Iraqi officials say two car bombs have exploded in Diwaniyah, killing at least 22 people and wounding 30 others.
Authorities said the attack happened Tuesday outside a local governor's house in Diwaniyah, which is located about 150 kilometers south of the capital, Baghdad.
It was not immediately clear if the governor was among the casualties.
Officials said at least one suicide bomber was involved in the attack, which was one of several deadly bombings across Iraq on Tuesday. Elsewhere, including the capital, Baghdad, blasts killed at least four people and wounded 16 others.
Violence in Iraq is down sharply from its peak in 2006 and 2007. However, a new spate of attacks, including several against government officials, has raised concerns about a possible increase in violence as the U.S. prepares to withdraw its forces at the end of the year.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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The White House says President Barack Obama will announce his decision on the size and pace of a U.S. troop drawdown in Afghanistan on Wednesday. It will come amid intensified national war-weariness and concern about the lives lost, and strains on the U.S. economy.
At Arlington National Cemetery this past Memorial Day, President Obama, after laying a wreath at the Tomb of Unknowns, stopped at Section 60, containing graves of U.S. troops killed most recently in Afghanistan and Iraq.
It was a reminder of the grim backdrop to the decision on how many of the 100,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan to begin withdrawing in July.
Mr. Obama announced the July start for the withdrawal when he presented his overall strategy for Afghanistan in December 2009.
Even as the president and military commanders point to successes in pushing back Taliban control in key areas, military commanders are worried about climbing casualty figures.
Like other presidents who have directed unpopular wars, Mr. Obama has has no shortage of advice from members of Congress.
Democrat John Kerry, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said, "While the United States has genuine national security interests in Afghanistan, our current commitment, in troops and in dollars, is neither proportional to our interests or sustainable in my judgment."
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham last week called the current U.S. and NATO model in Afghanistan "the ticket home" for U.S. troops.
Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" program, he cautioned against any accelerated U.S. withdrawal despite rising anti-war sentiment in the U.S. Congress. "If we accelerate withdrawal right now because we are war weary, we're going to lose this war," he said.
Another Republican, Senator Richard Lugar, urges Mr. Obama to provide Americans with a new overall plan that includes a definition of success. "The more important question is whether we have an efficient strategy for protecting our vital interests that does not involve massive open-ended expenditures and does not require us to have more faith than is justified in Afghan institutions," he said.
President Obama's decision comes amid intensifying public dissatisfaction with the Afghanistan war.
In Baltimore, Maryland, the U.S. Conference of Mayors approved a resolution urging that billions in monthly war costs be directed to needs at home.
At the Pentagon recently, outgoing Secretary of Defense Robert Gates addressed the question of Americans' impatience. "This unhappiness, and certainly the war weariness after a decade, rests heavily on all of us, I think. And the key is how do we complete our mission, as we have largely done in Iraq, in a way that protects American national security interests and the American people and contributes to stability," he said.
Besides incoming defense secretary Leon Panetta, civilian and military leaders who will implement President Obama's decision are to be in place soon.
They include Marine Lieutenant General John Allen, the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan, along with Ryan Crocker, the new U.S. ambassador in Kabul.
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NATO said Monday it carried out an airstrike on a "high-level" command center in Libya, while the government said the strike destroyed a large family compound belonging to a close associate of leader Moammar Gadhafi.
The alliance had at first denied the strike, saying it had not conducted any recent operations in the area of Surman, about 65 kilometers west of the capital, Tripoli.
The Libyan government said NATO bombs struck Khoweidi al-Hamidi's compound, killing 15 people, including at least two of his grandchildren and his wife.
It said al-Hamidi - a member of Libya's Revolutionary Command Council, led by Gadhafi - escaped unharmed. The influential insider took part in the 1969 coup that brought the Libyan leader to power. His daughter is married to one of Gadhafi's sons, Saadi Gadhafi.
NATO said it could not confirm the deaths. The latest Libyan accusation comes a day after NATO acknowledged that an airstrike by its forces may have killed civilians in the Libyan capital.
Meanwhile, Chinese state media say Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, head of the rebel Transitional National Council, arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for a two-day visit.
China held talks earlier this month with an envoy from Gadhafi, and Chinese diplomats have met with anti-Gadhafi rebels in Benghazi
Also Monday, more than 20 troops loyal to Gadhafi defected from a brigade based in southern Libya and joined the anti-government opposition. Four of the men spoke to reporters in the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi, saying they had escaped from a pro-Gadhafi unit based near Libya's border with Chad.
