Suicide bombers strike in heart of Kabul; 17 dead
AP, Kabul
Insurgents struck in the heart of the Afghan capital Friday with suicide attackers and a car bomb, targeting hotels used by foreigners and killing at least 17 people and wounding dozens, police said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks, which Afghan President Hamid Karzai said were aimed at Indians working in Kabul.
India's foreign minister said up to nine Indians were killed, including government officials. An Italian diplomat and a French national were also among the dead.
The four-hour assault began about 6:30 a.m. with a car bombing that leveled a residential hotel used by Indian doctors.
A series of explosions and gunbattles left blood and debris in the rain-slickened streets and underscored the militants' ability to strike in the heavily defended capital even as NATO marshals its forces against them in the volatile south. Dr. Subodh Sanjivpaul of India said he was holed up in his bathroom for three hours inside one of the small hotels where he lived with other Indians.
"Today's suicide attack took place in our residential complex," Sanjivpaul said at a military hospital where his wounded foot was bandaged.
"When I was coming out, I found two or three dead bodies. When firing was going on, the first car bomb exploded and the full roof came on my head."
The Kabul attacks came two weeks into a major offensive against the southern Taliban stronghold of Marjah, where thousands of U.S., Afghan and NATO soldiers are battling to drive insurgents out. The British government said one of its soldiers was killed Friday by an explosion while on a foot patrol - the 14th international service member to die in the operation.
In recent weeks, more than two dozen senior and midlevel Taliban figures have been detained in Pakistan, suggesting the attack in the capital could be a way for the militants to show the insurgency remains potent.
In a statement, Karzai condemned Friday's assault as a "terrorist attack against Indian citizens" who were helping the Afghan people. He said it would not affect relations between India and Afghanistan.
Indian officials also condemned the attack.
"We are shocked at the inhuman attack on innocent lives," Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said.
"Our ties are strong and deep (with Afghanistan) and will remain so. We are very clear that the forces of terrorism will not succeed and we will take every measure to defeat the forces of terror," he said in New Delhi.
Three police were killed in the attacks, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said, adding that at least 38 people were wounded, six of them police.
AP, Kabul
Insurgents struck in the heart of the Afghan capital Friday with suicide attackers and a car bomb, targeting hotels used by foreigners and killing at least 17 people and wounding dozens, police said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks, which Afghan President Hamid Karzai said were aimed at Indians working in Kabul.
India's foreign minister said up to nine Indians were killed, including government officials. An Italian diplomat and a French national were also among the dead.
The four-hour assault began about 6:30 a.m. with a car bombing that leveled a residential hotel used by Indian doctors.
A series of explosions and gunbattles left blood and debris in the rain-slickened streets and underscored the militants' ability to strike in the heavily defended capital even as NATO marshals its forces against them in the volatile south. Dr. Subodh Sanjivpaul of India said he was holed up in his bathroom for three hours inside one of the small hotels where he lived with other Indians.
"Today's suicide attack took place in our residential complex," Sanjivpaul said at a military hospital where his wounded foot was bandaged.
"When I was coming out, I found two or three dead bodies. When firing was going on, the first car bomb exploded and the full roof came on my head."
The Kabul attacks came two weeks into a major offensive against the southern Taliban stronghold of Marjah, where thousands of U.S., Afghan and NATO soldiers are battling to drive insurgents out. The British government said one of its soldiers was killed Friday by an explosion while on a foot patrol - the 14th international service member to die in the operation.
In recent weeks, more than two dozen senior and midlevel Taliban figures have been detained in Pakistan, suggesting the attack in the capital could be a way for the militants to show the insurgency remains potent.
In a statement, Karzai condemned Friday's assault as a "terrorist attack against Indian citizens" who were helping the Afghan people. He said it would not affect relations between India and Afghanistan.
Indian officials also condemned the attack.
"We are shocked at the inhuman attack on innocent lives," Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said.
"Our ties are strong and deep (with Afghanistan) and will remain so. We are very clear that the forces of terrorism will not succeed and we will take every measure to defeat the forces of terror," he said in New Delhi.
Three police were killed in the attacks, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said, adding that at least 38 people were wounded, six of them police.
UN says will create science panel to review IPCCReuters, Nusa Dua, Indonesia
An independent board of scientists will be appointed to review the world's top climate science panel, which has been accused of sloppy work, a U.N. climate spokesman said on Friday.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been under fire after it was revealed one of its 2007 reports wrongly included a prediction that Himalayan glaciers could vanish by 2035. The figure should have been 2350.
