Baghdad, August 17
Fiftyfour persons were killed in Iraq today, most by a triple car bombing that struck a busy bus station and a nearby hospital during morning rush-hour.

A series of insurgent attacks also killed 11 Iraqis, including six soldiers assigned to protect oil pipelines in northern Iraq, security officials said.

The three car bombs exploded in quick succession in the centre of the Iraqi capital, killing 43 persons and wounding 73 others.

An Interior Ministry official said two cars exploded 10 minutes apart in the Al-Nahda bus station and a third blew up later near Al-Kindi hospital in the same neighbourhood.

Al-Nahda is a major bus station which links the capital with the predominantly Shiite regions to the south of Baghdad.

The third car bomb exploded in a leafy part of the neighbourhood where people usually seek shade in the blazing heat of Baghdad’s summer, especially during morning rush hour.

Two civilian cars and some police vehicles were burnt-out by the blast, while a nearby house was badly damaged, an AFP correspondent reported.

In Kirkuk, six Iraqi soldiers were killed as masked gunmen ambushed their patrol vehicle and opened fire, police said.

In a separate incident, one civilian was killed and two injured when a crude bomb exploded in the capital’s Al-Obeidi neighbourhood, an Interior Ministry source said.

In Samarra, 120 km north of Baghdad, gunmen shot dead a police officer, police said.

In other violence, three truck drivers including one Turk, were shot dead by gunmen in Baiji, 200 km north of the Capital, a security source said. — AFP

London, August 17
The British authorities fear a further attack on the capital and suspect the groups behind last month’s bomb attacks on London are connected, even though no link has been found, the UK’s Interior Minister said yesterday.

Four British Muslims killed themselves and 52 others when they detonated bombs on three London underground trains and double-decker bus on July 7, and exactly two weeks later bombers failed to set off devices in almost identical attacks.

“I think it would be very, very surprising if they weren’t linked in some way,’’ Home Secretary Charles Clarke told BBC Radio, although he added that no direct linkage had been formally established.

‘’The extent to which they had support training, induction, even tasking from outside the groups ... is something which is being investigated very fully and comprehensively.’’

But, a security source said investigators had found no obvious links or clear forensic evidence to connect the two attacks, although a connection could not be dismissed.

Neve Dekalim, Gaza Strip, August 17
Thousands of Israeli troops dragged sobbing Jewish settlers out of homes, synagogues and even a nursery school today and hauled them onto buses in a massive evacuation, fulfilling Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s promise to end Israel’s 38-year occupation of the Gaza Strip.

Soldiers carried away worshippers still wrapped in their white prayer shawls. Men ripped their shirts in a Jewish mourning ritual. Women in a synagogue pressed their faces against the curtain covering the Torah scroll. Others kicked and screamed as they were loaded onto buses and the smell of burning garbage rose in the air.

One woman shouted, “I don’t want to, I don’t want to,” as she was carried away.

Troops also scuffled with protesters in the isolated settlement of Morag, while irate settlers at another outpost employed Nazi-era imagery — including stars of David on their T-shirts — to protest the military’s actions.

But there were no signs of serious violence, and it appeared many residents were coming to terms with the withdrawal. “I believed that God would not let this happen, but this is not true,” said a Morag woman clutching a baby.

Some 14,000 troops had entered five Jewish settlements — Morag, Neve Dekalim, Bedolah, Ganei Tal and Tel Katifa. Security officials said the goal was to clear out the 21 Gaza settlements in just a few days, far more quickly than originally planned.

Islamabad, August 17
The British High Commission in Pakistan today removed its Islamabad-based military attache for having an “inappropriate relationship” with a suspected female Pakistani spy.

The news, broken by the Britains Sun newspaper, set off ripples in Pakistan and the British High Commission in Islamabad as well, which promptly reacted to the development, confirming removal of Brigadier Andrew Durcan, 56, after “he lost confidence of the High Commission”.

A senior British diplomat confirmed removal of the military attache from the High Commission.

Mr Durcan had been “tricked into a close friendship” by the female defence academic who was “also believed to be an undercover agent for elements within Pakistan’s intelligence services”, the paper said. — UNI

New York, August 17
Vikram Chatwal is surely intrigued by astronomy and what all outer space has to offer.

According to New York Post, he has signed with Virgin Galactic to be on one of the first passenger shuttles in space. Chatwal is also spending millions to transform the former Ambassador on West 45th Street into the 72-room Night Hotel, a homage to the nocturnal life. —ANI