Pakistani security officials and local residents look at belongings of the victims at the site of suicide bombing in Sherpao, a village 40 kilometers northeast Peshawar, Pakistan on Friday, Dec. 21.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Dec. 21--A suicide attacker detonated a bomb early Friday at a mosque outside the home of Pakistan’s former interior minister as he received visitors on an Islamic holiday, killing at least 50 people and wounding dozens more, authorities said.
It was apparently the second attack in eight months to target the politician, Aftab Khan Sherpao, who escaped unhurt. Sherpao is running for parliament in next month’s general elections, AP said.
Election-related violence is common in Pakistan, but suspicion over the bombing will likely focus on pro-Taliban or Al-Qaeda militants who are active in the country’s northwest.
The blast went off as worshippers held prayers for the Eid Al-Adha holy day at the mosque in Sherpao’s residential compound in Sherpao, a village about 25 miles northeast of the city of Peshawar, a witness said.
Provincial Health Minister Syed Kamal Shah said 50 people were killed and about three dozen were injured. Provincial police chief Sharif Virk said said one of Sherpao’s sons was hurt.
Kamal Shah, a top Interior Ministry official in Islamabad, said he was not sure who was behind the bombing, but believed it was related to the previous attack on Sherpao, which killed at least 28 people and slightly wounded the former minister.
“We were saying prayers when this huge explosion occurred,“ said Shaukat Ali, a 26-year-old survivor of the blast Friday.
“It almost blew out our ear drums. Then it was it was like a scene from Doomsday,“ said Ali, whose white cloak and pants were torn and spattered with blood.
Virk said the bomber was praying in a row of worshippers when he detonated the explosive.
Dozens of wounded were taken to the hospital in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province. The scene was chaotic as the injured arrived in pickup trucks, ambulance sirens wailed and wounded people screamed for help.

Abdel Aziz Al-Hakim

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 21--A powerful Iraqi Shiite leader called on Friday for Sunni groups battling against Al-Qaeda to be closely monitored, and said that such groups must operate in conjunction with the state.
“We appreciate the honorable role played by the Awakening forces“ but “we emphasize that arms must be in the hands of the government only,“ said Seyyed Abdel Aziz Al-Hakim, who heads the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), one of the main parties in the Baghdad government, reported AFP.
Hakim was addressing Iraqi Shiites celebrating the feast of Eid Al-Adha which marks the final day of the annual Muslim pilgrimage, the hajj, to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
Dozens of Sunni Arab groups called Al-Sahwa (Awakening) have been formed--with the support of US military--across Iraq’s volatile Sunni regions to fight Al-Qaeda militants.
Critics claim that these groups, made up largely of former insurgents, could eventually become uncontrolled militias if they are not merged with security forces or given alternative jobs.
The US military pays around $300 a month to each member of these groups, whose main job is to guard local neighborhoods and infrastructure.
In the past few months these groups have been targeted by Al-Qaeda, and on Thursday several volunteers who had gathered to join one group were killed by a suicide bomber near Baquba north of Baghdad.
Hakim also called for accelerating the political process, including completing a cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki. The SIIC is one of the main parties leading Maliki’s government.
And he urged the speedy release of innocent detainees held in US and Iraqi prisons.
“I also urge traders and investment companies in the world to improve Iraq’s economy,“ said Hakim.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa,
Dec. 21--South Africa’s top prosecutor said he was in a position to charge Jacob Zuma with corruption, just two days after he was elected leader of the ruling ANC, Reuters reported.
“The investigation is complete. All that we are doing now is to tie the loose ends,“ Mokotedi Mpshe, acting director of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), told Talk Radio 702.
“The investigation, with the evidence we have now, points to a case that can be taken to court.“ He said he was under the impression that charges would be filed soon.
Zuma ousted President Thabo Mbeki as ANC leader.
An NPA spokesman said he could not comment on the case.
Zuma denies any wrongdoing. He said he did not understand why the allegations were being raised in the media and not in a court.
“There was an investigation conducted publicly against me. I was threatened to be charged in public. There were things said about me. My problem was ’why are these things being said in public?“ he told a news conference.
“I was being asked in public about allegations against me and I said: ’If I have to answer any allegations I will do that in court’.“
Mbeki fired Zuma in 2005 after he was charged with bribery and fraud over a multi-million-dollar arms scandal. The case collapsed on a technicality.

Residents of the Mathare slum lie dead on the ground in Nairobi slums, Kenya, June 2.