That mistake and others have fuelled a resurgence of climate scepticism in some quarters but the U.N. says the fundamental claims of the IPCC-that dangerous climate change is caused by mankind-remains unshaken.
The panel will be part of a broader review of the IPCC to be announced next week, said Nick Nuttall, spokesman for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
"It will be [made up of] senior scientific figures. I can't name who they are right now. It should do a review of the IPCC, produce a report by, say, August and there is a plenary of the IPCC in South Korea in October.
"The report will go there for adoption," he told reporters on the sidelines of a UNEP conference in Nusa Dua, on the Indonesian island of Bali, where environment ministers have been meeting this week.
"There's no review panel at the moment. Yesterday, it was clear from the member states roughly how they would like this panel to be, i.e. fully independent and not appointed by the IPCC but appointed by an independent group of scientists themselves," he said.
The terms of references for the panel would be announced next week, he said. "I think we are bringing some level of closure to this issue."
Myanmar court rejects Suu Kyi's appeal for releaseAP, Yangon
The highest court in military-ruled Myanmar dismissed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's latest bid for freedom Friday, turning down an appeal to end 14 years of house arrest, her lawyer said.
The Supreme Court's decision had been expected since legal rulings in Myanmar rarely favor opposition activists, and the junta appears determined to keep Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, detained through elections planned later this year.
Defense lawyer Nyan Win told reporters he would launch one final "special appeal" before the court after determining why the recent appeal had been rejected. "The court order did not mention any reasons," he said.
"Although the decision comes as no surprise, it is deeply disappointing," said British Ambassador Andrew Heyn, who attended the court session along with diplomats from Australia, France and the United States. "We continue to believe that (Suu Kyi) should be released immediately along with the other 2,000 and more other prisoners of conscience."
French Ambassador Jean Pierre Lafosse said Suu Kyi was "the victim of a sham trial."
Suu Kyi's lawyers appealed to the court last November after a lower court a month earlier upheld a decision to sentence her to 18 months of house arrest. She was convicted last August of violating the terms of her previous detention by briefly sheltering an American who swam uninvited to her lakeside home.
N Korea detains four S Koreans for illegal entryAFP, Seoul
North Korea announced Friday it had detained four South Koreans for illegally entering the country and a Seoul activist said they had crossed from China in an attempt to meet leader Kim Jong-Il.
It was the third time in two months that the hardline communist North has reported an illegal entry.
South Korea could not confirm the case but said none of its more than 1,000 citizens working in the North had gone missing.
"A relevant institution of the DPRK (North Korea) recently detained four South Koreans who illegally entered it. They are now under investigation by the institution," Pyongyang's official news agency said without elaborating.
North Korea has in recent months been making peace overtures to the South although military tensions persist.
On Thursday the North's military accused South Korea and the United States of planning a surprise attack under the pretext of a joint military exercise. It warned it could respond with atomic weapons.
Activist Choi Sung-Yong, quoting his informants in China, said the four crossed the border between China's Tumen city and Namyang in the North several days ago.
"They told North Korean soldiers that they came there to see Kim Jong-Il," said Choi, who campaigns to bring back South Koreans abducted by the North in previous decades and has contacts there.
Choi said he suspected the four may have been Christian evangelists but added he was seeking further information.
US missionary Robert Park walked into the North across the frozen Tumen river from China on December 25 to draw attention to its rights abuses.
‘Pakistan serious on improving India ties’AFP, Beijing
Pakistan's foreign minister said Tuesday that his country was serious about improving relations with India, ahead of the first official talks between the South Asian rivals in more than a year.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi was quoted by state media as saying in Beijing that Pakistan wanted "peaceful settlement of all outstanding disputes".
The foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan are set to sit down on Thursday, ending a freeze on dialogue imposed by India after the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants.
Qureshi, who is on a five-day visit to China, made his comments in a speech at the China Institute of International Studies, state Xinhua news agency reported.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Tuesday that stable India-Pakistan relations were "conducive to regional peace, stability and development".
He added that Beijing "supports their efforts to resolve their disputes through dialogue and negotiation".
Qureshi met Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao on Tuesday and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Monday.
