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BAGHDAD: The toll from twin suicide bombings Friday near a revered Shiite Muslim shrine in the heart of Baghdad rose to 60 killed, including 20 Iranian pilgrims, a defence ministry official said. Fifty-five people were killed in the attack, including 20 Iranians. Another 125 people were wounded, including 80 Iranian pilgrims, official sources said. An interior ministry official confirmed the tolls, making it the deadliest single attack in Iraq this year. The bombings come less than three months before US forces are to withdraw from all Iraqi cities.

MUMBAI: A special court in Mumbai, has ordered a medical test to determine 26/11 terrorist Mohammad Ajmal Kasab's actual age. The test will be conducted at the Arthur Road Jail, Mumbai, where Kasab is currently lodged and report will be submitted before the court by April 28. The 26/11 trial is being held in the same jail. Earlier, Kasab's lawyer Abbas Kazmi had claimed that Kasab was only 17, when he was arrested in connection with the Mumbai terror attack on November 26. He sought to transfer the case to a juvenile court, which was rejected by the trial court. The court has granted more time to Abbas Kazmi to read the 1,100-page chargesheet filed against Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, a resident of Faridkot, Pakistan. The court, while refusing Kazmi's demand for the adjournment of the case for a month, has given him time till May 2 to read the case and come prepared. Judge ML Tahaliyani, who is hearing the 26/11 trial, also refused Kasab's demand for a copy of the charge sheet...

NEW DELHI: India on Friday told arch-rival Pakistan to rein in the Taliban, warning the militants posed a threat to the security of South Asia as a whole. Deputy Foreign Minister Anand Sharma also labelled Pakistan an "epicentre of terrorism" and said India was closely watching its fellow nuclear-armed neighbour. "We have stated time and again that Pakistan is the epicentre of terrorism," Sharma told a news conference in New Delhi. "The surge of the Taliban is a matter of deep concern to us because it poses a threat to the stability and peace in this entire region. "It is incumbent upon the government and the state of Pakistan to neutralise the Taliban, to neutralise other terror outfits so that this region can have peace," he added.

BAGHDAD: The new US ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill arrived in Baghdad on Friday, a journalist said, taking up his post nine weeks before American troops are due to pull out of Iraqi cities. Hill arrived around 10 pm (1900 GMT) and was greeted by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. "Hill will present his diplomatic credentials to me," Zebari told media shortly before the veteran American diplomat arrived in Baghdad.

WASHINGTON: The U.S. Capitol was briefly evacuated Friday, and the White House was locked down briefly after an airplane was reported headed into restricted Capitol airspace. At the White House, reporters and photographers were not permitted to walk outside the press working area for a few minutes. A short time later, the lockdown was over. Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, a Capitol Police spokeswoman, said a plane had been headed toward Capitol airspace, prompting the threat level to be raised to orange from green. Authorities were able to contact the pilot and he agreed to change course, she said.

NAIROBI: Muslims have accused Christians of trying to convert Sarah Obama to Christianity. Mrs Obama, a figure of substance in her homeland since her grandson was elected US President, was reported locally to have been stopped from going to a Seventh Day Adventist Church by Muslims because they thought the church would try to convert her. However, members of the church said that she was not to be converted and was merely invited to attend an event. "We had invited her to grace our meeting in Kisumu which was to mark the end of a three-week convention, but although she had prepared, she did not attend," Lewis Ondiek, a senior church figure, told local media. It was claimed that family members stopped Mrs Obama from attending the service led by an Australian evangelist, John Jeremic, because they feared the church was trying to convert her to Islam but the family said she did not attend because she had a knee complication and could not go. Sheikh Mohamed Khalifa, the Council of...

PRETORIA: More than half of South Africa's registered voters cast ballots for the ruling ANC, according to the election commission's count, clearing the way for party leader Jacob Zuma to become president.

WASHINGTON: The White House on Friday urged an immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka and voiced deep concerns over alleged violations of international humanitarian law.

