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Several top commanders in Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have been killed in a suicide bombing in the volatile south-east of the country.Iranian state television said 31 people died in the attack, in the Pishin region of Sistan-Baluchistan, and more than 25 were injured. Shia and Sunni tribal leaders were also killed. A Sunni resistance group, Jundullah, said they carried it out. President Mahmoud Ahmandinejad said the criminals would be punished. "The criminals will soon get the response for their anti-human crimes," Irna quoted him as saying.
Several top commanders in Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have been killed in a suicide bombing in the volatile south-east of the country.
Iranian state television said 31 people died in the attack, in the Pishin region of Sistan-Baluchistan, and more than 25 were injured.
Shia and Sunni tribal leaders were also killed. A Sunni resistance group, Jundullah, said they carried it out.
President Mahmoud Ahmandinejad said the criminals would be punished.
"The criminals will soon get the response for their anti-human crimes," Irna quoted him as saying.
Iran's military suffered a heavy blow today when a suicide bomber killed at least 29 people in the country's volatile south-east, including several Revolutionary Guard commanders.The victims included the guards' deputy commander, General Noor Ali Shooshtari, thought to be the most senior member killed in recent years.Local media said at least 28 had been wounded in the bombing at a conference hall in Sarbaz in Sistan-Baluchistan, Iran's poorest province, as Revolutionary Guard commanders met local tribal elders.Conflicting reports said an undetermined number of commanders had died. Initial accounts put the number at six, but Hosein Ali Shahriari, MP for Zahedan, the provincial capital, told the semi-official news agency ILNA, that at least 20 commanders had died.
Iran's military suffered a heavy blow today when a suicide bomber killed at least 29 people in the country's volatile south-east, including several Revolutionary Guard commanders.
The victims included the guards' deputy commander, General Noor Ali Shooshtari, thought to be the most senior member killed in recent years.
Local media said at least 28 had been wounded in the bombing at a conference hall in Sarbaz in Sistan-Baluchistan, Iran's poorest province, as Revolutionary Guard commanders met local tribal elders.
Conflicting reports said an undetermined number of commanders had died. Initial accounts put the number at six, but Hosein Ali Shahriari, MP for Zahedan, the provincial capital, told the semi-official news agency ILNA, that at least 20 commanders had died.
Taliban militants are engaged in street fighting with Pakistani soldiers as the army tries to break the militants' grip on South Waziristan.Both sides claim to have suffered few casualties but residents in the remote area say dozens have died. The army, on the second day of its offensive, is reported to be facing battle-hardened militants, supported by Uzbek fighters linked to al-Qaeda. At least 20,000 people have fled the area over the last week. Reports from the region are sketchy as it is difficult and dangerous for foreign or Pakistani journalists to operate inside South Waziristan.
Taliban militants are engaged in street fighting with Pakistani soldiers as the army tries to break the militants' grip on South Waziristan.
Both sides claim to have suffered few casualties but residents in the remote area say dozens have died.
The army, on the second day of its offensive, is reported to be facing battle-hardened militants, supported by Uzbek fighters linked to al-Qaeda.
At least 20,000 people have fled the area over the last week.
Reports from the region are sketchy as it is difficult and dangerous for foreign or Pakistani journalists to operate inside South Waziristan.
Pakistan said it killed 60 militants and lost 11 soldiers as a 30,000-strong attack force pushed into Taliban's tribal stronghold on the second day of a major operation.Taliban fighters offered fierce resistance as ground troops, backed by warplanes and artillery, pushed into South Waziristan, the mountain headquarters of the notorious Tehrik I Taliban Pakistan (TTP).Militants detonated roadside bombs and opened fire on helicopter gunships. Villagers, some of them women, waved white flags and troops searching houses discovered large weapons caches, the military said.In a statement it said tactical heights near Razmak, a mountain village at the northern edge of South Waziristan, had been captured following fighting that killed 10 militants and two soldiers.
Pakistan said it killed 60 militants and lost 11 soldiers as a 30,000-strong attack force pushed into Taliban's tribal stronghold on the second day of a major operation.
Taliban fighters offered fierce resistance as ground troops, backed by warplanes and artillery, pushed into South Waziristan, the mountain headquarters of the notorious Tehrik I Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Militants detonated roadside bombs and opened fire on helicopter gunships. Villagers, some of them women, waved white flags and troops searching houses discovered large weapons caches, the military said.
In a statement it said tactical heights near Razmak, a mountain village at the northern edge of South Waziristan, had been captured following fighting that killed 10 militants and two soldiers.
