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Iran warns it would destroy Israel, US bases if attacked

AP, Tehran

Iran's armed forces would launch devastating strikes against Israel and 32 American bases in the Mideast if these countries were to attack, a senior military official said on Saturday.

Iran carried out a series of missile tests this week in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, prompting the United States to issue a warning that it would defend Israel in the event of an Iranian attack. Israel's Air Force last month conducted drills seen as a rehearsal for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.

If the U.S. and Israel were to attack Iran, "before the dust from these attacks settles on the ground, our armed forces will strike the very heart of Israel and 32 U.S. military bases in the region," the Iranian Supreme Leader's representative in the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, Mujtaba Zolnur, said.

"If our enemies take such a misguided step and attack Iran, our armed forces will give a devastating response," he was quoted by the Fars news agency as saying.

Iran test-fired on Friday several missiles with a range of 350 kilometers (217 miles). The tests came on the fourth day of the Great Prophet III military maneuvers involving the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval and air units.

Iranian state media said earlier this week that the IRGC had successfully test-fired various classes of missiles including shore-to-sea, surface-to-surface and sea-to-air missiles. The Shahab-3 missile, launched on Wednesday, has a range of 2,000 km (1,240 miles) and would enable Iran to strike at Israel, as well as U.S. bases in the Persian Gulf region.

The exercises provoked harsh criticism from the West, particularly the U.S., which demanded that Tehran cease work to develop ballistic missiles as potential vehicles for the delivery of nuclear weapons.

Iran is currently under three sets of relatively mild UN Security Council sanctions for defying demands to halt uranium enrichment, which it says it needs purely for electricity generation. The U.S. and other Western states have claimed that the program is geared toward the creation of nuclear weapons.

Another report adds: The US has said it will not hesitate to defend its interests and those of its allies as Iran continues missile tests.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the US had increased its security in the region and Iran should not be "confused" about US capabilities.

Iran has tested missiles, including one that could reach Israel, over the past two days.

Meanwhile French energy giant Total has said it will not invest in Iran because it is too politically risky.

Israel's Eitam spy plane Israel says its spy plane has a sophisticated early warning system

Israel has responded to the missile tests by putting on display one of its aircraft that it says can spy on Iran.

The state-run Israel Aerospace Industries says it has equipped its Eitam aeroplane with sophisticated intelligence-gathering systems.

Speaking on a visit to Georgia, Ms Rice said: "We take very strongly our obligation to defend our allies and we intend to do that.

"In the Gulf area, the United States has enhanced its security capacity, its security presence and we are working closely with all our alliest to make [sure] they are capable of defending themselves."

She added that it was about time Iran "got on the right side of the international community".

16 Pakistani troops killed in ambush

AFP, Peshawar

Suspected Taliban militants ambushed a Pakistani paramilitary convoy Saturday in a restive northwestern town, killing 16 soldiers and wounding others, officials said.

The convoy was heading to a fort outside Hangu district near the border with Afghanistan when the rebels attacked it with rocket propelled grenades and assault rifles, local police officer Shakirullah Jan told AFP.

He did not confirm the death toll. But a senior security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 16 soldiers were killed in the neighbourhood of Zargari, outside Hangu city.

Security forces responded by attacking Taliban positions using gunship helicopters and artillery fire in the mountainous region.

"16 Frontier Constabulary were killed in the ambush and a few were injured. Security forces have pounded militant positions using gunship helicopters, the number of casualties on the Taliban side was unknown," the official told AFP. Hangu district, which has a history of violence between minority Shiite and majority Sunni sects, is close to tribal areas bordering Afghanistan where pro-Taliban militants are active.

Pakistan is battling a resurgence in Islamist violence after a brief lull brought about by the new government's negotiations with Taliban militants in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.

The negotiations, launched after the government came to power five months ago, has drawn criticism from the United States and other Western allies.

