Child rescued in jet crash off Indian Ocean island

By AHMED AL-HAJ, Associated Press Writer

CAIRO – A Comoros police official says a child has been rescued from the sea in the Airbus 310 crash off the Indian Ocean island.

Immigrations officer with the Comoros operations, Rachida Abdullah, says a toddler was rescued from the crash site Tuesday.

Abdullah told The Associated Press that three bodies have also been retrieved, along with debris from the plane, but that no other survivors have been recovered so far.

She said the rescue and search operation is going on since 4 a.m. Tuesday.

The Yemeni Airbus 310 crashed with 142 passengers and a crew of 11 Yemenis on board before landing in Moroni, on the main island of Grand Comore, early on Tuesday.

Most of the passengers were from Comoros, returning from Paris. Sixty-six on board were French nationals.

Iran declares election fight over, vote valid

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN, Associated Press Writer

A body of 12 clerics declared Iran's disputed presidential vote valid and free of major fraud, paving the way for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be sworn in next month despite claims of vote manipulation that sparked weeks of massive protest.

The Guardian Council, an electoral authority the opposition accuses of favoring Ahmadinejad, said Monday that it had found only "slight irregularities" after randomly selecting and recounting 10 percent of nearly 40 million ballots.

"From today on, the file on the presidential election has been closed," Guardian Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei said on state-run Press TV.

Opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi has said Ahmadinejad stole re-election through fraud and demanded a new election. Western analysts have described Ahmadinejad's roughly 2-1 margin of victory as suspicious and improbable.

Conservative Ayatollah Ahmed Jannati, who heads the Guardian Council, said that "meticulous and comprehensive examination" revealed only "slight irregularities that are common to any election and needless of attention," according to the state TV channel IRIB.

The decision ruling out the possibility of a new vote was expected after the country's supreme leader endorsed the vote on June 19. The government had delayed a formal declaration as Mousavi supporters flooded in the streets in protests that were put down through a show of force by riot police and pro-government militiamen.

Mousavi has made few public appearances since then and said he would seek official approval for rallies.

The cleric-led government has said Ahmadinejad will be sworn in for a second term as early as July 26.

Asked if the United States would recognize Ahmadinejad as Iran's legitimate president, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said "We're going to take this a day at a time."

Monday's recount appeared to be an attempt to cultivate the image that Iran was seriously addressing fraud claims, while giving no ground in the clampdown on opposition.

Ahmadinejad would still have beat Mousavi if errors were found in nearly every one of the votes in the recount, according to the government.

"They have a huge credibility gap with their own people as to the election process. And I don't think that's going to disappear by any finding of a limited review of a relatively small number of ballots," Clinton told reporters in Washington.

Ahmadinejad also said he had ordered an investigation of the killing of a young woman on the fringes of a protest. Widely circulated video footage of Neda Agha Soltan bleeding to death on a Tehran street sparked outrage worldwide over authorities' harsh response to demonstrations.

Iran's leaders have been trying to blame the election unrest on foreign conspirators, a longtime staple of government rhetoric about internal dissent.

Ahmadinejad's Web site said Soltan was slain by "unknown agents and in a suspicious" way, convincing him that "enemies of the nation" were responsible.

An Iranian doctor who said he tried to save her told the BBC last week she apparently was shot by a member of the volunteer Basij militia. Protesters spotted an armed member of the militia on a motorcycle, and stopped and disarmed him, Dr. Arash Hejazi said.

Basij commander Hossein Taeb on Monday alleged that armed impostors were posing as militia members, Iran's state-run English-language satellite channel Press TV reported.

Tensions with the West rose Sunday when Iran announced it had detained nine local employees of the British Embassy on suspicion of fomenting or aiding protests. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hasan Qashqavi said Monday that five of the Iranian embassy staffers had been released and the remaining four were being interrogated.

Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseini Ejehi claimed he had videotape showing some of the employees mingling with protesters. He said the fate of those who remain in custody rests with the court system. Ejehi boasted that Iran had overcome attempts at an uprising like the Velvet Revolution, the peaceful 1989 mass demonstrations that brought down Czechoslovakia's Communist regime.

Qashqavi said officials were in written and verbal contact with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and that Iran had dismissed the idea of downgrading relations with Britain and other countries.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Group of Eight leaders meeting next week in Italy will discuss possible sanctions against Iran.

Riot police clashed Sunday with up to 3,000 protesters near the Ghoba Mosque in north Tehran, the first major post-election unrest in four days.

Witnesses told The Associated Press that police used tear gas and clubs to break up the crowd, and said some demonstrators suffered broken bones. They alleged that security forces beat an elderly woman, prompting a screaming match with young demonstrators who then fought back. North Tehran is a base of support for Mousavi.

The reports could not be independently verified because of tight restrictions imposed on journalists in Iran.

7 militants killed by Pakistan citizens' militia

By PAUL ALEXANDER, Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD – A citizens' militia trying to drive out the Taliban killed seven militants in a two-hour firefight in Pakistan's troubled northwest, police said Sunday.

Ejaz Ahmed, police chief in the Upper Dir region, said another militant was injured in the fighting late Saturday night near the village of Patrak, about four miles (seven kilometers) east of Dir Khas, the region's main town and district headquarters.

Several civilian militias, known as lashkars, have emerged in Upper Dir since a suicide bombing on a mosque two weeks ago that was blamed on the Taliban killed at least 33 people. The militias carry out patrols and have been pursuing remnants of Taliban who had tried to expand their influence into the area.

Ahmed said scores of militants have been trapped and killed by the militias in several villages, with police cutting off escape routes. The Taliban who were killed Saturday had been trying to flee when they came across the militiamen and opened fire, he said.

"Due to heavy losses, militants have been attempting to escape the area under cover of dark, and last night's incident was one such attempt," Ahmed said. He said no civilians were killed in the fighting.

The report could not immediately be confirmed due to military restrictions on media access to the area.

In the most striking example of growing anti-Taliban sentiment, up to 1,600 tribesmen in Upper Dir cleared three villages of Taliban fighters two weeks ago, killing at least six militants.

There were no immediate reports on fresh fighting in the nearby South Waziristan tribal area, where shelling and bombing of suspected militant targets has been increased and ground troops have been moving into position in the past week since the government announced the military would go after Pakistan's Taliban commander, Baitullah Mehsud.

A military statement Saturday said 37 extremists died when troops retaliated after the militants tried to block the main South Waziristan road near the town of Sarwaki. They were the first militant casualties of the offensive in South Waziristan to be confirmed by the army.

South Waziristan is Mehsud's tribal stronghold, a chunk of the remote and rugged mountainous region along Pakistan's northwestern border with Afghanistan where heavily armed tribesmen hold sway and al-Qaida and Taliban leaders are believed to be hiding.

Pakistan is shifting the focus in its fight against militancy from the northwestern Swat Valley, where troops have been pushing Taliban fighters back for almost two months, to a new and much tougher battleground in the Afghan border region.

Washington supports both operations, and sees them as a measure of nuclear-armed Pakistan's resolve to take on a growing insurgency after years of failed military campaigns and faltering peace deals. The battle in the tribal region could also help the war in Afghanistan because the area has been used by militants to launch cross-border attacks on U.S. and other troops.

NKorea criticizes US nuclear protection of South

By HYUNG-JIN KIM, Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea has accused the United States of plotting atomic war against the communist regime, saying President Barack Obama's recent reaffirmation of nuclear protection of South Korea only exposed his government's intention to attack.

The accusation comes as Washington and regional powers consider a new South Korean proposal to meet soon to find a way to resolve the global standoff over the North's nuclear programs.

In North Korea's first response to last week's meeting between Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Washington, its government-run weekly Tongil Sinbo said that Obama's commitment to South Korea's security, including through U.S. nuclear protection, only revealed a U.S. plot to invade the North with nuclear weapons.

"It's not a coincidence at all for the U.S. to have brought numerous nuclear weapons into South Korea and other adjacent sites, staging various massive war drills opposing North Korea every day and watching for a chance for an invasion," said the commentary published Saturday.

The weekly also said the North will also "surely judge" the Lee government for participating in a U.S.-led international campaign to "stifle" the North.

Tension on the Korean peninsula has spiked since the North defiantly conducted its second nuclear test on May 25. North Korea later declared it would bolster its atomic bomb-making program and threatened war in protest of U.N. sanctions for its test.

North Korea says its nuclear program is a deterrent against the U.S., which it routinely accuses of plotting to topple its communist regime. Washington, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, has repeatedly said it has no such intention and has no nuclear weapons deployed there.

In what would be the first test case for the new U.N. sanctions, U.S. officials said Thursday the U.S. military had begun tracking a North Korean-flagged ship which may be carrying illegal weapons. The officials said the ship left a North Korean port Wednesday.

On Sunday, South Korean television network YTN quoted an unidentified South Korean intelligence source as saying the ship is believed to be sailing toward Myanmar. Seoul's Defense Ministry, Unification Ministry and the National Intelligence Service said they could not confirm the report.

On Saturday, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said Seoul has proposed five-way talks with the U.S., China, Russia and Japan to find a solution to the North's threats.

The U.S. and Japan have agreed to participate, while China and Russia have yet to respond, the official told The Associated Press, requesting anonymity because he was discussing a plan still in the works.

North Korea and the five countries began negotiating under the so-called "six-party talks" in 2003 with the aim of giving the communist regime economic aid and other concessions in exchange for dismantling its nuclear program. In April, however, the North said it was pulling out of the talks in response to international criticism of its controversial April 5 long-range rocket launch.

