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Iraq Green Zone bomber strikes :

A SUICIDE bomber blew himself up in the Iraqi parliament canteen in Baghdad's Green Zone yesterday, killing three people in a major breach of security at the country's most heavily guarded site.

The bombing, which killed at least two MPs and wounded about 20 people including MPs, occurred despite a massive US-Iraqi security crackdown launched in the capital two months ago, and was swiftly condemned in Washington.

The attack - a rare strike inside the heavily-fortified Green Zone - came just hours after an attack on a Baghdad bridge that killed 10 people.

"A suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt and carrying a briefcase entered the cafeteria. Security was very tight because parliament was meeting," a security official said.

"The flesh of the suicide bomber was scattered across the cafeteria. There was blood everywhere on the floor," the official said from the canteen.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki condemned the attack as "criminal cowardly act" and the parliament speaker announced a special session would be held today to condemn "terrorism".

The security official named one of the dead MPs as Mohammed Awad, a member of the National Dialogue Front, a Sunni Arab party which has 11 of the parliament's 275 seats.

The second killed was a member of the Kurdish Alliance, the second biggest grouping in parliament after the main Shi'ite Muslim alliance, the official said, adding that the third victim was a parliamentary employee.

About seven hours earlier, a suicide bomber blew up a truck on a major bridge across the Tigris River in Baghdad, killing 10 people and sending cars plunging from the wrecked structure into the waters below.

Access to the Green Zone - home to the Iraqi government and foreign embassies - is restricted to visitors carrying picture identity cards and required to pass through multiple checkpoints and metal detectors.

Insurgents have, however, managed to fire projectiles such as rockets and mortar rounds into the compound from outside its heavily guarded walls.

In October 2004, at least seven people were killed including two American civilians in bombings in the zone claimed by the then leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who was slain in June last year.

US national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe condemned the bombing as an "attack on the democratically elected government of Iraq".

Asked whether it called into question the effectiveness of the US-led security plan, Johndroe replied: "No, I think it shows the determination of the terrorists and and extremists.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett condemned the blast as the product of "twisted minds" seeking to disrupt the country's budding democracy.

Although American and Iraqi officials have reported a reduction in execution-style killings since launching a huge security crackdown in Baghdad two months ago, they have admitted car bombings remain a curse.

Another 10 people were killed and 26 wounded in yesterday's truck bombing on Al-Sarafiyah Bridge, one of the oldest in the Iraqi capital, which collapsed under the force of the blast, a security official said.

A witness, who gave his name only as Jawad, told an AFP photographer he was on the bridge trying to fix a puncture to his vehicle loaded with cooking gas when he saw a man park a truck nearby and run off.

On Wednesday, US military spokesman Major General William Caldwell admitted that the overall Iraqi death toll had risen by 10 per cent between February and March.

According to Iraqi security officials, more than 2000 Iraqis were killed in March alone, 15 per cent more than in February.

And in a sign that the American military is straining to meet its commitments, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said soldiers will see their tours of duty in Iraq extended by three months.

Gates acknowledged that US forces are stretched with the foreign deployments, but said the new measure allows the army to maintain the surge in Iraq "probably at least" until April 2008.

The US military also charged that Shi'ite Iran was supporting Sunni extremist groups known to trigger high-profile vehicle bombs against civilians and security forces.

Washington has regularly charged that Shi'ite Iran was funding and training Iraq's Shi'ite militias but Wednesday's accusation that the former foe of Iraq was also aiding Sunni groups was a first.

India's missile tech at par with advanced nations: Antony.

New Delhi, April. 12 (PTI): With the successful testing of nuclear-capable Agni-III missile, India's missile technology has " matured" and is at par with that in developed countries, Defence Minister A K Antony said here today.

"The successful test of longer reach Agni-III has confirmed India's strategic capability for minimum deterrence", he said while patting DRDO scientists for carrying out the successful launch of 3,000-km range missile.

Soon after the test launch, Antony spoke to DRDO Chief M Natrajan and Agni Mission Director Avinash Chander on the phone and congratulating them and their team for the success.

"The nation is proud of your achievements", Antony told the scientists.

"What gladdens the heart is that the scientists were not deterred by the setback of the maiden test and put their heart and soul into making today's test an unqualified success", he said.

"The Agni-III success proves that Indian defence scientists have the ability to design and develop critical and strategic systems through indigenous efforts", he said.

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UNGA for major reforms of world body's internal justice system :

United Nations, April 6 (PTI): The United Nations General Assembly has sought major reform of the world body's six-decade old internal justice system, saying that it is slow, cumbersome and lacks professionalism.