REYKJAVIK: Iceland goes to the polls Saturday in a general election called just months after its economic meltdown, with voters set to snub the party seen as responsible for the crisis in favour of the interim leftist government. Icelanders are expected to give the cold shoulder to the conservative Independence Party which governed the country for 18 years until it was ousted in January amid massive protests over the crisis that brought Iceland to the brink of bankruptcy. Public opinion polls have suggested a comfortable victory for the Social Democratic Party, led by Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, and its junior coalition partner the Left Green Movement.

WASHINGTON: The global shipping industry should consider placing armed guards on its boats to ward off pirates who have become increasingly violent, the U.S. military commander who oversees the African coastline said. Gen. David Petraeus, who came to the Capitol to talk about a wide variety of issues, told a House committee Friday that just trying to outrun or block pirates from boarding cargo ships isn't enough to deter sea bandits off the Somali coast who are becoming more aggressive. The Pentagon is starting to study how to better protectmerchant shipping, but hasn't yet come up with a formal plan.

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon has said it will release hundreds of photographs showing alleged abuse by US personnel of "war on terror" detainees, officials have said. The US department of defence is to release the images, some of which were taken in Iraq and Afghanistan, by May 28 in response to legal action filed by a US civil rights group. The photographs come from more than 60 criminal investigations between 2001-2006 and are of military personnel suspected of abusing detainees, officials said on Friday. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has spent years pursuing the government in the courts to obtain the pictures.

BAGHDAD: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday arrived in Baghdad on a surprise visit, which came as a wave of violence engulfed the country just weeks before US troops leave Iraqi cities. Clinton landed in the Iraqi capital around 8.30 am (0530 GMT), a day after two suicide attackers killed 55 Shiite pilgrims at a shrine in the city, and less than 48 hours after a similar attack killed dozens in a northern town. Clinton said she would be analysing the security situation amid a spike in bombings that have killed more than 250 people this month, and as US soldiers start to pull out of cities and major towns across the country. "I will be meeting of course with General Ray Odierno and I want to hear first hand his assessment," Clinton said, referring to the senior US army officer in Iraq and noting the deadly suicide attacks on Thursday and Friday. I want his evaluation of what these kinds of rejection-ist efforts mean and what can be done to prevent them by both th...

PRETORIA: South Africa's ruling ANC won an absolute majority in general polls on Saturday, with president-in-waiting Jacob Zuma facing huge expectations from the poor in a flailing economy. The ANC's two-thirds majority seemed to be slipping from its grasp as the party had 66.02 percent of the vote with only a handful of voting districts outstanding. Unofficial results released by the electoral commission showed the African National Congress had won over 11.6 million votes, more than half of the nation's 23 million registered voters.

TEHRAN: Iran has closed a border crossing with Iraq for Iranians after many pilgrims from the Islamic Republic were killed in two bomb attacks in the neighbouring country, official media reported on Saturday. "After bombings in Iraq and the martyrdom of a number of Iranian pilgrims, crossing the Khosravi border for Iranians has been banned until further notice," the official news agency said. State radio carried a similar report. The Khosravi border crossing lies northeast of Baghdad. Iranian media did not say whether other border crossings were also affected.

TEHRAN: Iran's supreme leader accused U.S. forces of involvement in bombings in Iraq that have killed dozens of Iranian pilgrims, state radio reported on Saturday. "The main suspects in this crime and crimes similar to that are American security and military forces," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement.

MEXICO CITY: Mexican authorities said 60 people may have died from a swine flu virus in Mexico, and world health officials worry it could unleash a global flu epidemic. Mexico City closed schools across the metropolis on Saturday in hopes of containing the outbreak that has sickened more than 900. The World Health Organization was looking closely at the 60 deaths, most of them in or near Mexico's capital. It wasn't yet clear what flu they died from, but spokesman Thomas Abraham said "We are very, very concerned." WHO raised its internal alert system on Friday, preparing to divert more money and personnel to dealing with the outbreak.