The South Korean official said it remains to be seen where or when the meeting — if it materializes — will take place, but one possibility is on the sidelines of a regional security forum scheduled in Phuket, Thailand, in July.

He said the North could be approached for talks, as they are scheduled to attend the Phuket meeting. The communist nation has little interaction with the world, but it does attend the annual ASEAN Regional Forum.

The Foreign Ministry official said Lee proposed the idea of bringing together officials of the five countries during his summit with Obama.

Iran raises death toll in clashes to at least 20

By NASSER KARIMI and WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writers

TEHRAN, Iran – Iranian state media reported on Sunday 13 more deaths in confrontations between protesters and security forces and the government condemned key European powers for expressing concern about the disputed presidential election.

The report brought Iran's official death toll for a week of unrest to at least 20. English-language Press TV, which is broadcast only outside the country, said 13 people it called "terrorists" died Saturday in clashes between demonstrators contesting the result of the June 12 election and black-clad police wielding truncheons, tear gas and water cannons.

State television inside Iran also reported 100 injured in Saturday's violence. But it quoted the deputy police chief claiming officers did not use live ammunition to dispel the crowds. Sunday's reports also said rioters set two gas stations on fire and attacked a military post.

Amnesty International cautioned that it was "perilously hard" to verify the casualty tolls.

"The climate of fear has cast a shadow over the whole situation," Amnesty's chief Iran researcher, Drewery Dyke, told The Associated Press.

On Sunday, the streets of Tehran were eerily quiet.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki held a news conference where he rebuked Britain, France and Germany for raising questions about reports of voting irregularities in hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election — a proclaimed victory which has touched off Iran's most serious internal conflict since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Thousands of supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims he won the election, squared off against security forces in a dramatic show of defiance of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Underscoring how the protesters have become emboldened despite the regime's repeated and ominous warnings, witnesses said some shouted "Death to Khamenei!" at Saturday's demonstrations — another sign of once unthinkable challenges to the virtually limitless authority of the country's most powerful figure.

Iran has also acknowledged the deaths of seven protesters in clashes on Monday. On Saturday, state media also reported a suicide bombing at the shrine of the Islamic Revolution leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini killed at least two people and wounded eight. Another state channel broadcast images of broken glass, but no other damage or casualties, and showed a witness saying three people had been wounded. But there was no independent verification of the shrine attack or the deaths.

State TV quoted an unidentified witness as saying a man wearing an explosives belt blew himself up at the mausoleum's main gate.

Iran has imposed strict controls on foreign media covering the unrest, saying correspondents cannot go out into the streets to report.

Mottaki criticized Britain, France and Germany for raising questions about Ahmadinejad's victory. Mottaki accused France of taking "treacherous and unjust approaches" and said Britain "has always created problems" in relations.

The New-York based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said Sunday that scores of injured protesters who had sought medical treatment after Saturday's clashes were arrested by security forces at hospitals in the capital.

It said doctors had been ordered to report protest-related injuries to the authorities, and that some seriously injured protesters had sought refuge at foreign embassies in a bid to evade arrest.

"The arrest of citizens seeking care for wounds suffered at the hands of security forces when they attempted to exercise rights guaranteed under their own constitution and international law is deplorable," said Hadi Ghaemi, spokesman for the campaign, denouncing the alleged arrests as "a sign of profound disrespect by the state for the well-being of its own people."

"The government of Iran should be ashamed of itself. Right now, in front of the whole world, it is showing its violent actions," he said.

Rockets hit US base at Bagram, kill 2 US troops

By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – A rare rocket attack on the main U.S. base in Afghanistan early Sunday killed two U.S. troops and wounded six other Americans, including two civilians, officials said.

Bagram Air Base, which lies 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Kabul, is surrounded by high mountains and long stretches of desert from which militants could fire rockets. But such attacks, particularly lethal ones, are relatively rare.

Two U.S. troops died and six Americans were wounded, including four military personnel and two civilians, said Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, a U.S. military spokeswoman.

The top government official in Bagram, Kabir Ahmad, said several rockets were fired at the base early Sunday. A spokesman with NATO's International Security Assistance Force said that three rounds landed inside Bagram and one landed outside. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't the office's top spokesman.

The wounded personnel were taken to the main hospital on Bagram for treatment. ISAF said it wasn't known if any Afghan civilians living near the base were harmed in the attack.

It wasn't immediately clear if New York Times reporter David S. Rohde was at Bagram on Sunday when the rockets hit.

Rohde escaped from kidnappers in Pakistan on Friday after more than seven months in captivity and was flown to Bagram on Saturday. Embassy officials then gave him an emergency passport and FBI officials were watching him, a U.S. official said Sunday on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the rocket attack. Mujahid also said the Taliban had no involvement in the kidnapping of Rohde and didn't know anything about his escape.

In February 2007, a suicide bomb attack outside Bagram killed 23 people while then-Vice President Dick Cheney was at the base. The attacker never tried to penetrate even the first of several U.S.-manned security checkpoints, instead detonating his explosives among a group of Afghan workers outside the base. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

Bagram is a sprawling Soviet-era base that houses thousands of troops, mostly from the 82nd Airborne Division. Most forces there are American, but many other countries also have troops at the base.

Activity at Bagram is high 24 hours a day, with jets and helicopters taking off at all hours. The base has expanded greatly the last several years and sits next to many houses and the village of Bagram itself.

The two deaths bring to at least 80 the number of U.S. forces killed in Afghanistan this year, a record pace. Last year 151 troops died in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama ordered 21,000 additional troops to the country this year to fight an increasingly violent Taliban insurgency. There are now about 56,000 U.S. troops in the country, a record number.

Pakistan can isolate extremists: Obama

ISLAMABAD (AFP) – US President Barack Obama said in an interview Sunday he was confident Pakistan can "isolate extremists" and that the United States had no plans to send troops to the insurgency-hit country.

"I have confidence in the Pakistani people and the Pakistani state in resolving differences through a democratic process and to isolate extremists," Obama said in an interview broadcast Sunday by private Dawn News television.

Worsening Taliban-linked attacks have killed nearly 2,000 people in Pakistan since July 2007.

Pakistani security forces launched an offensive to dislodge Taliban guerrillas from three northwest districts around Swat valley in late April, after militants flouted a peace deal and thrust towards the capital Islamabad.

The US administration, which has put nuclear-armed Pakistan at the heart of its strategy to battle Al-Qaeda, has welcomed the Swat offensive.

Obama said that the United States would support the Pakistani government and military in its anti-militant efforts.

"There's been a decision that's made that we support, that the Pakistani military and the Pakistani government will not stand by idly as extremists attempt to disrupt the country."

However, Obama said that the United States had no plans to send its troops to Pakistan.

"I will tell you that we have no intention of sending US troops into Pakistan. Pakistan and its military are dealing with their security issues," he said when asked about US missile strikes into Pakistani tribal areas.

Missile attacks by unmanned drone aircraft used by US armed forces and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are a source of tension between Washington and Islamabad.

Pakistan publicly opposes the strikes, saying they violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment among the populace. Since August 2008, more than 40 such strikes have killed nearly 400 people.

Referring to Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who led the freedom movement that resulted in the creation of an independent state of Pakistan in August 1947 from British-ruled India, Obama said Pakistan could overcome its own problems.

"Dating back to Jinnah, Pakistan has always had a history of overcoming difficulties. There's no reason why it can't overcome those difficulties today," he said.

16 people killed in eastern China factory blast

BEIJING – An explosion at a factory in eastern China killed 16 people and injured dozens Sunday, authorities said.

The blast happened at 3 a.m. Sunday (1900 GMT Saturday) in an office building at a factory producing quartz sand in Fengyang, a county in Anhui province, a statement on the State Administration of Work Safety's Web site said.

The statement said 43 were injured, one seriously.

The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear. The Fengyang county government said it was still collecting information.

Xinhua News Agency said most of those killed were factory workers, while the injured were all nearby residents.

The administration's statement said the factory is owned by Jingxin Mining Ltd. Co., a private company. Calls to the company rang unanswered Sunday.

New York Times reporter escapes Taliban captivity

By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – A New York Times reporter known for making investigative trips deep inside dangerous conflict zones escaped from militant captors after more than seven months in captivity in Afghanistan and Pakistan by climbing over a wall, the newspaper said Saturday.

David S. Rohde, 41, was abducted Nov. 10 along with an Afghan reporter colleague and a driver south of the Afghan capital, Kabul. He had been traveling through Logar province to interview a Taliban commander, but was apparently intercepted and taken by other militants on the way.

The Times reported that Rohde and Afghan reporter Tahir Ludin, 35, on Friday climbed over the wall of a compound where they were held captive in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan.

The two then found a Pakistani army scout, who led them to a nearby base, the Times said. On Saturday, the two were flown to the U.S. military base in Bagram, Afghanistan, the Times reported.

A U.S. military spokeswoman, Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, said the military had not been involved. She could not say whether the U.S. State Department or CIA had flown the two to the military facility.

Rohde, reported to be in good health, said his driver remained with their captors.

In Washington, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the U.S. is "very pleased" that Rohde is safe and returning home. He said the escape "marks the end of a long and difficult ordeal."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton thanked the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan for their assistance in ensuring Rohde's safe return. She said she was "greatly relieved" that he was safe and would be reuniting soon with his family.

Afghan officials confirmed the kidnapping in the days after the abduction, but The Associated Press and most other Western news outlets respected a request from the Times to not report on the abductions because the publicity could negatively affect hostage rescue efforts and imperil Rohde's life.

