Solar boat makes Atlantic history

A five-strong Swiss crew have sailed into history by completing the first solar-powered transatlantic crossing.

The Sun21 catamaran arrived in Miami late on Thursday, 117 days after leaving Seville in southern Spain.

The crew of four academics and one full-time sailor said they were trying to promote the "great potential" of solar power to combat climate change.

A similar-sized boat would have used about 72 litres of diesel every 24 hours on the same voyage.

After reaching Miami, crew member Dr Martin Vosseler says it was a thrilling experience.

"The crossing itself, from Las Palmas to Martinique - 29 days of not seeing any land - that was fantastic. We had very much luck - no storms.

"This trip is like a galaxy and the stars - all these encounters with very welcoming, hospitable people and all the natural miracles we encountered. So I feel very well."

'Energy of the future'

The 14m- (46ft) long vessel, built by a Swiss firm and registered in Basel, can maintain a constant speed of 10kmh.

During the day, the 48 solar panels on its roof gather energy from the sun. The power is stored in batteries, which allow it to sail through the night.

Dr Vosseler said he was "astonished" that there were not more solar-powered boats.

The crew of the Sun21 retraced the path Christopher Columbus took on his historic voyage to the New World more than 500 years ago.

Daniel Weiner, the group's spokesman, said they were trying to change people's thinking on renewable energy.

"Just as Columbus changed the mindshift [mindset] of his time [by showing] that the Earth was round and not flat, we want to show that the energy future looks different than the past."

The boat will now sail up the east coast of the US, from Miami to New York, where it will stay on display for several weeks before eventually returning to Spain.

Olmert praises peace 'revolution'

Israel's premier has lauded Arab peace moves as "revolutionary", but stressed he did not accept the entire Arab plan.

Ehud Olmert gave a series of interviews with Israeli newspapers in response to the revival of a 2002 Saudi peace plan, adopted at the Arab summit in Riyadh.

He said: "We do not delude ourselves - they want us to go back to the 1967 borders and also the right of return".

Returning the 1948 Palestinian refugees to what is now Israel, is "something we certainly can't agree to", he added.

Israel rejected the Saudi plan out-of-hand when it was first proposed five years ago.

The governments of Ariel Sharon and Mr Olmert favoured unilateral withdrawals from some of the land occupied in 1967 to "disengage" from the Palestinians.

However, the idea of disengagement was discredited in 2006 when a wave of missile attacks were launched by Palestinian and Lebanese militants from territory Israel had unilaterally withdrawn from.

Comprehensive deal

The Arab plan offers the setting up of normal ties with Israel by all Arab states in return for ending the occupation of Syrian and Palestinian land and the creation of a Palestinian state.

It also calls for a "just solution" to the refugee question - in line with in UN General Assembly Resolution 194. This resolution proposes that Palestinian refugees should be allowed to go back to their homes or be compensated.

Mr Olmert said this week's Arab League summit in Riyadh, which had re-endorsed the plan, demonstrated a "revolutionary change in outlook".

"The countries who count in the Arab world have started to understand that Israel is not their biggest worry," he told Haaretz newspaper.

He told Yediot Ahronot there was "a real chance that within five years Israel will be able to reach a comprehensive peace deal with its enemies".

Mr Olmert is struggling with very low approval ratings among Israeli voters, with just two percent saying they trusted their prime minister in a recent opinion poll, and more than two-thirds saying they want him to resign.

More than four million UN-registered Palestinian refugees claim the right to return to homes and land taken over by Israel in 1948.

Israel fiercely opposes the refugees' claim because it would spell the end of the Jewish majority in the Jewish state.

Police hunt for Woolmer killers

Jamaican police probing the murder of Pakistan's cricket coach Bob Woolmer say they could be searching for more than one attacker.

Police say Woolmer may have known his killer or killers, and are studying video footage from the Pegasus Hotel.

Members of the Pakistan team and staff have already been interviewed, and now plan to return home at the weekend.

Woolmer, who was 58, was strangled in his room hours after Pakistan lost to Ireland in the cricket World Cup.

The defeat dumped Pakistan - a talented but erratic team ranked fourth in the world - out of the competition.