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Russian officials say 44 people were killed and eight others injured when a passenger plane crashed late Monday in Russia's northern republic of Karelia.
The plane, a Tupolev 134, with 52 people on board was trying to land at Petrozavodsk airport, about 650 kilometers northwest of Moscow, when it crashed on a nearby highway and caught fire.
The survivors were taken to Petrozavodsk hospitals.
Russian news reports quoted officials as saying that bad weather could have been a factor in the accident, but that human error is not ruled out. Heavy fog was reported at the time of the crash.
RIA novosti quoted Karelia's health minister Valentina Ulich as saying that among those killed was a Swedish citizen. The agency also reported that rescuers working at the crash site have found both flight recorders from the aircraft.
The plane was enroute from Moscow's Domodedovo airport to Petrozavodsk when it crashed.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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Tropical Storm Beatriz has turned into a hurricane just before making landfall on the southwest coast of Mexico.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the center of the storm is expected to move near the coast overnight before moving away from the coast late Tuesday. The hurricane has win speeds of up to 130 kilometers per hour.
Beatriz is expected to threaten popular tourist destinations Tuesday with heavy rains, destructive waves, flash floods and mudslides.
Hurricane warnings are posted from Zihuatanejo north to Cabo Corrientes.
Some information for this report was provided by AP.
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On a recent afternoon, Rosa Faitelson was sitting at her kitchen table eating cucumbers - a typical lunch on just another ordinary day. She didn't seem at all surprised that strangers walked unannounced into her wooden cottage in northern Belarus bringing her oranges, a rare treat on a hot day. Maybe that composure was to be expected from a woman who, at age 91, had lived through extermination of her people and had decided to stay on when nearly everyone else was gone.
Seventy years ago, on June 22, Nazi forces rampaged through this part of Belarus. In three years, they wiped out 80 percent of the country's 980,000 Jews. Mobile death units rounded up entire shtetls, or towns, of Jews, confined them to cramped ghettos, and then marched them off to pits where they were shot dead. That's what happened in Faitelson's village, Senno.
Some Belarusian Jews survived by hiding in holes in the ground or joining resistance groups in the swampy forests. Others fled east. When the war ended, many Jews couldn't bear to return to their villages and live near mass graves of loved ones.
In shtetls scattered across modern-day Belarus, only a handful of Jews remain. They are the last guardians of a once thriving culture that gave the world the flying cow paintings of Marc Chagal and the rollicking Broadway musicals of Irving Berlin.
The official Belarus census puts the current Jewish population at close to 13,000, a little over one percent of those who lived here in 1941. Following the war, emigration added to the population decline. Each year scores of young people leave for Israel since poverty and social isolation face them at home.
During the Nazi occupation, Rosa, then an accountant, found safety in Siberia. After the war ended, she resettled in Senno with her late husband. Today she is one of the last five Jews left in what was once a Yiddish-speaking town of artisans.
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"There was nowhere else to go," she says. Her dirt lane no longer lights up on Fridays with Sabbath candles but otherwise the blue-painted homes and water pumps are unchanged from centuries past.
The remaining Jews of her generation are too frail to visit, such as Meltson Shmenko, 90, from down the road who had fallen and twisted his neck when we visited.
But every day, Svetlana Levina, at 57 the "youngster" of the bunch, checks in. When we dropped by, Rosa ordered her to fetch a plastic bucket and collect raspberries in the overgrown garden.
"Eat, eat!" Rosa called out, boiling water for tea. Aside from the little plot in back, she relies on help from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which provides kasha and fuel to survive the harsh winters.
Rosa's youthful memories are growing hazy. But she recollects shards, such as the ice cream vendors and holidays at the synagogue. The synagogue shuttered after the war when Soviet authorities forbade worship. All that's left of Jewish communal life are two old cemeteries.
Four hours is a long time to visit an elderly woman, and Rosa seemed exhausted. She looked towards her empty bedroom, which we took as a sign to leave. Rosa bade farewell as matter-of-factly as she had greeted us, and asked us to return soon. There wasn't anything more to say.
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North and South Sudan have reached a landmark agreement outlining the status of the disputed Abyei border region. The Abyei deal paves the way for progress on several other issues that need to be settled before the South's July 9 independence.
Monday's brief signing ceremony followed days of agonizing wrangling over words, while news from Sudan told of deadly clashes in two border regions and a developing humanitarian catastrophe.
An obviously relieved chief mediator, former South African president Thabo Mbeki, said the agreement calls for a complete demilitarization of Abyei and deployment of a U.N.-mandated Ethiopian peacekeeping force.
