an expression of warmth and respect. And that's how I feel about Chancellor Merkel," said Bush, who he hoped for "constructive talks as well as a chance to relax and visit."

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to be on hand Saturday to discuss the Middle East peace process, as well as efforts to stabilize Afghanistan, Kosovo's future, pressure on Myanmar, and Lebanon's political crisis.

"I would like to say a very thanks to you, George, for issuing this invitation to us," Merkel said through an interpreter after the helicopter ride that took her to the 850-hectare (1,600-acre) ranch near this flyspeck town.

"Already, a first glance of the area shows us that this is indeed a wonderful place to be in, a wonderful atmosphere. And we have a number of issues that I think we will have now time to discuss," she said.

Ahead of the talks, US officials downplayed fissures between the allies on the US hard line toward Iran and Germany's restrictions on its troops in Afghanistan but also downplayed the likelihood of any breakthroughs.

Reuters, Kuala Lumpur

Police in the Malaysian capital used water cannon and fired tear gas shells on Saturday to break up crowds gathering for a banned opposition rally to demand changes to the country's electoral system.

Hundreds of policemen, including riot police with shields and batons, guarded Kuala Lumpur's landmark Merdeka (Freedom) Square, where tens of thousands of people had planned to gather in one of Malaysia's biggest anti-government rallies since 1998.

"Police sprayed water cannons twice to disperse a crowd of about 500 protesters chanting slogans," said a Reuters witness who watched the incident outside a mosque guarded by about 50 riot police, while helicopters hovered overhead.

Nearby, another group of around 500 protesters, chiefly teenagers wearing yellow T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "Bersih," or "Clean" in Malay, marched in heavy rain towards the city's colonial-era railway station. They chanted "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) and "Reformasi," a reform demand that was the war chant of 1998 opposition protests, while waving banners reading.

"Save Malaysia" and "Election Commission, stop your tricks."

Groups of demonstrators converged on the palace of Malaysia's king, where opposition leaders handed a list of electoral reform demands to a representative of the country's head of state.

Policemen in the crowd said it numbered less than 10,000, but organizers put the figure at 30,000.

Opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim said he was happy with the turnout, despite the government's condemnation of the protest.

"It is a good signal that Malaysians want freedom and democracy and want free and fair elections," the former deputy prime minister told reporters.

"Now we have no option but to appeal to his majesty," Anwar said after he and several opposition colleagues, including Hadi Awang of the hardline Islamist Parti Islam-se Malaysia and Lim Kit Siang of the Democratic Action Party, submitted their list.

Reuters, Kabul

Taliban insurgents killed six troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and three Afghan soldiers in an ambush in eastern Afghanistan, an ISAF spokesman said on Saturday.

It is unusual for such a large number of foreign and Afghan forces to be killed in a single engagement in Afghanistan where ISAF and U.S.-led coalition troops, backed by air power, routinely inflict heavy losses on Taliban insurgents.

"I have sad news to report from regional command east where six ISAF soldiers and three Afghan army were killed by Taliban insurgents in an ambush yesterday," Brigadier General Carlos Branco told a news conference in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Eight ISAF troops and 11 Afghan soldiers were also wounded in the fighting, which began on Friday when insurgents ambushed their patrol with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire as the troops were returning from a meeting with local elders.

It was the heaviest loss suffered by ISAF troops in Afghanistan in several months.

Most ISAF troops based in the east of the country are American, but the force was withholding confirmation of the nationalities of the dead soldiers pending notification of next of kin.

Elsewhere, a suicide bomber killed one civilian and wounded three other people in the northern province of Kunduz on Saturday, a provincial security official said.

AP, Washington

Congress is taking new whacks at the cigarette industry, banning tobacco sales in Senate buildings and - more importantly - seeking a significant federal tax increase on cigarettes. The industry, once a lobbying behemoth, is quietly working against the tax bill. But it lacks the clout it once wielded.

Several key lawmakers said they have had no recent contacts with tobacco lobbyists. And both houses have signaled a willingness to raise the cigarette tax if other provisions of a children's health bill can be resolved. "I think the industry has tried to do things more quietly, largely because they obviously know how popular a tobacco tax is," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. The health advocacy group supports a proposed $35 billion increase in the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which a higher cigarette tax would finance.

House and Senate negotiators are trying to craft a veto-proof version of the bill. President Bush says he would veto it because it calls for a 61 cents-per-pack increase in the federal excise tax on cigarettes, taking it to $1.

The House came within about a dozen votes of overriding Bush's veto of a similar bill last month. The bill's supporters are offering to change program eligibility rules in hopes of picking up enough Republicans to make the revised bill veto-proof. The proposed cigarette tax increase is not at issue, leaders of both parties said.

Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette maker, sponsors a Web site, mailings and a toll-free number urging people to ask Congress to sustain Bush's veto. "Taxing smokers is unfair," the materials say, adding that states have increased sales taxes on cigarettes 73 times since 2000.