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.