"The Sudan Armed Forces that are there will pull out, will be redeployed out of Abyei, as well as any other military forces in the area, like if the SPLA [Sudan People's Liberation Army] are there they would leave, to be replaced by Ethiopian forces, which will then move as soon as they are authorized by the United Nations," Mbeki said.
Mbeki said a brigade of Ethiopian peacekeepers could be in Abyei within days, once the United Nations gives the go-ahead.
"We have to wait until the Security Council gives its mandate. But as soon as that's done, that will tell us how soon they will be able to move," he said. "If we had it our way they should move today, and as I say the Ethiopians are ready to move at a very short notice."
Mbeki went directly from the signing ceremony to the United Nations conference center in Addis Ababa to brief the Security Council by video conference.
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said a draft resolution authorizing the Abyei security force soon would be circulated.
The former South African leader told reporters the issue that had held up the talks, and threatened to sink the negotiations, had been over the makeup of the Abyei administration. Southerners had been outraged last month when the Khartoum government sent troops into Abyei's main town and disbanded the administrative body that had been controlled by the South.
The agreement signed Monday calls for the body to be reconstituted as it was, but with limited powers. Responsibility for security will be transferred to a joint committee that would include a member appointed by the African Union Commission.
Mbeki said the deal clears the way for displaced residents to return home and establishes a solid footing for talks on Abyei's final status, to be held after the South's July 9 independence day.
"So these measures would be put in place in restoring peace to Abyei because both sides have agreed that you could not come to the final matter of determining the final status of Abyei until you had stabilized the security situation and taken all these matters to ensure there will be no further conflict in this area," said Mbeki.
The Abyei deal was seen as the linchpin of wide-ranging talks on sensitive issues, such as sharing oil revenues and dividing Sudan's $38 billion debt. Those talks began during the past few days.
Mbeki said talks would start Tuesday on Southern Kordofan, the northern border state where government troops have been battling forces loyal to the South for weeks. Hopes have faded for a humanitarian cease-fire that would allow emergency supplies to reach as many as half a million civilians trapped by the fighting.
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The Iranian lawyer for three American hikers accused of spying in Iran said Monday the Tehran government has informed him of the date for his clients' new court hearing.
Nearly two years have passed since Iranian authorities arrested three U.S. hikers on charges of illegally crossing into the country from Iraq and spying. One of the hikers, Sarah Shourd, was released on bail last year. The other two hikers, Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, are still in Iranian custody.
Masoud Shafiei, the lawyer for the hikers, says Iranian authorities have set the next court appearance for the three Americans. Shafiei told VOA he received notification from the Revolutionary Court that the hearing will be on July 31, the second anniversary of the hikers' arrest.
Shafiei says that although previous judicial documents specifically requested Shourd's presence in court, Monday's notification did not tell him to ensure she attends the trial.
Iranian officials delayed the trial in May, when authorities failed to transfer Fattal and Bauer from prison to court.
Iranian media on Monday announced that the country's Press TV would air what it called "confessions" from the hikers later this week.
But the hikers' defense attorney says his clients have not confessed to the charges.
He jokingly said he does not know where Press TV got its information or whether those at the station are lawyers or judges. He added that he is hopeful the hikers will be freed.
The families of the hikers say the charges are baseless. U.S. authorities have repeatedly called for Fattal and Bauer to be released.
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U.S. officials say the international community, and more importantly the Syrian people, are growing weary of the Syrian leader's promises and that what is needed are reforms and an end to what was called here Mr. Assad's "repulsive" crackdown on dissent.
In his third address since Syrian pro-democracy protests began four months ago, President Assad said he would invite 100 leading Syrian personalities to discuss constitutional reforms, with a one-month target for recommendations.
The Obama administration has called on the Syrian leader to enact reforms or step aside.
State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said what is important now is "action, not words." She dismissed the Syrian leader's suggestion that foreigners were largely behind the weeks of violence by security forces that has killed some 1,400 people.
"He spends a lot of time blaming foreign instigators, rather than appreciating that his own people are simply disgusted by a regime that supports itself through repression, corruption and fear," said Nuland. "We'd also note that the vast majority of those innocents killed in Syria were at the hands of security forces."
Nuland said the interference the United States is concerned about in Syria is by Iran, and that the Assad government has "taken a page from the Iranian playbook" in crushing popular protests as Tehran did after disputed elections in 2009.
The European Union also expressed disappointment with Mr. Assad's speech and said it is preparing to expand its sanctions on Syria in response to the worsening violence.
