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US forces kill 18 people in Iraq

Reuters, Baiji

A U.S. military helicopter air strike on Wednesday night killed eight civilians, including two children and an elderly man, north of Baghdad, police officials said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, US troops shot dead 11 suspected militants in a Shiite district of the Iraqi capital on Wednesday, the American military said.

The men were "Special Group criminals," a term used for Shiite militants backed by Iranian groups, and one of them was about to target US troops with a roadside mine when he was shot, a statement said.

"Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldiers have killed 11 Special Group criminals in an ongoing operation" in the east of the capital, the statement said. It said one of the victims had tried to place a mine when he was shot dead.

Earlier, a US military spokesman had said "there were no MND-B (US or allied) soldiers involved in an improvised explosives device event, or a subsequent clash. There was no t event in eastern Baghdad, specifically, no event we're tracking in Obeidi." The attack came a day after Iraqi security forces poured into nearby Sadr City for the first time in eight weeks following a truce between the government and followers of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The US military said Iraqi soldiers found numerous home-made bombs and other munitions during the initial stages of Operation Peace in Sadr City on Tuesday.

ical Shiite movement had agreed that its Mahdi Army militia would offer no resistance to the Iraqi troop deployment under a deal reached with the government on May 10.

"Before the start of this operation, there were 40 terrorist attacks per day in Mosul. Now we have four to six a day," he added.

Colonel Mudhher al-Qaisi, police chief in the town of Baiji, said the attack was on a group of shepherds in a car in a farming area. Relatives said some of those killed were fleeing on foot after the U.S. military arrived in the area.

"This is a criminal act. It will make the relations between Iraqi citizens and the U.S. forces tense. This will negatively affect security improvements," al- Qaisi told Reuters.

A U.S. military spokeswoman, Lt-Col Maura Gillen, said the helicopter fired after noting "suspicious activity," and people in the car had ignored warnings to stop the vehicle.

Hillary presses case to revive voided primaries

AP, Miami

Invoking Democratic nightmares of the 2000 Florida presidential recount, Hillary Clinton demanded the revival of two voided primaries as she sought to halt Barack Obama's march toward the party's nomination.

The Democratic rivals canvassed the key battleground state of Florida on Wednesday, but with different races in mind. While Obama traded blows with Republican presumptive nominee John McCain in a preview of their potential matchup in the November general election, Clinton pressed for the Florida and Michigan primaries to be reinstated. The former first lady was in a feisty mood at a rally in Boca Raton, warning her party had deprived voters of basic rights by stripping the two states.

of national convention delegates over a scheduling dispute.

"You learned the hard way what happens when your votes aren't counted and the candidate with fewer votes is declared the winner," she told supporters.

"The lesson of 2000 here in Florida is crystal-clear: if any votes aren't counted, the will of the people is not realized and our democracy is diminished."

Clinton's hopes of becoming the first female presidential nominee were dealt a blow Tuesday after the two candidates split the latest primaries in Kentucky and Oregon, leaving Obama just 67 delegates short of claiming the nomination.

Clinton, trailing Obama in every metric of the race, needs a solution to the Florida-Michigan imbroglio to claim victory in the popular vote and bolster her claim that she is the rightful nominee.

She won the discounted primaries, though neither candidate campaigned in Florida and Obama took his name off the ballot in Michigan.

Death toll from China quake now exceeds 51,000

AP, Beichuan

China said the death toll from last week's powerful earthquake jumped to more than 51,000, as it appealed Thursday for millions of tents to shelter homeless survivors.

The confirmed number of dead rose to 51,151 - a jump of almost 10,000 from the day before - Cabinet spokesman Guo Weimin told a news conference. Another 29,328 people remained missing and nearly 300,000 were hurt in the May 12 quake centered in Sichuan province, he said. The disaster also left 5 million people homeless and leveled more than 80 percent of the buildings in some remote towns and villages areas near the epicenter. In bigger cities whole apartment blocks collapsed or are now too dangerous to live in because of damage and worries about aftershocks.

"We need more than 3.3 million tents," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters, adding that 400,000 tents have already been delivered. It was the second call for tents from China in recent days.

"We hope and welcome international assistance in this regard. We hope the international community can give priority in providing tents," he said.

As the misery of survivors wears on, China's leaders moved to contain the political fallout from the deadly earthquake, promising a $10 billion reconstruction fund.

West Bengal communists lose votes over land seizures

Reuters, Kolkata

The ruling communists in West Bengal have suffered election setbacks in two districts where their controversial seizure of land for industry lost them support from thousands of poor farmers.

A coalition led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist, or CPI(M), has run the state for about three decades. But state-wide local government elections saw a backlash against its attempts to attract industry.

Vote results were published late on Wednesday. The communists prop up the national Congress-led government in parliament. This electoral blow could make them more inclined to put the brakes on the government's industrialisation policies ahead of general elections due by early 2009. While winning overall in West Bengal, the CPI(M) was routed in Singur, where the state government seized fertile farmland to set up a factory for Tata Motors' Nano car, hailed as the world's cheapest. Farmers have protested against the factory's construction.

The party also lost in Nandigram, a cluster of villagers where a move to take over thousands of acres of land for an industrial complex and a chemical hub sparked protests.

Pakistan signs peace deal with pro-Taliban militants

AP, Peshawar

Pakistan's new government signed a peace deal with pro-Taliban militants in a northwestern valley Wednesday, despite calls from the United States to clamp down on Islamist rebels.

