The New Nation - Internet Edition

US soldier among 14 killed in Iraq unrest

AFP, Baghdad

A suicide car bomber killed one US soldier and wounded 18 in northern Iraq on Sunday, as 13 civilians died in separate strikes in the heart of Baghdad and elsewhere in the country, officials said.

The attacker blew up his explosives-laden vehicle near a small patrol base just north of executed president Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, the US military said.

It put the toll at one soldier killed and 18 plus two Iraqi contractors wounded.

A roadside bomb at a police centre in the Al-Yarmuk district of west Baghdad, meanwhile, killed four civilians and wounded 23, interior ministry and hospital officials said.

The victims were waiting to enlist in the force when the bomb exploded. Iraq's security forces and police recruits have been a frequent target for insurgent attack in the violence-ravaged country.

On Saturday, a suicide bomber ploughed his vehicle into a police car in the same district, killing a policeman and a civilian and wounding six other people. In other violence, a deadly mortar attack Sunday on the Green Zone, which houses the US embassy as well as Iraqi government offices, killed three people and wounded seven, an official said.

The interior ministry official said the mortar fire apparently targeted the defence ministry but that the round fell short striking one of the entrances to the compound. Just over a week ago, a Filipino was killed and two female compatriots wounded in another mortar attack on the Green Zone.

Northeast of the capital, unidentified gunmen stormed a market in Qazaniya, killing five people in the town near the border with Iran, police said.

South of the Iraqi capital, in Iskandiriyah, a civilian was killed when a bomb targeting a police vehicle detonated, officials said.

The US military meanwhile reported that a US soldier was killed on Saturday when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb as it travelled through the east of the capital.

The latest deaths brought to 4,093 the number of American soldiers killed since the March 2003 invasion, according to an AFP tally based on independent website www.icasualties.org.

Last month, the US military saw its lowest monthly death toll since the invasion. Just 19 troops were killed, undercutting the previous low of 20 recorded in February 2004.

US forces, meanwhile, said they had arrested the suspected commander of an assassination squad operating in the southern oil city of Basra believed to have links to Iran.

Troops swooped on a hideout in the Rusafa district of east Baghdad late on Saturday after receiving information from other captured fighters, arresting the man and a colleague, a statement said. The man detained is also suspected of arms dealing and forging documents as well as moving militiamen in and out of Iran for training, the military said.

West of the capital, Iraqi police dismantled an Al-Qaeda cell of would-be suicide bombers in the town of Hit on Sunday and seized 50 explosive belts primed for use, mayor Sheikh Hikmat Jubair al-Kaud said.

Hit lies in Al-Anbar province, which was a bastion of the Sunni Arab insurgency that erupted shortly after the US-led invasion but has seen a sharp fall in violence since the US military began recruiting local tribal chiefs to fight Al-Qaeda 18 months ago.

According to the mayor, the dismantled cell carried out a June 1 attack on a police checkpoint in Hit that killed nine people, including an officer.

The US army said it made 49 arrests after that attack.

Aftershocks threaten swollen China 'quake lake’

AFP, Chengdu

Aftershocks Monday continued to threaten the stability of a swollen "quake lake" in southwest China, amid urgent efforts to drain its rising waters to prevent a flood downstream.

A 5.0-magnitude aftershock rattled the area of quake-devastated Sichuan province where the lake is located on Sunday, US seismologists reported, and China's state Xinhua news agency reported two further tremors on Monday.

A local official in the city of Mianyang, located not far from the Tangjiashan lake, said he had not felt the first of Monday's aftershocks, adding that they had so far not had any impact on the unstable body of water. But Xinhua said Sunday's aftershock had caused "massive landslides" on nearby mountains, sparking fears that the lake could burst its banks at any time.

The lake has become one of the most pressing issues in the aftermath of the May 12 quake that struck mountainous Sichuan, killing 69,136 and leaving 17,686 others missing, according to the latest toll issued Sunday.

Millions more have been left homeless by the 8.0-magnitude quake, which triggered huge landslides that blocked rivers and created more than 30 unstable "quake lakes," including the Tangjiashan one on the Jianjiang river.