Local official Fazan Khan said Saturday's attack-the latest incident in a week of bloodshed in the country that included a suicide bomb attack-involved hundreds of Taliban militants.

"Hundreds of Taliban attacked the convoy and did not allow security forces to retrieve the dead bodies of the soldiers for several hours," Khan said.

A suicide attack killed 19 people near a protest marking the anniversary of a bloody government-backed raid on the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad six days ago. Although there was no claim of responsibility, officials said they were examining a range of possible culprits, including the mosque's former students and Taliban militants based near the Afghan border.

That bombing was followed the next day by six blasts in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, which left one person dead and 37 injured.

Pakistani forces launched an operation late last month against Islamic radicals near the northwestern city of Peshawar but the government has yet to convince its foreign backers it is serious about combating militancy.

The new government comprises the Pakistan People's Party of former premier Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in December last year, and the grouping of ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Kabul has also put pressure on Islamabad to tackle Taliban rebels based near the border. A suicide car bomb attack on the Indian embassy in the Afghan capital on Monday left 41 dead and around 150 injured.

Afghanistan has repeatedly accused Pakistan's intelligence agencies of supporting the Taliban. Islamabad backed the hardline regime during its 1996-2001 rule but denies any current links to the militia.

US and Iraq scale back security deal plans: Roadside bombings kill five in Iraq

Reuters, Baghdad

US and Iraqi negotiators have ended efforts to reach a formal security pact before President George W. Bush leaves office in favor of an interim deal, the Washington Post said on Sunday, citing senior U.S. officials.

The two sides had been negotiating a Status of Forces Agreement that would provide a legal basis for U.S. troops to remain when a U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.

But in the past week Iraqi leaders have spoken of only agreeing what they call a memorandum of understanding. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has also raised for the first time the prospect of setting a timetable for U.S. troops to leave Iraq.

The Washington Post quoted one U.S. official close to the negotiations as saying "we are talking about dates," even though Bush has previously rebuffed calls for a timetable.

Iraq is a major issue in November's presidential election battle between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama. McCain supports the Bush administration's current strategy, while Obama has called for a timetable for withdrawal.

The Post said the "bridge" security document would be limited in both time and scope and would allow basic U.S. military operations to continue once the U.N. mandate ended.

Iraq has rejected a number of Washington's demands, insisting they infringe on the country's sovereignty.

The document now under discussion with Iraq was likely to cover only 2009, the Post said.

AFP adds: Roadside bomb attacks in Iraq on Sunday killed at least five people, including three policemen in the former Sunni rebel bastion of Fallujah, police said.

The policemen were killed when two bombs exploded outside the home of a local police captain in Fallujah, a police officer said.

Four people were also wounded in the near simultaneous explosions in the city in western Iraq's Anbar province where violence has fallen drastically since late 2006.

A man and his son were killed in a similar attack east of the central city of Baquba when a bomb struck their car, a local police officer said.

Baquba and its surrounding province of Diyala continues to remain violent despite sustained military assaults by US and Iraqi forces.

Suicide car bomber kills 24 in Afghanistan

AP, Kandahar

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up next to a police patrol in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing 24 people, including 19 civilians, a provincial police chief said.

The attack in the southern province of Uruzgan also killed five police officers and wounded more than 30 others, said Juma Gul Himat.

The bomber struck the police patrol in a busy intersection of Deh Rawood district, Himat said. The bombing also damaged or destroyed about nine shops in the area, he said.

Most of those killed and wounded were shopkeepers and young boys selling cigarettes and other goods in the street, Himat said.

Afghan civilians have suffered from a rash of bombings this month. Around 55 civilians were killed in a massive bomb attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul on Monday, while a government commission said this week that U.S. airstrikes killed 47 civilians in Nangarhar on July 6.

More than 2,300 people - mostly militants - have died in insurgency related violence this year, according to an Associated Press tally of official figures.