The State Department's Victoria Nuland hinted of further U.S. sanctions, saying that Obama administration officials are working with U.S. allies on collecting data that might lead to war crimes prosecution of the Syrian leadership by the International Criminal Court, or ICC. She confirmed comments by unnamed U.S. officials last week that the United States is examining possible sanctions on Syria's oil and gas industry.
Syrian oil production has declined in recent years, but its exports of nearly 400,000 barrels of oil per day are a major source of revenue for the government, especially with trade and tourism plunging because of the unrest.
Syria expert and journalist Andrew Tabler, a visiting scholar at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, says oil sanctions are more feasible than ICC action.
"They can lead an effort to target Syrian energy, which accounts for about a third of revenues for Syria. It accrues directly to the state. It wouldn't hurt the Syrian people," said Tabler. "Pulling that off is hard without allies. But other allies in Europe and the Turks are on our side. The ICC indictment, because Syria is not a signatory, would require U.N. Security Council action."
Tabler added that "so far, the Russians and the Chinese have blocked Security Council operations. That doesn't mean it couldn't happen in the future, though," he said.
The State Department said U.S. ambassador to Syria Robert Ford traveled to northern Syria on Monday to try to get a first hand look at conditions in the area, where action by security forces has displaced thousands of civilians, many of whom have fled into Turkey.
Officials here say the U.S. envoy lately has been denied high-level meetings with government officials in Damascus, but has opened dialogue with a wide range of Syrian opposition figures.
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Tunisia's ousted president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali said he was tricked into leaving his country for Saudi Arabia, as Tunisia begins to try him in absentia in the first of what are expected to be multiple trials related to his years in power.
Ali said Monday in a statement issued by his lawyers that he had taken a plane to Saudi Arabia to bring his family to safety. He said he had planned to return to Tunisia immediately, but the plane's crew ignored his instructions to wait for him and left without him.
Ben Ali went to Saudi Arabia in January amid mass protests against his 23-year rule.
The ousted leader is being tried in absentia Monday on charges that include embezzlement, money laundering, and drug trafficking. Future trials are expected on charges that include conspiring against the state and voluntary manslaughter.
In all, there are more than 90 criminal cases pending against Ben Ali and his allies.
Officials say the former president will be tried in military and civilian courts. He has denied all charges against him.
Saudi officials have not responded to Tunisian requests to extradite Ben Ali and his wife, Leila Trabelsi.
Many Tunisians say they believe the former president and his family improperly amassed large fortunes. Protesters looted and set fire to dozens of the family's businesses and luxurious villas during the January uprising. The ousted president said he never had the huge sums of money he is alleged to have possessed.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
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U.S. first lady Michelle Obama arrives in South Africa to begin a week-long trip centered on messages of youth empowerment. The visit to Africa, without her husband President Barack Obama, will also take her to Botswana.
US First Lady addessed Africa's youth
Prior to embarking on her flight from the United States, Michelle Obama addressed a message to Africa's youth. "I am doing this because we know that Africa is a fundamental part of our interconnected world and when it comes to meeting the challenges of our times, whether it is climate change or extremism, poverty or disease, the world is looking to African nations as vital partners and will be looking across the continent to young people just like all of you to help lead the way," she started.
One of those awaiting Obama's brief stay in Johannesburg is 29-year-old Ivory Coast national Aminata Kane Kone, a dentist, mother of four, and activist for women's rights. She was selected to take part in the U.S.-sponsored Young African Women Leaders Forum coinciding with the first lady's visit.
Promoting youth engagement, education, health and wellness
Kone says it will be a great honor and opportunity to meet and listen to Obama.
Kone says the U.S. first lady has had a very inspirational journey that can encourage Africa's youth to make the change they want to see. Her own wishes, she said, were equal women's access to health, political power, education and business loans.
But many South Africans interviewed for this report seemed underwhelmed, and said they preferred to wait and see what Obama would do and say during her visit.
One of them was Zweli, a third-year university philosophy student. "It does not matter much. It does not change the price of beer, although I do not drink beer, I guess that is the phrase. Diplomatic politics is very show and tell, handshakes and kind gestures," Zweli said.
He says even though the Obama administration has called for more economic engagement with Africa, he feels it would be more important for the U.S. government to end subsidies to U.S. farmers so that more African farmers, such as rice and cotton growers, could once again make a living, and not face what he called unfair competition.
"These things of course are not addressed mostly because of the power hierarchy. The United States does not want to sign certain treaties and South Africa is not in a position to stand up against such inequalities within the global community," Zweli explained.