"From the early days of this ordeal, the prevailing view among David's family, experts in kidnapping cases, officials of several governments and others we consulted was that going public could increase the danger to David and the other hostages. The kidnappers initially said as much," Bill Keller, the Times' executive editor, said in a story posted on the Times' Web site.

"We decided to respect that advice, as we have in other kidnapping cases, and a number of other news organizations that learned of David's plight have done the same. We are enormously grateful for their support."

"We are very relieved that our New York Times colleague escaped safely, and this episode has ended happily," said AP Senior Managing Editor John Daniszewski. "It was an unusual and difficult news judgment to withhold reporting on his abduction, but our practice is to avoid transmitting stories if we believe they endanger someone's life."

The Times said there had been "sporadic communication" from Rohde and his kidnappers during the last seven months but that no ransom money had been paid and no prisoners released.

Kristen Mulvihill, Rohde's wife, told the Times that the two had been married for nine months, "and seven of those David has been in captivity." She thanked the Times, the U.S. government and "all the others" who helped the family during the kidnapping.

The FBI said in a statement that it had been investigating Rohde's kidnapping, working closely with the Times and Rohde's family. It said Rohde contacted family members Friday to tell them he had escaped. The FBI said it was working with the U.S. State and Defense departments to see that he receives medical attention and is reunited with his family.

Rohde was on leave from the Times when he was taken. He had traveled to Afghanistan to work on a book about the history of American involvement in Afghanistan when he went to Logar to interview a Taliban commander. Before setting out, he notified the Times' bureau in Kabul on whom to notify if he did not return, the Times said.

Logar province, where Rohde was seized, has seen an influx of militants over the last two years. Residents last year said the government had little control outside the provincial capital and that Taliban and other militants frequently set up checkpoints on highways.

In January, the U.S. military deployed more than 3,000 troops to Logar and neighboring Wardak to combat the insurgent safe havens near Kabul's doorstep.

It was not clear who took Rohde captive, and the Times did not reveal his abductors. Logar province has militants loyal to Taliban leader Mullah Omar but also to renegade warlord Siraj Haqqani, whom the U.S. has accused of masterminding beheadings and suicide bombings.

Violence has risen steadily across Afghanistan over the last three years, and Rohde was taken during a period when attacks against Westerners spiked. A Canadian journalist, Mellissa Fung, was kidnapped in Kabul and a Dutch reporter was taken just outside Kabul around the time Rohde was abducted. Both were released within a month.

The militants who kidnapped Rohde transferred him about 100 miles (165 kilometers) southeast to Pakistan's North Waziristan region. The Pakistan government said in a statement earlier this year that Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, had asked for its help in obtaining Rohde's release.

Holbrooke, Clinton and former President George W. Bush's secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, were actively involved in seeking Rohde's release.

Rohde's father, Harvey Rohde, told the Times that he regretted that his son had made the trip but that he understood his motivation "to get both sides of the story, to have his book honestly portray not just the one side but the other side as well."

Rohde was part of the Times reporting team that won a Pulitzer Prize in May for coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan last year.

He also won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting while working for The Christian Science Monitor for reporting on the massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica.

During that time, Rohde was taken prisoner by Serbian officials and held for 10 days, during which he was deprived of sleep and interrogated relentlessly, according to a Web page on Rohde created by journalism students at Columbia University. Serb officials accused him of being a NATO spy, the page says.

The Columbia site says Rohde knew the reporting trip would be dangerous and that his editors would likely not allow him to make it. So he sent his editors an e-mail that he knew they would receive too late to stop the trip, the site says.

When he was released, he was greeted by many cameras at the airport, which he did not like, his older brother, Lee Rohde, told the Times.

"The last thing he ever wants is to be the story. He's supposed to be the storyteller," Lee Rohde said.

Rohde is the author of "Endgame: The Betrayal and Fall of Srebrenica."

Limited recount possible in Iran's disputed vote

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI and NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writers

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's powerful Guardian Council is ready to recount specific ballot boxes in last week's disputed presidential elections, a council spokesman said Tuesday, another twist in an election that has touched off widespread protests.

State television quoted Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei as saying that the recount would be limited to voting sites where candidates claim irregularities took place. It was not clear which or how many voting sites would be affected.

The results from last Friday's election showing a landslide victory for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparked Tehran's worst violence in 10 years — including seven reportedly killed Monday during clashes.

Supporters of reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi claim the vote was rigged to re-elect the hardline president.

The 12-member Guardian Council includes clerics and experts in Islamic law. It's role includes certifying election results, and it is closely allied to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

It serves as a constitutional watchdog and vets candidates running in elections. It must certify ballot results and also has the apparent authority to nullify an election.

Iran state radio reported Tuesday that clashes in the Iranian capital the previous day left seven people dead during an "unauthorized gathering" at a mass rally over alleged election fraud — the first official confirmation of deaths linked to the wave of protests and street battles after disputed elections in last week.

The report said the deaths occurred after protesters "tried to attack a military location." It gave no further details, but it was a clear reference to crowds who came under gunfire Monday after trying to storm a compound for volunteer militia linked to Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard.

The shootings came at the end of huge rally by opponents of Ahmadinejad claiming widespread fraud in Friday's voting. The protest movement has shown no signs of easing — with another reported rally planned for later Tuesday — and has even forced Iran's non-elected ruling clerics into the unfamiliar role of middlemen between the government and its opponents.

Russian veto ends UN mission to Georgia

By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS – Russia has brought to an end the nearly 16-year-old U.N. observer mission that monitored a cease-fire between Georgia and its breakaway Abkhazia region.

Russia exercised its veto power in the U.N. Security Council — toppling a Western plan to extend the life of the U.N. mission for another year, or even two more weeks, to work out a compromise. The vote late Monday was 10-1 with four abstentions — China, Vietnam, Libya and Uganda.

The mission's mandate expired at 0400 GMT Tuesday, (midnight Monday in New York), requiring about 130 military observers and more than a dozen police to leave. Both the name — the U.N. Observer Mission in Georgia — and references to Georgia's territorial sovereignty were sticking points.

"It is understandable," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday, "that in the new political and legal conditions most of the names and terms previously used in the old documents are inapplicable."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who had recommended keeping the mission, said it would cease operations Tuesday despite his "regrets" at the lack of agreement that prompted its abrupt demise.

"This mission was helping defuse tension and deter further conflict," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Tuesday. "Its withdrawal will affect the day-to-day lives of people living in conflict areas."

Georgian Ambassador Alexander Lomaia said his nation would now "cooperate very closely with our friends," including the European Union and its monitoring mission to Georgia and human rights organizations also operating there.

"It is of deep regret for the government of Georgia that the United Nations mission in Georgia has terminated its activity due to the rejection of a single country, due to the single hand raised," he said, adding that the U.N.'s withdrawal is sure to be viewed negatively by local inhabitants.

The vote coincided with clashes Monday between Georgian police and opposition activists pressing for the ouster of President Mikhail Saakashvili in the capital of Tbilisi. Officials said dozens of protesters were arrested and an Associated Press photographer saw masked officers armed with truncheons beating demonstrators, several TV journalists and camera crews.

Following the Georgian-Russian war in the breakaway region of South Ossetia last August, Russia recognized the independence of both Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Georgia insists that both regions are still part of its territory, but Moscow insists they are not.

The mission's abrupt termination follows months of talks between Russia, the United States, Britain, France and Germany.

Also at stake is Georgia's pivotal location for energy supplies, serving as a route for oil and natural gas pipelines that can supply Western nations without going through Russia or Iran.

As promised, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin used his nation's right as one of the council's five permanent members to veto the draft resolution.

"We need to get rid of this apparition," Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the council after casting the veto. "Our partners, however, prefer poison to medicine."

He had offered to extend the mission's mandate for one month on condition that the Security Council agree to delete all the "offensive references" in the resolution to names and sovereignty — an offer that was rejected by the Western powers.

The Security Council could seek to restore a U.N. mission some time in the future, but if it met Russia's demands it would effectively recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and determine that Georgia no longer had sovereignty over the two areas, which the U.S. and its European allies refuse to do.

The mission was operating on a four-month extension granted by the Council in February to allow for more negotiations. The plan for extending it was put forward by the U.S., Britain and France — all of them permanent members — and non-permanent members Croatia, Turkey, Austria and Germany.

It was modeled on Ban's recommendations last month for a continuing but unnamed U.N. "stabilization mission" to ensure no armed forces or military equipment operated in security zones extending 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) on each side of the cease-fire line.

The Black Sea province of Abkhazia has been independently run since 1993, when two years of fighting with Georgian troops ended with a U.N.-monitored cease-fire. Two-thirds of Abkhazia residents hold Russian passports, and along with South Ossetia it had sought independence or union with Russia.

Reports: India, Pakistan leaders meet

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer

YEKATERINBURG, Russia – The leaders of India and Pakistan met Tuesday in Russia, their first interaction since the terrorist attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai last November, Russian officials said.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of summits in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg, according to Russian officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to announce the information on the record.

India accuses a Pakistan-based militant group of sending the teams of gunmen that rampaged through Mumbai in a three-day siege that left 166 people dead.

Pakistani officials have acknowledged the November attacks were partly plotted on their soil.

India and Pakistan have observer status in the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which wrapped up a two-day summit Tuesday. Singh was also taking part in a summit of the BRIC group linking Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Indonesia coal mine explosion traps 30: official

JAKARTA (Reuters) – An explosion at a coal mine in Indonesia's Sumatra island has killed one person and rescuers were trying to reach at least 30 miners feared trapped underground, an official said Tuesday.

An industry source said the coal mine was locally owned and produced only about 1,500 tonnes of coal a month. The source, who asked not to be identified, said the coal was supplied to local paper and power companies.

