BAGHDAD Mar 16 (Agencies): U.S.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain arrived in Iraq on Sunday to assess improved security attributed to a build-up of 30,000 extra troops of which he has been a strong supporter.
McCain arrived in Baghdad and was due to meet Iraqi government leaders and U.S.
officials in the heavily fortified "Green Zone" diplomatic and government compound, U.S.
embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said.
"I can confirm he did arrive," Nantongo said.
Attacks across Iraq have fallen by 60 percent since last June, when extra troops were fully deployed.
There has been a fall in violence since January but U.S.
commanders in Iraq say this does not represent a trend.
McCain is making his eighth visit to Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in March 2003.
He originally opposed the way the war was being conducted before the troop build-up began last year as part of a new counter-insurgency strategy by U.S.
Conservatives keep grip of Iran parliament in vote TEHRAN, Mar 16 (Agencies): Conservatives were set to keep their hold on Iran's parliament, early election results showed, but the legislature may still give President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a harder time ahead of next year's presidency poll.
Conservatives have taken 120 seats in the 290-member assembly against 46 for reformists so far, the state Press TV station has reported, citing the Interior Ministry.
In another indication of conservative dominance after many leading reformists were barred from running, conservatives were ahead for all of Tehran's 30 seats as counting progressed, state media reported on Sunday.
"The people have again given (conservatives) control of parliament," the hardline Kayhan daily said on its front-page.
The Interior Ministry, which supervised Friday's vote, has said a final nationwide tally might not come out until Monday.
Many reformists, trying to capitalise on public discontent over inflation, were disqualified from standing in the polls, but they expect Ahmadinejad to undergo sharper scrutiny even in a parliament dominated by their conservative rivals.
"The president will face more challenges with the next parliament than he did with the current one," said Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a close ally of reformist ex-President Mohammad Khatami.
Analysts said splits had opened up among conservatives - who range from Islamic revolutionary radicals, like Ahmadinejad, to his more pragmatic critics - and divisions could widen as they jockey for position before the 2009 presidential race.
Reformists, who seek political and social change, and some conservatives have accused Ahmadinejad of fuelling inflation, now at 19 percent, by lavishly spending Iran's windfall oil revenues on subsidies, loans and handouts.
Conservatives, who call themselves "principlists" for their loyalty to the Islamic Republic's ideals, passed Ahmadinejad's spending plans in the outgoing parliament, which they dominated.
Pro-reform politicians have also rebuked Ahmadinejad for vitriolic speeches that have kept Iran on a collision course with the United Nations over Tehran's disputed nuclear plans.
However, Ahmadinejad has won public backing from Iran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has explicitly endorsed his handling of the nuclear row.
The Interior Ministry put turnout at roughly 60 percent of the Islamic Republic's 44 million eligible voters.
The government had called for a high turnout as a show of defiance for Iran's "enemies" in the West.
Reformists had also urged their supporters to dent conservative power by voting.
"The United States was the real loser and it was the Iranian people ...
who emerged victorious," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told a news conference.
The United States, Iran's harshest Western critic, said the vetting process for candidates meant the outcome of voting in the world's fourth largest oil-producing country was "cooked".
The Guardian Council, a body of clerics and jurists, barred many reformists when it screened potential candidates on criteria such as commitment to Islam and the clerical system.
Washington has led international efforts to penalise Iran for failing to allay suspicions that it is seeking nuclear weapons.
Tehran says its nuclear programme is purely civilian.
Israeli, Palestinian negotiators to meet this week JERUSALEM, Mar 16 (Agencies): Chief Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiators plan to meet this week, restarting talks that were suspended after a deadly Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, Israeli and Western officials said on Sunday.
The negotiations, led by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qurie, have shown little sign of progress since they were launched at a peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland in November.
An Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity and a visiting Western envoy, who met with Qurie, said the chief negotiators have agreed to meet this week.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said he was not immediately aware of a specific date for a meeting.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas temporarily suspended the negotiations earlier this month after an Israeli offensive in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip killed more than 120 Palestinians, many of them civilians.
Israel said the incursion was meant to counter cross-border rocket fire by militants.
The U.S.-backed peace talks have also been bogged down by disputes over Israeli plans to expand Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The construction has drawn fire from both the Palestinians and the United States, Israel's closest ally.
Abbas, whose authority has been limited to the West Bank since Hamas Islamists seized Gaza in June, wants to reach a full-fledged agreement allowing him to declare statehood.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said the goal of the peace talks was to reach an understanding this year on "basic principles" for a Palestinian state, with implementation only once Abbas reined in militants in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as called for under the long-stalled "road map" peace plan.
Israel has yet to meet its own commitments under the road map to halt all settlement activity and uproot Jewish outposts in the West Bank built without Israeli government authorisation.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday that neither Israel nor the Palestinians had done "nearly enough" to meet peacemaking obligations.
LTTE ready for talks if Lankan govt halts attacks COLOMBO, Mar 16 (Agencies): The Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka have expressed readiness to hold talks with the government here if it halted the military operations against them, but warned that the offer should not be seen as "any desperation" on their part to stop the war.
"The LTTE is prepared to commence negotiations with the Sri Lankan government if the government security forces are ordered to halt their military operations.
