The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Jakarta

Hours of heavy rain triggered landslides Wednesday that killed at least 81 people in western Indonesia, a rescue official, while floods inundated other parts of the country.

The deaths occurred in several districts on the main island of Java after more than 12 hours of nonstop rain, local search and rescue chief Eko Prayitno said.

The landslides occurred on the third anniversary of the Asian tsunami, which killed some 160,000 people in Indonesia. Those deaths occurred on Sumatra island, far from Java. The landslides did not disrupt a tsunami warning drill held on Java to coincide with the anniversary.

"At least 51 victims have been buried, but the numbers could still rise," Prayitno said of the landslides. El-Shinta radio station said 61 people had been killed.

Prayitno said rescue workers were trying to get heavy lifting equipment to the affected villages, but were being hampered roads blocked by landslides.

Seasonal rains and high tides in recent days have caused widespread flooding across Indonesia, where millions of people live in mountainous regions and near fertile flood plains close to rivers.

On Wednesday, floods were reported in numerous locations elsewhere on Java, as well as Sumatra and Sulawesi islands. Thousands of homes were affected, witnesses and media reports said.

Another report adds: Hundreds of Indonesians prayed at mass graves in Aceh province on Wednesday to remember relatives who died in the Indian Ocean tsunami three years ago.

On Dec. 26, 2004, giant waves triggered by one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded pulverised villages along Indian Ocean shores, killing or leaving missing about 230,000 people.

Aceh, on the northwestern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island, suffered the most, with about 170,000 dead or missing and billions of dollars in losses.

"We pray for the victims that God may accept their good deeds," said Kamal Usman, a survivor in Calang, an area in western Aceh where hundreds of officials and residents prayed at a ceremony to mark the anniversary.

Elsewhere in Indonesia, thousands of factory workers and villagers scrambled to higher ground as sirens blared in a drill to mark the third anniversary of the disaster.

In Ciwandan on the shore of northwestern Java, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono watched the drill to test a tsunami early warning system.

As part of the drill, authorities also tested the response of emergency relief teams to a mock chemical leak in a factory if an 8.5 magnitude quake were to hit the area.

"We hope through this exercise people begin to understand that they live in a tsunami-prone area and know what to do in case of an emergency," said Ami Pramitasari of the research and technology ministry, which led the drill.

Since the tsunami, Indian Ocean countries have installed expensive warning systems and staged periodic evacuation drills to prepare better for another such disaster. Indonesia, situated in a belt of intense seismic activity known as the "Pacific Ring of Fire", has installed sirens along the coast of quake-prone islands such as Sumatra and Java.

Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, head of BRR, the agency charged with rebuilding the Indonesian regions hit by the tsunami, said the reconstruction pace was the fastest in the world.

AFP, Kathmandu

At least 15 people died and hundreds on a religious pilgrimage were missing after an overcrowded bridge collapsed in western Nepal on Tuesday, police and officials said.

Nearly 400 people were said to have been on the bridge across a gorge over the Bheri River, 380 kilometres (240 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu, when it collapsed, district officials and police said.

"So far 14 bodies have been recovered on the river banks and one succumbed to injuries while being rushed to hospital," police officer Mithe Thapa Chettri told AFP by phone.

"We expect the death toll to rise," Chettri said.

Local police said 35 injured, most of them women and children, had been airlifted by helicopter to the district headquarters at Birendranagar as rescue teams raced to the remote area as night fell.

"Hundreds of people went missing and we fear dozens might have drowned," local officer Ghanashyam Chaudhary told AFP by telephone, adding that many may have been swept downstream into remote areas of the mainly agricultural countryside that surrounds the Bheri, one of Nepal's largest rivers.

But as many as 100 people reportedly managed to swim to safety with the Bheri River at low winter season flow, Chaudhary said, but rescue teams including the army were battling cold and rugged terrain around the river.

