U.S. reverses Afghan drug policy

By Phil Stewart and Daniel Flynn
TRIESTE, Italy (Reuters) - Washington is to dramatically overhaul its Afghan anti-drug strategy, phasing out opium poppy eradication, the U.S. envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan told allies on Saturday.
Richard Holbrooke, attending a G8 conference on stabilizing Afghanistan, also discussed efforts to support its August 20 election. Washington has nearly doubled its troops to combat a growing Taliban insurgency and provide security for the vote.
"The Western policies against the opium crop, the poppy crop, have been a failure. They did not result in any damage to the Taliban, but they put farmers out of work," Holbrooke told Reuters after a series of bilateral meetings in Italy.
"We are not going to support crop eradication. We`re going to phase it out," he said. The emphasis would instead be on intercepting drugs and chemicals used to make them, and going after drug lords.
He said some crop eradication may still be allowed, but only in limited areas.
Afghanistan supplies more than 90 percent of the world`s heroin.
Despite the millions of dollars spent on counter-narcotics efforts, drug production kept rising dramatically until last year -- U.N. figures indicate Afghanistan`s opiate output has risen more than 40-fold since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Holbrooke told delegates the United States planned to cut back funding for eradication while allocating several hundred million dollars to support legal crop cultivation.
The head of the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime, told Reuters the old U.S. eradication strategy had been "a sad joke."
"Sad because many, many Afghan policemen and soldiers ... have been killed and only about 5,000 hectares were eradicated, about 3 percent of the volume," Antonio Maria Costa said.
Iran declined to attend the event but Antonio Maria Costa, head of the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime, told Reuters it was strongly committed to a regional effort to tackle trafficking from Afghanistan and had begun joint counter-narcotics operations with Afghan and Pakistani authorities.
"This is very new, it has not happened in the past."
U.S. President Barack Obama has put Afghanistan and Pakistan at the center of his foreign agenda and launched a new strategy aimed at defeating al Qaeda and stabilizing Afghanistan.
The 45 nations and multilateral organizations at the conference issued a statement pledging to look at ways to boost humanitarian aid to Pakistan, where nearly 2 million people have been displaced by fighting.
Holbrooke said allies were not doing enough.  Continued...
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Iran bans Mousavi ally from leaving the country

By Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has banned an ally of the country`s opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi from leaving the Islamic state, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.
EDITORS` NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.
Abolfazl Fateh, head of Mousavi`s media office, said the ban would not change his political stance, adding he was banned from leaving Iran because of his role in post-election developments.
"Such pressures can not push people like me to change our political stances," he told IRNA. "The imposed ban will not change my political views."
Iranian authorities have used a combination of warnings, arrests and the threat of police action over the last week to drive mass rallies off Tehran`s street with smaller gatherings dispersed with tear gas and baton charges.
State media have said 20 people were killed in violence since the June 12 election -- won by hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- and authorities accuse Mousavi of responsibility for the bloodshed. He says the government is to blame.
The state-run Iran newspaper said Fateh, who had been studying for a doctorate in Britain, was banned from leaving the country because of his involvement in post-election developments.
Mousavi has called for an annulment of the vote because of "election rigging."
The semi-official ILNA news agency said Mousavi urged the Interior Ministry to allow a rally by his supporters at Azadi square in southwest Tehran. No date was mentioned in the report.
Iran`s top legislative body has said it found no major violations in the presidential election which it described as the healthiest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but said 10 percent of ballot boxes would be recounted.
"STOP INTERFERING"
Tehran streets were calm on Saturday and life was back to normal.
The establishment has made it clear it had no intention of holding a new election and has set up a special court to deal with hundreds of detained protesters. A hardline Iranian cleric has called for the execution of leading "rioters."
Group of Eight powers on Friday deplored violence stemming from the disputed presidential election in the world`s fifth biggest oil exporter but held open the door for Tehran to take part in talks on its nuclear program.
Iran`s foreign Ministry on Saturday rejected the call by the group as "hasty interference" and insisted the election was fair. "The group is expected to deal with serious issues faced by its members and the international community," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi, IRNA reported.  Continued...
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Pakistan bombs Taliban in Waziristan, 5 shot in Karachi

