The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Baghdad

A suicide attack on Sunday killed three American soldiers during combat operations in the Iraqi city of Baquba, as US officials said violence in the country had dropped sharply.

The US military in a statement said three soldiers were killed as a result of a "suicide vest attack" in the city of Baquba, the capital of the restive Diyala province, but gave no further details.

The latest fatalities brought the US military's overall losses in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 3,866, according to an AFP tally based on Pentagon figures.

The Pentagon figures also take into account soldiers who die after leaving Iraq for treatment. At least 861 US soldiers have been killed since the beginning of 2007, already the deadliest year for the military since the 2003 invasion.

The attack on the soldiers came on a day when 18 Iraqis were also killed by insurgents across the country.

Nine people were killed and 20 injured when a car bomb exploded against a convoy of a top official in the finance ministry, security officials and a medic said. The official, whose identity was not known, escaped unhurt, the officials added.

The bomb exploded near the Al-Hurriyah Square in central Baghdad's Karrada neighbourhood.

A medic at Baghdad's Ibn Nafis hospital, where the injured were taken, confirmed the toll. Three people, including two children, were killed when a roadside bomb exploded near a football ground in Baquba, police Colonel Hazim Yasin said.

He said seven other people, including six children, were wounded.

"A roadside bomb went off near the ground where children had assembled to play football. Three people were killed, including two children," he said.

Doctor Firas al-Azzawi of Baquba general hospital also confirmed the casualties.

A car bomb attack against a police patrol in the northern city of Mosul killed three civilians and wounded 16 others, said Brigadier General Abdul Karim al-Juburi, police spokesman for Nineveh province.

Four policemen were among the wounded in the attack, in Al-Dawasa neighbourhood in the centre of the provincial capital Mosul, he said.

In Tikrit, executed dictator Saddam Hussein's home town north of Baghdad, a policeman was killed and three others wounded when the roadside bomb they were trying to defuse exploded, another police official said.

Reuters, Islamabad

President Pervez Musharraf said he wants a national election to be held in Pakistan on January 8, but despite pressure from the United States over the weekend he did not say whether emergency rule would be revoked beforehand.

"Inshallah (God willing), the general elections in the country would be held on January 8," the official Associated Press of Pakistan news agency quoted Musharraf as saying late on Sunday. The report said he had recommended the date to the Election Commission.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte warned Musharraf on Saturday that the election's credibility would suffer unless the state of emergency announced on Nov. 3 was rolled back.

Negroponte, who left Pakistan on Sunday, was careful not to undermine General Musharraf, a crucial ally in the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban, while sticking to Washington's stated position that thousands of people detained in the last two weeks should be released and curbs on the media should be lifted.

"Emergency rule is not compatible with free, fair and credible elections," the United States' No. 2 diplomat told a news conference on Sunday at the end of his three-day visit to Pakistan.

"If these steps aren't taken, it will certainly undermine the government's ability to conduct satisfactory elections."

AP, Jerusalem

The U.S. is pressuring Israel to meet a long-standing obligation to freeze all West Bank settlement construction ahead of a high-profile Mideast conference, rejecting Israel's stance that it be allowed to continue building in existing communities, Israeli officials said Sunday.

The officials said that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Cabinet would discuss the settlement issue on Monday, though it remained unclear whether the ministers would endorse any changes in policy.

The U.S. has been urging Israel to make a series of gestures to the Palestinians ahead of the Mideast peace conference, which is expected to take place next week in Annapolis, Md.

Key Arab governments will announce Friday if they will attend the conference, said an Arab League official Sunday. Diplomats familiar with the governments' deliberations hinted that despite reservations about the conference, they would probably attend.

The nations' ministers, however, will insist that a final statement from the Annapolis meeting include an Israeli agreement to a Saudi-sponsored land-for-peace deal proposed by Arabs in 2002, said another diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.

The American proposals have included an Israeli freeze on West Bank settlement construction and a large-scale release of Palestinian prisoners. Israel holds roughly 9,000 Palestinian prisoners.

AFP, Kandahar

A suicide attack outside the office of the governor of Afghanistan's southwestern Nimroz province on Monday killed one of his adult sons and six of his bodyguards, the governor told AFP.

The blast happened at the gate of the provincial headquarters in Zaranj city soon after the governor entered. Nimroz is a relatively peaceful province sharing a long border with Iran.

"Just as I got into my office today, there was a suicide attack outside the compound. Apparently I was the target of the suicide attacker," Governor Ghulam Dastageer told AFP.

"Six of my bodyguards and my son were martyred in the suicide attack," he added. "Fourteen other people, including police and civilians, were wounded."

Provincial police chief Mohammad Daud Askaryar said four of the wounded were civilians.

"The attack was aimed at creating an atmosphere of fear in our province." he said.

