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68 die, 22 survive in Kyrgyzstan airliner crash

AP, Bishkek

A passenger jet carrying 90 people, including a Kyrgyz high school sports team, crashed shortly after takeoff Sunday near the Kyrgyz capital, killing 65, government officials said.

The Boeing 737 was headed to Iran when it crashed near Bishkek's Manas International Airport, said government spokeswoman Roza Daudova. Twenty-two people, including two crew members, survived the accident.

Earlier, Daudova had said there were at least 68 dead and 25 survivors, but she later gave lower figures. An airport official said the crew reported a technical problem about 10 minutes into the flight and that the plane was returning to the airport when it crashed. The official said she was not authorized to give her name. Officials said the crash followed the sudden decompression of the jet, which came down in a field near a village.

Among the survivors, were seven out the 17 members of the basketball team from a school in the capital, Bishkek, said Health Ministry spokeswoman Yelena Bayalinova. Presidential adviser Tokon Mamytov, however, later said that the athletes were volleyball, not basketball players.

Eighteen survivors were hospitalized, and four others were sent home with no serious injuries, according to Daudova.

Daudova said the people on board the plane included 24 Kyrgyz citizens, 52 Iranians, three Kazakhs, two Canadians, one citizen of Turkey and one Chinese.

Kyrgyz Interior Minister Moldomusa Kongatiyev said the plane went down 6 miles from the airport. Maj. Damian Pickart, public affairs officer for the U.S. air base located at the Manas airport, said U.S. ambulances and firefighting equipment were dispatched to the crash site in response to a Kyrgyz request for help.

Several government officials said the plane belonged to Itek Air, a Kyrgyz company, but was operated by Iran Aseman Airlines. But Mamytov, the presidential adviser, said the plane was both owned and operated by Itek Air. Itek Air has been banned from operating in the airspace of the European Union because of failure to meet safety and aviation standards, according to a list published by the EU July 24.

Kyrgyzstan is a poor, mountainous country west of China. The U.S. air base in the ex-Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan supports operations in nearby Afghanistan.

Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan and the country's largest city, has a population about 1 million and is situated in the northern part of the Central Asian nation.

Manas International Airport is about 16 miles northwest of downtown.

Attack on Pakistani lawmaker’s home kills 8

AP, Peshawar

Militants used rockets and a bomb to attack the family home of a lawmaker in Pakistan's volatile northwest early Monday, killing eight people including the politician's brother, police said.

Meanwhile, Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik announced a ban on the country's umbrella Taliban group, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

The militants targeted the Swat Valley residence of provincial lawmaker Waqar Ahmed Khan of the ruling Awami National Party. Khan said his brother, two nephews and several guards died in the attack on the compound, which belongs to him and his extended family. Pakistan's Taliban movement has claimed responsibility for a handful of devastating suicide bombings in recent days, calling them revenge for military offensives in Swat, once a tourist destination, and the northwest Bajur tribal region. A peace deal struck between provincial lawmakers and militants in Swat appears to be in tatters amid ongoing fighting.

The military operations come as the country's ruling coalition appears on the brink of collapse, raising concerns in Washington about the government's ability to stay focused on eradicating militants on its borders. The U.S. worries that pockets of Pakistan's northwest have become safe zones for militants who plan attacks on American and NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan.

Several rockets were used and the militants set on fire the bungalow at the Khan family's sprawling residence in the valley's Shah Dheri area before leaving, police officer Saifur Rehman said. He said eight people were killed.

Rehman Malik, the head of the federal Interior Ministry, told The Associated Press on Monday that the government had decided to ban the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

"This organization is a terrorist organization and created mayhem against the public life, so we decided to declare it banned," Malik said, the country's top civilian security official.

Malik noted that despite the peace deal, militants kept attacking security forces, burning schools and damaging public buildings.

Russia to recognise Georgia rebel regions

Reuters, Moscow

Russian lawmakers approved on Monday a resolution recognizing the independence of two rebel regions of Georgia, a move likely to worsen relations with the West already strained by Moscow's military intervention there.

The upper house of parliament, or Federation Council, voted 130-0 to call on President Dmitry Medvedev to recognize the rebel regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent.

Georgia and Russia fought a brief war earlier this month over South Ossetia after Tbilisi sent in troops to try to retake the province by force, provoking a massive counter-attack by land, sea and air from Moscow.

