W O R L D

Wave of bombings kills 12 in Iraq 
Baghdad, December 31
A wave of bombings and shootings killed 12 persons today as Iraq grappled with anti-government protests and simmering political crises ahead of major Shiite Muslim commemoration rituals.
Iraqi Shiite Muslim pilgrims march along the main highway that links Baghdad with Karbala on Monday to take part in the Arbaeen religious festival. — AFP

Japan’s PM Abe supports new nuclear reactors
Tokyo, December 31
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has voiced his willingness to build new nuclear reactors, reports said today, despite widespread public opposition to atomic energy since the Fukushima crisis.

Wave of bombings kills 12 in Iraq 

Baghdad, December 31
A wave of bombings and shootings killed 12 persons today as Iraq grappled with anti-government protests and simmering political crises ahead of major Shiite Muslim commemoration rituals.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks in eight towns and cities that also wounded over 40 persons, but Sunni militants such as Al-Qaida's front group in Iraq regularly target officials in a bid to destabilise the government, as well as Shiite pilgrims.

The violence comes after anti-government protesters blocked a key highway to Syria and Jordan, amid political tensions between Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and a secular Sunni-backed party in his fragile national unity government.

In the deadliest attack, seven persons -- three women, two children and two men -- were killed when three houses were blown up in the town of Mussayib south of Baghdad, a local police officer and a medic said. Four others were wounded.

The victims were apparently targeted because they were Shiites, the officials said.

Their deaths come just days before Arbaeen commemorations marking 40 days after the Ashura anniversary commemorating the slaying of Imam Hussein, one of Shiite Islam's most revered figures, by the armies of the caliph Yazid in 680 AD.

A series of attacks in restive Diyala province, north of Baghdad, wounded 19 persons, including 10 Shiite pilgrims who were on the traditional walk to the holy shrine city of Karbala to mark Arbaeen.

In the north, three policemen were killed and four critically wounded in the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk when a bomb went off nearby as they were trying to defuse explosives, a police officer and a doctor at the city's hospital said.

Four separate bombings in Kirkuk city and nearby towns, three of them targeting police and soldiers, wounded four persons.

Meanwhile, a car bomb parked outside government offices south of Baghdad as the provincial governor was arriving killed two persons.

The blast in the city of Hilla also wounded 19 persons, including a guard for the governor of Babil province and one of his photographers, a policeman and a medic said. The governor himself was unharmed. The explosion also badly damaged shops and cars. — AFP

Japan’s PM Abe supports new nuclear reactors

Tokyo, December 31
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has voiced his willingness to build new nuclear reactors, reports said today, despite widespread public opposition to atomic energy since the Fukushima crisis.

During an interview yesterday with television network TBS, Abe said new reactors would be different from those at Fukushima that were crippled by the earthquake and tsunami of 2011, according to major news outlets, including the Nikkei business daily and Kyodo News.

"New reactors will be totally different from the ones built 40 years ago, those at the Fukushima Daiichi plant that caused the crisis," Abe said in the interview, according to the Mainichi Shimbun daily.

"We will be building them while earning the understanding of the public as to how different they are," he was quoted by the Nikkei as saying.

It was the first time since Abe took office last Wednesday that he has voiced support for new construction, although his pro-business government had been widely expected to restart Japan's stalled nuclear programme.

The day after being installed, his administration began signalling an about-face on the previous government's policy of working towards a phasing out of atomic power, with a key minister speaking of a policy review. — AFP

Will respond to talks on ending conflict: Syria 

Damascus, December 31
Damascus will respond to any initiative that could solve Syria's 21-month conflict through talks, its premier said today, after peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi announced he had a plan to end the bloodshed.

"The government is working to support the national reconciliation project and will respond to any regional or international initiative that would solve the current crisis through dialogue and peaceful means and prevent foreign intervention in Syria's internal affairs," Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi told Parliament.

Halaqi emphasised the revolt against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, which has left an estimated 45,000 people dead, must be resolved only by the Syrian people, "without external pressures or decrees".

The country, he said, was "moving toward a historic moment when it will declare victory over its enemies, with the goal of positioning Syria to build a new world order that promotes national sovereignty and the concept of international law". — AFP

Bodies of 9 Taliban militants found in Pak
Afzal Khan in Islamabad

Pakistani troops killed eight militants during an operation in Khyber Agency while the bodies of nine Taliban fighters were found dumped in another part of the lawless tribal belt, officials said on Monday.

The bullet-riddled bodies of nine Pakistani Taliban fighters were found beside a road in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan Agency, early this morning, security officials told the media.

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan confirmed to journalists in the northwest that the bodies were of Taliban fighters who had been arrested by security forces. He said the Taliban would take revenge for the killing of its fighters.

Local residents said the bodies were dumped by the road last night. The spot where the bodies were found is located within a stronghold of militant groups. Officials said they did not know who had killed the men.

In a separate incident, security officials said a clash erupted on Monday morning when troops attacked a militant hideout in Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency near the border with Afghanistan.

As many as 8 militants were killed in the gun battle. The troops were backed by combat jets. Security forces launched the operation in Tirah Valley after obtaining information about the presence of an "important militant commander" and his fighters, the officials said.

Reports said the operation was carried out in retaliation for the abduction and killing of 22 personnel of the Levies militia. The personnel were taken away by militants who attacked three check posts near Peshawar on Thursday. (With PTI inputs)

BRIEFLY

Indian-Americans urge FBI to track religious hate crimes
Washington: Expressing shock and sorrow at the death of an Indian man Sunando Sen last week, Indian-Americans have asked the Department of Justice and the FBI to separately track hate crimes against various religious communities in the country. "Such a violent and hateful attack on any individual, especially because of religious hatred is completely unconscionable in any society," said Suhag Shukla, executive director and legal counsel for the Washington-headquartered Hindu American Foundation. — PTI

Andhra man found dead in US
Washington: An Indian man hailing from Andhra Pradesh, who used to run a liquor store in the US, was found dead at the shop under suspicious circumstances and the police has opened a homicide investigation. Venkat Reddy-Goli (47) was found dead by the police inside the Central Liquors store in Colerain Township of Ohio. — PTI

Hillary Clinton admitted to hospital
Washington: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was admitted to a New York hospital on Monday after doctors discovered a blood clot related to a concussion she suffered earlier this month when she fainted and fell down. — PTI

Iran test-fires missiles
Tehran: Iran's navy says it has test-fired a range of weapons during ongoing manoeuvers near the Strait of Hormuz, the passageway for one-fifth of the world's oil supply. The Monday's report by the official IRNA news agency quotes exercise spokesman Adm Amir Rastgari as saying the Iranian-made air defense system Raad, or Thunder, was among the weapons tested. —AFP