Guinea's military leader Capt Moussa Dadis Camara has postponed an announcement on whether he will stand in next year's presidential election.The African Union had given him until midnight on Saturday to formally promise he would not participate. Capt Camara says he wants the region's appointed mediator, Burkina Faso's leader, to decide his country's future. The crisis was triggered last month when troops opened fire on protesters, angered at rumours he intended to run. Human rights groups say some 157 people died but the junta puts the toll at 57.
Guinea's military leader Capt Moussa Dadis Camara has postponed an announcement on whether he will stand in next year's presidential election.
The African Union had given him until midnight on Saturday to formally promise he would not participate.
Capt Camara says he wants the region's appointed mediator, Burkina Faso's leader, to decide his country's future.
The crisis was triggered last month when troops opened fire on protesters, angered at rumours he intended to run.
Human rights groups say some 157 people died but the junta puts the toll at 57.
The chief justice of Botswana says the governing Botswana Democratic Party has won the parliamentary election.The victory gives President Ian Khama another five years in power in the world's largest diamond producer. So far, the BDP has won 36 of the 57 seats contested, with the count complete in 45 constituencies. The main opposition party, the Botswana National Front, and the Botswana Congress Party have won four seats each with one going to an independent. The BDP has been in power since independence in 1966. The turnout in Friday's election was reported to be high, and election observers said voting went smoothly.
The chief justice of Botswana says the governing Botswana Democratic Party has won the parliamentary election.
The victory gives President Ian Khama another five years in power in the world's largest diamond producer.
So far, the BDP has won 36 of the 57 seats contested, with the count complete in 45 constituencies.
The main opposition party, the Botswana National Front, and the Botswana Congress Party have won four seats each with one going to an independent.
The BDP has been in power since independence in 1966.
The turnout in Friday's election was reported to be high, and election observers said voting went smoothly.
This is not the first time ALBA has discussed plans for a regional currency, and the proposal does not yet seem to be concrete to us. The countries have agreed in principle to proceed, with the details to be worked out over the next year. Nevertheless, it does start to chip away at Wall Street's usual answer to any dollar challenge, "Where else will they put their reserves, what else will they use for trade if not the US Dollar?" This has always seemed to be among the most arrogant, self-centered observations of an empire in recorded history. "Without us, who will tell them what to do, who will lead them, who will manage their money?" Were even the British at the turn of the 19th century that self-deluded, so blineded by the rationale of the white man's burden to manage other people's affairs? Ecuador's currency was called the sucre before it shifted to the US dollar nearly a decade ago. Jose Antonio de Sucre was an early 19th century South American Independence leader who fought alongside Simon Bolivar. Sucre is also the capital of Bolivia. In this proposal, it is known as the Sistema Único de Compensación Regional (SUCRE), a new currency for intra-regional trade, to replace the US dollar in trade among several countries: Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Dominica, Saint Vincent and Antigua and Barbuda. Most of these countries have already withdrawn their participation with the World Bank, and it's Center for International Trade disputes, which had sought to arbitrate disagreements among the countries and several western energy firms. This may be important because Venezuela is a major source of oil imports to the US market. Will Chavez start demanding payment for his oil in the SUCRE? Will the US begin to discover the nuclear threat from Venezuela? Or merely encourage its neighbors and internal groups to challenge its sovereignty?
This is not the first time ALBA has discussed plans for a regional currency, and the proposal does not yet seem to be concrete to us. The countries have agreed in principle to proceed, with the details to be worked out over the next year.
Nevertheless, it does start to chip away at Wall Street's usual answer to any dollar challenge, "Where else will they put their reserves, what else will they use for trade if not the US Dollar?" This has always seemed to be among the most arrogant, self-centered observations of an empire in recorded history. "Without us, who will tell them what to do, who will lead them, who will manage their money?" Were even the British at the turn of the 19th century that self-deluded, so blineded by the rationale of the white man's burden to manage other people's affairs?
Ecuador's currency was called the sucre before it shifted to the US dollar nearly a decade ago. Jose Antonio de Sucre was an early 19th century South American Independence leader who fought alongside Simon Bolivar. Sucre is also the capital of Bolivia.
In this proposal, it is known as the Sistema Único de Compensación Regional (SUCRE), a new currency for intra-regional trade, to replace the US dollar in trade among several countries: Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Dominica, Saint Vincent and Antigua and Barbuda. Most of these countries have already withdrawn their participation with the World Bank, and it's Center for International Trade disputes, which had sought to arbitrate disagreements among the countries and several western energy firms.
This may be important because Venezuela is a major source of oil imports to the US market. Will Chavez start demanding payment for his oil in the SUCRE? Will the US begin to discover the nuclear threat from Venezuela? Or merely encourage its neighbors and internal groups to challenge its sovereignty?
