ARBIL, Iraq, Feb 4 (Reuters): The death toll from weekend suicide attacks on Kurdish offices in northern Iraq rose to 101 Tuesday, and the U.N. secretary-general said he would send a team to Iraq to try to solve problems over the handover of power.
About 50 km (30 miles) south of Baghdad the occupation forces suffered new losses when a roadside bomb killed one U.S. soldier and wounded a second, bringing to 367 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in combat since the start of the U.S.-led war.
In Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell said President George W. Bush was right to invade Iraq even if no illicit weapons were found there.
Britain, following the U.S. lead, ordered an inquiry into the accuracy of intelligence on banned Iraqi weapons that led to the decision to invade Iraq, but opposition lawmakers said its exclusion of political judgements made it meaningless.
Some 90 Japanese soldiers left the northern island Hokkaido for southeast Iraq, part of a force of about 1,000 being sent to help rebuild the country - controversially the first deployment of Japanese troops to a war zone since World War Two.
The rising death toll from Sunday''s suicide attacks on the offices of the main Kurdish parties in the northern town of Arbil was expected further to complicate the process of ending the occupation of Iraq and choosing a provisional government.
Both the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) lost several senior politicians, and analysts said they expected Kurds to press harder for autonomy for the parts of northern Iraq they control.
A spokesman for the U.S.-led authority in Iraq said the number killed in Arbil had risen to 101 from a previously estimated 67, while the number of wounded was 133, fewer than previous accounts of more than 200.
Kurdish television showed pictures of a man it said was responsible for the bombing at the KDP offices and offered a reward for anyone able to identify him.
U.S. officers said it was too early to exclude any insurgent groups from the investigation, but early indications suggested foreign groups were probably involved.
In Washington, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he hoped the electoral mission he was sending to Iraq would overcome obstacles to meeting a June 30 deadline for handing over U.S.-held power to Iraqis.
"We do have a chance to help break the impasse which exists at the moment," Annan told reporters as he met U.S. President George W. Bush in the White House.
"Everyone agrees that sovereignty should be handed over to Iraq as soon as possible. The date of 30th June has been suggested, but there is some disagreement as to the mechanism for establishing the provisional government," Annan said.
Powell, speaking to reporters in Washington about the reasons for invading Iraq, said: "I think it was clear that this was a regime with intent, capability and it was a risk the president felt strongly we could not take, and it was something we all agreed to and would probably agree to it again under any other set of circumstances."

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BALI, FEB 4 (AP): Combating the al-Qaida linked Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah topped the agenda at a terrorism conference Wednesday among ministers and other senior officials meeting on this bomb-scarred tourist island amid heavy security.

Dignitaries from 33 countries - including US Attorney General John Ashcroft and Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer - will likely agree to bolster cooperation in intelligence gathering at the two-day conference, and offer new anti-terror aid for developing countries like Indonesia.
It''s unlikely they''ll sign any comprehensive, anti-terror agreements that would enable them to move beyond the two-way agreements that have damaged but failed to defeat Jemaah Islamiyah.
Still, Australia''s Downer announced the opening of a transnational crime centre in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, run jointly by Indonesia and Australia, to offer anti-terror training and serve as an information clearinghouse.
Meanwhile, another report adds: Indonesian forces killed five suspected rebels in shootouts in the western province of Aceh, a military spokesman said Wednesday.
Government troops gunned down five members of the Free Aceh Movement in South Aceh district Tuesday, Lt. Col. Asep Sapari said.

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WASHINGTON, FEB 4 (AP): John Kerry overwhelmed his opponents in Arizona, Missouri and Delaware Tuesday because voters perceived him as the most experienced and the best bet to beat President George W. Bush.
But rival John Edwards slowed Kerry''s rush toward the nomination by winning South Carolina, largely on the strength of his economic message. Edwards and former NATO commander Wesley Clark were battling Kerry in Oklahoma.
Voters in Democratic presidential contests scattered around the country said they thought the economy and jobs were the top issues in the campaign and they want a strong-willed candidate who can beat Bush, exit polls found.
Voters in Arizona, Delaware, Missouri, Oklahoma and South Carolina all cited the economy and jobs as top concerns, according to a voter survey conducted for The Associated Press by the National Election Pool.
In South Carolina, Edwards, beat Kerry by a 2-to-1 margin among South Carolina voters who said the economy was a top concern and among white voters. They did equally well among black voters.
William Keisler, a 75-year-old retiree from Leesville, South Carolina, who is a political independent, said he voted for Edwards because he "is a native of South Carolina and that''s the main reason."
"That doesn''t necessarily mean I''ll vote Democrat next election," Keisler said. "A lot can happen between now and November."
In the two states where Edwards was running strongest - Oklahoma and South Carolina - he was the strongest among voters who said they were satisfied but not enthusiastic about the Bush administration.
Kerry won in Missouri and Delaware by claiming close to half or more of almost every demographic group and doing especially well among voters who thought experience and the ability to beat Bush were the most important qualities for a candidate.
In all the states, almost half the primary voters said their financial situation was worse than it was four years ago, and more than a third said it was about the same.
Democratic caucuses were being held in New Mexico and North Dakota, but no exit polls were done for those contests.
Voters in the five primary states agreed the quality they most wanted in a candidate was the ability to beat Bush in November and they also wanted a candidate who would stand up for what he believes.
Dorothy Hamilton, a 70-year-old who voted near Tucson, Arizona, calls herself "a brand new Democrat" because of dissatisfaction with Bush. She switched from Dean to vote for Kerry.
"I think (Kerry) has a better chance of making it," said Hamilton. "That''s the reason. I want to get Bush out of there."
More than three-fourths of voters in all the states said they would be satisfied if front-runner Kerry becomes the nominee.