An initial report said there had been a landslide near a mine operated by state coal miner PT Bukit Asam, but officials later denied this.

"The mine is not owned by PT Bukit Asam but it is located nearby our mine in Sawahlunto," said Bukit Asam production director Milawarma. The official, who uses one name like many Indonesians, said output at its operations was not affected.

Rustam Pakaya, the head of the health ministry's disaster center, said that one person had died and nine were admitted to hospital after the explosion. He also said by telephone text message that 30 people were missing and feared trapped.

Indonesia has rich mineral resources with many coal and other mines, but often tends to use open-pit mining rather than underground mining.

Indonesia, the world's largest thermal coal exporter, is expected to produce around 230 million tonnes of coal this year, according to a government estimate.

Russia challenges dollar, China offers loans

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer

YEKATERINBURG, Russia – China and Russia sought greater international clout at a summit Tuesday, with China promising a $10 billion loan to Central Asian countries, while Russia challenged the dominance of the U.S. dollar as a global reserve currency.

Russia also gave a prominent platform to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad amid massive protests in Iran over his bitterly disputed re-election and questions in the West about the vote.

Chinese leader Hu Jintao said China will extend a $10 billion loan to a regional group that also includes Russia and four Central Asian states.

The move adds muscle to China's role in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a six-nation group Russia and China use to counter the Western influence in resource-rich, strategically placed Central Asia. The other members of the organization Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The leaders of Afghanistan, Iran, India and Pakistan were also at the table, underscoring Russia and China's reach for regional clout and global influence.

Hu said the loan is intended to shore up the struggling economies of its members amid the global financial crisis.

Meanwhile, President Dmitry Medvedev pushed his call for new global reserve currencies to complement the dollar at the summit.

"No currency system can be successful if we have financial instruments denominated in just one currency," Medvedev said. "We must strengthen the international financial system not only by making the dollar strong, but also by creating other reserve currencies."

After wrapping up the two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organization meetings, Medvedev was to host later Tuesday the first full-fledged summit of emerging economies Brazil, Russia, India and China, collectively called BRIC.

Medvedev's economic adviser Arkady Dvorkovich said Russia may put part of its currency reserves in bonds issued by Brazil, China and India. He told a briefing that Russia could make the move if the other three BRIC members reciprocate as part of efforts to diversify financial instruments.

Dvorkovich also proposed revising the way the International Monetary Fund's obligations are valued. He said the ruble, the yuan and gold should be part of a revised basket of currencies to form the valuation of the IMF's special drawing rights, or SDRs.

Dvorkovich denied any rift on the global currency issue with Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, who this week helped the dollar rebound in global markets by saying over the weekend that the dollar's status as the world's main reserve currency wasn't likely to change soon.

Dvorkovich said that the emergence of new reserve currencies would be a gradual process reflecting shifts in the global economy. "It can't happen fast, new reserve currencies emerge as economies of the countries issuing them gain strength," he said.

"Least of all now we need shocks at the currency markets," he said. "Any additional shocks are bad during the crisis. No one wants to bring the dollar down."

He added, however, that the creation of new reserve currencies should help distribute global wealth more fairly and also encourage economic leaders to pursue a more balanced economic policy.

The talk about the new global currency has been prompted by concerns in China and Russia that soaring U.S. budget deficits could spur inflation and weaken the dollar, debasing the value of their holdings.

"If we have more reserve currencies, we will be able to insist and even demand a more responsible approach by countries which issued the global currencies," Dvorkovich said. "Those who issue reserve currencies today don't always take the interests of the global economy into account."

Officials from Russia, China and Brazil have said in recent weeks that they would invest in bonds issued by the International Monetary Fund to diversify their dollar-heavy currency reserves.

China is Washington's biggest foreign creditor, holding an estimated $1 trillion in U.S. government debt.

The Treasury Department on Monday said that foreigners, including China and Japan, the two biggest buyers of U.S. government debt, cut their Treasury holdings in April.

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that the BRIC summit was "not an attempt to compete with anyone."

While BRIC members share a desire to play a bigger role in creating a new global financial order and counterbalancing the West and Japan, their often contradictory interests would make forging a common policy a difficult task.

China and India have sizable labor resources, while Russia and Brazil are rich in natural resources. China is a major consumer of natural resources, unlike Russia and Brazil, which are top producers. While China wants lower oil prices, Russia and Brazil would seek higher oil prices.

Chinese leader Hu Jintao says China will extend a $10 billion loan to a regional group that also includes Russia and four Central Asian states.

The move adds muscle to China's role in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which it dominates along with Russia.

Hu spoke at a summit of the grouping in Russia. He said the loan is intended to shore up the struggling economies of its members amid the global financial crisis.

The Shanghai group includes impoverished Tajikistan. Kyrgyzstan, which borders China, also is poor and has few lucrative resources.

Jews' jewelry from Holocaust donated to memorial

By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM – As a slave laborer in Auschwitz, Meyer Hack was forced to sort through the tattered clothing stripped off inmates before they were sent to the gas chambers. He gathered valuable belongings hidden inside the clothes, stuffed them in a sock, hid them and later spirited them to freedom.

On Monday, the 95-year-old survivor now living in Boston donated eight pieces of gold, silver and diamond-studded jewelry to Israel's Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, as a tribute to the original owners, who perished.

Dressed in a white suit with a pink tie and collar, Hack recalled his journey with the jewelry, from Auschwitz to other death camps and ultimately to freedom in America, recalling the harrowing sights he witnessed along the way.

"I was not human. I was a piece of meat, a robot," he said, his accented voice cracking as he rubbed tears from his eyes. "But I said 'I want to survive' ... my heart told me 'I will survive.' I kept telling myself: 'Don't die, don't die, don't give up.'"

Hack was born in Ciechanow, Poland, in 1914. In 1942, he was deported to Auschwitz with his mother, brother and two sisters. The women were murdered upon arrival. His brother survived the selection but wore down quickly. Assigned to pull laundry carts, his strength was sapped. Hack saw a Nazi guard strike his brother repeatedly on the head with a wooden plank, killing him.

The Nazis and their collaborators murdered 6 million Jews during World War II. Few from Hack's hometown, near Warsaw, survived.

Hack lied to his Auschwitz captors and told them he was a tailor, which earned him a transfer to the "clothing chamber." There he discovered the exquisite items — rings, wristwatches, bracelets and pendents — amid piles of clothes, and was never able to determine who their owners were. He safeguarded the jewelry, hiding the items in a hole he dug in the ground.

In 1945, he took the jewelry with him on death marches to the Dachau camp and later to Munich, from where he escaped to the forests until liberation.

Many pieces were lost or stolen along the way. Three others who also collected jewelry were captured, and Hack witnessed their hangings.

"Anne Frank wrote a diary that is famous all over the world. My diary is right here," Hack said, pointing to his heart. "What I went through for six years — my eyes photographed everything."

Dean Solomon, Hack's friend of 30 years, said only in recent years did Hack confide in others about his story and his rare mementos. He said he still does not know why Hack collected the items and secured them at great personal risk.

"I don't think I can tell you, I don't think he can tell you. All I can know is what they came to mean afterward," Solomon said. "They came to mean his identity, his survival, his resistance, his ability to have something of his own person survive."

Hack went on to work in a clothing store in Boston, where he lived with his wife, whom he met in the camps, and their two sons. He placed the wartime jewels in a metal box in his attic and left them there for more than six decades.

"I tried to build a new life, so I put them in a box and I said, 'I'm not going to touch it until the right time comes,'" he said.

So why now?

"I'm 95," he said with a smile. "It's time."

Lee and Obama to discuss North Korean threats

By FOSTER KLUG, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – As North Korea threatens nuclear war, President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will be eager to show the North the unity of their alliance and a determination not to back down.

North Korea's pledge to expand its nuclear programs gives their meeting Tuesday at the White House a sense of urgency. The presidents probably will express their refusal to accept the North as a nuclear weapons state and condemn recent missile and nuclear tests.

Before leaving Seoul, Lee said he supported Obama's appeal for a world without nuclear weapons. However, he told The Wall Street Journal, "we are faced with North Korea trying to become a nuclear power, and this really is a question we must deal with now."

The United States, during Lee's visit, is likely to pledge its continued commitment to use its military muscle to protect the South should the North attack. Such comments are welcome in Seoul and Tokyo, no matter how many times U.S. officials repeat them.

Lee's talks with Obama come on the second day of a three-day visit also scheduled to include meetings with U.S. trade envoy Ron Kirk, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton welcomed Lee to Washington on Monday, the same day tens of thousands rallied in Pyongyang to condemn sanctions imposed by the United Nations after the country's latest nuclear test.

Lee's office released a statement saying Clinton had called for close cooperation between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan in implementing the U.N. sanctions to "get North Korea to realize that its bad behavior will bring due consequences."

Lee told Clinton that "as long as the United States and its allies maintain a firm stance, North Korea's belief that it will be rewarded for its bad behavior if it waits long enough will dissipate," the statement said.

North Korea is reportedly readying a possible test of a missile that could reach Alaska. The North also may be preparing for a third nuclear test in defiance of the U.N. sanctions.

The U.S. government officially confirmed Monday that North Korea carried out an underground atomic test in late May. The Americans said the blast was somewhat larger than the country's first test, conducted in 2006.

Victor Cha, a senior Asia adviser in President George W. Bush's administration, said another nuclear test could motivate U.N. member states to actually enforce the sanctions specified in the U.N. resolution against the North.