Elsewhere, Taliban militants executed two women in central Afghanistan after accusing them of working as prostitutes on a U.S. base.

The women, dressed in blue burqas, were shot and killed late Saturday just outside Ghazni city in central Afghanistan, said Sayed Ismal, a spokesman for Ghazni's governor. He called the two "innocent local people." Taliban fighters told Associated Press Television News that the two were executed for allegedly running a prostitution ring catering to U.S. soldiers and other foreign contractors at a U.S. base in Ghazni city.

1st Lt. Nathan Perry, a U.S. military spokesman, said he has never heard of allegations "anything close to that nature." In Logar province, gunmen kidnapped parliament member Abdul Wali and his driver on Sunday, said provincial police chief Gen. Mohammad Mustafa.

Israeli media predicts end for Olmert over new scandal

AFP, Jerusalem

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was under fire from the media on Sunday over fresh corruption allegations, with commentators saying the embattled premier's political career was all but over.

"Ehud Olmert is finished. Politicians, the leaders he will meet today in Paris, the prosecutor and the police, all of them know this. The only one who wants to ignore it is Olmert," wrote Nahum Barnea, a columnist for the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper.

Police suspect that on at least 12 occasions when Olmert was Jerusalem mayor or trade and industry minister he submitted multiple invoices to different organisations for the same trip, pocketing about 110,000 dollars (60,000 euros) in reimbursements, Yediot Aharonot reported.

Olmert, already the subject of four pending investigations, is accused of using the ill-gotten gains from speaking tours to finance private trips for himself and his family.

"Ehud Olmert needs to give up. Enough. This has already gone out of all bounds," Ben Caspit wrote on the front page of the Maariv newspaper. "This country needs a real government, not a shadow one."

The speaking tours were allegedly funded by several private organisations, including foundations for physically and mentally disabled children, the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, and the American Friends of the IDF (Israeli army).

"Olmert made an illegal profit by speaking about Holocaust survivors, wounded kids, and soldiers." wrote Amir Oren, a columnist for the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper. "To his friends, Olmert is a frequent flyer, but to the police he's just a frequent liar," he added. The new claims surfaced on Friday after police questioned Olmert, 62, for the third time since May.

He is also accused of illegally receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash-stuffed envelopes from US millionaire financier Morris Talansky before he became prime minister in 2006.

Priests abuse, climate on Pope's Australian agenda

AP, Sydney

Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Australia on Sunday, saying he wants to use his visit to raise awareness about global warming and address the crisis of clergy sexual abuse.

Benedict suggested to reporters on the flight from the Vatican that he would express regret about abuse by priests, though victims' groups are demanding he go further and make a direct formal apology.

The clergy abuse scandal is a serious note in the pope's 10-day visit to Australia, his first, during which he will join the World Youth Day festival that has attracted more than 200,000 people.

Benedict, 81, flew more than 20 hours from the Vatican to touch down at a military air base on Sydney's outskirts. He waved briefly as he climbed down the plane's stairway and was greeted on the tarmac by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and other church and government officials. He was driven to a retreat in Sydney where he will stay out of the public eye until the youth festival formally begins Thursday.

During the flight, Benedict told reporters he would work for "healing and reconciliation with the victims" of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy in Australia "just as I did in the United States."

At the start of a U.S. visit earlier this year, Benedict said he was "deeply ashamed" of the abuse scandal and pledged to work to make sure pedophiles do not become priests.

Clergy abuse support groups in Australia have demanded that Benedict apologize during his visit for the abuse they suffered. The exact number of victims of clergy abuse in Australia is not known, though activists say it is in the thousands.

Bernard Barrett, a spokesman for the victims' group Broken Rites, said Benedict's comments did not go far enough.

"He made some general remarks about regret to reporters and that's not good enough," he told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. "We want action, not words."