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BANGKOK, FEB 4 (AP): Asia''s human death toll from bird flu rose to 14 Wednesday while China addressed its broadening zone of infected poultry with a new bird flu headquarters and Singaporeans turned in pet chickens for slaughter to keep their city-state disease-free.
Health experts say the wide range of the bird flu striking Asia''s poultry boosts chances that the virus could mutate into a global menace for people, but say the disease is "nowhere close" to being declared a pandemic.
Most human cases have been traced directly to contact with sick birds, and although human-to-human transmission has not been ruled out in the case of one Vietnamese family, the experts say there is no sign of a new strain that can easily infect many people.
The latest death was announced Wednesday in Vietnam. The 16-year-old girl died early Tuesday at a disease clinic in Ho Chi Minh City, clinic deputy director Tran Tinh Hien said.
Vietnam has confirmed 10 deaths, and four have been confirmed in Thailand, the only other country to report human cases.
China said Wednesday it has no human infections, but that officials were investigating cases in poultry in 12 of its 31 regions - with the provinces of Gansu and in Xi''an added overnight to regions with suspected cases.
A new National Bird Flu Prevention Headquarters has opened in Beijing to oversee regional efforts to kill all sick birds and keep close watch on people who handled them, though it was unclear how the centre would overcome the typical communications obstacles between local governments and the Beijing government.
"The whole of China is trying to prevent bird flu," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said.
Health experts say the best policy is to destroy infected poultry while ensuring that people carrying out the culls are not exposed to the virus.
On an optimistic note, Thailand''s deputy prime minister said Wednesday that officials there believe they''ll eradicate the virus from the country''s farms by week''s end. The virus has struck more than half of the country''s provinces.

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PASADENA, California, FEB 4 (AP): NASA''s Opportunity rover took the first-ever microscopic photographs of the martian soil, which scientists believe could contain evidence that the now-dry planet once was a wetter world capable of sustaining life.
The pictures, released Tuesday, show a coin-sized patch of grainy soil peppered with tiny pebbles. Opportunity captured the images with its microscopic imager, one of four instruments at the end of its robotic arm.
The rover and its twin, Spirit, are 10620 kilometres (6,600 miles) apart on opposite sides of Mars.
Opportunity rolled off its lander and onto the ground Saturday, a week after it landed. Spirit arrived Jan. 3 but was sidelined for nearly two weeks by software problems. Engineers were still working the kinks out.
NASA announced it will name seven hills east of Spirit''s landing site in memory of the astronauts killed a year ago aboard the space shuttle Columbia. The agency must submit the names to the International Astronomical Union for official designation.
NASA previously said it would name another group of hills at the site in memory of the three Apollo astronauts killed in a launch pad fire in 1967.
The agency next planned to have Opportunity put its Mossbauer spectrometre to the ground. The German-built instrument was designed to measure the composition and abundance of iron-bearing minerals.
NASA originally planned to have Spirit brush dust off the surface of a volcanic rock called Adirondack so that rover''s microscopic imager could photograph it, but those plans were called off to allow more time to finish correcting a computer problem that has stymied the wheeled robot''s mission. Engineers postponed gathering the geologic data until Thursday, a day after they planned to reformat Spirit''s flash memory.
The rovers were launched to search for geological evidence of water on Mars billions of years ago.
Opportunity already has discovered an iron-rich mineral called gray hematite. Preliminary measurements suggest the mineral is of a variety that forms in liquid water.

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 4 (PTI): After months of investigations into the allegations of proliferation of nuclear technology to North Korea, Iran and Libya, the Pakistani government has formally charged four of its nuclear scientists and security officials for alleged transfer of nuclear technology to other countries.
"Families received notices from the government today, saying that the nuclear scientists and security officials have been put under arrest for three months," private television channels here quoted a lawyer representing the scientists as saying.
There was, however, no official confirmation to this effect.
Local television channel Geo said four scientists have been charged. It is not clear whether the top scientist, Dr A Q Khan has also been charged or not.
The lawyer said the scientists have been charged under security law of 1952, which deals with defence, external and security affairs. He said the law allows the detained men to have a defence lawyer.
The orders charging the scientists came as the families challenged their detention and the Lahore High Court set February 9 for the Government to submit a written reply about the whereabouts of the scientists and charges against them.
Meanwhile, Pakistan''s top nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan has denied a claim by a government official that he (Qadeer) has admitted to having leaked nuclear secrets to groups working for Iran, Libya and North Korea.
The official had told that Khan had confessed to passing on information about nuclear technology in the 1980s and 1990s.