A post-mortem examination established that the former England player had died as a result of "manual strangulation", police commissioner Lucius Thomas said.

"In these circumstances, the matter of Woolmer's death is now being treated as murder," he told a news conference.

Lines of inquiry

Suspicions that the coach may have known anyone who attacked him have been raised after it emerged there were no signs of forced entry at his hotel room in Kingston and none of his possessions were taken.

Woolmer was found unconscious by staff at the Pegasus Hotel on Sunday morning.

The deputy commissioner of the Jamaican police, Mark Shields, said this might now be a hunt for more than one killer, and urged the perpetrators to hand themselves in.

"Bob was a large man. It would have taken some significant force to subdue him," he said, adding that police were ruling nothing out and had "lots of lines of inquiry".

"I have to say at this stage that it looks as if it may be somebody who's somehow linked to him, because clearly he let somebody into his hotel room and it may be that he knew who that person was," Mr Shields told the BBC.

Mr Shields also "unequivocally dismissed" Indian television reports that arrests had been made.

"That's nonsense, as far as I'm concerned. There's actually no truth in that," he said.

Bob Woolmer's murder has stunned the cricketing world and left the World Cup in disarray.

Speculation that this may be connected to gambling cartels is only adding to the confusion surrounding his tragic death, our correspondent says.

On Thursday, Jamaican police questioned members of Pakistan's cricket squad over the death.

After being interviewed for about an hour and fingerprinted, the team left for the resort of Montego Bay.

They are planning to return to Pakistan on Saturday.

Pakistan team spokesman Pervez Jamil Mir said the players were "in a state of shock" over the news that Mr Woolmer had been killed.

However, the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), said the competition would continue as planned to "demonstrate that cricket cannot be put off by a cowardly criminal act".

Anti-corruption

ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said the entire cricket community was shocked by the death of the former England Test batsman.

He said: "Everyone connected with this event will assist the police in any way possible to ensure the truth emerges."

Speed confirmed the ICC's Anti-Corruption Unit would be liaising with police in case there was any link to illegal betting within the game.

"We have people at every cricket match, they're observing what goes on. We have a very extensive database of connections to bookmakers and betters.

"If there is a link there we want to know about it and we will deal with it," he added.

During his career, Woolmer also coached South Africa and enjoyed great success coaching in English county cricket, winning four trophies in two seasons with Warwickshire.

Heavy fighting erupts in Somalia

Heavy fighting has broken out in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, between government forces backed by Ethiopian troops and armed insurgents.

Photos appear to show angry crowds dragging dead soldiers' bodies through the streets and setting them alight.

Seven people were killed in the battle, the heaviest since the Islamists fell last year.

Some 1,200 African Union troops were deployed to Mogadishu this month to try to bring stability to the city.

Dozens have been killed during insurgent attacks in Mogadishu in the past two-and-a-half months, which the government blames on remnants of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC).

Ethiopian troops, who have been in the city since December supporting Somali forces loyal to the transitional government, have been gradually handing over responsibilities to the AU force.

Signal

Somali and Ethiopian troops, supported by tanks and armoured vehicles, entered an insurgent stronghold in central Mogadishu before dawn.

They were met by hundreds of masked insurgents.

Photographs of the incident show people gathered around the body of a soldier killed during the fighting.

Other pictures posted on the Shabelle Media Network's website appear to show the bodies of two soldiers being dragged through the streets.

Shabelle reports that one was a Somalia government soldier, the other an Ethiopian fighter.

Correspondents say the scenes evoke memories of events in 1993 when the bodies of US soldiers were dragged through the streets of Mogadishu by militiamen.

Somalia enjoyed a six-month lull in the insecurity that had dogged the country for the past 16 years when the UIC took power last year.

But insecurity has returned to the city and the UN estimates some 40,000 people have fled from Mogadishu since February.

Our correspondent says there has been a dramatic escalation in attacks against government targets in recent weeks.

It comes at a time when the government says it plans to hold a national reconciliation conference in Mogadishu in April.

Insurgents may want to signal that the city is not safe to hold the meeting in, he says.