ELDORET, Kenya, Dec. 21--The European Union’s chief election monitor in Kenya on Friday condemned clashes in which hundreds were killed and thousands displaced in this year’s run-up to the December 27 national election.
“We have noted with concern the level of violence that has taken place during the electoral process particularly in Kuresoi and Mount Elgon,“ Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, chief EU election monitor, said on a trip to hot spots around the nation, Reuters said.
Around 300 people have died, and 60,000 fled their homes, in the western Mount Elgon region where tribally-linked land clashes have been raging all year. Activists say the conflict has been fanned by politicians seeking votes.
In the fertile Kuresoi region in Kenya’s central Rift Valley province, several dozen people have died and many women have been raped in fighting among local communities backed by rival politicians seeking to claim land for their groups.
“The EU observer mission deplores violence. It has no place at all in a genuine democratic election,“ the EU official added during a stopover in Eldoret town, in north-west Kenya.
Lambsdorff was due to visit camps for internally displaced people in Molo, another flashpoint of violence in a lush hilly district that was once part of the so called “white highlands“ popular with European settlers before independence.
“I am going to see for myself what sort of conditions they are living in, what sort of effect the displacement of thousands of people in the district could have on the election,“ he said.
Although Kenya has had a history of tribal violence at election time, it has avoided the all-out conflict and turmoil of many east African neighbors.

MOSCOW, Dec. 21--President Vladimir Putin may become the next chairman of Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom when he steps down following a presidential election in March, Reuters quoted Vedomosti business daily as reporting on Friday.
The newspaper cited two sources close to Gazprom and one source close to first deputy prime minister and current Gazprom chairman Dmitry Medvedev, whom Putin has designated as a preferred candidate to succeed him.
Gazprom and the Kremlin declined immediate comment.
Medvedev has said he would step down as the chairman of Gazprom, the world’s largest gas producer and supplier of a quarter of Europe’s gas, if he becomes president, but did not say who could replace him.
Putin has said he could become prime minister under Medvedev. He has repeatedly denied plans to head a major state energy company, such as Gazprom or oil champion Rosneft.
Gazprom’s chairman plays an important strategic role, while the firm’s day-to-day operations are managed by its chief executive, Alexei Miller.

TOKYO, Dec. 21--Japan will conduct its first test firing of land-to-air missile interceptors in the US in the coming months, an official said Friday.
The Defense Ministry plans to conduct the test of PAC-3 Patriot interceptors at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico during the next fiscal year, which ends March 2009, AP quoted the official of the Defense Ministry as saying.
Mainichi, a major Japanese daily, reported that the test could be in late 2008, but the official said the ministry is still considering the timing. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing policy.
The ministry has requested 900 million yen (US$7.95 million) for the test in next year’s budget, he said.
The test comes as Japan and the US have been accelerating their joint missile defense system to counter North Korea’s testing of missiles and a nuclear device.
Japan has deployed two PAC-3 missile defense units near Tokyo and plans major drills around its capital.
It plans to deploy the missiles at nine more bases by March 2011.
Earlier this week, Japan successfully shot down a ballistic missile in a test of its Standard Missile-3 interceptor system fired from a ship off Hawaii.

SEOUL, South Korea, Dec. 21--South Korea’s next leader Lee Myung-Bak urged North Korea Friday to scrap all its nuclear weapons for its own good and promised closer international cooperation to achieve the goal.
“We appreciate that China has the same thought as us that the disarmament of North Korea is for its own benefit,“ the president-elect told Chinese ambassador Ning Fukui, part of a round of consultations with envoys from regional powers, said AFP.
China since 2003 has hosted the six-party talks on North Korean nuclear disarmament which also groups the two Koreas, the United States, Japan and Russia.
“We have high expectations of China that it has a key role to play,“ Lee was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying, two days after winning a landslide election victory.
Lee has promised to push North Korea to denuclearize and improve its human rights record in return for economic aid. He says he will link aid more closely to disarmament that was the case with Seoul’s liberal governments over the past decade.
Lee called for a stronger alliance between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo in working towards the North’s nuclear disarmament during a telephone conversation with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda Friday.
“The three-way cooperation between South Korea, the United States and Japan is most important in solving the North Korea nuclear issue,“ he was quoted as saying by his spokesperson Park Hyong-Joon.
The North is disabling its atomic plants but has not yet made a full declaration of its nuclear activities, as required under a six-party pact.
Fukuda agreed to cooperate closely on nuclear issues and asked Lee to visit Japan soon. Relations between the two nations have often been prickly because of territorial disputes and lingering resentment over Japan’s 1910-45 occupation.