The agreement will see the gradual withdrawal of troops from the devastated former tourist region of Swat and the imposition of Islamic Sharia law in line with the rebels' demands, provincial ministers said.

In return the militants will close training camps, hand over foreign fighters and halt suicide attacks on government installations and security forces under the 15-point pact, they said.

The United States reacted cautiously to the deal, saying it would monitor whether such attacks stopped.

"We'll reserve judgement on these things," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters, adding that fighting militancy required the "right mix" of security, political and economic measures.

The Pakistan army launched a major offensive in October to clear Swat of militants loyal to Maulana Fazlullah, a radical pro-Taliban cleric who led an uprising to enforce Sharia law in the valley.

US, NATO and Afghan officials have criticised previous peace deals in Pakistan, saying that they have led to an increase in suicide attacks on international and Afghan forces across the border in Afghanistan.

"The agreement was signed today between the government committee and representatives of local Taliban. We are very positive that this agreement will end violence and ensure lasting peace in the region," committee member and North West Frontier Province minister Wajid Ali Khan told AFP.

Dozens of people have been killed in suicide bombings in Swat, which began in July last year after troops raided the hardline Red Mosque in the capital Islamabad, leaving scores dead.

China pledges reconciliation with Taiwan

Reuters, Beijing

China vowed on Thursday to seize a chance for reconciliation with Taiwan and respect the desire of Taiwan's people to be their own masters, a sign it is in no hurry to bring the island it claims as its own back to the fold.

Chinese Minister of Taiwan Affairs Chen Yunlin, speaking two days after Ma Ying-jeou became Taiwan's new president, ending the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party's troubled eight-year rule, said both sides were making "positive" efforts to resume negotiations. There is no timetable for talks.

"We understand, trust and care about Taiwan compatriots and respect the desire of Taiwan compatriots to be masters of their own destiny," Chen said in a statement carried by the official Xinhua news agency.

It was China's first response to Ma's inauguration speech on Tuesday in which he offered to reopen dialogue but pledged to maintain Taipei's self-rule and separate international profile.

UN chief seeks to persuade Myanmar to open for aid

AFP, Yangon

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon flew into Myanmar's disaster zone Thursday as he pressed the country's leaders to open the doors to critical international aid for some 2.5 million cyclone survivors.

In a meeting with Prime Minister Thein Sein, Ban stressed that foreign aid experts needed to be rushed in because the crisis had exceeded Myanmar's national capacity, according to a U.N. official at the talks. Ban was then flown by helicopter to the cyclone-ravaged Irrawaddy delta, the country's rice bowl, where most of the 78,000 deaths from Cyclone Nargis occurred. Another 56,000 are officially listed as missing. "The United Nations and all the international community stand ready to help to overcome the tragedy," Ban said after arriving in the country Thursday. "The main purpose of my being here is to demonstrate my solidarity." As Ban began his visit, foreign aid agencies stressed the need to quickly reach some 2.5 million survivors, many of them suffering from disease.

Islamist leader vows to retake Somalia

AP, London

A senior Somali Islamist opposition leader vowed in an interview published on Thursday to force Ethiopian troops from his country and warned that UN-sponsored peace talks would fail.

"We are going to liberate Somalia from Ethiopia," Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys was quoted as saying in the British newspaper The Guardian.

UN-sponsored peace talks that opened last week in Djibouti are doomed to fail unless Ethiopia first withdraws all its forces, he added.

"The UN is not impartial. We don't want to pursue this [peace] process. Our plan is to continue the struggle. It is important to expel the enemy from all areas," said Aweys, 62, who is wanted by Washington for suspected links to Al-Qaeda.

Ethopian and Somali government troops ended Islamist rule over the capital Mogadishu and southern Somalia at the end of 2006, but clashes continue on a nearly daily basis.

Only indirect contacts have taken place so far in the Djibouti talks as the Islamists insist on Ethiopian troops leaving before real negotiations begin.

Brown faces setback as Crewe by-election begins

AFP, London

Voting began Thursday in a by-election in northwest England liable to deal a fresh blow to embattled Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Three weeks after Labour slumped to its worst local poll results in 40 years, Brown could see Crewe and Nantwich constituency seized by the opposition Conservatives for the first time ever. The election, called after the death of the sitting Labour member of parliament, is being watched closely as a sign of how far support for the centre-left party's has slumped and the extent of the Tory revival. It is also the first time voters have a direct say on the government's compensation package for the low paid, prompted by widespread outrage at its abolition of the lowest rate of income tax in April. Polls opened at 7 a.m. (0600 GMT) and close at 10 p.m. (2100 GMT), with the result expected early Friday.

Pakistani coalition prepares to hobble Musharraf

Reuters, Islamabad

Pakistan's ruling party aims to push a set of constitutional changes through parliament in coming weeks to clip President Pervez Musharraf's powers to dismiss the government, the law minister said.

After seizing control in a bloodless coup as a general in 1999, Musharraf single-handedly ruled Pakistan for more than eight years until February elections, when the defeat of allies left him isolated without parliamentary support. The new coalition government, led by the party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, aims to curb Musharraf's authority, already diminished by his resignation from the powerful position of army chief in November. Bhutto's widower and political successor, Asif Ali Zardari, made a pact with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to restore the judges sacked by Musharraf after imposing a brief period of emergency rule in November.