US general in Pakistan to bolster allianceAFP, Islamabad
Top US general David Petraeus held talks in Pakistan on Monday to bolster the relationship with a key regional ally, as a suicide bombing claimed nine lives in the country's northwest.
Petraeus, the head of US forces in central Asia and the Middle East, met premier Yousuf Raza Gilani and army chief General Ashfaq Kayani shortly after his arrival, a statement from the prime minister's office said.
"General Petraeus appreciated the commitment and sacrifices made by the security forces, armed forces and the people of Pakistan in eradicating militancy and terrorism," it said.
The visit by the head of US Central Command follows the capture last month of top Taliban military commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Pakistan, in what the US media said was a joint operation by US and Pakistani spies. The involvement of Pakistan-suspected by the West of supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan-was seen as a signal of a new era in US efforts to persuade Islamabad to move aggressively against Islamist networks in both countries.
During their talks, Petraeus assured Gilani of his support for "Pakistan?s demand for early reimbursement of the Coalition Support Fund," the statement said, referring to US cash for Pakistan's participation in its "war on terror."
The Pakistani premier stressed the need for closer ties between the United States and Pakistan, it added.
"Gilani said that the gap between culmination of operations and reconstruction of the militancy affected areas needs to be plugged to develop the confidence of the people in the process of consolidation."
Gilani said that "the long-term strategic relations between the US and Pakistan needs to be made more meaningful to further bridge the trust deficit and help develop closer cooperation in all sectors," the statement said.
Petraeus's arrival in Pakistan also coincided with a suicide bombing on a military convoy in the northwestern Swat valley where nine people including women and children were killed.
Swat has been held up as a success story in Pakistan's fight against Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants by local and US officials, who praised the offensive for apparently ending a two-year local Taliban insurgency.
US national security adviser General James Jones visited Swat valley earlier this month and congratulated Pakistani security forces on the "success" of their operations and noted their "tremendous sacrifices".
Eight die in Afghan bombing as US loses 1,000th soldierAFP, Kabul
A bomb strapped to a bicycle exploded near a busy bus terminal in Afghanistan, killing eight people Tuesday as the death toll of US troops in the Afghan war surpassed the grim milestone of 1,000.
The attack took place in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province where a massive US-led military offensive against the Taliban entered a tenth day and US defence chiefs said progress was slower than expected.
Sixteen people were also injured in the blast, the interior ministry said.
The Helmand assault by 15,000 US troops, dubbed Operation Mushtarak-meaning "together" in the Dari Persian dialect spoken in Afghanistan-aims to push the Taliban out of the Marjah and Nad Ali areas under their control.
But the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said in Washington progress against Taliban fighters in the target areas was "steady if perhaps a bit slower than anticipated".
Commanders have said it could take another month to bring the areas under total control, though civilian police have already been deployed.
"Afghan and combined forces continue to encounter small but determined pockets of resistance, often from bunkers or other fortified positions," NATO said in an operational update.
IEDs, improvised explosive devices, posed the main challenge, it said, adding "a new patrol base is operational" and "a new police base is being built in southeast Marjah", referring to the main Marjah bazaar.
Helmand and neighbouring Kandahar have been the main focus of insurgent activity since the Taliban regime was overthrown in 2001.
Senior military leaders, including US General Stanley McChrystal who commands the 121,000 US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, have said Kandahar is in line for a major anti-insurgent offensive of its own.
India cautious on Maoist talks offerAFP, New Delhi
India's home minister gave a cautious response Tuesday to a reported offer of peace talks by Maoist rebels, saying the insurgents must first stop their attacks and make a formal proposal.
"I would like a short, simple statement... saying 'We will abjure violence and we are prepared for talks,'" said Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who issued a government fax number for the declaration.
"I would like no ifs, no buts and no conditions. Once I receive the statement, I shall consult the prime minister and other colleagues and respond promptly," the minister said in a written statement.
On Monday, a senior Maoist leader, Kishenji, told local media that the guerrillas were ready for talks if the government suspended a giant offensive against them.
"We are ready to hold talks with the government only if the joint operation against us is halted for 72 days from February 25 to May 7," senior leader Kishenji told television station Chabbis Ghanta in the state of West Bengal.
The Indian government, which sees the insurgents as the biggest internal security threat to the country, has launched the offensive in several Maoist-infested areas, but has so far failed to significantly curb their operations.
Kishenji also asked for "intellectuals and human rights organisations which are fighting for the cause of the people" to mediate between the Maoists and the government.
