A SENIOR Iranian official yesterday blamed the United States and Israel for the killing of an Iranian scientist who, the deputy interior minister said, was not linked to Iran’s nuclear programme as reported by media.

A head-on train crash in eastern Germany killed 10 people and injured at least 33 others, eight of them severely, local firefighters said today, and police feared the death toll could rise.

A STRING of deadly blasts shattered an early round of voting in Iraq yesterday, killing 17 people and highlighting the fragile nature of the country’s security gains ahead of crucial parliamentary elections this Sunday.

A series of explosions targeted voters across Baghdad killing at least 17 people today, heightening tension ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary elections.

Yemeni forces have stormed an al-Qaida hide-out in the country’s east, setting off clashes, a security official said today.

A partial drop in gale-force winds early today offered hard-pressed Greek firefighters a brief respite from the wildfires which have raged for two days north of Athens.

A plane carrying 10 people that disappeared four days ago in Chile’s frigid southern forests was found with nine survivors who stayed alive by huddling for warmth, sharing food and sheltering in the wreckage.

A MAJOR earthquake struck northern Chile last night, toppling power lines, closing roads and sending terrified residents into the streets.

A Pakistan government minister warned armed militants holed up in a radical mosque in Islamabad to surrender or face punishment by security forces.

Security forces clashed with Islamic students outside a radical mosque in the Pakistani capital Islamabad today, triggering gunfire that killed nine people, including four of the militant students, a senior official said.

Iraqi officials have received reports that the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq has been killed north of Baghdad but the information has not been confirmed, the chief government spokesman said today.

The death of Gen Augusto Pinochet sparked champagne-soaked celebrations, skirmishes with police and displays of lasting devotion as Chileans took an anguished look back at the dictator's 17-year rule.

Former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet will be cremated, according to his son Marco Antonio, to avoid desecration of his grave by “people who always hated him".

A US serviceman fatally shot a civilian at the US military air base in Kyrgyzstan today “in response to a threat,” the US military said.

Iraqi officials are doing DNA tests on a killed militant to determine if he is al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the deputy interior minister said today.

US-led forces will launch “decisive operations” to reclaim two southern towns captured in recent days by the Taliban, the US military said today.

A powerful car-bomb blast apparently set off by a suicide attacker killed a high-level police official, two of his bodyguards and four civilians in southern Russia’s Ingushetia region today.

More than two million Muslim pilgrims from almost 180 countries raised their hands to heaven and chanted in unison as they hiked through a desert valley yesterday to a tent city on the outskirts of Mecca in preparation for the annual hajj.

The international police organisation Interpol today said it had issued an international wanted persons notice for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, who is wanted in several countries for terror attacks.

Two suicide car bombers detonated vehicles today in a Baghdad residential district, and a hotel housing foreign journalists was the apparent target, US and Iraqi officials said.

The discovery of 173 mostly Sunni Arab detainees in an Iraqi Interior Ministry basement lockup – malnourished and showing signs of torture – appeared to validate some of the long-standing grievances and has raised questions about the Shiite-led government’s commitment to democracy and human rights.

THREE massive vehicle bombs exploded yesterday near Baghdad’s Palestine Hotel, home to many Western journalists, killing at least 20 people.

Three massive vehicle bombs exploded today near the Palestine Hotel, home to many foreign journalists, killing at least 20 people.

RUSSIAN soldiers and police searched the city of Nalchik yesterday in the hunt for alleged Islamic militants who launched a series of fierce attacks that left at least 108 people dead.

Russian soldiers and police searched the city of Nalchik today in the hunt for alleged Islamic militants who launched a series of fierce attacks that left at least 108 people dead.

Islamic militants attacked police and government buildings in one of the main cities of Russia’s turbulent Caucasus region today, sparking battles in which dozens of people died, officials said.

A railing collapsed today on a bridge packed with Shiite worshippers during a religious procession, sending crowds tumbling into the Tigris River.

Iraq has asked the UN Security Council to condemn the recent spate of bombings and attacks.

Iran’s presidential elections seemed almost certain to require a second round as the favourite contender, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, appeared unlikely today to garner the 50% of votes required to avoid a run-off round.

SOLDIERS used bulldozers yesterday to push into a strip of Thai luxury resorts destroyed by tidal waves and picked the bodies of European tourists from ruined gardens and suites as the death toll climbed to 2,000.

Volunteers dragged scores of bodies from Thai beaches, inland pools and once-luxury hotels today with the prime minister saying the death toll from earthquake-powered tidal waves could pass 2,000.

Ukrainian Transport Minister Heorhiy Kirpa, a supporter of the trailing candidate in Sunday’s presidential election, apparently killed himself, an official said today.

Volunteers dragged scores of corpses from beaches, inland pools and once top-class hotels today with the prime minister of Thailand saying the death toll from earthquake-powered tidal waves could pass 2,000.

Investigators think an explosion that ripped through a gas pipeline in the southern Russian region of Dagestan was caused by sabotage and have opened a criminal case on charges of terrorism, the regional Interior Ministry said today.

Two hundred masked young men and women gathered at a Tehran cemetery today to pledge their willingness to carry out suicide bomb attacks against Americans in Iraq and Israelis.

Heavily-armed militants launched near-simultaneous overnight attacks against police headquarters, border guard stations and other government offices in Ingushetia, a Russian region bordering warring Chechnya, killing 46 people including three high-ranking regional officials.

A group linked to al-Qaida today claimed responsibility for a Baghdad suicide attack that targeted an Iraqi deputy minister, the second fatal bombing it has claimed in a week.

Two foreigners and an Afghan helping the UN prepare for landmark elections were killed in an attack in a remote eastern province, a senior Afghan official said today.

At least 83 people were killed after a series of co-ordinated blasts struck major Shiite Muslim shrines in the Iraqi city of Karbala and in Baghdad today, as thousands of pilgrims converged on the climactic day of their most important religious festival.

A suspected suicide bomb tore through the Moscow metro during today’s morning rush hour, killing 30 people and wounding up to 150.

The massive blast when a petrol tanker exploded in a fireball after colliding with a bus in the centre of Baghdad today, killing 17 Iraqis, was an accident, said US military investigators.

A SUICIDE bomb attack killed at least six people in the heart of Moscow yesterday, just two days after Russian voters handed President Vladimir Putin an even tighter grip on power.

A FIRE ripped through a Moscow dormitory crowded with newly arrived foreign students early yesterday, killing at least 36 people and injuring 127 others many of them forced to jump from the five-storey building because the exits were blocked.

A US general said the one attacker captured in the bombings that killed over 40 people in Baghdad yesterday had a Syrian passport, fuelling suspicions that foreign fighters were behind a rising tide of violence.