Lee has infuriated North Korea since he took office in early 2008. He ended a decade of liberal rule in which South Korea sought to embrace the North and refrained from criticism, a so-called "sunshine" policy that provided aid without demanding concessions. Pyongyang regularly calls Lee a traitor.

While the nuclear standoff will top discussions, another tense issue looms for Lee and Obama: an ambitious South Korean-U.S. free trade agreement to slash tariffs on goods and services.

The deal was painstakingly negotiated but currently is in limbo, stalled over U.S. lawmakers' worries it could hurt an already suffering American auto industry.

The agreement signed in 2007 has been promoted as a potential $10 billion boon to the U.S. economy. Failure, supporters say, would threaten U.S. standing in an important region.

Obama, however, has said the deal does not adequately deal with an imbalance that has heavily favored South Korean automakers. His administration is now reviewing the deal.

Italy agrees to take 3 detainees from Guantanamo

By MARIA SANMINIATELLI, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, seeking to restore some shine to his tattered international image, agreed to take three detainees from Guantanamo Bay and praised President Barack Obama after a long meeting at the White House.

The two leaders talked Monday for more than two hours on topics ranging from Guantanamo to the agenda for the July summit of the Group of Eight leading industrial nations in L'Aquila, Italy, the Apennine mountain town that was devastated by an earthquake this spring.

Speaking at the end of the Oval Office meeting, Obama praised Berlusconi and said he was "extremely grateful for his friendship." In turn, the 72-year-old Berlusconi lauded the young U.S. president "for his deep knowledge and precision and accuracy with which he discusses all of the issues."

The meeting was an opportunity for Berlusconi to rehabilitate his reputation after a scandal over his link to an 18-year-old model — which he maintains was not improper — earned him worldwide condemnation. Striking up a public friendship with the popular U.S. president and strengthening Italy's ties to America were among his goals.

And Italy's agreement to take in three Guantanamo prisoners was good news for Obama, who has been pressing foreign allies to take some of the detainees. His efforts to have some of the prisoners released in the U.S. or sent to American prisons have been stymied by stiff opposition from members of Congress.

In the past week, the administration has made some progress — securing a key agreement with the European Union and transferring 10 detainees out of Guantanamo. One prisoner was sent to New York to stand trial, while others were transferred to Chad, Iraq, Bermuda and Saudi Arabia. The latest announcement by Italy means that there will now be 226 detainees remaining at the prison at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.

The EU agreement announced Monday said European nations are ready to help the Obama administration "turn the page" on Guantanamo, and take detainees on a case-by-case basis. The announcement did not provide details on the names of the countries or the number of prisoners they might take.

Obama also was looking for common ground on recovering from the economic crisis, which will figure prominently at the G-8 summit in L'Aquila in July.

"The idea is to work out a set of rules and regulations which can prevent situations and conditions like the ones we've experienced which have led ... first to the financial crisis and then to the economic crisis that we are experiencing right now," Berlusconi told reporters after the Oval Office meeting.

The two leaders also discussed the Middle East, Afghanistan — where Italy has about 2,800 troops — and Iran.

The Italian premier later met with the Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress. He also visited Washington's National Gallery of Art for a quick look at the Beffi Triptych, a 15th-century altarpiece from the National Museum of Abruzzo in L'Aquila, before departing for Italy late Monday.

The Italian government loaned the altarpiece to the Washington museum to thank the U.S. for being among the first to offer assistance to the region after the earthquake, the museum said.

Obama: Iranian voters' voices should be heard

By ANNE GEARAN, AP National Security Writer

WASHINGTON – With images of bloodied protesters in Tehran's streets recalling the Islamic revolution 30 years ago, President Barack Obama said the world is inspired by the outpouring of Iranian political dissent.

An inquiry into the disputed presidential election should go ahead without violence, Obama said Monday. He added that he does not know who rightfully won the Iranian election, but that Iranians have a right to feel their ballots mattered.

His response marked the most extensive U.S. response to Friday's voting, and appeared calculated to acknowledge the outpouring of dissent in Iran without claiming any credit.

"It would be wrong for me to be silent on what we've seen on the television the last few days," Obama told reporters at the White House.

He added, however, that "sometimes, the United States can be a handy political football."

The new American president is personally hugely popular in Iran, and all candidates in this year's surprisingly lively presidential election backed off on criticism of the United States. But the larger idea of the United States — and its world influence, backed by massive military power — remains highly divisive. Any candidate or popular movement seen to have the express backing of the United States would probably be doomed.

"What I would say to those people who put so much hope and energy and optimism into the political process, I would say to them that the world is watching and inspired by their participation, regardless of what the ultimate outcome of the election was," Obama said. "And they should know that the world is watching."

Iran's state radio said seven people died in shooting that erupted after people at an "unauthorized gathering" Monday night in western Tehran "tried to attack a military location."

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians streamed through the capital streets, and the fist-waving protesters denounced President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's claim to a landslide re-election. Standing on rooftops, pro-government gunmen opened fire on a group of protesters who had tried to storm the militia's compound.

Obama campaigned on a promise to extend a hand to the United States' main rival for influence in the Middle East, and the prospect of a different relationship with the United States was a constant, if largely unspoken, theme in the hardline Ahmadinejad's contest with a pro-reform challenger.

Obama was asked whether the violence had changed his outlook on the value of outreach to the clerical regime. While denouncing violence against demonstrators, Obama said he remains committed to what he called "tough, hardheaded diplomacy" with a nation that could soon possess nuclear weapons.

The United States has a broader interest in stopping Iran from developing those weapons or exporting terrorism, Obama said.

"We will continue to pursue a tough, direct dialogue between our two countries, and we'll see where it takes us," he said.

The United States urged Iran on Monday to agree to a meeting with the six key nations trying to ensure that its nuclear program is peaceful.

U.S. deputy ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo told the U.N. Security Council that Iran has not responded to the request from the five permanent council members — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — and Germany for new talks, which would be the first international discussion on Iran's nuclear program since Obama took office in January.

"The United States remains committed to direct diplomacy with Iran to resolve issues of concern to the international community and will engage on the basis of mutual respect," DiCarlo said. "The United States will be a full participant in these discussions and we continue to urge Iran to accept this invitation."

DiCarlo's comments came hours after Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, urged Iran to "respond to the U.S. initiative with an equal gesture of goodwill and trust-building."

In remarks alongside Italy's president on Monday, Obama called some of Ahmadinejad's past statements "odious," and did not mention the challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, by name. Ahmadinejad has said Israel should be "wiped from the map" and questioned the extent of Jewish extermination in the Holocaust.

Ahmadinejad's challenger claims he was robbed of the presidency and has called for the results to be canceled.

Obama did not go that far.

He said peaceful dissent should never be subject to violence, but that he had no way of knowing whether the results were valid. Obama noted that the United States had no election monitors in the country.

He appealed to young Iranians, largely seen as determinative of Iran's political future over the coming five to 10 years. A quarter of the population of some 70 million is 15 years old or younger.

"I want them to know that we in the United States do not want to make any decisions for the Iranians, but we do believe that the Iranian people and their voices should be heard and respected," Obama said.

Pakistan commander warns against collateral damage

By ROHAN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan's military chief denounced terrorists as enemies of the country and Islam, but warned his officers to avoid killing civilians as they widen their operations against the Taliban.

The government is seeking to capitalize on public support for its 6-week-old offensive in the Swat Valley region and open a new front in a nearby lawless tribal zone where al-Qaida and the Taliban are entrenched.

The military action is being welcomed by the United States as a strong stand against militants after years of failed offensives and striking deals rather than confronting Taliban hard-liners directly.

But the weak government is also keenly aware that public support could sour if civilian casualties escalate or the task of resettling more than 2 million refugees displaced by fighting is badly handled.

A top official in the northwest said Sunday that the government had given the order to send the military after Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. The announcement was interpreted as effectively giving the go-ahead for a fresh military offensive in Waziristan, the semiautonomous tribal region on the border with Afghanistan that is rumored to be a hiding place of Osama bin Laden and where Mehsud makes his base.

The military reportedly closed key roads leading into the area Monday, but there was no immediate sign of fighting.

In a carefully stage-managed event Monday, selected television outlets taped armed forces chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani dressed in a tight-fitting flight suit clambering into the copilot's seat of an F-16 fighter-bomber before taking off for a flight over the Swat Valley.

In an address to officers before the trip, Kayani denounced Mehsud and the Taliban leader in Swat, Maulana Fazlullah, saying they had nothing to do with Islam.

"Terrorists are the enemies of Pakistan and enemies of Islam. We have to eliminate them," Kayani was quoted as saying by Geo TV, one of three networks invited to cover the event. No questions were allowed.

He also stressed the importance of avoiding civilian casualties.

"In the present circumstances ... it is difficult to differentiate between friend and enemy," Kayani told the officers. "The problem is that you have to separate black from white ... to avoid collateral damage."

Focus has increasingly shifted from Swat to Waziristan in recent days, though the military says it is still fighting pockets of resistance in the northwestern valley.

In one skirmish Monday, the military said troops battled militants fleeing on mules from Fazlullah's rear base of Piochar. On Tuesday, a rocket attack by suspected Taliban killed two police officers and wounded three others at a checkpoint in the village of Kharki, on the edge of the Mardan district in the Mlakand region, which includes Swat, said Habib Khan, an area police chief.

The military has struck suspected militant strongholds in South Waziristan and neighboring Bannu with shells and bombs in recent days but insists the operations are a response to increased militant attacks on troops and not the start of a major offensive.

The U.S. has frequently targeted South Waziristan with missile strikes. The latest killed five suspected militants Sunday, two Pakistani intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Owais Ghani, governor of North West Frontier Province, said late Sunday that the government felt it had no choice but to use force against Mehsud and his network, calling him "the root cause of all evils."