Deep-rooted

When UIC leaders were forced out of Somalia, militants among them promised they would start an insurgency war against the Ethiopian army on which the Somali transitional government depends.

The insurgents fighting in Mogadishu are not just Islamists and the fighting is more deep-rooted.

They also include, and may well predominantly consist of, militiamen loyal to the main clan in the city, the Hawiye.

Many of its leaders have long been hostile towards Ethiopian involvement in Somalia.

On Tuesday night, just a few hours before fighting broke out, Hawiye clan leaders and traditional elders held a meeting in the city.

They issued a statement hostile to both the transitional government and Ethiopia.

They also expressed their lack of faith in the AU peacekeeping force from Uganda which has started deploying in Mogadishu.

The transitional government is led by President Abdullahi Yusuf, who hails from Puntland and is from the Darod clan.

He is accused by the Hawiye of precipitating this crisis by bringing in his own militiamen and relying on the mistrusted Ethiopians.

Taleban free Italian journalist

An Italian journalist kidnapped by the Taleban in Afghanistan two weeks ago has been released.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said Daniele Mastrogiacomo was in good health in hospital in Afghanistan.

Mr Mastrogiacomo, who works for the La Repubblica daily, was seized with two Afghans in southern Helmand province.

He was trying to interview senior Taleban officials at the time. Reports that the Taleban killed one of the Afghans have not been confirmed.

The fate of the other is still unclear.

Strength

The Taleban had said they would free the journalist if Italian troops left Afghanistan.

"I'm very happy, I thank you all. I knew you wouldn't abandon me, and that gave me strength and courage," Mr Mastrogiacomo said on Monday via La Repubblica's online television station.

The Italian prime minister said the release had not been "simple" and that more details would be released later.

Fears for Mr Mastrogiacomo's safety grew last week when reports said the journalist's Afghan driver, a father of four, had been killed.

Shortly afterwards, a tape was released in which the journalist said he had just two days to live.

Contacts to negotiate his freedom intensified, culminating in his handover to Italian representatives on Monday.

One Taleban leader, military commander Mullah Dadullah, told Reuters by satellite phone from an undisclosed location that Mr Mastrogiacomo had been freed after Afghan authorities released five senior Taliban officials, including his own brother.

There has been no official confirmation.

Mexican drug raid targets police

Hundreds of Mexican soldiers have taken over the police headquarters in the eastern Tabasco state, as part of an effort to curb drug-related violence.

The troops seized weapons from police, after the force had come under suspicion of working with drugs gangs.

Three people were detained in the raid in Villahermosa, the state capital.

Tabasco had largely escaped the drug violence that has blighted Mexico, but in recent months the state has become caught up in the crime wave.

Last week, a severed head was found in front of the police headquarters. It had apparently been left there as a threat by criminals.

Priority

Now the police themselves have come under suspicion of being connected to the drug gangs.

A similar operation was mounted in the north-western city of Tijuana in January.

In that operation 3,000 police officers had their guns taken from them to see if the weapons had been involved in gang violence.

They were returned after several weeks.

President Felipe Calderon has made the fight against drugs cartels a priority, and sent about 30,000 federal forces to a number of areas since taking office last December.

Last year at least 2,000 people were killed in drug-related violence across Mexico.

Stocks plunge in global sell-off

Wall Street has followed a stocks sell-off in Europe as concerns about the US economy and mortgage industry continue to reverberate.

In the US, the Dow Jones fell below the psychological 12,000-point level for the first time in four months.

London's FTSE 100 index slumped 160.6 points, or 2.5%, at 6,000.7. French and German markets were also hit.

The sell-off comes just as stocks were starting to recover from a sharp slump that rocked markets late last month.

A 2% slump in the US on Tuesday sparked the latest round of global stock turmoil.

Healthy Correction?

Analysts said that market volatility was likely to continue, especially as many markets and stocks had climbed to their highest levels in more than six years.

Lee Cheng Hooi of EON Capital said that the worry for investors was that the problems in the US mortgage market could cause the world's biggest economy to slow down.

"This will cause a domino effect on the world economy," he explained. "There could be more bloodbath to come."

Todd Leone, managing director of equity trading at Cowen & Co in the US said he believed the slump was simply a "healthy correction".

