BAGHDAD, Iraq,
June 9--Iraq lodged an official complaint on Saturday to Turkey for bombarding its northern Kurdish region, warning that the attack against Kurdish rebels could destabilize the region.
“The foreign ministry delivered a letter to the charge d’affaires of Turkey protesting the bombardment of Iraq around Dohuk and Arbil which caused huge damage, fire and spread panic among the people,“ a foreign ministry statement said.
Jabbar Yawar, spokesman for the Kurdish security forces in northern Iraq, said the Turkish shelling targeted Dohuk province.
“The Turkish artillery bombardment took place at dawn today, targeting villages in Dohuk province,“ he told AFP.
“The shelling lasted for 45 minutes and was aimed at villages in the Zakho and Amadiyah regions of Dohuk,“ he said, naming a series of villages where the shells crashed.
But a Turkish foreign ministry official, under condition of anonymity, said the ministry had no knowledge of any bombardment of northern Iraq, nor had they yet received the letter from the embassy in Iraq.
Turkey’s Milliyet newspaper, however, reported that Turkish artillery had targeted villages near Zakho abandoned by their inhabitants because of activity in the region by Turkish Kurd rebels.
Earlier reports of an imminent Turkish offensive against Iraqi rear-bases of the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) had been denied by Ankara, Washington and even by the PKK.
On Saturday, the Iraqi foreign ministry called for an immediate halt to the military action as it threatened to “destabilize the region and could erode confidence between the two countries.“

SRINAGAR, India, June 9--A group claiming to represent the Al-Qaeda terror network declared a holy war on India over its partial control of the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, Indian officials said Saturday.
A statement and video was sent Friday to the Current News Service, in Srinagar, the main city of India’s Jammu-Kashmir state, in which a masked man standing next to an automatic weapon read the declaration, AP reported.
“We declare righteous holy war against India on behalf of God the great in which Jammu and Kashmir will be the launch pad for holy war in India,“ said the statement signed by Abu Abdul Rehman Al-Ansari, purportedly the chief of Al-Qaida Fil Hind or Al-Qaida in India.
While this is the first time the group has been heard from since it announced its establishment in July, police said they were taking the threat seriously.
Police are trying to establish the veracity of the statement, said the state’s director general of police Gopal Sharma. “But there is no need to panic,“ he said.
There have been allegations that Islamic militants fighting to wrest predominantly Muslim Kashmir from India have ties to Al-Qaeda, but these links have not been proven.
Muslims account for 130 million of the India’s 1.1 billion people and their relations with the country’s Hindu majority have been largely peaceful since the bloody partition of the subcontinent at its independence from Britain in 1947.
But there have been sporadic bouts of religious violence, and India’s part of Kashmir--a Himalayan land divided between India and Pakistan in a 1948 war--has been beset by an Islamic separatist insurgency since 1989.

BEIRUT, Lebanon, June 9--Lebanon’s army on Saturday pounded Al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic militants hiding in a Palestinian refugee camp in renewed heavy clashes following a few days of intermittent fighting.
Black smoke billowed from the Nahr el-Bared camp in northern Lebanon where witnesses reported some of the heaviest army shelling since June 1, when the Lebanese army--using tanks and artillery-- launched an offensive to drive the Fatah Islam militants from their positions inside the settlement, AP said.
Ambulances were seen rushing to the area of the camp, and security officials said 13 soldiers were wounded in the fighting Saturday morning.
The army sent heavy reinforcements, including armored carriers and special combat units, that were spotted heading toward the camp early Saturday morning.
Tensions in Lebanon have been high since fighting broke out May 20 between the army and Fatah Islam militants in Nahr el-Bared. Fears of spreading chaos have also been sparked by clashes at another Palestinian refugee camp, Ein el-Hilweh in the south, and several bombings in the Beirut area.

Italian police patrol in Termini station in advance of a demonstration against the visit by US President George Bush in Rome, June 9.

ROME, June 9--Anti-war protesters gathered in Rome on Saturday as US President George W. Bush was to meet Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and Pope Benedict XVI, a day after the release of an explosive report detailing secret CIA prisons in Europe.
Bush, who arrived here late Friday following the Group of Eight summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, and a brief stop in Poland, began the day with a courtesy visit to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, AFP reported.
Heavy security measures were in force, with some 10,000 police including hundreds in riot gear and scores of armored vehicles deployed in central Rome as helicopters hovered overhead.
Two separate protests, one by the left flank of Prodi’s fractious ruling coalition and the other by more hardline anti-US campaigners, were planned Saturday afternoon.
Prodi has asked government members of the Refoundation Communist, Italian Communist and Green parties not to join the protest, while party leaders and lawmakers plan to attend.
Italian Welfare Minister Paolo Ferrero of the Refoundation Communist party said Friday that he would not join the protest out of a “sense of responsibility,“ while noting: “Bush is a warmonger, I understand those who oppose him.“
Military issues are particularly thorny in Italy, such as Rome’s tenuous commitment to its mission in Afghanistan and widespread domestic opposition to a plan to enlarge a US military base in northeastern Italy.
Prodi was briefly forced to step down three months ago after losing a foreign policy vote in the Senate, principally over the deployment of 2,000 Italian troops in Afghanistan, for lack of support from the far left of his ruling coalition.
The European Commission immediately called on EU countries accused of taking part in the covert CIA program to conduct impartial investigations “as quickly as possible“ to establish responsibility.
Bush’s visit also comes the day after a trial opened in Milan over the kidnapping of a terror suspect in Washington’s heavily criticized “extraordinary rendition“ program.