"Today it is clear that after Georgia's aggression against South Ossetia (that) Georgian-South-Ossetian and Georgian-Abkhazian relations cannot be returned to their former state," upper house speaker Sergei Mironov said during the debate. "The peoples of South Ossetia and Abkhazia have the right to get independence."

The lower house, or State Duma, was due to approve a similar resolution later in the morning.

"We will look today at the appeals from the peoples of Abkhazia and South Ossetia to recognize the independence of these republics, I think that all these decisions will be accepted," said Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov.

The non-binding resolutions could either signal Medvedev's intentions or be intended to strengthen his hand as he negotiates the status of Russian forces in Georgia with the West.

EU president France, which brokered a ceasefire in the conflict, which has killed hundreds of people and made thousands more homeless, called a September 1 meeting of EU leaders to discuss the crisis and review the bloc's relations with Russia.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said ties with Moscow could be scaled back if its troops were not fully withdrawn.

But French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was more cautious. "We're not talking about sanctions," he told France Inter radio.

"Getting a ceasefire, stopping hostilities and the troop withdrawal in eight days, that's quite a lot already. We'll have to see. We have to take stock of the situation."

Moscow, which has pulled back the bulk of its forces from central and western Georgia, says the residual troops are peacekeepers needed to avert further bloodshed and protect South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

But Georgia and the West object to the scale of the Russian-imposed buffer zone adjoining the two rebel regions, which hands Moscow pressure points on key oil and trade routes through Georgia to the Black Sea.

The United States, which has said Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organization could suffer, on Sunday delivered 55 tonnes of aid aboard the warship USS McFaul a gesture of support for its close ally, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Suicide bomber kills 30 at Iraq dinner banquet

AFP, Baghdad

A suicide bomber killed at least 30 people and wounded 32 when he attacked a dinner banquet attended by police and members of an anti-Qaeda Awakening group near Baghdad Sunday, a security official said.

The bomber blew up his explosives-laden vest as police and members of the Sunni Awakening group sat down to dinner in the Abu Ghraib district, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) west of Baghdad, the interior ministry official said. Aziz Moklif Ghatha al-Zubai, one of the local chiefs of Awakening group who organised the dinner in the district's Al-Zaidan village, was killed in the attack that took place at around 8:30 pm (1730 GMT). Witnesses said that police had cordoned off the area as victims were taken to a hospital in Fallujah, 20 kilometres (15 miles) west of the city.

They said the village of Al-Zaidan was a former Al-Qaeda stronghold. Awakening groups began in the western province of Anbar when Sunni tribal leaders turned on their former Al-Qaeda allies in 2006. Since then hundreds of such groups have sprung up across Iraq, supported and paid for by the US military.

Al-Qaeda has frequently warned that members of Awakening groups will be specially targeted because of their cooperation with the US military in fighting the jihadists. In other violence in Iraq on Sunday, three bomb attacks and a shootout claimed the lives of nine people and wounded more than two dozen, security officials said.

The bloodletting comes about a week before the start of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, when violence tends to spike in Iraq. Four Iraqi soldiers were killed and eight others were wounded when a roadside bomb blasted their patrol in the town of Bala Druz, near the restive city of Baquba which has long struggled against Al-Qaeda.

In Baquba itself, two policemen were killed and six others including a woman were wounded in a shootout when insurgents fired at a police patrol, a defence ministry official said.

Obama leads McCain by 49 to 43pc in Post-ABC Poll

AP, Washington

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama leads Republican rival John McCain by 49 percent to 43 percent nationwide among registered voters, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released today. The results were little changed from a similar survey in mid-July, the Post said. The latest survey was conducted Aug. 19-22, before Obama announced he had chosen Senator Joe Biden of Delaware to be his vice presidential running mate. Three- quarters of registered voters, in answer to a hypothetical question, said choosing Biden wouldn't influence their vote either way, the Post reported. The poll also showed that 20 percent of those who supported Senator Hillary Clinton of New York for the Democratic presidential nomination now support Arizona Senator McCain, while 70 percent of her supporters back Obama, the highest level since she suspended her campaign in June, the Post said. The latest nationwide poll of 1,108 adults included interviews with 916 registered voters.

