The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Kohat

A suicide bomber killed himself and nine Pakistani military recruits in an attack in the northwestern town of Kohat on Monday, a military spokesman said.

The bombing, the first major attack since Pakistan's state of emergency was lifted two days ago, was near an army-run school where Islamist militants have made repeated attacks on security forces in recent months.

"The bomber was on foot and blew himself up as he got close to the soldiers who were returning from a football ground," said military spokesman, Major General Arshad Waheed.

Four soldiers were wounded, he said.

More than 400 people have been killed in suicide bomb attacks in Pakistan in recent months, most in the North West Frontier Province.

President Pervez Musharraf cited rising militant violence, as well as a meddling judiciary, when he imposed a state of emergency on November 3.

Musharraf lifted emergency rule and restored the constitution on Saturday. Hours later, he said the government had "broken the back" of the militancy.

Many militants took refuge in remote northwestern area on the Afghan border after U.S.-backed troops ousted the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001. They have been conducting raids into Afghanistan and Pakistan from their mountain strongholds.

Another report adds: A British suspect in an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic jetliners slipped out the back door of a mosque after two police officers stopped en route to jail so he could say prayers, police said Monday.

New details of Rashid Rauf's escape, a major embarrassment for President Pervez Musharraf's government, emerged two days after he got away following a court appearance in Islamabad on Britain's request for his extradition.

A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the issue, said Rauf was being taken back to Adiala Jail - a high-security prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi - when he asked his guards to let him say afternoon prayers at a roadside mosque.

"The policemen accepted his request," the official said. "Rashid Rasuf went inside the mosque with handcuffs on, but he slipped out from a rear door."

The official said officers had raided residences of Rauf's relatives with no success. The two police officers acknowledged they were waiting in a car outside the mosque when Rauf went inside, the official said.

AP, Boston

Power crews fix electrical lines damaged by the recent ice storm in North Tulsa, Okla. on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2007.

A wind-blown brew of snow, sleet and freezing rain cut visibility and iced over highways from the Great Lakes to New England on Sunday, stranding air and road travelers and causing a jetliner to skid off a runway.

At least three traffic deaths have been blamed on the storm.

Meanwhile, Sunday marked a week since the storm pummeled Oklahoma, contributing to 23 deaths and power outages that left nearly 650,000 homes and businesses in the cold and darkness at its height

The National Weather Service posted winter storm warnings from Michigan and Indiana all the way to Maine. Around a foot of snow had fallen on parts of the Chicago area, with 10 inches in Vermont. Meteorologists said that 18 inches was possible in northern New England; more snow was still expected in parts of Michigan.

"Our biggest advice right now is, stay home," said Maine State Police Sgt. Andrew Donovan. Visibility in the blowing snow was less than 200 yards, and in stronger gusts "if there's a car in front of you, you can't even see it," he said.

Reuters, Moscow

Russia announced on Monday it had delivered the first shipment of nuclear fuel to Iran's Bushehr atomic power station, a step Western powers worried by Tehran's nuclear ambitions had urged Moscow not to take.

Anticipating a diplomatic storm over the announcement, Russia's foreign ministry said Tehran had given it assurances the fuel sent to Bushehr would not be used for other purposes, and it urged Tehran to drop its own uranium enrichment program.

But a senior Iranian official dismissed this, saying the country would not under any circumstances halt its enrichment program -- the source of friction with foreign powers worried it could be used for military purposes.

Russia, contracted by Iran to build its first ever nuclear power station at Bushehr, has been delaying delivery of the fuel for months after the project was drawn into the international row over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The first batch of fuel -- uranium 235 stored in modules of several fuel rods -- is now being stored at Bushehr in southern Iran and the rest will be delivered within the next two months. After that, the plant can start operating within 6 months. "On December 16 the delivery of fuel began from Russia to the Iranian atomic power station in Bushehr," Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement.

The United States and allies, which suspect Iran of harboring ambitions to acquire a nuclear weapon, had called on Moscow not to dispatch the fuel. Iran denies it is seeking a nuclear weapon. Russia says Bushehr is being built under supervision of the United Nation's nuclear watchdog, ruling out any military use for the fuel or technology. It said it had been given new guarantees on this before sending the fuel.

Reuters, Paris

Delegations from more than 60 countries are expected to offer around $5.6 billion on Monday to help lift the Palestinian economy and underpin the renewed Middle East peace talks.