By Hafiz Wazir
WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani warplanes killed at least a dozen Taliban fighters on Saturday, in a strike on their stronghold near the Afghan border, while police in the southern city of Karachi shot dead five militants.
U.S. officials have issued a steady stream of praise for Pakistan since the government first took the decision to go on the offensive against the militants over two months ago.
Operations in Swat and Buner, two valleys north of the capital of Islamabad, are in their final stages and the focus has switched to the stronghold of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan, a remote tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
The air raid on Saturday on Mehsud`s mountainous redoubt was the latest in a series over recent weeks, and the government has already given orders for the military to mount an all-out assault.
The army is still assembling its forces in South Waziristan, and some diplomats expect some of the troops fighting in Swat to be moved there soon.
Mehsud is accused of a wave of suicide and bomb attacks, and while the body of his force has been focused inwards against Pakistan, his men also cross into Afghanistan to join the insurgency led by Mullah Mohammad Omar.
U.S. President Barack Obama has put Afghanistan and Pakistan at the center of his foreign policy agenda and has launched a strategy aimed at defeating al Qaeda and stabilising Afghanistan, where thousands of extra U.S. soldiers are arriving.
The latest encouragement for Pakistan was delivered by Obama`s National Security Adviser Jim Jones, when he visited Islamabad this week on a trip that coincided with the Senate`s approval for the tripling of aid to Pakistan to about $1.5 billion a year for five years.
RISK OF MILITANT ATTACKS ELSEWHERE
A close ally of al Qaeda, Mehsud carries a $5 million U.S. reward on his head.
He is accused of being behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December 2007, though there are several conspiracy theories over who was behind the former prime minister`s death.
Diplomats estimate that Mehsud has more than 20,000 men holed up with him, protected by a series of mountain ridges and dried out river beds, and gullies that provide excellent cover for the guerrilla fighters.
In Saturday`s air raid, fighter jets pounded a base run by a militant commander loyal to Mehsud in the Makeen area, around 70 km (44 miles) north of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan.
"The planes heavily bombed bases of Commander Shameem in Makeen and we have reports that 12 to 15 militants were killed," an intelligence official in the region told Reuters by telephone.
The great worry is Mehsud`s ability to mobilize Taliban elsewhere in Pakistan in retaliation against any attack.  Continued...
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Lebanon president asks Hariri to form new cabinet

By Nadim Ladki
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon`s parliamentary majority leader Saad al-Hariri was appointed prime minister-designate on Saturday, pledging to seek a national unity government but warning that his task would be difficult.
President Michel Suleiman issued a presidential decree designating Sunni Muslim Hariri after 86 parliamentarians in the 128-seat assembly nominated him for the post.
Hariri said he would seek to form a unity government capable of facing the country`s many political, economic and social challenges.
"In line with our commitment during the election campaign in favor of a national unity government in which the main parliamentary blocs are represented ... we will begin consultations with all parliamentary blocs ...," Hariri said after receiving his designation decree from Suleiman.
"We know that the path to this target won`t be easy and the hurdles and bumps might be more than what is apparent, which is already a lot," he warned.
The young leader said what was at stake was more serious than forming a government or the allocation of portfolios but rather the very fate of Lebanon during one of the most difficult and critical times in the Middle East`s history.
Hariri, who is backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia, led a political coalition to victory against Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its allies in this month`s election. He is the son of statesman Rafik al-Hariri whose assassination in 2005 plunged Lebanon into the worst crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Lebanon`s sectarian power-sharing system reserves the premiership for a Sunni.
In a sign of the difficulties the 39-year-old leader faces in forming a cabinet acceptable to all sides, Hezbollah and its Christian allies refrained from nominating him.
Only 15 out of the minority alliance`s 57 deputies backed him in two days of consultations with Suleiman, adding to support from Hariri`s 71 deputies.
VETO POWER
The main stumbling block facing Hariri is likely to be demands by Hezbollah and its allies that they hold veto power in a new unity government. Hariri rejects such a veto.
Hariri has been keen on securing the backing of his powerful Shi`ite rivals, who are close allies of neighboring Syria, to ensure a smooth launch for his administration.
Immediately after the June 7 election, he called for the contentious issue of disarming Hezbollah to be shelved. The group, labeled a terrorist organization by the United States, has battled Israeli forces since the early 1980s.
It fought a 34-day war against Israel in 2006, in which 1,200 people died in Lebanon and some 160 in Israel.  Continued...
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Northern Ireland`s paramilitaries dump arsenal