Ahmadinejad claims met coalition commanders in Iraq

AFP, Tehran

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he met two military commanders from US-led forces on his trip to Iraq in March and that they even took souvenir pictures to commemorate the encounter. His claims were published on Saturday in reformist newspapers and the conservative Jomhouri Eslami, which said the comments came in a speech he made over a month ago that was first broadcast by state television late on Wednesday.

There was no immediate confirmation of the comments from the Iranian presidency or any further reaction on Sunday. Ahmadinejad has already said he was the target of an assassination plot by Iran's enemies during his visit to Iraq, when he became the first Iranian president to ever visit the country. "When I was in Iraqt I was told that one of the occupying commanders wanted to see me," Ahamdinejad was quoted as telling commanders from the Iranian volunteer militia the Basij.

"Apparently, he was due to leave on vacation but he had delayed his vacation to see me and I agreed.

"When he saw me, he told me that he was proud of me and said 'you are in our hearts'. Then he asked me to take a souvenir picture with me. And he and his deputy did just that."

"So I patted him on the shoulder and I encouraged him and told him to protect Iraqi people," he was quoted as saying.

Ahmadinejad did not say which country the commanders were from, although the context of his comments suggested that they were supposed to be American.

Jomhouri Eslami, a newspaper close to Iran's hardline establishment, reacted with scepticism to the reported comments.

US not hunting Osama bin Laden on its turf, says Pak FM

AP, New York

Pakistan's top diplomat said Saturday there are no U.S. or other foreign military personnel on the hunt for Osama bin Laden in his nation, and none will be allowed in to search for the al-Qaida leader.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said his nation's new government has ruled out such military operations, covert or otherwise, to catch militants.

"Our government's policy is that our troops, paramilitary forces and our regular forces are deployed in sufficient numbers. They are capable of taking action there. And any foreign intrusion would be counterproductive," he said Saturday. "People will not accept it. Questions of sovereignty come in."

The United States has grown increasingly frustrated as al-Qaida, the Taliban and other militants thrive in Pakistan's remote areas and in neighboring Afghanistan, and has offered U.S. troops to strike at terror networks. Critics in Washington also have expressed frustration with the new Pakistani government's pursuit of peace deals in the region.

Bin Laden is believed to be hiding somewhere along the rugged and lawless Afghan-Pakistan border region.

Pakistan's newly elected civilian government is negotiating with tribal elders to secure peace with militants along the Afghan border in hopes of curbing a surge in violence. It is a step back from the heavy-handed tactics pursued by the previous government led by supporters of President Pervez Musharraf.

North Korea rejects South’s call for talks

AP, Seoul

North Korea on Sunday rejected a proposal to resume stalled reconciliation talks with South Korea, while Seoul denounced the communist regime for the shooting death of a tourist that heightened tension between the divided nations.

North Korea's main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said in a commentary that South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's proposal to restart bilateral talks was not even worth considering. The paper called Lee's proposal a "deceitful" tactic to avoid taking responsibility for deteriorated ties.

The snub was another sign of strained relations between the Koreas, which intensified after a North Korean soldier fatally shot at a South Korean tourist Friday at a northern mountain resort.

South Korea has criticized the North for killing an innocent civilian, demanding that investigators from the South be allowed to probe the case.

"If an investigation into this tragic incident is not made, that will throw a cold blanket over all the people's expectations for progress in South-North relations," said the South Korean Unification Ministry in a statement. The ministry is responsible for ties with North Korea.

The South Korean government suspended tours by South Koreans to the resort pending an investigation.

However, the North has rejected cooperating in a probe, saying the 53-year-old housewife ignored a soldier's warning and tried to flee. The North's tourism authorities demanded South Korea apologize for halting tours.

Tensions between the Koreas have flared since Lee, a pro-U.S. conservative, took office in February. His government has criticized human rights abuses in North Korea and has been skeptical of offering unconditional aid to the impoverished country, a sharp departure from the previous decade of liberal South Korean leaders.