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MAKKAH (Saudi Arabia), Feb 4 (AFP): The hajj season was a "great success" in every possible way, Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz said Wednesday, adding that the 251 people trampled to death during the stoning of the devil ritual "met their fate".
"I want to congratulate you on your great achievement ... all the security, safety and traffic plans were carried out according to the highest standards and those who say otherwise are ungrateful or hate this country," Prince Nayef told the men charged with the security of the annual pilgrimage to Makkah, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.
He said the mostly Asian pilgrims who perished Sunday as they pressed to throw stones at three pillars representing Satan in the valley of Mina near Makkah "met their fate because their place and time of death has been decided the moment they were born."
"We hope that their place in paradise with the faithful is assured because they have fulfilled their pilgrimage duties."

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CHICAGO, Feb 4 (Reuters) - An inflammation-related blood protein that can signal an increased risk for heart disease can also tell who may be at risk for colon cancer, a study said Tuesday.
But researchers at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore said more research was needed before it could be determined what benefit the findings may have in helping prevent the second-leading cause of cancer death in the United States.
The study looked at the medical records of more than 22,000 adults from one Maryland county who gave blood samples in 1989 and were followed through December 2000.
The researchers found 172 colorectal cancer cases in the group. Those who had the highest levels of C-reactive protein, or CRP, in their blood at the start of the study were more likely to have developed colon cancer than those with low levels, the authors said.
Overall, people with the highest levels had twice the risk of developing colorectal cancer, and 2.5 times the risk of developing colon cancer as those with the lowest levels, according to the study.
"Higher levels of C-reactive protein are linked to an increased risk of several apparently distinct, chronic diseases: heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and now colon cancer," said Dr. Thomas Erlinger, the study''s chief author.
"However, it''s not clear yet how or whether measuring C-reactive protein would fit into current screening and prevention strategies for colorectal cancer," he said.
CRP is produced primarily in the liver and is a marker for inflammation, the study said. Scientists have theorised that inflammation could play a role in the development of colorectal cancer, though the mechanism is unclear.
Colon cancer will affect nearly 150,000 people in the United States this year and kill 57,000, according to the American Cancer Society.

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KONYA, Turkey, FEB 4 (AP): Workers rescued 31 survivors and pulled out 21 bodies from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building as relatives Wednesday waited for news of dozens still unaccounted for.
The sudden collapse of the 11-story apartment building Monday evening has prompted new accusations about shoddy construction in Turkey. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for tougher laws on building codes.
Rescue workers scrambling to free dozens of people believed trapped inside the building, freed one survivor overnight and pulled out the bodies of four other victims Wednesday, raising the death toll to 20. Thirty-one survivors were evacuated.

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TEHRAN, Feb 4 (AFP): Iran''s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has rejected the postponement of the February 20 elections demanded by reformists following the barring of hundreds of their candidates, members of parliament and press reports said Wednesday.
Two MPs told AFP that Khamenei wanted the polls to take place on the scheduled date, following talks Tuesday with reformists President Mohammad Khatami and parliament speaker Mehdi Karoubi on the current political crisis.
Despite his refusal, "the negotiations were positive and there are encouraging prospects," one MP said.

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GENEVA, Feb 4 (Reuters): In a study, the United Nations agency estimated that ensuring all children under the age 14 stayed in school rather than went out to work would bring accumulated economic benefits worth $5,000 billion by 2020. This was almost seven times the some $760 billion cost of implementing the policy.

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BEIJING, Feb 4 (Xinhua): Beijing Zoo closed one of the three exhibition halls at its bird garden today to prevent the spread of bird flu.
Meanwhile, the zoo has removed all turkeys from display to a non-exhibition area. The Badaling Safari Park in Beijing also replaced live chickens with beef to feed its 200 lions and 100 tigers.

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BAGHDAD, Feb 4 (AFP): Known across Europe as a rather mundane German car, beloved of businessmen and unadventurous families, the Opel has a dangerous new image in Iraq as the vehicle of choice for rebels mounting deadly attacks on US soldiers, Iraqi police and civilians.
In the daily gunfights, suicide bombings and drive-by shootings which have accompanied the US-led occupation of Iraq, Opels are again and again identified playing a crucial role. The demands of rebels planning strikes on the coalition and its allies are met by the Opel Kadetts, Omegas and Vectras plying Iraq''s highways.

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BEIJING, Feb 4 (Reuters): China plans to build a railway linking the port of Dalian with Russia, the latest project to help pump new life into its dilapidated northeast, the China Daily said on Wednesday.
The 1,380-km (840-mile) railway will hug the coastline of Liaoning province and the border with North Korea before ending at Suifenhe, not far from the Russian port city of Vladivostok.

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UNITED NATIONS, Feb 4 (Reuters): The Palestinians accused United Nations staff on Tuesday of improperly leaking documents to Israel from a World Court case challenging Israel''s construction of a barrier in the West Bank.

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