"The question is when do we stop?" he said.

France's Cac-40 index closed 2.5% lower at 5296.22 points, while Germany's Dax index fell 2.7% to 6,447.7.

By early afternoon trading in New York, the Dow Jones was 0.85%, 102 points down at 11,973.66 , while the Nasdaq had slipped 0.3% to 2,343.04

'Woes mushrooming'

This latest round of selling has been sparked by concerns over the US sub-prime mortgage market.

Sub-prime lenders, who target consumers with poor credit histories, have been hit by an increase in defaults and bad loans.

Figures have shown that late mortgage payments and home repossessions in the US are at their highest level since records began.

New Century, the second-biggest sub-prime mortgage lender in the US, is seen by many observers to be close to bankruptcy - and the fear among investors is that this will ripple out into more stable parts of the economy.

"US sub-prime woes are mushrooming," said Saxo Bank analyst Torben Krogh Neilsen, predicting further falls across world markets.

"It's hard to believe they'll be contained and not impact the broader US - and by extension, the global - economy."

"The sell-off is in sympathy with the sharp sell-off we saw overnight on Wall Street, and it highlights the continued nervousness out there," said David Cohen of Action Economics.

But "the world economy seems to be remaining on an upward trajectory", he explained, adding that this is probably "a correction after the strong rally that was experienced for the previous several months around the world".

For investors, the big question is how far and for how long this correction will last, and whether or not the current bull market run will be broken.

Last year, markets lost as much as 10% of their value in May, only to recover and surge even higher, setting many record share prices.

In the weeks before the first sell-off, sparked by fears of a new capital gains tax in China and Beijing's attempts to slow the economy, the FTSE 100 was at its highest level in more than six years.

Japan's Nikkei fell 2.9% on Wednesday, and in Hong Kong, India and Australia indexes lost more than 2%.

Although analysts said Asia's leading economies remained fundamentally strong, markets across the region are particularly sensitive to signs of a possible economic slowdown in the US, a key export market.

Russia nuclear delay angers Iran

Iran has fiercely criticised Russia for a delay in shipments of nuclear fuel which will put back the launch of Iran's first nuclear power station.

Chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said the delay was "deplorable".

The Russian firm building the plant in the city of Bushehr has blamed the hold-up on a lack of payment. Tehran denies having held back payment.

Iran is under pressure over its nuclear programme, after failing to meet a UN deadline to halt uranium enrichment.

Western nations believe Tehran is hoping to develop a nuclear arsenal, but Iran insists its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes.

'No guarantee'

Russian state-owned firm Atomstroiexport announced on Monday that a shipment of nuclear fuel would not be delivered as scheduled in March because of delays in payment by Iran.

The company also said the launch of the reactor, due in September, would be put back two months to November because of the dispute over financing.

The fuel in question amounts to approximately 100 tonnes of partially enriched uranium.

Mr Larijani said the delay underlined Iran's need to produce its own nuclear fuel, Iran's official news agency reports.

"Russia has to fulfil its promises on time," he said.

"This [situation] shows that there is no proper guarantee on the supply of nuclear fuel and that Iran's insistence and demands in this respect are entirely proper."

Iran's atomic agency denies Russia's claim that it is behind on payments, saying it has met all its financial obligations. It has offered to publish bank documents to prove its point.

Moscow last year backed limited UN sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt uranium enrichment after objections to the Bushehr deal were dropped.

World powers are now considering more punitive sanctions against Iran after it defied a deadline to halt enrichment work.

Viacom will sue YouTube for $1bn

Entertainment giant Viacom Media says it will sue web search engine Google and its video-sharing website YouTube for $1bn (£517m).

Viacom, which owns MTV and Nickelodeon, says YouTube uses its shows illegally.

Viacom alleges that about 160,000 unauthorised clips of its programmes have been loaded onto YouTube's site and viewed more than 1.5 billion times.

Google says it is "confident" that YouTube has respected the legal rights of copyright holders.

As well as more than $1bn in damages, the legal action seeks an injunction to prevent what Viacom calls "massive intentional copyright infringement".