By Anne Cadwallader
BELFAST (Reuters) - Pro-British paramilitary forces said on Saturday they had completed a major milestone in the Northern Ireland peace process by scrapping their weapons in front of independent witnesses.
"The leadership of the Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando today confirms it has completed the process of rendering ordnance totally and irreversibly beyond use," said a statement read aloud to reporters in Belfast by a man who said he represented the UVF and the Red Hand Commando.
Military organizations that want to keep Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom have been under pressure for years to start getting rid of arms following the Irish Republican Army`s decision to dispose of its weapons in 2005.
"Across every operational area in Northern Ireland and in all regions of Great Britain in conjunction with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning in the presence of independent international witnesses .... the Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando have now concluded that process," the statement said.
Northern Ireland has enjoyed relative peace since a 1998 deal ended the IRA`s 30-year military campaign to end British control of the province and unite the island of Ireland.
The Ulster Defense Association, which together with its allies the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) had fought against the IRA since the early 1970s, said it had also embarked on a process toward full decommissioning.
"The struggle has ended," the UDA said in a statement. "Peace and democracy have been secured and the need for armed resistance has gone. Consequently we are putting our arsenal of weaponry permanently beyond use."
Efforts to consolidate peace were challenged in March when Republican splinter groups the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA killed two British soldiers and a policeman.
But strong condemnation of the attacks from all sides of the political spectrum and on both sides of the border ended up uniting much of the province`s population in favor of expediting the peace process.
"In recent years loyalist organizations have been making effective progress toward conflict transformation, and today is an important landmark in this process," said Ireland`s Foreign Minister Micheal Martin.
(Writing by Andras Gergely in Dublin; Editing by Dominic Evans)
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Thailand`s "red shirts" rally again in Bangkok

By Kittipong Soonprasert
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thousands of "red shirt" supporters of ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra rallied in Bangkok on Saturday in their biggest protest since violent street clashes two months ago.
The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), better known as the "red shirts," gathered in the capital to demand that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolve parliament and call an election.
Six hundred police were on duty and hundreds more on standby at Sanam Luang, a public square near Bangkok`s Grand Palace.
Police estimated there were 12,000 protesters, who braved pouring rain in anticipation of a telephone address expected at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT) by Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and fled Thailand last year to avoid a two-year jail sentence for graft.
"This is the kick-off of our campaign to call for the dissolution of the house," one of the UDD`s leaders, Jaran Ditthapicha, told the cheering crowd.
The "red shirts" are supporters of Thaksin and the Puea Thai Party that he backs from exile. He is widely believed to be staying in the United Arab Emirates.
The party`s power base is mainly drawn from millions of rural and urban poor who loved Thaksin`s populist policies and gave him two landslide election victories.
The UDD staged a peaceful demonstration at Government House for several weeks in April, but the protests intensified when "red shirts" broke police and military lines and forced the cancellation of an Asian leaders` summit in the town of Pattaya.
A state of emergency was declared a day later and troops were sent to disperse crowds that were blocking a key Bangkok intersection.
The crackdown sparked Thailand`s worst street violence in 15 years and severely dented investor confidence.
The UDD says Abhisit is an illegitimate stooge who came to power because of a series of parliamentary defections that they say were engineered by the powerful military.
Abhisit, who was elected in a parliamentary vote in December with the help of former Thaksin allies, has refused to call an election until the battered economy recovers and a process of constitutional reform is complete.
"I joined the rally because I want democracy in Thailand," said one protester.
"I want Thaksin back because of the way he has been treated. The majority of people can see this injustice."
(Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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Turkey passes law limiting military courts