The one-day meeting is the financial sequel to the launch last month of the first peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians in seven years. The talks are aimed at achieving an agreement on Palestinian statehood by the end of 2008.

"To turn this dream into reality we have organized this conference in Paris," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told Europe 1 radio on Monday.

"It is not just a question of money. It is a donors conference but also a political conference," he added.

While the meeting will focus on plans to boost the Palestinian economy, envoys from dozens of countries are expected also to discuss outstanding contentious issues. As delegates gathered, Palestinian negotiators said Israeli plans to build new homes on occupied land near Jerusalem could cloud the next round of peace talks, due to be held on December 23. "We need a clear-cut Israeli decision concerning this issue," said Palestinian spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the dispute was "ever more reason that it's time to get an agreement" and appealed to both sides not to "consider every bump in the road to be a barrier.

AFP, Baghdad

Eight people were killed and another 15 wounded in violence around Iraq on Saturday, most of them police and members of neighbourhood anti-Al-Qaeda groups, security forces said.

Separately, two children were killed when a fragmentation bomb left over from the war that unseated Iraqi president Saddam Hussein exploded as they played football in a garden in the city of Karbala, south of the capital, police spokesman Rahman Mashawi said.

Two members of an Awakening, or anti-Qaeda group, were killed in Baghdad's Adhamiya district, which had recently been cleared of Al-Qaeda forces, security force said. Another 18 people were wounded when a bomb targeted the group's premises.

In the Dora district, meanwhile, two members of the self-defence group there were wounded by gunfire, police said.

Meanwhile, in the northern province of Nineveh, insurgents killed a US soldier with small arms fire on Friday, the military said.

The death brought to at least 3,890 the number of US troops killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, according to an AFP tally based on Pentagon figures.

As-Sahwa, or Awakening, groups have sprung up across Iraq, comprising mainly Sunni tribal leaders who have accepted money from the US military in return for confronting Al-Qaeda militants who attack civilians.

AFP, New Delhi

India's main opposition Hindu nationalist party was expected to retain power in crucial elections in the country's religiously divided Gujarat state, reports quoting exit polls said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- whose controversial leader Narendra Modi rules the state -- will, however, get fewer seats than last time, television channels said, citing exit polls after voting closed Sunday.

Official results are expected on December 23.

After the last elections in 2002, the BJP held 128 seats out of 182 in the state assembly.

This time, the party is predicted to win 90 to 103 seats, according to exit polls conducted after two rounds of voting held on Tuesday and Sunday.

Star News predicted 103 seats for the BJP and 76 for its rival Congress party, which rules at the federal level.

CNN-IBN said the BJP would bag between 92 and 100 constituencies, while the Congress was expected to win 77 to 85 seats.

The NDTV poll predicted 90 to 110 seats for the BJP and 70 to 95 for the Congress, which won just 51 seats in 2002.

The election campaign was overshadowed by fresh allegations that Modi, who is very popular with the majority Hindus in his state, encouraged anti-Muslim riots in which at least 2,000 people were killed in 2002.

AFP, Colombo

Renewed violence between Tamil rebels and government forces left at least 22 people dead in northern Sri Lanka, the defence ministry said Monday.

Among the dead were two civilians killed by unidentified attackers in the Jaffna peninsula where 15 Tamil Tiger rebels also died in clashes with troops on Sunday, the ministry said in a statement.

Soldiers shot dead another five Tiger rebels in Vavuniya district, just south of the mini-state run by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The ministry did not cite casualties among its forces.

The latest toll took the number of rebels the military says it has killed to at least 316 since December 1. The government says only a handful of its troops have died this month.

AP, Polokwane

President Thabo Mbeki called for unity in South Africa's ruling African National Congress as he faced losing the party leadership to his bitter rival at a crucial party conference that began Sunday.

The power battle within the ranks of the ANC pits Mbeki, who spearheaded an economic boom but alienated many of the poor, against party deputy Jacob Zuma, who is widely expected to win after his reputation survived rape and corruption charges.

The Mbeki-Zuma rivalry is the first time the ANC presidency has been contested in 55 years.

If Zuma wins, he would be the party's candidate for president in 2009 elections. Mbeki is barred by the constitution from seeking a third term as president, but leading the ANC would give him a say in who succeeds him - and in how the country is run after he steps down.