Mehsud is blamed for a spate of suicide attacks across Pakistan since late May that have killed more than 100 people, and which the Taliban says are retaliation for the Swat offensive.

Those attacks, which have included at least two mosque bombings and the slaying of a leading moderate cleric, have reinforced the anti-Taliban mood.

In the southern city of Karachi on Monday, hundreds of protesters furiously beat and kicked effigies of Mehsud and a hardline cleric who negotiated a failed peace deal that handed control of Swat to the militants prior to the military operation.

"They are the murderers of the Muslims," the mob chanted, setting the effigies alight.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said police in Islamabad had foiled "a number" of plots to kidnap diplomats and carry out bombings in the Pakistani capital in the past six months. He did not elaborate.

Seven killed at Tehran rally, more protests planned

By Dominic Evans and Fredrik Dahl

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Seven people were killed near a rally held by supporters of defeated presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi, state television said on Tuesday, as they prepared for more protests against a poll they say was rigged.

Backers of hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said they planned a demonstration on Tuesday at the same location as Mousavi supporters, raising the possibility of further clashes between the rival camps.

Ahmadinejad, who according to official results won a resounding re-election, was endorsed as "the new president" by the Russian government on Tuesday during his first foreign trip since Friday's poll.

U.S. President Barack Obama said he was deeply troubled by the post-election violence in Iran and demonstrators who had taken to the streets in three days of protests had inspired the world.

Iran's English-language Press TV said seven people were killed and several wounded at the end of Monday's rally -- a mainly peaceful gathering attended by many tens of thousands -- when "thugs" tried to attack a military post in central Tehran.

It gave no details of how the seven deaths occurred.

An Iranian photographer at the scene had said Islamic militiamen opened fire when people in the crowd attacked a post of the Basij religious militia.

The Iranian capital has already seen three days of the biggest and most violent anti-government protests since the 1979 Islamic revolution, and Mousavi supporters have pledged to continue their demonstrations.

Further protests, especially if they are maintained on the same scale, would be a direct challenge to authorities who have kept a tight grip on dissent since the overthrow of the U.S.-backed shah after months of demonstrations 30 years ago.

"Tomorrow at 5 p.m. (1230 GMT) at Vali-ye Asr Square," some of the crowd chanted at Monday's march, referring to a major road junction in the sprawling city of 12 million.

Ahmadinejad supporters plan a rally at the same square just an hour earlier, the semi-official Fars News said. It quoted an organization affiliated to the government as saying the gathering would be "in protest against the recent agitation and destruction of public property."

Press TV said Mousavi had called for calm at what it called his supporters' "illegally" planned rally.

LEADING REFORMIST ARRESTED

Leading Iranian reformist Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a former vice-president who backed pro-reform candidate Mehdi Karoubi in the election, was arrested early on Tuesday, his office said.

Reformist sources said another prominent reformer and Mousavi ally, Saeed Hajjarian, was arrested on Monday.

Obama said on Monday he was concerned by the violence.

"The democratic process, free speech, the ability of people to peacefully dissent -- all those are universal values and need to be respected," he told reporters.

The United States and its European allies have been trying to engage Iran and persuade the world's fifth-biggest oil exporter to halt nuclear work that could be used to make an atomic bomb. Iran says it wants nuclear energy only to generate electricity.

Obama said he would continue pursuing tough, direct dialogue with Tehran but urged that any Iranian investigation of election irregularities be conducted without bloodshed. The world was inspired by the Iranian protesters, he said.

Demonstrators filled a broad avenue in central Tehran for several kilometers on Monday, chanting "We fight, we die, we will not accept this vote rigging," in support of Mousavi.

Mousavi was "ready to pay any price" in his fight against election irregularities, his website quoted him as saying, indicating a determination to keep up the pressure for the election result to be annulled.

"Tanks and guns have no use any longer," chanted the protesters in a deliberate echo of slogans used leading up to the 1979 revolution.

Members of Iran's security forces have at times fired into the air during the unrest and used batons to beat protesters who have pelted police with stones.

The Basij militia is a volunteer paramilitary force fiercely loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has the final say on all matters of state.

Gunfire was heard in three districts of wealthy northern Tehran late on Monday and residents said there had been peaceful pro-Mousavi demonstrations in the cities of Rasht, Orumiyeh, Zahedan, and Tabriz on Monday.

Speed of Iran vote count called suspicious

By JASON KEYSER, Associated Press Writer

CAIRO – How do you count almost 40 million handwritten paper ballots in a matter of hours and declare a winner? That's a key question in Iran's disputed presidential election. International polling experts and Iran analysts said the speed of the vote count, coupled with a lack of detailed election data normally released by officials, was fueling suspicion around President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's landslide victory.

Iran's supreme leader endorsed the hard-line president's re-election the morning after Friday's vote, calling it a "divine assessment" and appearing to close the door on challenges from Iran's reformist camp. But on Monday, after two days of rioting in the streets, he ordered an investigation into the allegations of fraud.

Mir Hossein Mousavi, Ahmadinejad's reformist challenger, claims he was robbed of the presidency and has called for the results to be canceled.

Mousavi's newspaper, Kalemeh Sabz, or the Green Word, reported on its Web site that more than 10 million votes were missing national identification numbers similar to U.S. Social Security numbers, which make the votes "untraceable." It did not say how it knew that information.

Mousavi said some polling stations closed early with voters still in line, and he charged that representatives of his campaign were expelled from polling centers even though each candidate was allowed one observer at each location. He has not provided evidence to support the accusations.

His supporters have reported intimidation by security forces who maintained a strong presence around polling stations.

Observers who questioned the vote said that at each stage of the counting, results released by the Interior Ministry showed Ahmadinejad ahead of Mousavi by about a 2-1 margin.

That could be unusual, polling experts noted, because results reported first from Iran's cities would likely reflect a different ratio from those reported later from the countryside, where the populist Ahmadinejad has more support among the poor.

Mousavi said the results also may have been affected by a shortage of ballot papers in the provinces of Fars and East Azerbaijan, where he had been expected to do well because he is among the country's Azeri minority. He said the shortage was despite the fact that officials had 17 million extra ballots ready.

Interior Ministry results show that Ahmadinejad won in East Azerbaijan.

The final tally was 62.6 percent of the vote for Ahmadinejad and 33.75 for Mousavi — a landslide victory in a race that was perceived to be much closer. Such a huge margin also went against the expectation that a high turnout — a record 85 percent of Iran's 46.2 million eligible voters — would boost Mousavi, whose campaign energized young people to vote. About a third of the eligible voters were under 30.

Ahmadinejad, who has significant support among the poor and in the countryside, said Sunday that the vote was "real and free" and insisted the results were fair and legitimate.

"Personally, I think that it is entirely possible that Ahmadinejad received more than 50 percent of the vote," said Konstantin Kosten, an expert on Iran with the Berlin-based German Council of Foreign Relations who spent a year from 2005-06 in Iran.

Still, he said, "there must be an examination of the allegations of irregularities, as the German government has called for."

But Iran's electoral system lacks the transparency needed to ensure a fair election, observers said. International monitors are barred from observing Iranian elections and there are no clear mechanisms to accredit domestic observers, said Michael Meyer-Resende, coordinator of the Berlin-based Democracy Reporting International, which tracked developments in the Iranian vote from outside the country.

He noted that the election was organized and overseen by two institutions that are not independent, the government's Interior Ministry and the Guardian Council, a 12-member body made up of clerics and experts in Islamic law who are closely allied to the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Meyer-Resende said that to be sure of the results announced by the Interior Ministry, it must release data all the way down to the level of each polling station.

One of the central questions was how 39.2 million paper ballots could be counted by hand and final results announced by authorities in Tehran in just over 12 hours. Past elections took at least twice as long.

A new computerized system might have helped speed the process in urban centers, where most Iranians live, though it is unclear if that system was extended to every small town and village. And each ballot — on which a candidate's name was written in — would still have to be counted by hand before any data could be entered into a computer, aggregated and transmitted to the Interior Ministry in Tehran.

"I wouldn't say it's completely impossible," Meyer-Resende said. "In the case of Iran, of course, you wonder with logistical challenges whether they could do it so fast."

Susan Hyde, an assistant political science professor at Yale University who has taken part in election monitoring missions in developing countries for the Carter Center, agreed that would be uncharacteristically fast.

"If they're still using hand counting, that would be very speedy, unusually speedy," she said.

The Interior Ministry released results from a first batch of 5 million votes just an hour and a half after polling stations closed.

Over the next four hours, it released vote totals almost hourly in huge chunks of about 5 million votes — plowing through more than half of all ballots cast.

Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, a professor of Middle East politics at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, said a major rigging process would require the involvement of powerful advisory bodies, including those in which one of the other candidates and a key Mousavi backer are prominent figures.

"Given that Mohsen Rezaei, one of the other presidential candidates, is the head of the powerful Expediency Council, for instance, it is highly unlikely that he wouldn't have received any information of such a strategic plan to hijack the election," Adib-Moghaddam said.

State radio: 7 killed in Tehran clashes

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI and NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writers

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's state radio reported Tuesday that clashes in the Iranian capital the previous night left seven people dead after an "unauthorized gathering" following a mass rally over alleged election fraud.

The seven were killed in shooting that erupted after protesters in western Tehran "tried to attack a military location," the radio said, providing no details.

It was the first official confirmation of Monday's fatalities in Tehran's Azadi Square, where witnesses had seen at least one person shot dead and several others seriously wounded by gunfire from a compound for volunteer militia linked to Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard.