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey`s parliament has passed legislation aimed at meeting European Union membership criteria to ensure military personnel are tried in civilian courts during peacetime rather than in military courts.
The legislation passed on Friday requires civilian courts to try members of the armed forces who are accused of crimes including threats to national security, constitutional violations, organizing armed groups and attempts to topple the government, according to parliament`s website.
The legislation comes amid renewed tensions between the powerful military and the government after a newspaper published a document this month that allegedly outlined an army plot to undermine the ruling AK Party, which traces its roots to an outlawed Islamist movement.
Chief of the Military General Staff Ilker Basbug on Friday said the document was a smear campaign against the armed forces. A military prosecutor ruled this week there was insufficient evidence for an investigation, but Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has vowed that civilian prosecutors will now take over the probe.
Ending the military`s influence in politics is a key step the EU expects Turkey to take to advance its membership bid.
The change to the penal code also says civilians cannot be tried in military courts unless the country is in a state of martial law or at war.
It was not clear if the changes to the penal code will affect the trial of military officers who have been charged in the so-called Ergenekon case investigating an alleged right-wing network that sought to topple the government.
Erdogan and the military have repeatedly faced off during the government`s six-year rule over the AK Party`s efforts to ease restrictions on religion in Turkey. The country`s generals are the self-proclaimed guardians of Turkish secularism and have forced four governments from power since 1960.
(Reporting by Ayla Jean Yackley)
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Iraq PM says forces can handle security without U.S.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq`s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Saturday that the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraqi cities at the end of June showed Iraq can handle its own security, despite a wave of bombings this week.
The U.S. pullback from Iraq`s urban centers scheduled to be finished at the end of the month has been seen as a milestone on Iraq`s road to sovereignty after years of military occupation.
But a spate of bombings in the capital and in northern Iraq this week, including two of the bloodiest attacks in more than a year, have shaken the confidence of Iraqis in their own forces.
"We are on the threshold of a new phase that will bolster Iraq`s sovereignty," Maliki said. "It is a message to the world that we are now able to safeguard our security and administer our internal affairs."
Two big bombings in Baghdad and the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk this week killed more than 150 people between them. On Friday, a bomb killed at least 13 people at a market in Baghdad. A spattering of other bombs has also fueled apprehension.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned they expect the number of attacks to rise as the U.S. troops pull back, and also in the run-up to parliamentary elections next January.
"We have high trust in our security forces to administer security and pursue al-Qaeda remnants and criminal gangs," Maliki said.
He added that Iraq had achieved comparatively good levels of security, not just through better policing but efforts at political reconciliation between Iraq`s divided factions -- something his critics often accuse him of dragging his feet on.
"If they (militants) want to bring down the political process, we say, it won`t collapse, unless national unity is shaken," Maliki said.
(Reporting by Khalid al-Ansary; Writing by Tim Cocks)
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Karzai tells Taliban to vote in Afghan elections

By Hamid Shalizi
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on the Taliban and their allies on Saturday to vote in August`s elections rather than attempt to disrupt the nation`s second presidential poll.
The August 20 vote is seen as a crucial moment for Karzai`s government and for Washington, which is sending thousands of extra troops this year as part of President Barack Obama`s new regional strategy to defeat al Qaeda and stabilize Afghanistan.
"I appeal to them (the Taliban) again and again to avoid any conflicts, not only during polling days but forever," Karzai told a news conference at his heavily guarded palace.
"Through elections we can bring peace and security, and through elections we can bring development," he said.
The Taliban, whose strict Islamist government was ousted after a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, have repeatedly rejected the election as a Western-inspired sham.
The Taliban have also rejected Karzai`s calls for them to join the peace process, saying no talks can take place until all foreign troops have left the country.
Washington has already almost doubled the number of its troops from the 32,000 in the country in late 2008 in order to secure the elections and to combat a growing Taliban insurgency.
Karzai has ruled since the Taliban`s ouster and won the nation`s first direct vote for president in 2004.
A clear favorite to win again, he welcomed meetings held by foreign officials and diplomats with some of the 40 candidates opposing him, particularly his main rivals, former senior ministers Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani.
But he also called on the international community not to interfere and to play an impartial role. Most of the more than $230 million the Afghan election will cost is being provided by Washington and its allies.
An unflattering report by leading think tank the International Crisis Group this week said poor security and failure to capitalize on gains since the 2004 poll meant widespread fraud was possible in the voting.
The Taliban-led insurgency has reached its most violent level since 2001, U.S. military commanders have said. It has grown out of traditional Taliban strongholds in the south and east into the once relatively peaceful north and to the fringes of Kabul.
(Editing by Paul Tait)
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NATO-Russia talks aim to rebuild post-Georgia ties

