The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Charsadda

At least 54 people were killed Friday in a suicide bombing at a mosque in northwest Pakistan targeting a former interior minister and close ally of President Pervez Musharraf.

The bomber blew himself up in a crowded mosque at the residential compound of Aftab Sherpao, an outspoken opponent of Islamic militancy who until last month was the top civilian anti-terrorism official.

Sherpao was reportedly unhurt in the attack, which hit as the mosque was crowded with Muslim faithful celebrating the first day of the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha.

The carnage raised the spectre of a bloody run-up to controversial national elections on January 8, with Musharraf -- a pivotal figure in the US-led "war on terror" -- battling to contain Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

The president condemned the "distorted thinking" of the militants and ordered the security and intelligence agencies to "track down the masterminds behind this abhorrent act," the official Associated Press of Pakistan said.

"Fifty-four people were killed," district police chief Feroz Shah told AFP. He said the attacker was believed to have been carrying six to seven kilograms (13 to 15 pounds) of explosives.

The wounded were shifted to hospitals in Charshadda, the town where the attack occurred, and the nearby provincial capital Peshawar.

It was the deadliest attack in Pakistan since October, when twin suicide bombings killed 139 people at a parade in honour of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

Friday's blast ripped the limbs off worshippers and spattered the mosque with blood and pieces of flesh. Doors and windows of the mosque were smashed by the impact.

"I lost my two brothers," said Jehangir Khan, fighting back tears as wails of mourning and the sounds of sirens reverberated across the site. He said he had helped retrieve six bodies of children.

Another witness, Jangrez Khan, said the bomber detonated as the prayer leader said "Allahu Akbar," or God is Greatest.

It was not immediately known how the blast missed Sherpao, who as interior minister had command of the country's paramilitary forces and was in effect the public face of the government's fight against Islamic militants.

"Naturally, Aftab Sherpao was the target," his spokesman Salim Shah told AFP. Officials said one of his sons was wounded and taken to hospital.

Musharraf dissolved his cabinet in November and appointed new ministers under a caretaker government ahead of the January elections for parliament.

Until then, however, Sherpao was the leading civilian in the government campaign to clamp down on the militant attacks that have threatened to destabilise this nuclear-armed Islamic nation of 160 million people.

AFP, Washington

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates Friday voiced hope that US troops will soon start returning home from Iraq, saying improved security there will enable five units to pull out by July as planned.

"The situation on the ground, I think, makes it likely that General (David) Petraeus will be able to decide to bring out the first five teams by July," Gates told an end of year press conference.

"The first of those is coming out this month. My hope has been that the circumstances on the ground will continue to improve," he added.

The challenge for next year, Gates said, would be "to sustain the gains we have achieved."

There are currently about 160,000 US troops in Iraq fighting a fierce insurgency launched in the wake of the March 2003 US-led invasion.

About 30,000 extra troops were sent in during the year in a bid to quell the violence as part of a controversial "surge" strategy laid out by President George W. Bush and the US commander in Iraq, General Petraeus.

According to a Pentagon report released on Tuesday, the surge has been working, with US forces achieving "significant security progress" in Iraq over the past three months with the number of attacks down 62 percent.

AFP, New Delhi

Controversial Hindu nationalist party leader Narendra Modi swept back to power by a wide margin in India's religiously divided Gujarat state Sunday after his rivals conceded.

Early vote counting following a two-phase election earlier this month showed Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead in 117 districts, giving it a clear majority in the 182-seat parliament, according to partial information on the website if India's Election Commission and television forecasts.

His rival Congress Party, which run the federal government, conceded after television reports forecast it took just over 60 seats, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

The results must still be confirmed by the Election Commission, but television news channels showed BJP workers waving flags outside party offices, dancing and setting off firecrackers.

"We have been celebrating since the last day of polling," BJP spokesman Yamal Vyas, told the CNN-IBN channel, soon after vote counting got underway.

Thousands of electoral workers were at counting sites across the state, with the official results expected around midday (0630 GMT).

AP, Jerusalem

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday ruled out cease-fire talks with Hamas, calling Israel's battle against the Islamic militant group that controls the Gaza Strip a "true war."

The Israeli army has been battling Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza that frequently fire rockets into southern Israel. The army appears to have made substantial gains in recent weeks, and Olmert told his Cabinet that there are no plans to slow down.

"Operations against terrorists will continue as they have been conducted for many months," Olmert said. "There is no other way to describe what is happening in the Gaza Strip except as a true war between the Israeli army and terror groups."

"This war will continue," he said, adding that Israel would continue to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza to protect the area's civilians.

AP, Baghdad

Iraq's Shiite-led government declared Saturday that after restive areas are calmed, it will disband Sunni groups battling Islamic extremists because it does not want them to become a separate military force.

In Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel targets, the military said, in the third confirmed cross-border offensive by Turkish forces in less than a week.

The statement from Defense Minister Abdul-Qadir al-Obaidi was the government's most explicit declaration yet of its intent to eventually dismantle the groups backed and funded by the United States as a vital tool for reducing violence.

The militias, more than 70,000 strong and often made up of former insurgents, are known as Awakening Councils, or Concerned Local Citizens.

"We completely, absolutely reject the Awakening becoming a third military organization," al-Obaidi said at a news conference.