It was the government which started the war," the LTTE political head P Nadesan told a group of Parliamentarians from the pro-rebel Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in Wanni recently.
"The offer of the LTTE for a ceasefire and talks should not be construed as any desperation on our (LTTE) part to stop the war.
The ball is in the Sri Lankan government's court.
It was they who started the armed attack," Nadesan was quoted as saying by Suresh Premachandran, a TNA MP from Jaffna District who was present at the meeting.
Nadesan had held lengthy discussions with the 13 TNA MPs who had gathered for the funeral of their colleague K Sivanesan, who was killed in a roadside bomb attack on March 6 in Wanni.
"The (LTTE) political chief Nadesan said the LTTE can reciprocate if the Sri Lankan government offers a ceasefire but if they want to continue with the attack, the LTTE is fully prepared for it," Premachandran told agencies here.
Dalai says death toll in Tibet protests may be as high as 100 LONDON, Mar 16 (Agencies): The Dalai Lama, the top Tibetan spiritual leader, has claimed he had received reports that the death toll from the violent anti-China protests in Lhasa may be as high as 100, but said he still supported Beijing's staging of the Olympics in August.
Acknowledging that the figure for those killed could not be verified, the Dalai, who is based in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, told BBC that he feared more deaths in Tibet unless Beijing changed its policies towards the Chinese-controlled Himalayan region.
He said he had "grave concerns" over the Friday's protests in Lhasa city, the fiercest in two decades which, according to official Chinese media, claimed at least 10 lives.
But, the Dalai emphasised that he still supported Beijing's staging of the Olympics from August 8 to 24.
He said the Olympics were an opportunity for the Chinese people to show their support for the principle of freedom.
The latest protests threatened to cast a shadow on the mega sporting event in Beijing amidst concerns expressed by the West over the human rights situation in China.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday urged China to "exercise restraint" in dealing with the protests.
Belgian tourists in Guatemala freed - ministry BRUSSELS Mar 16 (Agencies): Four Belgian tourists being held by peasant farmers in the Guatemalan jungle have been released, the Belgian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
"They were freed following negotiations with the authorities, in other words peacefully," a ministry spokesman said in Brussels.
He said he had no details as yet on the state of their health.
The two couples were seized along with two Guatemalan guides on Friday as they travelled up a river near the Caribbean coast by farmers angry over the arrest of a local Mayan leader.
The Belgian ministry spokesman said he understood three members of an indigenous farmers' group who were being detained by local authorities had been freed as part of the negotiations, but not the leader.
The six captives were thought to have been hidden in dense jungle near the town of Rio Dulce, named after the remote, emerald green river they were travelling up by motor boat when they were abducted by machete-wielding farmers.
The Belgians range in age from 59 to 74, and Ordonez said they were concerned about one of them who had heart problems.
The same group of farmers briefly held 29 policemen hostage in February demanding the release of Ramiro Choc, a community leader whose supporters say is fighting for land rights.
Close to half of Guatemala's population are indigenous peasants, many of them landless, who often occupy land to carry out subsistence farming.
The ministry spokesman said the Belgian tourists were being taken back to Guatemala City and were expected to travel back to Belgium on Monday if they wanted to.
Twenty-two students burn to death in Iran road crash TEHRAN, Mar 16 (Agencies): Twenty-two students were killed when their bus crashed with a fuel tanker and burst into flames in Iran's southwest, Iranian media said on Sunday.
Seven people were injured in the accident in the province of Khuzestan late on Saturday, the official IRNA news agency said.
Iran has one of the highest road accident rates in the world, blamed on inadequate police supervision, poor quality roads and reckless driving.
China's official Tibet Buddhist leader condemns riots BEIJING, Mar 16 (Agencies): China's top state-favoured Tibetan Buddhist leader has condemned the riots that shook Lhasa, state media said on Sunday, but the tightly controlled teenager appeared to avoid directly criticising the exiled Dalai Lama.
The Panchen Lama ranks second to the Dalai Lama in the hierarchy of Tibetan Buddhism.
After the 10th Panchen Lama died in 1989, Beijing and the Dalai Lama made rival choices for his successor, and the Dalai's choice, a boy then aged six, disappeared into the control of Chinese authorities.
But according to the Xinhua news agency, Beijing's choice, 18-year-old Gyaltsen Norbu, has come out backing the government condemnation of protests that left parts of Tibet's regional capital Lhasa smouldering with torched vehicles and shops.
"The rioters' acts not only harmed the interests of the nation and the people, but also violated the aim of Buddhism," he said, according to an English-language report from Lhasa.
"We strongly condemn the crime of a tiny number of people to hurt the lives and properties of the people," he said.
Chinese authorities have said the Dalai Lama directly caused the protests, which snowballed from peaceful marches by monks.
But the 11th Panchen Lama, at least in the published comments, did not condemn the Dalai Lama, whom China reviles as a "separatist" while most Tibetans venerate him as a spiritual leader, even though his image is banned.
Tibetans widely disdain Beijing's choice for the 11th Panchen Lama, but tradition dictates the Dalai and Panchen lamas should recognise each other's reincarnations.