Soldiers were rushing Monday to clear a third channel to drain water from the lake, the state-run China Daily reported, in a race against time to reduce the risk that it might burst its banks.

Troops began draining water through one hastily dug channel on Saturday to stop the lake from emptying all at once-which would put the lives of hundreds of thousands of people downstream in danger.

But the situation was still "highly dangerous", state television said. The water resources ministry said Monday the water level had risen by nearly one metre (three feet) in a 24-hour period-double the rate of the water flowing out through the drainage channels.

About 6,900 cubic metres of water-the equivalent of nearly three Olympic-sized swimming pools-were flowing into the lake every minute, the ministry said.

Soldiers working at the lake triggered 10 explosions on Monday to accelerate drainage, but only 3,000 cubic metres of water were now flowing out every minute, Xinhua reported.

Torrential rain was forecast for much of southern China over the next few days, but was not expected to affect quake-hit areas of Sichuan, the country's meteorological centre said.

The quake zone was however due to see searing hot temperatures-an unwelcome piece of news for the millions of displaced people living in tents.

Heatstroke and related ailments are bringing increasing numbers of people from the refugee camps, where the displaced swelter in their tent homes, to a field hospital in quake-ravaged Dujiangyan.

"This could be a very big problem as the weather gets hotter," said Zou Hejian, who heads up the medical staff at the temporary facility.

3 British soldiers killed in Afghanistan

AP, Kabul

Three British soldiers were killed in a suicide attack and a local reporter for the BBC was found dead Sunday as first lady Laura Bush visited Afghanistan hoping to highlight signs of progress despite a recent surge of violence.

The soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing while on foot patrol less than a mile from their base in Afghanistan's Upper Sangin Valley, the British military said. A fourth soldier was wounded. The deaths brought the British military's death toll in Afghanistan to 100 since the 2001 invasion by the U.S. and its allies.

The head of Britain's armed forces, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, and Defense Secretary Des Browne released a joint statement expressing their condolences - and insisting their forces were beating back the insurgent threat.

"Make no mistake, the Taliban influence is waning, and through British blood, determination and grit, a window of opportunity has been opened," Stirrup said.

Thousands of new troops have poured into Afghanistan to try to stabilize the country, and fighting has been fierce in Helmand, the insurgent stronghold where British forces are deployed.

As of Saturday, at least 443 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion that toppled the ruling Taliban.

Last year saw a record level of violence, with more than 8,000 people killed in insurgency-related attacks - the most since the 2001 invasion. Violence has claimed more than 1,500 lives this year.

On Sunday, insurgents attacked a police convoy in Ghazni province, killing 11 police and wounding one, said the province's deputy governor, Kazim Allayar.

4 Pak police die in ambush by militants

Reuters, Peshawar

Suspected militants killed four policeman in an ambush near Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar on Monday, a police official said.

The militants armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles opened fire on a police van then threw an explosive, setting the vehicle alight, in an attack about 10 km (6 miles) south of Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province.

"Four policemen have been killed in an attack that happened well after midnight," police officer Nasir-ul-Mulk Bangash said.

He suspected it was a revenge attack, after police killed a militant during a clash last week in the nearby town of Nowshera.

Separately, four children were killed in an explosion in the northern town of Chitral late on Sunday. Police said it was investigating the cause of the blast.

Pakistan has seen a wave of militant violence, most of it in the country's northwest and the adjoining lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border and hundreds of people have been killed since the middle of the last year.

The violence had subsided after Pakistan's new government to came to power after defeating allies of President Pervez Musharraf in an election in February, and began peace negotiations with militants.

Although similar pacts the past have failed to curb militancy, the government hopes the tribal leaders can use their influence to rein in militants and stop violence in Pakistan and cross-border infiltration into Afghanistan.

The United States and some of Pakistan's other allies fear deals with militants will free up Taliban and al Qaeda militants, who fled to Pakistan after the fall of Taliban regime in late 2001, to intensify their war against the West in Afghanistan.

Bomb attacks kill 12 in Algeria

AFP, Algiers

A double bomb attack in the town of Lakhdaria, east of Algiers, killed 12 people, including several members of the security forces, a French engineer and his driver, security sources said Sunday.