Trip goal includes improving relations between the U.S. and Africa
International analysts say the visit comes at a time when the United States is seeking to improve relations with Africa's major economic and political powers amid tensions over foreign policy. South Africa's President Jacob Zuma has called for the African Union to help facilitate a cease-fire in Libya, and for NATO to end its military campaign there.
President Obama has said not intervening in Libya to defend populations under attack from government forces would have been, in his words, a "betrayal" of what the United States stands for.
More recently, the youth wing of South Africa's ruling African National Congress accused the U.S. government and others of trying to impose a puppet government in Libya for more access to oil.
Most of the media headlines and discussions in public areas of Johannesburg revolved not around Obama's arrival, but around recent comments by the ruling party's youth leader, Julius Malema, stepping up demands for South Africa's nationalization of mines and banks, and what he called an un-led revolution to reclaim land, without payment, from white South African farmers.
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Eurozone finance ministers say Greece must pass strong austerity measures before it receives the next $17 billion emergency loan payment from the European Union and the IMF to help stabilize its economy.
The comments came early Monday in Luxembourg after hours of talks during which the finance ministers put off approval of the next installment of the $160 billion bailout package for Greece until early July.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou faces a vote of a confidence in parliament Tuesday, and is urging lawmakers to quickly pass his package of spending cuts and tax increases. The unpopular austerity measures have triggered weeks of protests in Greece. Mr. Papandreou has warned that the country faces bankruptcy and debt default if it does not secure the next installment of the bailout.
Some economists say a Greek default would make banks unwilling to lend money to other nations, which could slow economic growth around the world. Such concerns already have pushed down global stock and energy prices, and have increased concerns about the ability of Ireland and Portugal to repay similar emergency loans.
Athens is negotiating a second bailout package to keep its economy afloat beyond September. But EU leaders have not been able to agree on the terms of such a loan, including how much of it should be funded by the private sector.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP, Bloomberg and Reuters..
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Singapore is urging China to spell out its territorial claims in the South China Sea with more precision.
In a formal statement Monday, Singapore's foreign ministry said it is in China's own interest to clarify the extent of its claims, saying the current ambiguity is causing concern among other maritime nations.
Disputes in the South China Sea
1988, March - China sinks three Vietnamese vessels near the Spratly Islands, killing more than 70 Vietnamese.
1991 - China passes the Law on Territorial Waters and Their Contiguous Areas, laying out its claim to territorial sovereignty over the Paracel and Spratly Islands.
1995, 1999 - The Philippines discovers Chinese constructions on Mischief Reef, an island located in the Spratly Island chain. Despite efforts to resolve the dispute, more structures are found on the reef in 1999. Manila says the structures are a military installation while Beijing says they are for fishermen.
2002 - China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations sign a non-binding Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.
2009, March – Chinese ships and fishermen harass a U.S. naval vessel in the South China Sea. According to the Pentagon, the Chinese vessels harassed the Impeccable, about 120 kilometers off Hainan island, south of China.
2011, May – Chinese vessels cut an exploration cable on a Vietnamese oil survey ship in waters, within Vietnam's exclusive economic zone.
2011, June - The Philippines complains that Chinese ships offloaded building materials and erected marker posts on reefs to the west of its island of Palawan, within Manila's exclusive economic zone.
The statement comes as Singapore plays host to a port visit by the Haixun 31, one of China's largest naval patrol ships. It is the first time a major Chinese navy vessel has visited another country.
Singapore stressed that is has no claims of its own in the South China Sea and that it takes no position on the conflicting claims of China and five other governments. But it said that as a major trading nation, it has a critical interest in maintaining free navigation through the area.
China is engaged in diplomatic squabbles over recent incidents in waters claimed by Vietnam and the Philippines as part of their exclusive economic zones. China in each case claimed the incidents occurred in areas under Chinese administration, without saying specifically how far those areas extended.
China's claims are based in part on a centuries-old map which shows a broken line encircling most of the South China Sea. Vital shipping lanes run through the sea, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas reserves.
Singapore said Monday the tensions could be eased by the conclusion of guidelines for implementing a code of conduct on South China Sea disputes. Agreement on the guidelines has been held up since the code was negotiated in 2002.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP.
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India says talks this week with South Asian rival, Pakistan, will likely focus on concerns regarding terrorism. The foreign ministers of the two countries are scheduled to hold their first formal peace dialogue since the 2008 terror strikes in Mumbai.
In a statement released Monday, Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna said terrorism has to be dealt with firmly and transparently for the common good of India and Pakistan. The foreign minister also emphasized the need to bridge what he called a "trust deficit" between the two countries.
