A victim of a suicide bomb attack lies in a hospital in Miranshah, Pakistan, July 15.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, July 15--Suicide bombers hit a Pakistan army convoy for the second time in two days Sunday, killing at least 16 people in apparent retaliation for an army raid on a militant mosque, officials said.
A suicide bomber killed 24 people and wounded scores more the previous day as outrage has erupted across the mainly Muslim nation over the raid, which has saddled President Pervez Musharraf with the worst crisis since he took power, AFP reported.
The mosque raid led Al-Qaeda’s number two to call for jihad or holy war against the Pakistan government, which has sent thousands of troops into remote tribal areas to try to keep a lid on bubbling popular anger.
In the latest attack, two cars packed with explosives ploughed into a troop convoy in the Swat Valley district of North West Frontier Province, said Pakistan’s chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad.
“At least 12 security officials and four civilians were killed,“ said a local police official at the attack site who asked not to be named.
“The two bombers were also blown to pieces,“ he said. About 40 people, mostly soldiers were also wounded.
Meanwhile, Afghan President Hamid Karzai criticized some madrassas in Pakistan for teaching violent extremism Sunday, as he forgave a teenager who said he was sent across the border to carry out a suicide attack.
“Today we’re facing a very regretful, painful fact,“ Karzai told a media conference, joined by 14-year-old Rafiq-Ullah and his father Mati-Ullah, from Pakistan’s troubled Taliban-dominated South Waziristan tribal region, reported AFP.
“A child of Islam that his father had sent to a madrassa for education was tempted by the enemies of Islam to carry out a suicide attack,“ he said.
“I forgive you,“ Karzai told the boy--who was detained in May in eastern Khost province, where the boy said he was sent to carry out a suicide attack on the governor--giving him 100,000 Afghani ($2,000) to travel back home.
Asked whether he had a message for Pakistan, the Afghan president said Kabul wanted good ties with Islamabad, a key US ally in its ’war on terror.’

LONDON, July 15--A British minister here described the construction of a separation wall by Israel as illegal.
Speaking in the Lower House meeting on assistance for the Palestinian Authority, Shahid Malik, international development minister, added that Israel cannot construct any wall in occupied Palestinian territories, QODSNA reported.
“Construction of separation wall in occupied Palestinian territories is not acceptable,“ he said.
He noted that the British government’s position regarding the Jews is clear. He said construction of any settlements should be within Israel’s pre-1967 borders.
Israel occupied adjoining territories after defeating the Arabs in the six-day war of 1967.
“Territories occupied by Israel after the 1967 war are not legal,“ he said.
Malik welcomed Israel’s move to free $20 million in blocked taxes and asked the Zionist regime to release the other $800 million of aid to the Palestinian Authority. “Israel should release the remaining $800 million of assistance which it has blocked,“ he said.

LA CELLE SAINT CLOUD, France,
July 15--Politicians from Lebanon’s divided factions were holding a second day of talks in France on Sunday to try to ease eight months of deadlock that has paralyzed the nation.
The talks in the state-owned chateau of La Celle Saint Cloud west of Paris brought together representatives of 14 factions including members of the pro-western government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, reported AFP.
The Syrian-backed opposition Hezbollah, which fought a war against Israel last year and has been branded a terrorist organization by the United States, was taking part in the meeting.
France hopes to encourage Lebanese leaders to renew a dialogue that was shattered during the conflict with Israel last year and the resignation in November of opposition ministers.
The meeting will focus on the theme of “strengthening the Lebanese state“, eight months after six pro-Syrian ministers quit the cabinet, triggering the worst crisis since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.

KHARTOUM, Sudan, July 15--Sudanese police arrested the leaders of the Umma Islah wa Tajdid, a minor opposition political grouping that was once a government ally, the party and the official news agency said.
The group, which split from the Sadeq Al-Mahdi’s Umma Party, the largest opposition force in the country, condemned the arrest of party leader Mubarak Al-Fadel and secretary general Abdel Jalil Al-Basha as unconstitutional, AFP said.
Security forces gave no reason for the arrests, it said in a statement.
Citing security sources, SUNA news agency said Fadel and Basha were among 14 people, including retired army officers, taken in for questioning about “a plot aimed at damaging national security and creating trouble in the capital.“
Fadel, the leader of the Umma Islah wa Tajdid (Nation, Reform and Renewal) split with the Umma Party to form his own pro-government party and at one point was a presidential adviser.
In recent years, however, he has distanced himself from the regime.
SUNA said among those arrested was retired general Mohammed Ali Hamed, a former deputy head of the security services.
It said most of those detained came from central Sudan.
The security services had known of a plot since April and decided to act on Saturday “to preserve national security,“ SUNA said, adding that the 14 had been in contact with foreign countries. It did not elaborate.