The car carrying the engineer hit the device as it left the worksite of a French company for which he was working, mortally wounding him. The other victims, including several members of the civil protection force, were caught in a second blast as they ran to help the engineer and his driver, said the sources.

The engineer was working for a company maintaining the rails near the station of Beni Amrane.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned the attacks in a message of solidarity and condolence to Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika late Sunday.

Sarkozy "condemned unequivocally the blind and barbaric violence that the Algerian people continue to suffer" and offered "unwavering support in the determined struggle against terrorism."

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner voiced "disgust" over the attack.

"I want to express my feeling of disgust and my absolute condemnation of this blind terrorist violence that nothing can justify," said a statement issued late Sunday.

Kouchner said his thoughts were with the families and loved ones of the victims, as well as with the people of Algeria and the authorities "who are fighting with courage and determination the scourge of terrorism.

2 killed, more than 30 hurt in Greek quake

AFP, Athens

A strong earthquake measuring 6.5 on the open-ended Richter scale struck the Peloponnese region of Greece on Sunday, killing at least two people and injuring more than 30, authorities said.

The quake was felt throughout the peninsula and as far away as Athens, causing panic in villages and towns in the west and the north of the Peloponnese, when it struck around 3:25 pm (1325 GMT), NET public television reported.

The National Observatory of Athens located the quake 205 kilometres (130 miles) west of the capital near the town of Andravida. Observatory research chief Gerassimos Papadopoulos said the epicentre was about 10 kilometres (six miles) underground.

A man in his sixties was killed in the village of Kato Achaia when the roof of his house collapsed, firefighters said.

And an 80-year-old woman died of a heart attack in the same village in the northwest of the Peloponnese, police said.

Thirty-seven people were injured, suffering mostly from fractures according to health service officials and rescuers.

Dozens of houses were damaged, and 50 collapsed near the epicentre.

George Stavrakakis of the Athens Observatory's Geodynamic Institute said the quake was "the biggest recorded in the region" in a long time.

"The quake was terrible. We have not had such a big one even though we're used to them," said the mayor of the town of Pyrgos, George Paraskevopoulos. "It lasted for quite a while and everybody ran from their homes."

Pyrgos' Agios Nicolaos church suffered serious damage and several buildings in the town centre showed cracks after the quake, he added.

Racial attitudes pose challenge for Obama

AP, Greensburg

Joyce Susick is the type of voter who might carry Barack Obama to the White House - or keep him out. A registered Democrat in a highly competitive state, she is eager to replace George W. Bush, whom she ranks among the worst presidents ever.

There's just one problem.

"I don't think our country is ready for a black president," Susick, who is white, said in an interview in the paint store where she works. "A black man is never going to win Pennsylvania."

Susick said her personal objection to Obama is his inexperience, not his color. "It has nothing to do with race," she said.

If Susick is right about Pennsylvania voters, it presents a major hurdle for the presumed Democratic nominee. Democrats have carried Pennsylvania in the last four presidential contests, and Obama would have to offset a loss of its 21 electoral votes by taking Republican-leaning states from John McCain.

Polls suggest that Susick, a grandmother of three, does not represent most registered Democrats here or elsewhere. But there may be enough like-minded voters in Pennsylvania, whose last two presidential elections have been close, to tip it to McCain.

In the April 22 primary, Susick voted for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who carried Pennsylvania by 10 percentage points. Perhaps more troubling for Obama, one in four Clinton's backers told exit pollsters they would vote for McCain if Obama were the nominee; an additional 17 percent said they would not vote at all.

Obama has time and money to court these voters. Polls indicate some can be swayed. But the first-term senator is wading into unknown waters. Political scientists have reams of data about past elections, but there has been no test of how many voters make their ultimate decision based on race.

The answer may determine the presidency. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Florida, with large numbers of white, working-class voters, could prove problematic for a black man even in a year that otherwise looks grim for GOP candidates.

Gauging voter sentiments about race is notoriously difficult. Many voters hide their feelings from pollsters and it is possible that some do not even realize race's influence on their behavior.