For India this "trust deficit" remains closely linked to the terror attacks that devastated India's financial hub, Mumbai, in 2008 and that were blamed on Pakistan-based Islamic militants.
Krishna called on Pakistan to hasten the trial of seven men held by Islamabad for their alleged role in the Mumbai terror strikes. He called the slow pace of the trial a "sad commentary of what is happening there."
"One needs a lot of patience dealing with a situation like this," Krishna said. "I hope Pakistan realizes how serious the Indian view of this particular question is. Our trial has concluded and an appeal is pending in court, whereas virtually their trial has not even started. I think examination of witnesses has not begun."
One gunman involved in the attack was arrested in Mumbai and has been handed a death sentence by an Indian court.
India put the peace dialogue on hold after the attacks, but agreed to resume it earlier this year. The foreign secretaries of the two countries will meet in Islamabad on Thursday and Friday.
The talks will cover issues such as peace and security and Kashmir - the territory divided between them, but claimed by both.
But differences have emerged over the focus of the dialogue. Officials in Islamabad have suggested that India should move beyond the Mumbai attacks and focus on issues such as Kashmir. Indian officials say they will bring up the Mumbai issue.
Minister Krishna cautioned against expecting quick results from the latest efforts to normalize relations.
"We will have to be very realistic, we will have to be very positive in our approach," he said.
Recent tension between the countries show how hard that may be. Last week, the two exchanged diplomatic objections after a close encounter between two warships during an operation to rescue a ship from Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean.
Minister Krishna admits such incidents can hinder efforts to build trust.
"On the one hand we are trying to improve the relationship between India and Pakistan. On the other hand if such solitary incidents which take place which becomes a cause of irritant which certainly does not help," Krishna noted.
The talks between the foreign secretaries in Islamabad are expected to prepare for a resumption of political dialogue between the the rival nations. The higher-ranking foreign ministers are expected to meet next month.
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The U.S. ambassador to Kabul, Karl Eikenberry, has warned Afghanistan's leaders against criticizing Western efforts to stabilize their country.
Eikenberry said that comments from some Afghan leaders calling the United States occupiers were "hurtful and inappropriate."
In a speech Sunday to students at Afghanistan's Herat University, the outgoing U.S. ambassador said that such comments make it difficult to look relatives of U.S. forces killed in Afghanistan "in the eye and give them a comforting reply" when they ask about the "meaning of their loved one's sacrifice."
Eikenberry did not specifically mention Afghan President Hamid Karzai by name. But last month the Afghan leader warned NATO-led forces not to become an "occupying force" after a series of civilian casualties resulting from coalition airstrikes.
The U.S. envoy said Sunday that when Americans hear themselves being called occupiers, it "offends their pride and makes them lose their inspiration to carry on." He said America has never sought to occupy any nation in the world and that "we serve here as friends."
The United States is preparing to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in July. Afghan security forces are slated to take control of all security operations by 2014.
Afghan and coalition forces continue to face stiff resistance in the Taliban's southern strongholds, as well as in the country's east.
Ambassador Eikenberry said the American people will ask for their forces to come home at the point that "we feel our soldiers and civilians are asked to sacrifice without a just cause, our generous aid programs are dismissed as totally ineffective and the source of all corruption, and your leaders believe we are doing more harm than good."
In his speech, he listed U.S. contributions to Afghanistan, including the construction of new schools, clinics and roads, training of and equipping of Afghan security forces, and investment in the country's agriculture.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.
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Thailand's opposition Pheu Thai Party says it is confident of an electoral victory, with opinion polls giving the party a lead over the governing Democrat Party less than two weeks before a national election.
Of the more than 100,000 voters polled by the Suan Dusit Rajabhat University, more than 51 percent expressed support for the Pheu Thai Party. The ruling Democrat Party of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva received about 34 percent support. Analysts say the survey is an indicator of support for the remaining 375 local constituent seats.
At a weekend political rally, Pheu Thai Party leader Yongyuth Wichaidit is confident the party will gain seats.
"I think we are progressing, very good. At least both constituency and party lists it should be 248. If we have got an absolute majority in the parliament - this problem will not be serious. But if we not win an absolute majority - less than 250 - then we should be bargaining with the middle or small party," Wichaidit explained. <!--IMAGE-->
The major parties have stepped up campaigning before the July 3 election, the first since 2007. The Pheu Thai Party is led by Yingluck Shinawatra, younger sister of former ruler Thaksin Shinawatra, who fled Thailand in 2008 in the face of corruption charges after being deposed in a coup in 2006. Thaksin's hopes of a return to Thailand rest on Pheu Thai winning the July 3 polls.
