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Posted: 14 Aug 2011 11:15 PM PDT

Twin central Iraq blasts kill 33

KUT, Iraq: A car bomb and a roadside blast in the central Iraqi city of Kut killed at least 33 people and wounded 52 others, a doctor said, updating an earlier toll.

"We have so far received 33 dead bodies and are now treating 52 injured," said Ali Hussein, a doctor at Kut's Al-Zahra hospital. He said there were women and children among the casualties.

A security official earlier said the 8:00 am (0500 GMT) explosions occurred in a crowded area in the centre of the city, 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of Baghdad.

The attacks come less than two weeks after Iraqi leaders said they would hold talks with the US over a security training mission to last beyond 2011, when all 47,000 American soldiers must withdraw under the terms of a bilateral security pact.

Violence in Iraq has declined from its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common. A total of 259 Iraqis were killed in attacks in July, the second-highest figure for 2011. -- AFP

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Twin central Iraq blasts kill 33

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China may have examined US stealth chopper

Posted: 14 Aug 2011 08:03 PM PDT

China may have examined US stealth chopper

WASHINGTON: Pakistan's intelligence service probably let Chinese military engineers examine the wreckage of a supersecret US stealth helicopter that crashed during the May raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, The New York Times reported late Sunday.

Citing unnamed officials familiar with the matter, the newspaper said that US intelligence agencies had concluded that it was likely that Chinese engineers — at the invitation of Pakistani intelligence operatives — had taken detailed photographs of the severed tail of the Black Hawk helicopter equipped with classified technology designed to elude radar.

Relations between the United States and Pakistan have been under strain following the raid that killed bin Laden, who was found living near Pakistan's main military academy.

President Barack Obama's administration recently suspended about one-third of its $2.7 billion annual defense aid to Pakistan, but assured Islamabad it was committed to a $7.5 billion civilian assistance package approved in 2009.

US Navy Seals that conducted the raid tried to destroy the helicopter after it crashed at bin Laden's compound, but the tail section of the aircraft remained largely intact, the report said.

The US officials cautioned that they did not have definitive proof that the Chinese visited Abbottabad, and they said that Pakistani officials denied showing the advanced helicopter technology to any other foreign government.

The US case is based mostly on intercepted conversations, in which Pakistani officials discussed inviting the Chinese to the crash site, The Times noted.

One official told the newspaper that intelligence officials were "certain" that Chinese engineers had been able to photograph the helicopter and even walk away with samples of the wreckage.

Reaction from China was skeptical. "We express deep doubts about this. Such a thing would never happen," a Chinese defence ministry spokesman, who did not give his name, told AFP Monday.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu in May dismissed the notion that China had asked to see the wreckage of the US helicopter as "ridiculous." -- AFP

Ahad, 14 Ogos 2011