The deaths also were the first known in Tehran since rioting and protests broke out after last week's disputed elections — raising the prospect of possibility of further defiance and anger from crowds claiming the vote was rigged in favor of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Another protest march is planned later Tuesday.

The shootings occurred after hundreds of thousands of people supporting opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi defied an official ban on the march and gathered to protest fraud in last week's election.

At Azidi Square, standing on a roof, gunmen opened fire on a group of protesters who had tried to storm the militia's compound on the edge of the square. Angry men showed their bloody palms after cradling the dead and wounded who had been part of a crowd that stretched more than five miles (nearly 10 kilometers).

The march also marked Mousavi's first public appearance since shortly after the election and said he was willing to "pay any price" in his demands to overturn the election results.

Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, arrived in Russia on Tuesday to attend a regional security summit, after having postponed the trip for one day.

A Web site run by Iran's former reformist vice president, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, said he had been arrested by security officers, but provided no further details. Abtahi's Web site, popular among the youth, has reported extensively on the alleged vote fraud after Friday's election.

In Washington, President Barack Obama said Monday he was "deeply troubled by the violence I've been seeing on TV."

Although he said he had no way of knowing whether the election was valid, Obama praised protesters and Iranian youth who questioned the results. "The world is watching and is inspired by their participation, regardless of what the ultimate outcome of the election was," he said.

The huge rally Monday — and smaller protests around the country — display the resolve of Mousavi's backers and have pushed Iran's Islamic establishment into attempts to cool the tensions after days of unrest.

The death toll reported Tuesday was the first in Tehran since the postelection turmoil gripped Iran and could be a further rallying point in a culture that venerates martyrs and often marks their death with memorials. One of Mousavi's Web sites said a student protester was killed early Monday in clashes with plainclothes hard-liners in Shiraz in southern Iran but there was no independent confirmation of the report.

Britain and Germany joined the calls of alarm over the rising confrontations in Iran. In Paris, the Foreign Ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador to discuss the allegations of vote-tampering and the violence.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's most powerful figure, has ordering an examination into the fraud allegations, although he had initially welcomed Ahmadinejad's victory.

The 12-member Guardian Council, made up of clerics and experts in Islamic law, was asked to study the claims. The council, which is closely allied to Khamenei, must certify ballot results, but nullifying an election would be an unprecedented step.

Claims of voting irregularities went to the council after Ahmadinejad's upset victory in 2005, but there was no official word on the outcome of the inquiry, and the vote stood.

UN imposes tough new sanctions on North Korea

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer



UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council imposed punishing new sanctions on North Korea Friday, toughening an arms embargo and authorizing ship searches on the high seas in an attempt to thwart the reclusive nation's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The unanimous support for the resolution reflected international disapproval for recent actions by North Korea, which defied the council by conducting a second nuclear test on May 25 and heightened global tensions with recent missile launches that raised the specter of a renegade nuclear state.

North Korea has repeatedly warned that it would view new sanctions as a declaration of war, but it boycotted Friday's vote — in sharp contrast to the October 2006 Security Council meeting where sanctions were imposed after the country's first nuclear test. Then, the North Korean ambassador immediately rejected the resolution, accused council members of "gangster-like" action and walked out of the council chamber.

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, who shepherded the resolution through two weeks of complex and sometimes difficult negotiations, told reporters in Washington that the administration was "very pleased" with the council's "unprecedented" and "innovative" action.

She cautioned that North Korea could react to the resolution with "further provocation."

"There's reason to believe they may respond in an irresponsible fashion to this," she said.

North Korea said Monday in its main newspaper that it would respond to any new sanctions with "corresponding self-defense measures." On Tuesday, the North said it would use nuclear weapons in a "merciless offensive" if provoked.

The resolution seeks to deprive North Korea of financing and material for its weapons program and bans the communist country's lucrative arms exports, especially missiles. It does not ban normal trade, but does call on international financial institutions to halt grants, aid or loans to the North except for humanitarian, development and denuclearization programs.

China and Russia, the North's closest allies, supported the resolution, but stressed that it did not authorize the use of force against North Korea, a key demand by both countries. Diplomats said during the negotiations both countries pushed to ensure that the measures not hurt ordinary people in North Korea who face daily hardships.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin called the North's repeat nuclear test "a serious blow" to efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and said the resolution was "an appropriate response," targeted at the weapons programs.

China's U.N. Ambassador Zhang Yesui said the nuclear test had affected regional peace and security. He strongly urged North Korea to promote the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and return quickly to Beijing-hosted six-party talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear program.

The resolution demonstrates the international community's "firm opposition" to the atomic test, Zhang said, but it also "sends a positive signal" by showing the council's determination to resolve the issue "peacefully through dialogue and negotiations."

The provisions most likely to anger the North Koreans deal with searches of cargo heading to or from the country.

The resolution calls on all countries to inspect North Korea cargo at their airports, seaports or on land if they have "information that provides reasonable grounds to believe" it contains banned arms or weapons, or the material to make them.

It also calls on all 192 U.N. member states to inspect vessels carrying suspect cargo on the high seas if approval is given by the country whose flag the ship sails under. If the country refuses to give approval, it must direct the vessel "to an appropriate and convenient port for the required inspection by the local authorities."

The resolution does not authorize the use of force. But if a country refuses to order a vessel to a port for inspection, it would be violation of the resolution and the country licensing the vessel would face possible sanctions by the Security Council.

As a sign of China's uneasiness about ship searches, Zhang stressed that "countries have to act prudently, in strict accordance with domestic and international laws, and under the precondition of reasonable grounds and sufficient evidence."

Rice said the United States would "intensify our existing efforts to gather information that would allow us to determine if there is a suspect vessel on the high seas," she said.

If a vessel refuses inspection, Rice said, the United States will "shine a spotlight on it, to make it very difficult for that contraband to continue to be carried forward."

However, she said, while the U.S. will work to ensure that full implementation is achieved and "the bite is felt ... we're not going to get into a tit-for-tat reaction to every North Korean provocative act."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a former South Korean foreign minister, urged all concerned parties "to refrain from taking any measures that can exacerbate tensions in the region and to exert their best efforts to re-engage in dialogue, including through the six-party talks," U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said.

In other key provisions, the resolution demands a halt to any further nuclear tests or missile launches and reiterates the council's demand that the North abandon all nuclear weapons, return to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, allow U.N. nuclear inspections, and rejoin six-party talks.

The previous sanctions resolution imposed an arms embargo on heavy weapons, a ban on material that could be used in missiles or weapons of mass destruction and a ban on luxury goods favored by North Korea's ruling elite. It also ordered an asset freeze and travel ban on companies and individuals involved in the country's nuclear and weapons programs.

The new resolution calls on all countries to prevent financial institutions or individuals in their countries from providing financing or resources that could contribute to North Korea's "nuclear-related, ballistic missile-related, or other weapons of mass destruction-related programs or activities."

U.S. deputy ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo called the measures "innovative" and "robust."

"This resolution will give us new tools to impair North Korea's ability to proliferate and threaten international stability," she told the council.

Taliban claim responsibility for slaying cleric

By MUNIR AHMAD, Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD – The Taliban claimed responsibility Saturday for recent suicide attacks in Pakistan, including the assassination of a leading moderate cleric and the bombing of a Peshawar hotel frequented by foreigners.

Thousands of people were expected to gather Saturday for the funeral of Sarfraz Naeemi, whose death in a blast at his seminary in Lahore triggered a wave of anger and revulsion toward militants in the country's cultural capital.

Police said the bombing was a targeted assassination of the cleric, who had recently condemned suicide attacks as un-Islamic, denounced the Taliban as murderers and "a stigma on Islam." He also threw his support behind the military operation against the Taliban in the Swat Valley region.

The seminary bombing was echoed within minutes at a mosque used by troops in the northwestern city of Noshehra. The attacks took the count of suicide bombings to five in eight days, including a huge blast at the luxury Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar that killed eleven people, some of whom were foreign U.N. workers.

Taliban commander Saeed Hafiz claimed responsibility for the blasts at the seminary, hotel and in Noshehra on behalf of Tehrik-i-Taliban, the group headed by Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, local media reported. The group has threatened a campaign of attacks in retaliation for the Swat offensive.

In an address to the nation early Saturday, President Asif Ali Zardari vowed to continue fighting the Taliban "until the end."

"We are fighting a war with those who want to impose their agenda on this nation with force and power," Zardari said. "This is the war for the survival of our country.

"These people murdered thousands of innocent people. By spreading terror in Pakistan and by scaring people, they want to take over the institutions of Pakistan. They do everything in the name of Islam, but they do not have anything to do with Islam. They are cruel. They are terrorists."

In Washington, U.S. defense officials said Friday that Pakistan was planning a new assault into the lawless tribal district of South Waziristan, where senior al-Qaida and Taliban leaders are believed to have strongholds.

Pakistan has announced no such offensive but has shelled and dropped bombs on suspected militant strongholds in the region in recent days, saying it is responding to militant attacks.

Expectations are high that a new offensive will be launched sooner or later, as the government faces pressure to back its claims that it will root out extremists nationwide. The U.S. officials said the initial phases of the offensive had already begun, but offered no timeframe. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the operation has not been announced.

On Saturday, Pakistani jet fighters dropped bombs on suspected Taliban hideouts in three villages of South Waziristan, killing at least 15 insurgents and wounding many others, two local intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The Swat campaign has received generally broad support from a Pakistani public that has started to openly denounce the militants after years of ambivalence.