Alberto Fujimori

SANTIAGO, Chile, June 9--Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was put back under house arrest Friday, a day after a Chilean prosecutor recommended his extradition to face charges of human rights abuses and corruption in his home country.
A judge ordered the detention in a response to a request from Peru, which warned that Fujimori is a flight risk because of “the seriousness of the charges“ against him, according to the press office of Chile’s Supreme Court, AP reported.
The house arrest went into effect when court officers notified Fujimori of the ruling at his country residence in the Santiago suburb of Chicureo, a court press officer told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to be quoted by name.
Fujimori was likely to file an appeal to the house-arrest order on Monday, one of his lawyers, Francisco Velozo, told reporters.
Peru wants to try the 68-year-old Fujimori on charges including bribery, misuse of government funds and sanctioning death squad killings during his decade-long rule that ended in 2000.
Fujimori spent five years in exile in Japan after fleeing Peru as his decade-long government collapsed under a corruption scandal.
But he flew to Chile in November 2005, as part of an apparent bid to launch a political comeback in neighboring Peru.
Upon arriving in Chile, however, he was placed under house arrest and held for six months. He was freed last year on the condition he not leave Chile.

Lee Teng-hui

TOKYO, June 9--Former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui reiterated that the island is independent of China and slammed Beijing about its criticism of his visit to a Tokyo war shrine as he wrapped up a visit to Japan on Saturday.
A Chinese man, apparently angry over his remarks, hurled a plastic bottle at Lee at Tokyo’s international airport as he arrived to board his return flight, AP quoted police as saying.
The bottle missed its mark and the man was arrested on the spot.
China, which claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has threatened war if the self-governing island tries to formalize its de facto independence, has accused Lee of using his Japan visit to push for independence.
Lee has defended his visit as a “private event.“
Beijing also rebuked Japan after Lee visited Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan’s war dead and is a source of friction between Beijing and Tokyo.
Speaking to reporters Saturday, Lee reiterated Taiwan’s independence.
“Taiwan is already an independent country,“ Lee said. “It is natural that the Taiwanese people clearly assert that Taiwan is theirs, and that Taiwan is an independent country based on peace and democracy.“
He also accused Beijing of overreacting to his recent pilgrimage to Yasukuni, and of using the issue to divert attention from problems at home.
Taiwan is a former Japanese colony and Lee’s elder brother, who was killed in 1945 while serving with Japan’s navy during World War II, is listed among the 2.5 million war dead honored at Yasukuni.

MOSCOW, June 9--Vladimir Putin, whose term as Russian president ends next year, does not rule out running again in 2012, a leading Russian daily reported on Saturday.
The future plans of the 54-year-old Putin, by far Russia’s most powerful and popular politician, are the hottest topic of the Russian presidential succession, reported Reuters.
The constitution limits him to two successive four-year terms in power, though further terms are possible after a break.
Putin has said he will not change the constitution to get a third consecutive term and has already made clear he will not retire altogether after the March 2008 election.
But he has not yet given any details about what he will do.
Asked by reporters in the German town of Heiligendamm, where leaders of the Group of Eight industrial nations met on Friday, whether he could run again in 2012, Putin replied: “In theory it’s possible and the constitution doesn’t forbid it.“
“However, there’s still a long way to go and I haven’t even started thinking about that,“ he added, according to the Kommersant daily.
Putin has presided over strong economic growth and a revival of Russian influence abroad, which have made him the country’s most popular politician. His political reforms have also heavily concentrated power in the presidency.
Putin’s allies and many foreign investors have expressed worries that his departure could destabilize Russia, even though there is little doubt the Kremlin leader’s job will go to a still unidentified handpicked successor.
A possible return to power in the 2012 election has been one of the options discussed among Russia watchers.
Last week Putin spoke in favor of giving presidents five- or seven-year terms instead of the existing four years. His remarks were enthusiastically supported by parliament, which is dominated by pro-Kremlin parties.
Sergei Mironov--the head of the upper house, which has a leading role in initiating changes to the constitution--has said such a change could not take effect until the 2012 election.
Many analysts saw the remarks by Mironov, one of Putin’s close allies, as a sign that the president elected in March could be a transitional figure whose main mission would be to allow Putin to reset his political counter and stage a comeback.

BANGKOK, Thailand, June 9--Thailand expelled 163 ethnic Hmong asylum-seekers on Saturday, in the first major repatriation since the United States charged one of their tribal leaders with planning an insurrection in Laos, Thai and Lao officials said.
The officials, as well as Hmong rights activists, said the 163 who were deported had been held for illegal immigration at four police stations near a large Hmong refugee settlement in Thailand’s Phetchabun province, 300 kilometers (185 miles) north of the capital, Bangkok, AP reported.
The asylum-seekers were taken from their cells Friday night and driven to the northeastern Thai city of Nong Khai before being sent back to Laos Saturday morning.
One of the most prominent Hmong exiles, former guerrilla leader Vang Pao, was charged in US federal court Monday with plotting a violent overthrow of Laos’ communist government.
Tharit Charungvat, a spokesman for Thailand’s Foreign Ministry, said the expulsions were not related to the charges against Vang Pao.
The Hmong claim they are persecuted by the Lao government, which distrusts the tribal group because it sided with a pro-American government against the communists during the Vietnam War.
They say they fear for their safety if forced back to Laos.
In March, Amnesty International drew attention to the plight of thousands of Hmong tribes people still in Laos, whom it asserted are being hunted down in the jungles by the country’s communist regime-- an allegation denied by the government.
Thai police in Phetchabun confirmed that the 163 Hmong who had been in their custody had been moved out Friday night.