A suicide car bomb exploded outside the police headquarters in Basra, killing three and wounding seventeen in the biggest attack since British forces pulled out of the city centre this month.
The blast raised fears among locals that the withdrawal from Basra Palace had been premature and that the Iraqi security forces were unable to deal with the threat. Major-General Abdul-Jalil Khalaf, the Basra police chief, blamed al-Qaeda.
“We found one of the suicide bomber’s legs tied to driving wheel,” he said. Security in Basra was “less strong in the day than the night”, he said. “After this attack we will increase the police patrols in the day.”
– The Times
Troops moved into the streets of Rangoon in apparent readiness for a confrontation with pro-democracy protesters as the US and UK yesterday stepped up pressure on Burma’s military government, threatening punitive measures against the regime.
The Burmese junta last night imposed a 60-day 9pm-5am curfew and ban on gatherings of more than five people, according to reports from the country’s two biggest cities, Rangoon and Mandalay.
Truckloads of armed security forces in riot gear surrounded several of the key protest sites, including Rangoon’s city hall and the nearby Sule pagoda, in advance of today’s planned marches. Earlier tens of thousand of monks and pro-democracy demonstrators defied government warnings and paraded through the streets of the old capital yesterday, as they have for the past week.
– The Guardian
David Miliband, the foreign secretary, yesterday attempted a break with a decade of Blairite foreign policy, admitting a scarred government needed to stop and think why its well-intentioned interventions had alienated millions of Muslims.
In a frank speech, he also admitted there could be no military solutions in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying the government had found it hard to win peace in such countries. He repeatedly said the government needed to learn lessons as it launched a second wave of foreign policy in which there would be greater reliance on stronger multilateral institutions.
– The Guardian
Kate and Gerry McCann could face criminal charges for using a private security company to investigate the disappearance of their daughter, a senior Portuguese judge has said.
The couple have been secretly receiving advice for more than four months from Control Risks Group, which employs former members of the British intelligence services and special forces.
News of the investigators’ role has led to deep concern amongst the authorities in Portugal, where it is illegal for private detectives to become involved in criminal cases.
– The Times
With tens of thousands of people continuing to protest in Burma, defying the regime’s warnings that it will take action to crush the movement, the time has come for the international community to break its cycle of insubstantial condemnation.
Empty rhetoric has dominated policy for the past two decades – we must now introduce concrete steps to bring change.
For too long, the regime, with its Orwellian name the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), has been allowed to get away with crimes against humanity, while the world has at best used mere words – and has often stayed silent.
– The Telegraph