Military analysts say any fight in the Waziristan regions would have to be much tougher than the Swat operation because the Taliban are more entrenched and battle-hardened from fighting in Afghanistan. They also say that Pakistan may want to deal with more than 2 million internal refugees from the Swat offensive before opening a new front.

Naeemi was mortally wounded when a suicide bomber blew up in his offices at seminary shortly after Friday prayers ended. Four others died and three were wounded, police official Sohail Sukhera said.

Hundreds of outraged seminary students gathered at the scene and demanded the Taliban leave Pakistan, shouting "Down with the Taliban!"

"I was still in the mosque when I heard a big bang. We rushed toward the office and there was a smell of explosives in the air. There was blood and several people were crying in pain," Naeemi's son, Waqar, said.

A leading moderate, Naeemi advocated equal access to education for women and the use of computers in schools — ideas sharply at odds with the Taliban's harsh interpretation of Islam.

The attack was quickly condemned as un-Islamic.

"A true Muslim even cannot think of such activity," said Mufti Muneebur Rehman, a senior moderate cleric.

In the second attack Friday, a pickup truck loaded with explosives was rammed into the wall of a mosque in Noshehra, killing at least four and wounding 100, police official Aziz Khan said.

In the latest of a string of attacks in the northwest, a roadside bomb hit a prison van in Kohat town early Saturday, killing a passer-by and wounding 16 people, said police official Farid Khan.

North Korea says it will 'weaponize' its plutonium

By KWANG-TAE KIM, Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea vowed Saturday to "weaponize" all its plutonium and threatened military action against the United States and its allies after the U.N. Security Council approved new sanctions to punish the communist nation for its recent nuclear test.

In a defiant statement, North Korea's Foreign Ministry also acknowledged for the first time that the country has a uranium enrichment program, and insisted it will never abandon its nuclear ambitions. Uranium and plutonium can be used to make atomic bombs.

The sanctions are "yet another vile product of the U.S.-led offensive of international pressure aimed at undermining ... disarming DPRK and suffocating its economy," said the statement, issued by the state Korean Central News Agency.

It said the country's "development of uranium enrichment technology to guarantee nuclear fuel for its light-water nuclear reactor has been successfully going on and has entered a trial stage."

Until now, North Korea had denied the existence of a uranium enrichment program.

It was not clear if the statement was another attempt by North Korea at brinkmanship or if it was actually willing to engage in no-holds barred conflict. But it opened up the possibility that North Korea could develop nuclear weapons through either of the two materials, raising the specter of greater instability in the region.

North Korea tested its first nuclear device in 2006 and a second one on May 25 in defiance of a U.N. ban, attracting the latest sanctions that aim to stop the reclusive communist nation's weapons exports and financial dealings. They also allow inspections of suspect cargo in ports and on the high seas.

Despite the U.N. sanctions, North Korea said it was "an absolutely impossible option" for it to abandon its nuclear programs, which it called a "self defensive measure" against a hostile U.S. policy and its nuclear threat against the North.

"An attempted blockade of any kind by the U.S. and its followers will be regarded as an act of war and met with a decisive military response," it said without elaborating.

North Korea describes its nuclear program as a deterrent against possible U.S. attacks. Washington says it has no intention of attacking and has expressed fear that North Korea is trying to sell its nuclear technology to other nations.

The statement also said that "the whole amount of the newly extracted plutonium (in the country) will be weaponized," and that "more than one third of the spent fuel rods has been reprocessed to date."

North Korea is believed to have enough plutonium for at least half a dozen atomic bombs. The North also has about 8,000 spent fuel rods which, if reprocessed, could allow the country to harvest 13-18 pounds (6-8 kilograms) of plutonium — enough to make at least one nuclear bomb, experts say.

Under a 2007 six-nation deal, North Korea agreed to disable its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon north of Pyongyang in return for 1 million tons of fuel oil and other concessions. In June 2008, North Korea blew up the cooling tower there in a dramatic show of its commitment to denuclearization.

But disablement came to halt a month later as Pyongyang wrangled with Washington over how to verify its past atomic activities. The latest round of talks, in December, failed to push the process forward.

The negotiations involve China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the U.S.

Tehran tense after disputed election results

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI and ANNA JOHNSON, Associated Press Writers

TEHRAN, Iran – Anti-riot police guarded the offices overseeing Iran's disputed elections Saturday with the count pointing to a landslide victory by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his opponent denouncing the results as "treason" and threatening a challenge.

The standoff left Tehran in tense anticipation. Many people opened shops and carried out errands, but the backdrop was far from normal: black-clad police gathering around key government buildings and mobile phone text messaging blocked in an apparent attempt to stifle one of the main communication tools by the pro-reform movement of Mir Hossein Mousavi.

A statement from Mousavi posted on his Web site urged his supporters to resist a "governance of lie and dictatorship."

Outside the Interior Ministry, which directed Friday's voting, security forces set up a cordon. The results had flowed quickly after polls closed showing the hard-line president with a comfortable lead — defying expectations of a nail-biter showdown following a month of fierce campaigning and bringing immediate charges of vote rigging by Mousavi.

But an expected announcement on the full outcome was temporarily put on hold. A reason for the delay was not made public, but it suggested intervention by Iran's Islamic authorities seeking to put the brakes on a potentially volatile showdown.

Ahmadinejad had the apparent backing of the ruling theocracy, which holds near-total power and would have the ability to put the election results into a temporary limbo.

There were no immediate reports of serious clashes or mass protests, and the next step by Mousavi's backers were unclear. Mousavi, who became the hero of a powerful youth-driven movement, had not made a public address or issued messages since declaring himself the true victor moments after polls closed and accusing authorities of "manipulating" the vote.

"I'm warning that I won't surrender to this manipulation," said the Mousavi statement on the Web on Saturday. "The outcome of what we've seen from the performance of officials ... is nothing but shaking the pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran sacred system and governance of lie and dictatorship."

He warned "people won't respect those who take power through fraud" and called the decision to announce Ahmadinejad winner of the election was a "treason to the votes of the people."

The headline on one of Mousavi's Web sites: "I wont give in to this dangerous manipulation." Mousavi and key aides could not be reached by phone.

It was even unclear how many Iranians were even aware of Mousavi's claims of fraud. Communications disruptions began in the later hours of voting Friday — suggesting an information clampdown. State television and radio only broadcast the Interior Ministry's vote count and not Mousavi's midnight press conference.

Nationwide, the text messaging system remained down Saturday and several pro-Mousavi Web sites were blocked or difficult to access. Text messaging is frequently used by many Iranians — especially young Mousavi supporters — to spread election news.

At Tehran University — the site of the last major anti-regime unrest in Tehran in 1999 — the academic year was winding down and there was no sign of pro-Mousavi crowds. But university exams, scheduled to begin Saturday, were postponed until next month around the country.

By Saturday morning, Iran's Interior Ministry said Ahmadinejad had 63.3 percent of the vote and Mousavi had 34.7 percent with about 85 percent of all votes counted. Based on ministry figures, around 75 percent of the country's 46.2 million eligible voters went to the polls, many of which were jammed packed Friday with people waiting several hours to cast their ballots.

At a press conference, Mousavi declared himself "definitely the winner" based on "all indications from all over Iran." He accused the government of "manipulating the people's vote" to keep Ahmadinejad in power and suggested the reformist camp would stand up to challenge the results.

"It is our duty to defend people's votes. There is no turning back," Mousavi said, alleging widespread irregularities.

Mousavi's backers were stunned at Interior Ministry's results after widespread predictions of a close race — or even a slight edge to Mousavi.

"Many Iranians went to the people because they wanted to bring change. Almost everybody I know voted for Mousavi but Ahmadinejad is being declared the winner. The government announcement is nothing but widespread fraud. It is very, very disappointing. I'll never ever again vote in Iran," said Mousavi supporter Nasser Amiri, a hospital clerk in Tehran.

Bringing any showdown into the streets would certainly face a swift backlash from security forces. The political chief of the powerful Revolutionary Guard cautioned Wednesday it would crush any "revolution" against the Islamic regime by Mousavi's "green movement" — the signature color of his campaign and the new banner for reformists seeking wider liberties at home and a gentler face for Iran abroad.

The Revolutionary Guard is the military wing directly under control of the ruling clerics and has vast influence in every corner of the country through a network of volunteer militias.

In Tehran, several Ahmadinejad supporters cruised the streets waving Iranian flags out of their car windows and shouting "Mousavi is dead!"

Mousavi appealed directly to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to intervene and stop what he said were violations of the law. Khamenei holds ultimate political authority in Iran. "I hope the leader's foresight will bring this to a good end," Mousavi said.

Mousavi said some polling stations were closed early with people still waiting to vote, that voters were prevented from casting ballots and that his observers were expelled from some counting sites.

Iran does not allow international election monitors. During the 2005 election, when Ahmadinejad won the presidency, there were some allegations of vote rigging from losers, but the claims were never investigated.

The outcome will not sharply alter Iran's main policies or sway major decisions, such as possible talks with Washington or nuclear policies. Those crucial issues rest with the ruling clerics headed by the unelected Khamenei.

But the election focused on what the office can influence: boosting Iran's sinking economy, pressing for greater media and political freedoms, and being Iran's main envoy to the world.

Before the vote count, President Barack Obama said the "robust debate" during the campaign suggests a possibility of change in Iran, which is under intense international pressure over its nuclear program. There has been no comment from Washington since the results indicated re-election for Ahmadinejad.

The race will go to a runoff on June 19 if no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote. Two other candidates — conservative former Revolutionary Guard commander Mohsen Rezaei and moderate former parliament speaker Mahdi Karroubi — only got small fractions of the votes, according to the ministry.