The poll, and the results among registered voters, have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nadine Elsibai in Washington at nelsibai@bloomberg.net

Iran's supreme leader defends Ahmadinejad

AP, Tehran

Iran's top leader strongly backed the nation's embattled president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, praising him for "standing up" to the West and urging him to plan for a second four-year term, state media reported Sunday. The comments by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei represent unusually glowing praise of the president, who upon his election in 2005 sparked a confrontation with the West by resuming uranium enrichment and vociferously denouncing Israel. It is the first time that Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters in Iran, has expressed such strong support for any other Iranian politician. "Do not think that this year is your final year. No. Work as if you will stay in charge for five years. In another words, imagine that in addition to this year, another four years will be under your management, and plan and act accordingly," IRNA quoted Khamenei as saying Sunday.

Ahmadinejad is facing a firestorm of criticism at home, particularly over his handling of the economy. He won office on a campaign promise to distribute Iran's oil wealth to each family. But Iran increasingly faces skyrocketing food and fuel prices, unemployment and inflation.

The current government has helped "revive" the values of the 1979 Islamic revolution that transformed Iran into a strict theocracy, state TV quoted Khamenei as saying during a meeting with Ahmadinejad and his Cabinet Saturday.

"Some bullying and brazen countries and their worthless followers wanted to impose their will on the Iranian nation, but t the president and the government have stood up to their excessive demands and moved forward," he said.

Split looms in Pakistani ruling coalition

Reuters, Islamabad

Pakistan's ruling coalition government looked on the verge of splitting on Monday over disputes about the judiciary and who should be the next president, as militant violence and economic problems mounted.

The coalition, formed after former president Pervez Musharraf's allies lost a February parliamentary election, has looked increasingly precarious since Musharraf resigned a week ago.

The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, the leading coalition partner, has been unable to reach an agreement with its main partner, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's party, on the restoration of judges Musharraf purged last year. Another divisive issue is who should be the country's next president.

The PPP announced on Saturday that Bhutto's widower and political successor, Asif Ali Zardari, would be its candidate.

Sharif's party, which has repeatedly threatened to leave the coalition if the judges are not restored, was meeting on Monday afternoon to consider its position and was due to hold a news conference at 6 p.m.

As the politicians bicker, militant violence has surged.

Pakistani Taliban gunmen attacked a district government official's home in the Swat Valley, northwest of Islamabad, on Monday, killing three family members and seven guards, police said.

Rice pushes Israeli-Palestinian peace despite mounting odds

AFP, Washington

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left Sunday for the Middle East in a new bid to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by January 2009 despite mounting odds.

In her seventh visit to the region since the Annapolis peace process was launched in November last year, Rice will arrive in Israel on Monday for talks with top Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.

Rice's spokesman Sean McCormack said Rice's talks would include senior Israeli and Palestinian officials and would cover "ongoing efforts to create positive and lasting peace in the region and progress towards the shared goal of a peace agreement in 2008."

Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP on August 17 that Rice will meet with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, then hold three-way talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and senior Palestinian diplomat Ahmed Qorei.

The two sides formally relaunched the peace process after a seven-year hiatus at a US conference in November, with the goal of signing a full peace deal by the time President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009.

The talks have made little visible progress since then, with both sides remaining deeply divided on core issues like the status of Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees, and final borders.

Israel was, however, preparing to free 199 Palestinian prisoners early Monday, ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert approved the latest prisoner release as a goodwill gesture to Abbas in the context of US-backed peace talks.

Rice was last in Israel in mid-June, when she strongly criticized the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying they undermined the peace process.

She has already visited the region 17 times in the past two years.

Zimbabwean opposition MPs arrested in Harare: MDC

AFP, Harare

A second Zimbabwean lawmaker was arrested Monday in what the opposition said was a bid to reverse the party's unprecedented majority ahead of a parliamentary vote to elect a new speaker.

"Another one of our members of parliament Eliah Jembere has been arrested at parliament," Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) spokesman Nelson Chamisa told AFP.

"It's clearly a strategy to eliminate our members and reverse our majority in parliament," said the spokesman for Morgan Tsvangirai's opposition party. Earlier Chamisa said another lawmaker, Shuah Mudiwa, was arrested from parliament, saying he was "literally pulled" out from the building.

"We have been informed they want to arrest 15 MPs. It's all about the vote for the speaker. Nothing to do with the law," he said.

Parliamentary and presidential elections were held in March, setting off months of political unrest after Tsvangirai claimed that veteran leader Robert Mugabe had fixed the presidential result and intimidated his supporters.

Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party suffered a historic reverse when it won only 97 parliamentary seats. The MDC took 100, while a splinter party formed and led by former MDC politician Arthur Mutambara got 10.