During the weekend in central Bangkok 5,000 Pheu Thai supporters dressed in the familiar red shirts rallied.
Popular activist Natawut Saikua criticized the government's policies.
Natawut, a candidate and a leader of the United Democratic Front Against Dictatorship (UDD), or red shirts, is confident the party will secure an overall majority in the 500-seat parliament.
"Yes, I think we can have more than 250, yes," he said.
The Democrat Party says the vote will be closer than the polls indicate. All major candidates supported by the Democrat and Pheu Thai parties are pushing hard on populist policies to secure victory at the polls.
The Democrat Party's programs include income guarantee programs for rice farmers, free education for children, and a modest pension program for the elderly.
The Pheu Thai Party promises to double the minimum wage, sharply raise rice prices for farmers, provide tablet computers for school children, create a $3 billion program for villages, and a debt moratorium for low income earners.
But leader of the Rak Thai (Love Thai) Party, Chuwit Kamolvisit, a former massage parlor owner turned politician, says populist policies may create problems for Thai society in the long run.
"The point is they use the political [policy] before the economic. All Thai politicians try to offer populism, which means that it is an addict [addiction]. Once you have used this to the Thai society to the poor people they get everything for free," Kamolvisit stated.
Chuwit says such policies may undermine people's capacity of self reliance. Economists and business leaders also fear the impact of higher wages on employment, with sharply higher government rice prices undermining Thailand's global position as the leading rice exporting nation.
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The regulatory body that oversees Internet domain names has agreed to end restrictions on suffixes for site names, a change that will dramatically increase the number of possible site names while opening up new branding opportunities for companies, cities and others.
Currently, Internet site owners are limited to a handful of suffixes, such as dot.com, dot.org or dot.gov.
But starting in January registrants will be able to invent their own suffixes.
Major companies are expected to create suffixes with their own names. Japanese electronics giant, Canon, has already said it plans to apply for rights to use domain names ending with dot-canon. The German capital city, Berlin, has reportedly expressed interest in a dot.berlin suffix. Other suffixes could help organize the Internet by language, geography or industry.
The Los Angeles-based non-profit organization is expected to begin taking applications for the new names on January 12.
Brad White, ICANN's director of global media affairs, says opening the Internet address system will have far-reaching social and commercial impact.
"It will afford a possibility for innovation, creativity, branding, marketing. We can't fully predict the impact that this change will have, but we know it will have tremendous impact, in much the same way that nobody could predict social media. Nobody could predict the popularity of Skype. No one could predict the popularity of Facebook or Twitter. What we have done is removed a barrier to innovation," says White.
There are currently 22 generic top-level domains, also known as gTLDs. Dot.com, dot.org and dot.info are a few examples. There are also about 250 country-level domains like dot.uk for Britain or dot.cn for China.
Several hundred new gTLDs are expected to come into existence under the new system.
In addition to the interest of big corporate brands, organizations such as cities or other communities are expected to apply. However, with an initial price tag of $185,000 for each application, none but the richest individuals can be expected to seek their own personal domains.
Still, the move is an opportunity for commercial brands to gain more control over their on-line presence and send visitors more directly to parts of their websites.
Brad White, of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names, says the new suffixes will have other benefits.
"One of the biggest changes that this will mean to the Internet is an expansion of the use of non-Latin characters. So, people who speak Cyrillic, or Arabic or Chinese can now use their own generic top-level domains at the end of an Internet address. It will vastly, we believe, increase the number of Internet users," he says.
The new domain system will also change how ICANN works. Until now, it has overseen names and performed some other tasks, but has had little involvement in the Internet's thornier issues.
With the new changes, ICANN will have a role in policing how gTLDs are operated, bought and sold.
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Japanese officials said Monday they have fully opened a door to the building housing one of the Fukushima nuclear plant's damaged reactors to release water vapor so that workers can install a cooling system to prevent an explosion.
A spokesman for the Tokyo Electric Power Company said said the amount of radiation released by ventilating the Unit Two reactor building was too small to threaten human health.
Restoration work inside the building has been hampered by humidity of almost 100 percent caused by steam from the containment vessel and spent-fuel storage pond.
Officials say workers plan to install new water and pressure gauges for the reactor and inject nitrogen into the containment vessel to prevent a hydrogen explosion.
On Sunday, TEPCO began injecting water into a storage pool in the number four building, where contaminated equipment was being stored. Japan's national broadcaster NHK said the pool had lost two-thirds of its water, releasing large amounts of radioactivity.