Chidambaram has been pushing for talks with the leftist rebels, estimated to number 10,000-20,000, but with the condition that they renounce violence.
The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People's Party) welcomed the possibility but its spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy said the Maoists "must shun violence and surrender their arms" before talks can go ahead.
Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court refuses to free FonsekaAFP, Colombo
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court refused Tuesday to order the release of detained opposition leader and former army chief Sarath Fonseka as it deliberates a petition challenging his arrest by the military.
Fonseka, 59, has been held at a naval detention centre since his arrest on February 8, sparking international condemnation and violent protests two weeks after he was trounced in presidential polls by President Mahinda Rajapakse.
"The request for interim relief by way of his release was rejected but the court said immediate family and lawyers can visit him," a court official said.
A further hearing has been scheduled for April 26.
Fonseka's wife had filed a petition challenging the legality of his detention, and asking the court to order his immediate release pending a judgement.
Tuesday ruling means he will remain in custody until the court makes a final ruling.
The government has yet to specify the charges Fonseka will face, but Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse-the president's brother-said he had been plotting a military coup.
The United States, the European Union and the United Nations, among others, have asked Colombo to ensure due process is followed and that democracy is not undermined.
As the battlefield architect of the victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels last May, Fonseka had been hailed as a national hero for finally crushing their 37-year campaign for an independent Tamil homeland.
Philippine Supreme Court allows Arroyo to runAFP, Manila
The Philippines' highest court on Tuesday ruled President Gloria Arroyo was allowed to run for a seat in parliament in this year's elections, disappointing critics who said her move was unconstitutional.
The decision meant Arroyo had cleared the final legal hurdle in her bid to win a parliamentary seat in the May elections.
The Supreme Court dismissed a petition by an opposition legislator to bar Arroyo from running, saying an earlier ruling by the Commission on Elections allowing her to run was valid.
"The court did not find any grave abuse of authority on the Comelec's part," a spokesman for the court clerk told AFP, reading from the court resolution.
Critics believe that Arroyo, who is running for a congressional seat to be vacated by one of her sons, wants to enter parliament as a backdoor route back to power.
They allege she intends to use her influence to have the House of Representatives rewrite the constitution and shift the nation's form of government from presidential to parliamentary.
She would then want to become prime minister, with the president relegated to a largely ceremonial role, according to her critics.
Opposition lawmaker Riza Hontiveros had argued in her petition to the Supreme Court and the Commission on Elections that the constitution banned any sitting president from running for re-election in any capacity.
But the Commission on Elections ruled that the constitution only barred her from running again for president.
China encourages US-North Korea to meetAFP, Beijing
China on Tuesday urged the United States and North Korea to step up efforts to restart stalled nuclear disarmament talks, as diplomats criss-crossed the region to try to get Pyongyang back to the table.
The US and South Korean envoys to the six-party talks, which began in 2003 and have been on hold since the North stormed out 10 months ago, were both due in Beijing this week for meetings with their Chinese counterparts.
China, the host of the talks and the communist North's sole major diplomatic and economic ally, said efforts by Washington and Pyongyang would be the key to success.
"We encourage multilateral and bilateral meetings and dialogue... on this issue, China adopts a supportive and positive attitude," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.
Such contact between the United States and North Korea "will be conducive to the early resumption of the six-party talks and ensure the peace and stability of northeast Asia and the Korean peninsula," he said.
Qin said US special envoy Stephen Bosworth would hold talks with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei in Beijing on Wednesday to discuss the North Korean disarmament issue.
South Korea's chief negotiator Wi Sung-Lac was also expected in Beijing Tuesday and would hold talks with Wu.
Meanwhile, a senior North Korean Communist Party official, Kim Yong-Il, held talks Tuesday with his Chinese counterpart Wang Jiarui and met President Hu Jintao, China Central Television reported.
Iran ready to buy nuclear reactor fuelAFP, Vienna
Iran is ready to buy fuel for a nuclear reactor or swap its own stockpile of low-enriched uranium for the fuel, but on its own territory, it said in a letter to the UN atomic watchdog obtained by AFP on Tuesday.
"I would like to inform the agency, on behalf of my government, that the Islamic Republic of Iran is still seeking to purchase the required fuel in cash," Tehran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, wrote in a letter dated February 18 to IAEA chief Yukiya Amano.