'Clearly illegal'

"YouTube's strategy has been to avoid taking proactive steps to curtail the infringement on its site," said Viacom in a statement.

"Their business model, which is based on building traffic and selling advertising off of unlicensed content, is clearly illegal and is in obvious conflict with copyright laws."

Last month, Viacom, which also owns cable networks VH1 and Comedy Central, told YouTube to remove 100,000 "unauthorised" clips.

Viacom said its demand came after YouTube and Google failed to install tools to "filter" the unauthorised video clips following negotiations.

"There is no question that YouTube and Google are continuing to take the fruit of our efforts without permission and destroying enormous value in the process," it said.

"This is value that rightfully belongs to the writers, directors and talent who create it and companies like Viacom that have invested to make possible this innovation and creativity."

Doing deals

A Google spokesperson said: "We have not received the lawsuit but are confident that YouTube has respected the legal rights of copyright holders and believe the courts will agree.

"YouTube is great for users and offers real opportunities to rights holders: the opportunity to interact with users; to promote their content to a young and growing audience; and to tap into the online advertising market.

"We will certainly not let this suit become a distraction to the continuing growth and strong performance of YouTube and its ability to attract more users, more traffic and build a stronger community."

The soaring popularity of YouTube has led traditional media to worry that the displaying of clips from their programmes - without compensation - will lure away viewers, and, as a result, advertising revenue.

Google, which paid $1.65bn for YouTube last year, has been trying to win permission from media companies to broadcast output legally on YouTube in exchange for payment, avoiding the threat of legal action.

Separately, the BBC has struck a content deal with YouTube to showcase short clips of BBC content.

We hope that the deal help it reach YouTube's monthly audience of more than 70 million users and drive extra traffic to its own website.

The corporation will also get a share of the advertising revenue generated by traffic to the new YouTube channels.

Lawyers protest against Musharraf

Lawyers have boycotted courts across Pakistan in protest at President Musharraf's suspension of the country's top judge for alleged misuse of office.

In Lahore, more than 20 lawyers were injured in clashes with police. Hundreds of lawyers wearing black suits rallied in other cities.

They say the removal of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry is unlawful.

The judge is a controversial figure noted for his firm line on government misdeeds and human rights abuses.

Witnesses said the demonstration was one of the largest ever by High Court lawyers in Lahore.

They were marching down a main road when police used batons to try and break up the procession.

More than 20 lawyers were injured although none of the injuries appeared life-threatening.

Rallies attended by hundreds of black-suited lawyers were also held in the capital, Islamabad, and in other cities including Karachi and Quetta.

The Bar Association says the court shutdown is total.

"It's a complete boycott of the superior and lower courts by all lawyers," Court Bar Association president Munir Malik told the AFP news agency.

The clash in Lahore reflects growing tension in the country since President General Pervez Musharraf removed the chief justice from his post on Friday.

The president had received "numerous complaints and serious allegations for misconduct, misuse of authority and actions prejudicial to the dignity of office of the chief justice of Pakistan," the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan news agency reported.

Lawyers, opposition parties, human rights activists and some judges have condemned the move as unconstitutional and a blow to the independence of the judiciary.

The president says he has referred Mr Chaudhry's case to a judicial panel. The government has so far not made public details of the allegations.

Our correspondent says the chief justice had an abrasive style and had earlier been publicly criticised by a lawyer for abusing his authority.

But she says many in the legal community believe Iftikhar Chaudhary was dismissed because he took up cases unpopular with the government.

Chief among these was a petition to recover missing persons, allegedly abducted by intelligence agencies. He also overturned the recent sale of Pakistan's state-run steel mills.

The president is also accused of trying to intimidate the judiciary in an election year.

Ikram Chaudhry, former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, says: "General Musharraf is trying to bulldoze the judiciary. He wants to leave no stone unturned."

He said Iftikhar Chaudhry was to all intents and purposes being held under house arrest in Islamabad, with a police guard posted at his residence and the official flag taken down.

Only a few visitors have been allowed in to see Mr Chaudhry since he was suspended.

The current president of the Supreme Court Bar Association said he had been told by Mr Chaudhry that he would defend himself and would not step down.