The call is in response to increasing complaints that the current system is unable to meet the demands as the world body expands its operations. The Assembly wants the new system to be fully functional by January 2009.

A resolution adopted by the 192-member Assembly asks the Secretary-General to prepare a series of reports which should be presented to the Assembly during the main part of its next session.

The Assembly called for establishing "a new, independent, transparent, professionalized, adequately resourced and decentralized system of administration of justice consistent with the relevant rules of international law and the principles of the rule of law and due process to ensure respect for the rights and obligations of staff members and the accountability of managers and staff members alike."

The resolution is based on the recommendations of a group of experts called the "Redesign Panel" set up to examine the issue. In its July, 2006 report, the Panel concluded that the administration of justice in the UN "fails to meet many basic standards of due process established in international human rights instruments."

This must be corrected, the experts argued, "to avoid the double standard" which currently exists where the standards of justice that are now generally recognized internationally and that the Organization pursues in its programmatic activities are not met within the Secretariat or the funds and programmes themselves."

"We have taken a significant step forward in improving the effectiveness and efficiency of this Organization by approving the first serious overhaul of the United Nations' system of administration of justice in 60 years," General Assembly President Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa said

The UN, she said, should model the standards it advocates. "Around the world, the Organization promotes justice and equality" and stresses the need for rule of law.

"The Organization, therefore, requires a system of justice which is independent, transparent, professional and adequately resourced."

The existing system of internal justice, in place since the late 1940s, was designed for a different era when the Organization had only a few thousand staff in a handful of locations, she said.

"Over time, the backlogs and delays have become significant and the independence and credibility of the system seriously compromised."

"The existing system serves no-one well - not the staff, not the managers and ultimately, not the Organization or the Member States," she said.

The General Assembly's resolution recognizes that "the current United Nations system of administration of justice is slow, cumbersome, ineffective and lacking in professionalism, and that the current system of administrative review is flawed."

It notes that the "overwhelming majority of individuals serving in the system of administration of justice lack legal training or qualifications."

World Bank Approves a New HIV/AIDS Project in Benin

WASHINGTON, April 5, 2007 – The World Bank Board of Executive Directors today approved a credit to the Republic of Benin for a Second Multisectoral HIV/AIDS Project (PMLS-2). This new project, at a total cost of USD 35 million, will consolidate progress made under the preceding project, which was implemented from 2002 to 2006 at a cost of USD 23 million.

The objectives of the PMLS-2 are derived from Benin’s new Strategic HIV/AIDS Control Plan for the 2006-2010 period, and the project will support the country’s efforts to implement the aforementioned Plan by helping to expand and improve the coverage and utilization of prevention, treatment, and care services on the part of high-risk groups. More specifically, the PMLS-2 will help to: (i) enhance and expand the accessibility and utilization of preventive services by vulnerable groups (e.g., women, young people, etc.) and by high-risk groups such as sex workers; (ii) enhance the accessibility and utilization of treatment and care services by those infected and/or affected by HIV/AIDS, and especially by persons living with HIV/AIDS, orphans, and vulnerable children; and (iii) consolidate the coordination, management and monitoring/evaluation of the national response to HIV/AIDS, in order to ensure its sustainability. 

According to Nicolas Ahouissoussi, Senior Agricultural Economist and World Bank Task Team Leader: "With the World Bank’s help, and particularly under the First Multisectoral HIV/AIDS Project, Benin has already made progress in controlling the epidemic, especially in the area of community mobilization, for which substantial technical and financial assistance has been provided to civil society organizations, thereby enabling them to carry out AIDS prevention and treatment activities and provide ARV [anti-retroviral] drugs to 2,000 patients.  This new project just approved by the Board of Directors will further consolidate those achievements, and will bolster the Government’s efforts to meet the multiple challenges of AIDS control, particularly where universal access to treatment is concerned.”

The PMLS-2 is designed to be implemented over a four-year period, mainly in the form of sub-projects initiated by civil society organizations and through substantial support to activities under the National Program for Control of HIV/AIDS (PNLS), as an adjunct to financing from the Global Fund (5th Round). The Project has three main components:

               i.      A social mobilization component, which will finance HIV/AIDS prevention activities, particularly in the area of communication aimed at behavioral change;

             ii.      Access to treatment and care,  which will enhance access by infected and affected persons to services including screening, treatment with anti-retroviral drugs, treatment of opportunistic infections, and prevention of mother-to-child transmission;

            iii.      Coordination, management, monitoring and evaluation: project funds will provide the National HIV/AIDS Committee (CNLS) with adequate resources to play an effective coordinating role in HIVAIDS prevention and to implement the unified national monitoring and evaluation system.