It is the first time that the IAEA has received a written response from Iran to an international plan hammered out under the agency's auspices last October to supply fuel for a nuclear research reactor in Tehran that makes radioisotopes for medical purposes such as the treatment of cancer. The reactor's fuel is running low and Iran had asked the IAEA to find ways of securing fresh fuel. Under the IAEA's previous director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, the watchdog drew up a plan whereby Iran would hand over its stockpile of low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia for enrichment to the required level of 20 percent.
The material would then be processed by France into the necessary fuel rods for the reactor. The plan's main advantage, from the point of view of the international community, was that Iran's stockpile of uranium-built up in defiance of UN sanctions-would be taken out of Tehran's hands. And that meant it could not be covertly made into an atomic bomb, as many countries feared.
Nevertheless, the Islamic republic has consistently balked at the idea, seeing it a ruse, primarily by the United States, to deprive it of its LEU. And it has demanded that the material be swapped simultaneously on its territory instead.
Hamas PM calls for West Bank to ‘rise up’ over holy sitesAFP, Gaza City
Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya on Tuesday called on Palestinians in the West Bank to "rise up" against Israel over a plan to restore two contested holy sites in the territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sparked outrage on Sunday when he said he hoped to include Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron in a national heritage plan. "The decision requires a real response in the West Bank and for the people to rise up in the face of the Israeli occupation and to break every shackle in confronting it," Haniya told reporters. "(The project) aims to erase our identity, alter our Islamic monuments and steal our history," he added. Hamas has in the past made similar calls for uprisings in the occupied West Bank, where the Western-backed Palestinian Authority has been confined since the Islamist group seized Gaza in June 2007.
In Hebron there was sporadic stone throwing from Palestinian youths near the Ibrahimi mosque above the Tomb of the Patriarchs but there were no reports of anyone being wounded. The site has often been the scene of tensions between Palestinians and a few hundred hardline settlers who live there under heavy military protection and have converted part of the mosque into a synagogue.
Meanwhile in Bethlehem shops and schools were closed in a day-long general strike and youth set tyres on fire in some areas, an AFP correspondent said. The final list of the sites to be included in the 100-million-dollar restoration project is still under discussion, but Netanyahu's remarks drew protests from the Palestinians, the United Nations, Jordan and Egypt.
Iraq to ‘sue UK firm behind faulty bomb detector’AFP, Baghdad
Iraq plans to sue the British company that sold it bomb detectors widely panned as ineffective after they failed to prevent a series of massive bombings in Baghdad, a spokesman said Tuesday.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told AFP that Baghdad wanted financial compensation for the devices, which are used at checkpoints across the country to detect explosives. "More than 50 percent are good, and the rest we will change," he said, referring to the proportion of the detectors found to be defective after an investigation ordered by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
"We will sue the British company that sold them to us to get our money back," he added, but declined to name the specific company in question or provide any further details. British firm ATSC manufactured and sold the device, the ADE651, to Iraq.
Its director Jim McCor-mick was arrested by British police on suspicion of fraud by misrepresentation earlier this year. He was bailed pending further investigation. In January, Britain banned the export of the ADE651 device after tests showed it was not suitable for bomb detection.
The ADE651 is a hand-held, pistol-shaped piece of equipment which uses a series of interchangeable credit card size paper cards said to be able to detect explosives such as C4 and TNT, as well as weapons.
It was reputedly sold for between 16,500 and 60,000 dollars per unit, and has become ubiquitous in Iraq, having been bought in large numbers by local security forces.
Prosecutors interrogate 51 Turkish officersAP, Ankara, Turkey
Prosecutors on Tuesday interrogated 51 Turkish military commanders, including former Air Force and Navy chiefs, over alleged plans to destabilize the country by blowing up mosques to trigger a coup and topple the Islamic-rooted government.
It was the highest profile crackdown ever on the Turkish military, which has ousted four governments since 1960. For decades Turkey's senior officers, self-appointed guardians of the country's secular tradition, called the shots. But the balance of power in this EU-candidate country appeared to have shifted Monday as police rounded up the 51 military commanders, following the gathering of wiretap evidence and discovery of an alleged secret coup plan, dubbed "the sledgehammer," prepared when the commanders were on active duty between 2003 and 2005.