In interviews with 40 Pennsylvanians across three counties that Clinton won by big margins, only one person indicated opposition to Obama simply because of his race. But several others said their neighbors might do so. Some offered objections that are familiar, and suspicious, to Obama's aides and supporters.

A few, like Susick, suggested the nation needs more time to prepare for a black president - and perhaps a woman as well.

"I don't think we're ready for either one yet," said Doug Richardson, 62, a contractor from Latrobe. Obama "just hasn't impressed me," he said over midmorning coffee with a friend at Denny's. "His middle name bothers me a lot." That name is Hussein.

Obama may have little to lose with voters such as Richardson, a self-described conservative who likes McCain. More worrisome are longtime Democrats who backed Clinton in April but are threatening to abandon the party now that she is not the nominee.

Rose Iezzi, who lunched recently with two friends at a Greensburg cafe, is one. All three women are middle-aged, work for an accountant and admire Clinton. But only Iezzi took a hard stand against Obama.

"I think he's a snake oil salesman," she said. "He's a little too slick and smooth."

"He just doesn't appeal to me, and not because of race, definitely," she said in an interview in which race had not been mentioned.

Musharraf may face impeachment

AFP, Islamabad

A junior party in Pakistan's government called Sunday for its main coalition partner to back the impeachment of President Pervez Musharraf, a day after the former army strongman rebuffed calls from both parties to resign.

Ahsan Iqbal, a spokesman for ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's party, called Musharraf "a virus in the democratic computer" and said Asif Ali Zardari's party should not hesitate to "join us for Musharraf's impeachment."

A spokesman for Zardari's party said it would "consider" pushing for impeachment proceedings in light of Musharraf's defiance.

The president's fate has been a key focus of squabbling in Pakistan's fractious coalition government. The infighting comes as the country faces a dire economic situation and ongoing militancy in its regions bordering Afghanistan.

The parties of Sharif and Zardari, the two largest in the coalition, won February elections on anti-Musharraf platforms. But Sharif's party has been more vociferous in demanding Musharraf's ouster than Zardari's party, though the latter has hardened its stance in recent days.

The coalition has already threatened to unravel because of a dispute between the two parties over whether restoration of dozens of judges sacked by Musharraf should be linked to a constitutional package that weakens the presidency and allows judicial reforms.

On Saturday, Musharraf - a longtime U.S. ally in the war on terror - deflected rising calls for his resignation and denied he planned to go into exile.

Zardari's party over the weekend branded Musharraf a "de facto president" and "a one-man demolition squad who demolished the Constitution, the judiciary and the Parliament."

But Zardari party spokesman Farhatullah Babar said Sunday, "Right now I can't say whether the party is going to go ahead with impeachment and if so when." He added, however, the party would have to "consider" pushing for impeachment following Musharraf's public statements.

Violence ruins chance of free Zimbabwe poll: HRW

AFP, Johannesburg

Increasing levels of political violence have extinguished hopes for a free and fair presidential run-off election in Zimbabwe at the end of the month, Human Rights Watch warned on Monday.

"Since the runoff was announced, the violence in Zimbabwe has gotten even worse," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch, following the release of a report detailing incidents of abductions, beatings, torture, and killings of opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters.

"Zimbabweans can't vote freely if they fear their vote may get them killed."

The New York-based organisation said it has recorded at least 36 politically motivated deaths and 2,000 victims of violence since the first round of polling at the end of March.

According to the report, President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party had embarked on a politically-motivated campaign of looting and destruction, slaughtering animals, stealing food and property, and burning down homesteads.

"'War veterans' and youth militia have set up roadblocks and taken control of huge swathes of the countryside in order to limit the flow of information on the extent of the violence and to punish those perceived to have voted for the MDC," says the report.

Human Rights Watch said senior-ranking army and police officials were found to be extensively involved in the violence.

"ZANU-PF and its allies have also established torture camps, and organized abusive 're-education' meetings around the country to compel MDC supporters into voting for Mugabe," read the report.

"Hundreds of people have been subjected to severe beatings, with logs, whips, bicycle chains, and other forms of torture during these meetings and at the camps."

The rights group urged the African Union and South African Development Community to insist on full accountability for politically-motivated crimes committed in Zimbabwe.