Barack Obama

Oelwein, USA,
July 15--Bad decisions by President Bush in the Iraq war have made the United States less safe from terrorism, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Saturday on a campaign visit to Oelwein.
Obama made the statements to about 250 people at City Park, Altoonaherald wrote.
He cited recent intelligence reports that Al-Qaeda has regained its pre-9/11 capability.
Obama said the war has been a distraction from the country’s focus on terrorist groups, specifically those along the Afghan-Pakistan border.
“We could have significantly reduced our risks had we pursued better polices over the last several years,“ the Illinois senator said. “As a consequence of bad decisions, we are more at risk and less safe than we should have been at this point, given the amount of resources that we’ve devoted and the number of US lives lost.“
Obama unveiled a mailing that will go out Monday that includes the telephone numbers of Iowa Republican congressional leaders who have voted against efforts to end the war.
The pamphlet urges people to call their congressmen “and tell them to bring the troops home now, even if it means voting to override a presidential veto.“
Earlier this year, Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley criticized Obama after he made a similar suggestion to Iowa voters at campaign stops. Grassley said Obama lacks “political class.“
“It’s not senatorial, and if you can’t be senatorial, how can you be presidential?“ Grassley said in May. “Generally, when you’re in another state, you don’t take pokes at a fellow senator.“
Obama also made stops Saturday in Elkader and Manchester.
After the Oelwein speech, he criticized comments caught by an open microphone earlier in the week between former North Carolina senator John Edwards and New York senator Hillary Clinton.
Clinton and Edwards suggested that lesser-known candidates should not be part of future debates so that voters could focus on front-runners. Edwards later said he meant that all candidates should get to debate but in smaller groups.

Pratibha Patil

NEW DELHI, India, July 15--India is set to elect its first female head of state in a two-way election this week, the run-up to which has been the most vitriolic in recent memory, analysts say.
Pratibha Patil, 72, nominated by the Congress-led government, is seen as a shoo-in thanks to support from the ruling coalition and its supporters in the secret ballot to be held on Thursday by an electoral college made up of state and federal lawmakers, AFP said.
But accusations that Patil shielded members of her family over accusations of murder and abetting suicide have led to charges by the media that her term could be undermined by scandal.
Patil’s candidature for the largely ceremonial post was announced as opinion polls showed most Indians favored a second term for the incumbent president Abdul Kalam, who was the previous Hindu nationalist government’s choice.
But Kalam pulled out of the presidential race after the Congress and the opposition Hindu nationalist-dominated alliance could not agree on fielding him for another term.
Though the Congress defended its selection, saying it was giving a woman the chance to occupy the top post in a country where women face heavy discrimination, the opposition said Patil was named due to her loyalty to India’s Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.
Italian-born Sonia Gandhi is Congress president and there has been a trend since 1996 of nominating presidents friendly to the ruling party.
Patil, a virtual political unknown until her nomination was announced, is pitted against the 84-year-old vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat who is being supported by the Hindu nationalists.
Patil got a major dose of bad press after a court in her home state of Maharashtra said it would hear a case linking her husband D.R. Shekhawat to the suicide of a school teacher seven years ago.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, July 15--Malaysia will build Southeast Asia’s first nuclear monitoring laboratory to allow scientists check the safety of atomic energy programs in the region, a report said Sunday.
The 26-million-dollar facility would be built in central Pahang state and be operational in three years’ time, the Sunday Star newspaper reported.
Science, technology and innovation minister Jamaludin Jarjis said the laboratory would be the first in Southeast Asia, AFP reported.
Malaysia has 66 scientists in nuclear-related subjects and many of them are involved in work with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), he said.
Jamaludin said the government agreed to implement the project following recommendations by the UN nuclear watchdog since none of the developing countries in the region had such a facility.
Jamaludin said among the functions of the laboratory were to ensure that the region was free of nuclear weapons and to provide services for countries that needed to check whether their nuclear-powered facilities were safe.
The move follows plans by neighboring Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand to develop atomic energy programs and hence there was a need to have a monitoring laboratory, he said.
Jamaludin said IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei would visit Malaysia on July 17.