Chief district officer Anil Kumar Pandey, who was at the site, told AFP that two helicopters had arrived to help scour the river and evacuate injured people after the bridge, made of metal and steel coils and estimated at 500 metres (1,650 feet) across, collapsed.

He said the initial cause of the collapse may have been a catastrophic failure of one of the pillars that supported the bridge, that stood some 50 metres above the water level.

He also said more than 100 army and police officials had been called to help.

"The rescue work has been halted for today as darkness has gripped the area. Police and army have set up temporary camps to begin rescue works from early Wednesday morning," Pandey said.

The bridge was crowded because local residents were heading to a religious ceremony to celebrate the full moon that began Monday, he said.

"The remoteness of the area and poor communication facilities has delayed rescue efforts," he said.

Nepal has hundreds of small bridges in the countryside that range from rope or wooden planks to steel and concrete.

The landlocked Himalayan nation is cut by dozens of rivers across one of the steepest topographies in the world.

AP, Moscow

Russia's military on Tuesday successfully test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads - a weapon intended to replace aging Soviet-era missiles.

The RS-24 missile was launched from the Plesetsk launch facility in northern Russia and its test warheads successfully hit designated targets on the Kura testing range on the Kamchatka Peninsula some 4,340 miles east, Strategic Missile Forces spokesman Alexander Vovk told The Associated Press. Vovk said that the missile carried multiple test warheads, but refused to say how many. The Interfax news agency said the RS-24 is capable of carrying at least three warheads.

The Strategic Missile Forces said in a statement that the missile was launched from a mobile launcher.

It said the new missile was based on the Topol-M and built by the same design team - Moscow's Heat Technology Institute led by Yuri Solomonov. The RS-24 was first test-fired successfully in May.

"This missile is being created using scientific and technological solutions from the Topol-M missile which allows to significantly reduce time and cost of its development," the statement said.

AFP, Arbil

Turkish warplanes bombed deserted Iraqi Kurdish villages along the border on Wednesday targeting rebel bases for the second consecutive day, a Kurdish official told AFP.

"The planes targeted deserted villages but we do not know the extent of damages," said Jabbar Yawar, spokesman of the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga security force.

Another security official from northern Iraq said the Turkish aircraft struck an area called Nirvorokan in the province of Dohuk.

He said the air strike took place at around 8:30 am (0530 GMT).

Turkish warplanes have carried out air strikes regularly in the past few days against the hideouts of rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) who use the mountainous northern Iraqi regions as a springboard for attacks inside Turkey.

The PKK is fighting for a self-rule in southeastern Turkey since 1984.

The Turkish military Tuesday claimed to have inflicted massive losses on Kurdish rebels in bombing raids in northern Iraq as Iraqi Kurdish officials reported a fresh Turkish air strike.

"It is understood that between 150 and 175 terroristst were rendered ineffective" in a December 16 strike, the general staff said on its website.

AFP, Indonesia

Three years after Indian Ocean nations were lashed by massive tsunamis, sombre ceremonies were held Wednesday to recall those lost in one of the worst natural catastrophes in modern times.

In Indonesia, mass prayers were held outdoors and at mosques across Aceh, the staunchly Muslim province at the northern tip of Sumatra island, where some 168,000 lives were claimed by the earthquake-triggered walls of water.

The toll here was more than half the 220,000 killed in a dozen nations, including Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, with thousands of unidentified victims buried in mass graves hastily dug in the disaster's aftermath.

Wednesday's main ceremony was held outdoors at a village on the outskirts of Calang, one of the areas of Aceh obliterated in the disaster.

"I came here to pray together with other residents. I pray for my wife and my child who died in the tsunami, hoping they are now resting in peace," said Alimudin, a 61-year-old retired local government official.

AFP, Islamabad

Afghan President Hamid Karzai was due in Pakistan for talks with his counterpart Pervez Musharraf, as the two countries struggle to keep a lid on Islamist insurgents along their border.