The power company opened a door last month for the building housing reactor number one, and began work to build a cooling system.
However, that system failed Saturday, just five hours after the equipment came on line.
TEPCO officials said the part of the system that absorbs radioactive cesium had reached its processing capacity and needs to be replaced far sooner than expected.
A TEPCO spokesman told a news conference Saturday that the cause of the problem is being studied. He had no estimate on when the project could resume.
The water has been used to cool the plant's reactors since a nuclear meltdown after a massive earthquake and tsunami destroyed the plant's cooling systems in March. The contaminated water has been held in reservoirs at the plant, but TEPCO says those tanks are nearly full.
Company officials said Friday they plan to remove radioactive elements, oil and salt from the water and then recycle it through the reactors. But cleaning the water will create radioactive sludge, which the company will have to store.
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Iraqi officials say a roadside bomb has exploded near a French embassy convoy in Baghdad, wounding seven people in one of several attacks Monday in the capital.
The officials said four Iraqi security guards and three civilians were wounded in the blast in the central part of the city.
In the northern Shaab district, authorities say a car bomb killed one person and wounded four others.
Meanwhile, in southern Baghdad, police say gunmen using silenced weapons shot and killed a policeman.
Violence in Iraq has eased since the height of sectarian clashes in 2006 and 2007, but attacks including roadside bombings remain common.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says he would like to run for a second term as president, but is reluctant to compete for the position against his predecessor, Vladimir Putin.
Medvedev told the Financial Times Monday that a competition for the presidency between himself and Prime Minister Putin would not be "the best scenario" for the country. He also denied a growing rift between them, saying they represent the same political force.
Putin previously served two terms as president before Medvedev took over the position in 2008. Neither man has officially declared his intentions for the March 2012 elections, although many expect Putin to reclaim the presidency after Medvedev's term expires.
The Russian president also said he would like to see U.S. President Barack Obama re-elected next year to lead the United States for another four-year term. Medvedev said relations between the two countries have improved during the Obama administration.
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The U.S. men's soccer team has reached the semifinals of the Gold Cup regional championship with a 2-0 victory over Jamaica.
The United States maintained its perfect record against Jamaica, which now stands at 10 wins and eight draws.
This was a Jamaican team that came in confident after not allowing a goal in its three first-round group wins over Grenada, Guatemala and Honduras. And it held the Americans scoreless in the opening half of their quarterfinal.
Jamaica would have grabbed the lead in the opening minutes of the match, if not for a great save by U.S. goalie Tim Howard.
Four minutes into the second half, the Americans went ahead on a hard shot by Jermaine Jones from outside the box that deflected off a Jamaican defender. <!--IMAGE-->
Jermaine Taylor of Jamaica was expelled in the 67th minute after tripping Jones on a breakaway. And with the one man advantage, the United States made it 2-0 in the 80th minute. Clint Dempsey scored the goal, which was a bit of redemption after he was criticized for missing several chances in the Americans' previous game -- a close 1-0 win over Guadeloupe.
Dempsey said he takes it all in stride. "I keep going. I keep, you know, picking myself up after a bad situation happens, and I rise above it. And you know, I was able to chip in with a goal and help the team out today and that's the most important thing," he said.
U.S. Coach Bob Bradley was pleased with his team's performance. "I thought we were able from the start to do a good job establishing control, passing the ball, keeping the ball moving. And I think ultimately, you know, it took awhile to get the goal and then the second goal. But certainly as far as establishing our game today, I thought we did an excellent job," he said. <!--IMAGE-->
In the day's other quarterfinal at RFK Stadium on Sunday, Panama beat El Salvador in a penalty shootout, 5-3, much to the disappointment of the majority Salvadoran crowd of 45,000 fans.
El Salvador had grabbed the lead on a penalty kick in the 78th minute by Rodolfo Zelaya, but Panama's Luis Tejada scored on a goalmouth scramble with only seconds left in regulation. Neither team scored in 30 minutes of extra time and Panama prevailed in the shootout with Tejada scoring the clinching goal.
The win sets up a rematch with the United States. Panama upset the U.S. in the first round, 2-1. Their semifinal is in Houston on Wednesday. The other semifinal features Mexico against Honduras, who won their quarterfinals Saturday.
Mexico edged Guatemala, 2-1, and Honduras eliminated Costa Rica on penalty kicks, 4-2.
The winner of this Gold Cup earns a berth in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil that serves as a tune-up event one year before the next World Cup.
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