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||| SRI LANKA. The deadly attack occurred just after government troops struggle for control

Suicide bomber kills 27

||| It is noted that the atrocious attack was aimed for retired Maj. Gen. Janaka Perera. ||| Perera was acclaimed a war hero due to his repeated confrontations with the rebels. ||| It is stated that the rebels have perceived over 240 suicide bombings against military, political and economic targets.

Krishan Francis | AP Writer
 

COLOMBO – A suspected rebel suicide bomber blew himself up Monday inside a crowded opposition party office in northern Sri Lanka, killing a former army general and 26 others.
Retired Maj. Gen. Janaka Perera and his wife were among the 27 dead and at least 80 more were wounded in the bomb attack at the United National Party of-fice in Anuradhapura town, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.
The blast came as government troops and Tamil Tiger fighters battled for control of the rebels' administrative capital in the northern town of Kilinochchi.
The suicide bomber was a Tamil Tiger rebel who apparently targeted Perera because of his successes against the separatist cause during his years in the military, Nanayakkara said.
The attack occurred at about 8:45 a.m. Monday as officials from the United National Party gathered to open a new office. The blast also killed Rashmi Moha-med, a television journalist who was covering the opening.
Wearing a hidden explosives vest, the assailant "embraced the former commander" before detonating, the rebel-affiliated Tamil Net Web site reported, noting that Perera played a key role in evicting Tamils from northeastern villages in 1984 to settle ethnic Sinhalese there.

 “The government must take full responsibility. They did not give him adequate security for political reasons.”

Perera was lauded as a war hero in Sri Lanka for his repeated confrontations with the rebels and his role in halting a major guerrilla advance in 2000 into the Jaffna peninsula, the cultural heartland of the country's minority Tamils. But he was also a critic of the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and became a leader in recent months of the opposition United National Party.
In August the retired officer won a seat in the north-central provincial assembly.
The United National Party, meanwhile, accused the government of ignoring repeated re-quests for a stronger security detail for Perera – an open critic of the way Colombo has conducted its military campaign against the rebels.
"The government must take full responsibility. They did not give him adequate security for political reasons," party official Tissa Attanayake said, without elaborating.
Rebel officials could not be reached for comment on either attack because communication lines have been cut to guerrilla-dominated areas in the north.
The rebels, banned as a terrorist group in the United States and the European Union, are said to have carried out more than 240 suicide bombings against military, political and economic targets. |||  

||| AFGHANISTAN. Denials of peace talk

Taliban officials meet

Jason Straziuso | AP Writer

KABUL – Taliban representatives met with Afghan government officials last month in Saudi Arabia, a former high-level Taliban ambassador said Monday, but he denied the meeting could be construed as peace talks.
Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Tal-iban's former ambassador to Pakistan, said he was invited by Saudi King Abdullah to share Iftar – the meal that breaks the daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Taliban representatives, Af-ghan government officials and a representative for the powerful warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar were also at the meal, he said.
"This is not new, it's a kind of a guest celebration," Zaeef told The Associated Press, adding that they did not discuss any issue involving Afghanistan with Abdullah.
Zaeef, who spent almost four years in the United States military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, said none of the representatives from the Taliban or Hek-matyar's group was authorized to carry out peace talks.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai last week said he has repeatedly asked Saudi Arabia's king to facilitate peace talks with the Taliban.
Karzai said Afghan officials have traveled to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in hopes of ending the country's six-year conflict but that so far there have been no negotiations.
Karzai's government has long encouraged militants to lay down arms and accept Afghanistan's Constitution. |||

||| IRAQ. Due to rampant crime

Fears to be a candidate

Kim Gamel | AP Writer

BAGHDAD – The 38-year-old teacher wanted to participate in Iraq's first provincial elections in four years – until she realized that a new law would require the ballot to list her name, not just her party.
Even as violence has declined, lingering fear bred by rampant crime and a small but die-hard insurgency has left many Iraqi women afraid to run in the elections, to be held by Jan. 31.
"I feel that I am unprotected," said the teacher, speaking by telephone on condition of anonymity because of her fears. "I am not going to run in the elections be-cause I fear for the safety of members of my family who might be targeted."
The teacher, a Sunni who considers herself a political independent, hails from Baqouba, a former stronghold of al-Qaida in Iraq some 35 miles northeast of Bagh-dad. Al-Qaida and other Sunni extremists have frequently at-tacked more moderate Sunnis who cooperate with the Iraqi government or U.S.-led forces. |||