By David Brunnstrom CORFU, Greece (Reuters) - NATO foreign ministers meet their Russia counterpart Saturday in their highest level contact since the Georgia war, hoping to launch a new program of cooperation on issues like Afghanistan and counter-terrorism.
Gathering on the Greek island of Corfu, many ministers will stay on for an informal European Union review of ties with Iran over its post-election crackdown on opposition protesters, and a session of Europe`s biggest security and human rights group to tackle Western-Russian tensions stoked by the Georgia conflict.
The meetings come a week before a summit between U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow, and a summit of Group of Eight powers in Rome.
The spate of diplomacy is aimed at mending ties torn by Russia`s crushing of a Georgian bid to retake a rebel region and U.S. plans for a missile shield on Russia`s doorstep, stirring a poisonous atmosphere reminiscent of the old Cold War.
"In the next 10 days we will have a level of interaction with Russia designed, one, to rebuild trust so that, two, we can deal with the challenges we all confront in a coordinated and cooperative manner," a senior U.S. official said.
"We are now willing to express our differences at the table, as opposed to shouting at each other from outside the room."
MILITARY COOPERATION
Dialogue between the 28 NATO states and Russia was suspended after the August, 2008 Georgia conflict, but has gradually resumed at lower level. An attempt to restore ministerial ties in May stumbled over NATO-led military exercises in Georgia, denounced by the Kremlin, and a tit-for-tat spy spat.
A climate for reconciliation slowly took shape since Obama took office, reversing his predecessor`s unilateralism. "All NRC (NATO-Russia Council) countries want to take forward military-to-military cooperation which has been on the backburner since last August, also cooperation with regard to counternarcotics in Afghanistan, joint training," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said.
The U.S. official said NATO also hoped for cooperation with Russia in counterpiracy operations off Somalia and to extend, to a NATO level, bilateral talks on transit of military supplies to Afghanistan through Russian territory.
"I believe they are ready to resume a serious engagement between NATO and Russia and they will be ready if not to agree today at least shortly thereafter, at ambassadorial level, on a program of work on the way ahead for the NRC," he said.
After Saturday`s NATO-Russia Council session, the 56-member Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe will assess ways to overcome Russian-Western differences regarding Georgia and a new "European security architecture" proposed by Medvedev.
Russia repelled Georgia`s attempt to wrest back separatist South Ossetia, and Russian troops remain in the area.
Moscow then blocked an OSCE consensus needed to extend its peace monitoring mission in Georgia past June 30, by demanding recognition of South Ossetian "independence," with a separate OSCE mission deployed there. Diplomats fear the OSCE`s imminent exit might lead to new fighting in Georgia.
(Additional reporting by Dina Kyriakidou and Ingrid Melander in Corfu; Writing by Mark Heinrich and Dominic Evans)
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Ousted Mauritania president resigns to allow vote

By Vincent Fertey
NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Mauritania`s ousted president has formally resigned and put in place a new unity government under a deal with the soldiers who toppled him to allow a presidential election next month.
The election is meant to restore democracy after a coup in the iron ore-producing Sahara desert state last August that was condemned by donors and unnerved West African countries fearful of army takeovers in the unstable region.
President Sidi Mohamed Ould Sheikh Abdallahi announced his resignation late on Friday after a new round of talks with the military rulers brokered by Senegal`s President Abdoulaye Wade.
"I declare that I voluntarily renounce my position as president," said Abdallahi, Mauritania`s first freely elected head of state. He was overthrown after serving for less than two years.
The crisis has further destabilised Mauritania, where al Qaeda gunmen shot dead an American in the center of the capital this week. The largely Muslim country is a Western ally in fighting al Qaeda.
Ministerial positions in the interim government will be shared between Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz`s military junta and the opposition coalition, the National Front for the Defense of Democracy.
Each faction will get 13 ministers while Prime Minister Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf keeps his post.
Abdel Aziz, a former presidential guardsman, is standing in the election, which was postponed from June 6 under the agreement that meant the opposition would not boycott the vote in the country of 3 million. Abdallahi is not standing.
"We are heading toward free and transparent elections on July 18," Abdel Aziz said.
Former colonial power France welcomed the latest step to end Mauritania`s crisis and offered full support for the process.
(Additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon in Paris)
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Iran election violence "outrageous," says Obama

By Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday praised the bravery of Iranians who protested against a disputed election in the face of "outrageous" violence, while a hardline Iranian cleric called for the execution of leading "rioters."
Iran`s top legislative body, which had said it found no major violations in the presidential election which set off the worst unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, said 10 percent of ballot boxes would be recounted.
Authorities have rejected a call for annulment of the vote by reformist former prime minister Mirhossein Mousavi who led mass protests after he was declared a distant second behind
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after the poll two weeks ago.
Obama, whose administration along with major powers is locked in a row with Iran over its nuclear program, said hopes for U.S. dialogue with Iran would be affected by the post-election crackdown.
"There is no doubt that any direct dialogue or diplomacy with Iran is going to be affected by the events of the last several weeks," Obama told a White House news conference, adding: "We don`t yet know how any potential dialogue will have been affected until we see what has happened inside of Iran."
Iranian authorities have used a combination of warnings, arrests and the threat of police action to drive mass rallies
off Tehran`s street since Saturday with smaller gatherings dispersed with tear gas and baton charges.
Authorities have accused Mousavi of responsibility for the bloodshed, while he says the government is to blame. State media have said 20 people were killed in the violence.
ISLAMIC LAW
Ahmad Khatami, a member of the powerful Assembly of Experts, said the judiciary should charge leading "rioters" as "mohareb" or one who wages war against God.
"I want the judiciary to ... punish leading rioters firmly and without showing any mercy to teach everyone a lesson," Khatami told worshippers at Tehran University on Friday.
"They should be punished ruthlessly and savagely," he said. Under Iran`s Islamic law, punishment for people convicted as "mohareb" is execution.
Obama, who said Mousavi had "captured the imagination" of people who want to open up to the West, hailed Mousavi supporters at the news conference.
"Their bravery in the face of brutality is a testament to their enduring pursuit of justice. The violence perpetrated against them is outrageous," Obama said.  Continued...
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Bomb kills 13 in latest Baghdad bombing

By Abdul Rahman Dhaher
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A bomb killed at least 13 people at a Baghdad market selling motorbikes and furniture on Friday, the latest in a series of attacks that have intensified ahead of the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraqi cities.
One police source said as many as 19 people were killed after the bomb, planted on a motorcycle, exploded in the market in the industrial area of Bab al-Sheikh, a mixed but majority Shi`ite Muslim part of central Baghdad.
Forty-five people were wounded, police said.
Shredded shoes and bits of bloody clothing were scattered around the twisted frames of motorbikes. The blast site was swiftly sealed off by Iraqi soldiers and police.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned they expect the number of attacks to rise as U.S. combat troops leave Iraq`s urban centers by June 30, a milestone in a bilateral pact that sets a deadline for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops by 2012.
A spate of bombings in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq has raised doubts about whether the Iraqi security forces can take over the fight against a stubborn insurgency.
Despite Friday`s bombing and two others this week that killed 151 people, U.S. President Barack Obama said Iraq`s security had continued to "dramatically improve," but that he had concerns about the political climate.
"I haven`t seen as much political progress in Iraq -- negotiations between the Sunni, the Shia and the Kurds -- as I would like to see," Obama said in Washington. "So there ... will continue to be incidents of violence inside of Iraq for some time. They are at a much, much lower level than they were in the past."
He said if the government could settle differences on issues like boundaries and oil revenues, Iraq`s security situation would improve further.
IRAQIS QUESTION THEIR FORCES
Iraqi police and army have had to be completely rebuilt since U.S. administrators disbanded the Iraqi forces after the U.S. invasion in 2003, a decision that left thousands of trained fighters unemployed and angry and fueled an insurgency.
Despite assertions from the government the U.S. pullback represents a victory for Iraq as it regains its sovereignty, many Iraqis lack faith in their own forces.
On Wednesday, 78 people were killed in a bomb attack in Baghdad`s Sadr City slum, just days after a truck bomb killed 73 people near the northern city of Kirkuk.
The attacks have prompted angry responses from Iraqis who blame local security forces for failing to protect them.
"I ask, what is the Iraqi government doing about these explosions?" said firebrand anti-American Shi`ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, many of whose supporters live in Sadr City. "The government is powerless to protect its people."  Continued...
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U.S. gives Somalia about 40 tons of weapons