AFP, Yangon

Three people, including two soldiers, were shot dead and at least 10 people injured when ethnic Karen rebels ambushed a passenger bus in eastern Myanmar, a witness said Sunday.

The attack occurred on Saturday in Myawaddy, an important trading town on the Thai border about 200 kilometers (124 miles) east of Yangon, said a man who saw the aftermath of the attack.

"Two soldiers and one passenger were killed in the attack," he said, adding that at least 10 people, including women, were wounded, he said. "I saw the ambulances and cars taking away the injured last night," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The attack happened in an area that has seen an escalation in fighting between Myanmar's military regime and the Karen National Union (KNU).

AFP, Washington

The CIA obstructed an official US commission investigating the September 11 attacks by withholding tapes of interrogations of Al-Qaeda operatives, according to former panel members quoted in a report on Saturday.

A review of documents by former members of the 9/11 commission revealed the panel made repeated, detailed requests to the spy agency in 2003 and 2004 for information about the interrogation of members of the extremist network but were never notified of the tapes, the New York Times reported.

The review of the commission's correspondence with the Central Intelligence Agency came after the agency earlier this month revealed it had destroyed videotapes in 2005 that showed harsh interrogations of two Al-Qaeda members. The review, written up in a memo prepared by Philip Zelikow, the former executive director of the 9/11 commission, said that "further investigation is needed" to resolve whether the CIA's failure to hand over the tapes violated federal law. The memorandum does not assert that withholding the tapes was illegal but states that federal law penalizes anyone who "knowingly and wilfully" withholds or "covers up" a "material fact" from a federal inquiry, the newspaper said.

Reuters, London

Former British prime minister Tony Blair has converted from Britain's established church, Anglicanism, to Roman Catholicism, the head of Britain's Catholics said on Saturday.

Blair, whose wife and four children are Catholic, was received into the Catholic Church by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor on Friday in a move that had been widely expected after he stepped down from power in June.

"I am very glad to welcome Tony Blair into the Catholic Church," Murphy-O'Connor said in a statement, adding the conversion took place in private at a chapel at the cardinal's residence in central London. "For a long time he has been a regular worshipper at Mass with his family and in recent months he has been following a program of formation to prepare for his reception into full communion.

"My prayers are with him, his wife and family at this joyful moment in their journey of faith together."

Blair, now the Middle East peace envoy, had private talks with Pope Benedict at the Vatican in June and his conversion had been predicted.

He has been receiving spiritual preparation for the conversion from Mark O'Toole, Murphy-O'Connor's private secretary.

AFP, Jerusalem

Israel has set aside money in its 2008 budget to build 750 homes in two settlements in the West Bank, the spokesman for the Israeli Peace Now movement announced Sunday. Yariv Oppenheimer told AFP: "We have discovered that the 2008 state budget includes 48 million shekels for the construction of 250 homes in the Maale Adumim settlement and 50 million more to build 500 homes in Har Homa," a settlement in the annexed eastern sector of Jerusalem. Earlier this week Israel abandoned plans for a new settlement in the Atarot area of east Jerusalem, a decision which US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called a "good step" in the context of the newly revived peace talks with the Palestinians. A Palestinian official said on Saturday that the Palestinians will renew demands for a freeze on settlement growth in the West Bank and east Jerusalem at their next meeting with Israeli negotiators. "The next round of negotiations will take place on Monday and until now we are still waiting for a clear Israeli position regarding the freeze on settlements," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, a member of the negotiating team.

AFP, Tokyo

Japan's Emperor Akihito and members of the royal family greeted thousands of well-wishers at the Imperial Palace as they celebrated his 74th birthday on Sunday. "I thank you for coming to wish my birthday on this cold, rainy day," he said from the palace's glass-covered balcony as people waived flags in the drizzle. "I hope the new year will be a bright and happy one for you," he said. Crown Princess Masako, wearing a black suit and a hat, waived back to the more than 11,000-strong crowd alongside her husband Crown Prince Naruhito. The royal family appeared three times to greet the well-wishers in the morning, the palace said. Princess Kiko, the wife of Naruhito's brother Akishino, did not take part due to illness. Emperor Akihito took the throne in 1989, succeeding his father the late Emperor Hirohito. The emperor held a press briefing Thursday ahead of his birthday, during which he criticised media reports for misinterpreting his comments about the crown prince and princess.

AFP, Seoul

The two Koreas and China will meet in North Korea this week to discuss providing energy aid to the communist nation under a six-nation nuclear disarmament deal, officials said. The three-day trilateral meeting opens in Pyongyang on Tuesday in a follow-up to the first round held in Shenyang last month, the South's foreign ministry said in a statement. Talks will focus on how to provide non-fuel aid, such as energy-related facilities and equipment, it said. In February, North Korea agreed to disable its plutonium- producing plants and declare all nuclear programmes by year's end in exchange for a million tonnes of fuel oil or equivalent energy aid.

Seoul, which has led the working group on energy aid to North Korea, says the promised reward would be half in fuel oil and half in alternative forms. The announcement on aid talks followed news reports that the nuclear disarmament process had hit a snag with the North refusing to address its suspected highly enriched uranium weapons programme to US satisfaction. The Washington Post said Friday that minute traces of enriched uranium had been found on aluminium tubing from North Korea, alleging this appeared to hint at a secret nuclear programme.