Earlier on Monday, Afghan soldiers foiled an attempted bus bombing in the capital Kabul, preventing a would-be suicide bomber detonating his explosive-laden jacket, the Afghan defence ministry said.

AFP, Phnom Penh

Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan was arrested Monday by Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal, becoming the latest member of the former regime to face justice.

The 76-year-old, who acted as the regime's head of state, will be interviewed by tribunal judges later in the day and is expected to be charged afterwards. "He has been arrested and brought to the tribunal," spokesman Reach Sambath told AFP.

"The court is fulfilling its duties smoothly," he added.

Khieu Samphan is the last of five top regime cadres currently under investigation by the tribunal to be detained.

Last week two former Khmer Rouge ministers, Ieng Sary and his wife, Ieng Thirith, were arrested by the court and charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for their alleged role in Cambodia's 1970s genocide.

Regime ideologue Nuon Chea and prison chief Duch were arrested earlier this year and also charged with crimes against humanity. All have been widely implicated in atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge, including "murder, extermination, imprisonment, enslavement and forced labour," according to court records.

Khieu Samphan had earlier Monday been taken from a hospital in the capital Phnom Penh by about 30 armed security forces and driven away in a police convoy, witnesses said.

AP, Kuwait City

Iran is far from acquiring a nuclear weapon, and despite U.S. fears about its atomic intentions, an American military strike against the Islamic Republic is unlikely, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday. Tehran rejects claims by the United States and some European Union countries that its nuclear program is aimed at secretly producing weapons, insisting it is for peaceful purposes only. "I think Iran is a long way from having anything that could be anything like a nuclear weapon," said Powell, who was invited by the National Bank of Kuwait to speak on economic opportunity and crisis in the Middle East. A recent report by the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog found Iran has been generally truthful in the information it has provided the agency about aspects of its past nuclear activities. But the International Atomic Energy Agency said it could not rule out that Iran had a secret weapons program because of restrictions Tehran placed on its inspectors two years ago.

AFP, Riyadh

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that Iran never wanted to use oil as a weapon, but if the US attacked the country it would "know how to react." "We would never want to use oil as a weapon or take any illegal actions," he told a press conference here, adding: "but if America takes any action against us we will know how to reply." Fear that a US attack on Iran could lead the Islamic Republic to stop its oil exports or block key shipping channels for oil tankers in the Straits of Hormuz is one of the factors that has driven oil prices to record highs in recent years. He predicted however that hostilities would not break out. "My prediction is that no war will break in the region," he said. "Our assessment is that this region will not witness a war. There is no cause for concern t America and its allies are incapable of launching a strike against us."

AFP, Jerusalem

Israeli and Palestinian leaders were to meet on Monday in a last-ditch attempt to bridge differences and agree on a joint statement ahead of a peace meeting in the United States. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas were to hold talks at the premier's Jerusalem residence for the latest in a series of one-on-one meetings in recent months. "Misters Abbas and Olmert will hold in Jerusalem this afternoon a last encounter before the Annapolis meeting," Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin told AFP. "The two will try once again today to work toward a joint declaration before this meeting." Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP that the two leaders "will review the work done by negotiating teams and try to bridge the gaps as differences on the concepts continue to divide the two parties."

AP, Beijing

A daredevil French climber nicknamed "Spiderman" scaled part of a mountain in southern China using only his bare hands, months after he was banned from the country for clambering up Shanghai's tallest building without permission. Alain Robert, known for scaling the world's tallest buildings, climbed 200 meters (656 feet) near the top of Hunan province's Tianmen Mountain without equipment Sunday, the official Xinhua news agency said. Instead of being arrested, this time the climber was hailed for his exploit, shown on state television surrounded by celebrating crowds. Local officials had invited Robert to climb on the mountain in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, hoping the stunt would draw attention and tourism to the area. Robert spent five days in a Shanghai jail and was banned from China for five years in June after he scaled the eastern city's famed Jin Mao tower while dressed in a spiderman costume.

Reuters, Donetsk

Rescue teams battled a tenacious fire in a Ukrainian colliery on Monday as they strove to locate 30 miners missing underground after a methane blast that killed at least 70 miners. Distraught relatives milled about near the entrance of the pit in Donetsk, heart of Ukraine's Donbass coalfield, seeking news of missing miners in what is likely to become the country's deadliest accident since independence from Soviet rule in 1991. One of 28 miners in hospital remained in serious condition. "The situation has become worse," Andriy Klyuyev, head of a commission of inquiry, told reporters. "The temperature has risen. But rescue work is proceeding. There are always chances for a rescue t If we put the fire out, we will finish matters today." But trade union officials have said since Sunday's explosion 1,250 meters (3,800 feet) underground at the Zasyadko mine that there is little chance of finding survivors among the missing.