The nationwide sweep has dramatically deepened a power struggle between the secular establishment and the government, which has strong electoral backing and the European Union's support. Turkey's elite military - known as "pashas," a title of respect harking back to Ottoman times - were once deemed untouchable.
"The most heavy sledgehammer to military custody," read banner headline of daily Taraf, which has published leaked military documents that lead to the detentions.
The English-language newspaper Today's Zaman said Tuesday that the operation was launched after experts determined the leaked documents were authentic. The government denies the ongoing crackdown is politically motivated or designed to silence government critics, as is claimed by opposition parties.
"This is not a legal process. This is apparently a sheer process of political showdown," said Deniz Baykal, head of the main opposition Republican People's Party.
China urges US to ‘undo damage done’ by Dalai meetAFP, Beijing
China on Tuesday demanded the United States "undo the damage done" by a meeting between President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama, while lashing out anew over US arms sales to Taiwan.
The latest angry barrage indicated tensions had not abated between Beijing and Washington-an unwelcome sign for negotiators working on the thorny North Korea and Iran nuclear dossiers, who need the world powers to cooperate.
The meeting last week in the White House Map Room between the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, and the US president-who voiced support for Tibetan rights-had already prompted Beijing to summon the US ambassador. "China demands that the US side seriously regard China's position and take credible measures to undo the damage done," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.
He also urged Washington to "take concrete measures to uphold the sound development of China-US relations", reiterating that they had been "seriously affected" by the Dalai Lama's White House visit and the Taiwan arms sales. "This is something that we don't want to see and the US side should shoulder the full responsibility for this," Qin said. Ties between the two sides have been strained for months over a series of other issues-from trade and currency disputes to the future in China of Google, after it fell victim to cyberattacks it says originated in the country.
The Wall Street Journal reported that talks between the US Internet giant and Chinese officials were set to soon resume, although a Google China spokeswoman told AFP she had no knowledge of any such arrangement.
Iran arrests Sunni rebel accused of links with WestReuters, Tehran
Iran seized a Sunni Muslim rebel leader on Tuesday behind a bombing which killed dozens of people last year, and who Tehran says has links to al Qaeda and support from Pakistan, Britain and the United States.
There were contradictory reports about how Iranian security forces detained Jundollah leader Abdolmalek Rigi, whose group had claimed the October 18 bombing that killed more than 40 Iranians, including 15 from the elite Revolutionary Guards. Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi said Rigi had been in a U.S. military base 24 hours before his arrest, was carrying an Afghan passport supplied by the United States and had earlier visited European countries, state-run Press TV reported.
Rigi's capture comes as major powers push for further United Nations sanctions against Iran over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, which the West suspects could be aimed at making nuclear bombs. Tehran says its nuclear program is peaceful.
The United States, Britain and Pakistan all deny backing Jundollah, which operates in Iran's southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Moslehi said Rigi had been arrested on board a plane flying between Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia and the Gulf Arab emirate of Dubai. Television pictures showed him being taken off a plane in handcuffs, accompanied by four masked men.
"We have clear documents proving that Rigi was in cooperation with American, Israeli and British intelligence services," Press TV quoted the intelligence minister as saying.
Democrats cautiously embrace Obama health planAP, Washington
Congressional Democrats cautiously embraced President Barack Obama's new health care plan as their last hope for enacting a comprehensive overhaul. Republicans trashed it, dimming prospects for any deal at the bipartisan health care summit that Obama has scheduled for Thursday to try to jump-start the debate.
A year after calling on Congress to act to reform the nation's costly and inefficient health care system, Obama finally produced a plan of his own Monday. It used legislation already passed by the Senate as its starting point, making changes designed to appeal to House Democrats.
Even after months in which health care gradually turned from Obama's top domestic priority into a political albatross, Obama opted for one last attempt at full-scale legislation. It costs around $1 trillion over a decade, requires nearly everyone to be insured or pay a fine, and puts new requirements on insurance companies, including - in a new twist responding to recent rate hikes - giving the federal government authority to block big premium increases. In the end Obama may have to settle for much less than what he proposed Monday - or nothing at all. But many Democrats said that despite all the bad-news polls and the loss of their filibuster-proof Senate supermajority in a special-election upset, it would still be better to pass a sweeping bill than make small changes or none at all.
If Obama fails on a comprehensive health care overhaul where Bill Clinton and other presidents failed before him, the chance won't come around again anytime soon.
"This is the last time out," said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. "So this is it. This is it."