The rugged tribal region has been in the international spotlight since the September 11 attacks on the United States, and the two US-backed leaders have regularly accused each other of not doing enough to rein in militants. Both leaders, pivotal allies in the US-led "war on terror," have faced a sharp increase in militant violence this year amid global concern about a resurgence of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. It has been the bloodiest year of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, while Pakistan has seen an unprecedented wave of suicide attacks like those carried out by the Taliban -- almost one per week, on average, this year.

It will be the first meeting between Karzai and Musharraf since August, when they attended a tribal assembly or "jirga" to address the militant threat, and Karzai's first visit to Pakistan since February 2006.

"This is an important visit and will help strengthen growing good relations between the two countries," Pakistan foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq told AFP.

He said the leaders would discuss cooperation in the US-led "war on terror" and the general situation in the region. Musharraf will host a state banquet for the Afghan leader on Wednesday night.

AFP, Bhubaneswar

Hindus attacked at least 12 churches in eastern India leaving one man dead and 30 injured on Christmas night, police said. Protesters backed by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) set fire to six churches and ransacked another four in the heart of Orissa state, police officer Narsingh Bol told AFP. One young man was killed in the attacks and 30 more people hurt, according to local administrative official Satyabratu Sahu. Police would not specify the religion of the casualties. The authorities imposed a curfew on four towns in Kandhamal district, where the violence broke out some 300 kilometres (190 miles) southwest of the state capital Bhubaneswar, he added. The state's chief minister appealed for peace. "Orissa is known for its long tradition of communal amity. Let's maintain it," said Naveen Patnaik in a televised speech. Some 500 policemen were deployed to restore peace, state police chief Gopal Nanda said, and more were on the way.

AP, Lodhra

Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Tuesday accused President Pervez Musharraf of failing to stop the spread of Islamic militants and promised to crack down on the groups if she wins next month's parliamentary election. Bhutto spoke to about 4,000 supporters in the central city of Lodhran as the campaign for the Jan. 8 vote intensified. The election is seen as crucial to restoring democracy after a six-week state of emergency accompanied by a crackdown on the independent judiciary and perceived government opponents. The election will also have deep implications for the future of former army chief Musharraf's administration, which is seen as a key U.S. ally in the war on terror. Bhutto, a former prime minister who returned from exile to lead her opposition party in the poll, said extremism and terror flourished across the country since Musharraf seized power eight years ago in a military coup.

AFP, London

The leader of the world's Anglicans slammed "human greed" in his Christmas sermon, saying it threatened the Earth's fragile environmental balance. Doctor Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, told worshippers at Canterbury Cathedral in south-east England, that humanity needed to protect the world created by God. People should treat each other and nature with "reverence", the Church of England leader said. "More and more (is) clearly required of us as we grow in awareness of how fragile is the balance of species and environments in the world and just how our greed distorts it. "When we threaten the balance of things, we don't just put our material survival at risk; more profoundly we put our spiritual sensitivity at risk -- the possibility of being opened up to endless wonder by the world around us."

AP, Panama City

Rescuers in a remote, mountainous region of Panama were struggling to evacuate a 12-year-old American girl, the only survivor of a small plane crash that killed a California businessman, his teenage daughter and their Panamanian pilot. The bodies of Michael Klein, 37, Talia Klein, 13, and pilot Edwin Lasso, 23, were found Tuesday afternoon in an uninhabited region known as Las Ovejas, 270 miles west of the capital, Panama's civil protection agency said. The wreckage was in a hard-to-reach site on the slope of the Baru volcano, at an altitude of some 3,500 feet, the civil aviation authority said. Rescuers were giving medical attention late Tuesday night to Francesca Lewis - a friend of Talia's who was traveling with the Kleins - in a makeshift shelter, said Jose Henriquez, a prosecutor in the Chiriqui state capital of David who is handling the investigation.