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government has provided about 40 tons of weapons and ammunition to Somalia`s embattled government in the past six weeks to help it fight Islamist insurgents, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States spent less than $10 million on what he described as small arms and ammunition as well as on payments to other nations to train Somali government forces.
While the State Department confirmed on Thursday that it was providing weaponry to the government, it had not previously provided details on the type, cost or amount.
The senior State Department official told reporters the United States began providing the arms soon after Somalia`s al Shabaab insurgents began a major offensive against the fragile transitional federal government (TFG) in early May.
Al Shabaab, which is seen as a proxy for al Qaeda, controls most of south Somalia and all but a few blocks of the capital Mogadishu. The official said Washington feared that it could destabilize the region and turn Somalia into a safe haven for foreign Islamists and "global terrorists."
"We`ve shipped probably in the neighborhood of 40 tonnes worth of arms and munitions into Somalia," the official said. "We remain concerned about the prospects of an al Shabaab victory, and we want to do as much as we can to help the TFG."
The United States funded the purchase of arms for the Somali government and also asked the Ugandan and Burundian troops in the country to give the government weapons and then reimbursed them, the official said.
He said the United States also set aside money to pay the Ugandan and Burundian units to train government forces rather than having U.S. troops conduct the training.
When a moderate Islamist was elected president in January, there was hope he could end nearly two decades of bloodshed in Somalia by reconciling with hardliners who want to impose a strict version of Islamic law across the country.
But al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden declared Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed an enemy in an audiotape released in March, calling on the insurgents to topple the government and for Muslims around the world to join their fight.
The U.S. official said he had heard estimates of between 200 and 400 foreign fighters in Somalia but that his personal view was that the figure probably was less than 200.
(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Will Dunham)
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Lula signs land law aimed at reforming Amazon

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed a law granting more than a million people land titles in huge chunks of the Amazon, aiming to end decades of legal chaos in the world`s largest rain forest.
As a concession to environmentalists, who strongly criticized the law as legalizing land-grabbing and encouraging deforestation, Lula late on Thursday vetoed articles of the bill that would allow companies to take over land.
Over three decades, settlers, farmers and speculators have occupied, stolen and sold state land they did not own, fueling the destruction of about a fifth of the world`s largest rain forest. Land titles are often nonexistent or fake.
The government says granting ownership to residents of these areas will reduce illegal land trade and make it easier to police the rain forest. It says the law will also benefit impoverished peasants who were encouraged to settle the Amazon during the 1964-1985 military dictatorship but were never provided with legal support, public security or financial aid.
The new land owners, who will have to pay taxes and follow environmental regulations, are expected to help environmental regulators crack down on squatting and deforestation, as well as fund better enforcement efforts in remote Amazon areas.
The law will likely hand over ownership for 166 million acres (67.4 million hectares) in the Amazon, an area bigger than France, to individuals who can prove they have been occupying the public land since December 2004.
The distribution of plots will be based on good faith affidavits by claimants that they occupy an area. Authorities will not carry out on-site checks of such claims on plots under 990 acres.
Environmentalists, who often criticize Lula for siding with development rather than conservation in the world`s largest rain forest, say those are among the flaws in the bill that make it ripe for abuse.
"It`s not just regulation that will avoid deforestation but how you regulate," said Paulo Barreto, a senior researcher at the Imazon institute on Amazon conservation.
"If you give land, subsidize and give discounts or long payment periods it makes access very easy and encourages the extensive use of land. It makes it easier to deforest a certain area than to invest to raise productivity."
To receive title for plots between 1,000 and 3,700 acres, occupants will have to pay market price for the land, which will be defined by the National Land Reform Institute. Claimants can pay for the land in installments of up to 20 years and can resell it within three years.
(Reporting by Natuza Nery and Stuart Grudgings; writing by Reese Ewing; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
Original article