Reuters, Jakarta

The self-confessed head of Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) went on trial in Indonesia on Monday, as the battle against a group blamed for a string of deadly attacks resumed in the court room.

Zarkasih, 45, was arrested in June after operations involving the country's anti-terrorist unit, Detachment 88, which also netted the movement's alleged military chief, Abu Dujana. The arrests were regarded as a major blow for JI, the group blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings, in which more than 200 people were killed, as well as many other attacks in Indonesia. Prosecutors said Zarkasih, who has several aliases, had taken part in "a criminal conspiracy by aiding terrorist acts."

AP, Paris

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has ruled out dialogue with rival Islamic militant Hamas, and said Monday that without international support Gaza is "heading into disaster." Abbas, speaking at an international donors conference in Paris, said Gaza is already "close to catastrophe," and would head into disaster without continued international aid. Gaza has been virtually cut off from the world since Hamas seized control of the territory by force in June. Israel and Egypt sharply restricted border access in response, and the blockade has further deepened poverty there. In 2007, the European Union initially pledged $245 million, but ended up contributing $798 million for that year because of deepening poverty in the Palestinian territories. Nearly 90 countries and international organizations were gathering in Paris to announce how much they're willing to spend to help revive the moribund Palestinian economy and build the institutions of a future Palestinian state.

AP, Cairo

Al-Qaida's No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri warned of "traitors" among insurgents in Iraq and called on Iraqi Sunni Arab tribes to purge those who help the Americans in a new videotape posted Monday on the Web. Al-Zawahri's comments were aimed at undermining so-called "awakening councils" - the groups of Iraqi Sunni tribesmen that the U.S. military has backed to help fight al-Qaida in Iraq and its allies. Some Sunni insurgent groups have fought alongside American forces, and the U.S. military has touted the councils as a major factor in reducing violence in war-torn regions like Iraq's Anbar province. In the 90-minute video, al-Zawahri warned of the "presence of hypocrites and traitors among the ranks of the mujahedeen working and fighting for the Americans." The mujahedeen "must throw out the bribe-taking collaborators from among their ranks, those who sold out their faith and fight under the banner of the cross. They must expose them to the Muslim world," al-Zawahri said. "Those who support the Americans are despicable scum," he said.

AP, Islamabad

President Pervez Musharraf has emerged from six tumultuous weeks of emergency rule with another five-year presidential term but facing fresh threats to his grip on power. Pakistan elects a new parliament next month, and after ceding control of the army and letting two key political rivals return from exile, the U.S.-backed leader will be vulnerable if the next batch of lawmakers opposes him. Musharraf's suspension of the constitution Nov. 3 enabled him to purge the Supreme Court of judges who could have terminated his autocratic rule. But his extraconstitutional actions could leave him open to political attack and even impeachment if the ruling party fares badly at the polls, giving clout to an emboldened opposition that has been sidelined for years because of his total dominance, backed by the powerful military and a rubber-stamp parliament.

AP, Tehran

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday in a live television interview that there were no grounds for imposing new U.N. sanctions on his country.

Ahmadinejad dismissed the third round of sanctions that the U.S. and other countries have been pushing for to force Iran to halt uranium enrichment. "In my opinion, there is no justification," he said. "I think it is very unlikely that they, the West, is ready to pressure the agency, once again." A U.S. intelligence report earlier this month concluded Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons program in late 2003 and had not resumed it since. Tehran says it never had a weapons program, insisting its nuclear activities aim only to generate electricity.

Reuters, Bishkek

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's party won every available seat in the next parliament, preliminary results showed on Monday, following a weekend election condemned as rigged by the opposition. The tiny ex-Soviet state, home to both U.S. and Russian military bases, has been volatile since Bakiyev came to power in 2005 when a string of violent protests triggered by a disputed election toppled his long-serving predecessor, Askar Akayev. If confirmed by final results, Bakiyev's Ak Zhol party would dominate the 90-seat chamber in effective one-party rule -- a break from Kyrgyzstan's past as the most liberal state among more authoritarian Central Asian countries. "It'll most likely be a one-party system," said Toktogul Kakchekeyev, an independent political analyst. Ak Zhol won 48 percent of Sunday's vote, the Central Election Commission said on Monday, citing results after 80 percent had been counted.