Congo arrest over missing uranium

The Democratic Republic of Congo's top atomic energy official is being held over allegations of uranium smuggling.

Atomic energy centre director Fortunat Lumu and an aide have been questioned since their arrest on Tuesday.

A large quantity of uranium is reported to have gone missing in recent years, although state prosecutor Tshimanga Mukeba did not reveal any figures.

He told an "important quantity" of uranium was taken from the nuclear centre and they were investigating.

DR Congo's daily newspaper Le Phare reported that more than 100 bars of uranium as well as an unknown quantity of uranium contained in helmet-shaped cases, had disappeared from the nuclear centre in Kinshasa as part of a vast trafficking of the material going back years.

No evidence has been made public to support the allegations made by the newspaper.

Creation of centre

Uranium is the basic raw material of both civilian and military nuclear programmes.

A mine in Congo's southern province of Katanga supplied the uranium that was used in the atomic bombs that were dropped by the Americans on the Japanese town of Hiroshima in 1945.

To thank and reward Congo, the Americans funded the creation of Congo's nuclear centre in 1958.

It was established on the university campus and only for research purpose.

But in the late 1970s, a bar of uranium disappeared from the centre, raising concern about security at the site.

Moreover, the site of the centre is facing some erosion problems. And people fear a landslide that could lead to a wider disaster, our reporter says.

In recent years, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency has visited the centre and security was believed to have improved.

Last year, a partnership was also signed between Congo's atomic energy centre and British company Brinkley Mining, aiming at prospecting for uranium deposits in the Congo.

But our correspondent says that this new allegation of uranium smuggling might tarnish DR Congo's ability to handle dangerous and expansive products such as uranium and raise concerns about who might benefit.

Deadly earthquake hits Indonesia

A powerful earthquake has hit the Indonesian island of Sumatra, flattening hundreds of buildings and killing at least 70 people.

The 6.3 magnitude quake struck close to the city of Padang in the west of the island, at 1049 local time (0349 GMT).

Rescue teams are trying to reach survivors but communications and electricity supplies

Rescue workers said hundreds of buildings had been brought down, many of these are likely to be small, wooden houses. have been cut.

As night fell, many people around Padang remained out in the open, too afraid or unable to return home.

The quake and a powerful aftershock had caused panic among residents on Tuesday morning, bringing many rushing out of their homes and offices.

"The houses were all swaying away, so were the things inside and lots of the houses collapsed," a man in Padang told the BBC.

Residents of some coastal areas fled to higher ground, but local officials said there was no risk of a tsunami as the earthquake happened under land rather than under the sea.

The epicentre of the quake was about 50km (30 miles) north-east of Padang, the capital of West Sumatra.

Electricity cuts are causing communication problems and it may be some time before the final number of dead and injured and the full extent of the damage are known.

Officials said 18 people had been killed in the town of Solok, while 16 were killed in Tanah Datar.

The mayor of Solok, Samsurahim, said he could not say how many people were still trapped in the rubble.

Local hospitals struggled to cope and medical teams hastily erected tents to treat many of the wounded outside.

Christelle Chapoy, from the aid charity Oxfam's earthquake response team.

"We have a standby emergency response team based in Yogyakarta [on Java], and they're collecting information from our local partners at this stage," she said from Banda Aceh in northern Sumatra.

The quake was also felt hundreds of kilometres away in parts of Malaysia, and several tall buildings in Singapore's business district swayed slightly.

Indonesia sits on the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire, and experiences frequent earthquakes - as well as tsunamis triggered by underwater earthquakes.

Last year, more than 500 people died when a tsunami hit an area of the Java coast after an undersea earthquake.

And in the Asian tsunami of December 2004, more than 130,000 people died in Sumatra when waves destroyed swathes of the province of Aceh.

Suicide blasts kill Shia pilgrims

Up to 90 Shia pilgrims have been killed and more than 150 wounded in a double suicide bombing in the central Iraqi town of Hilla, police said.

Two bombers wearing explosive vests blew themselves up in a large crowd.

It was the deadliest in a number of attacks against pilgrims heading to the city of Karbala for a religious event.

Iraq has seen a sharp rise in violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims since an attack on a key Shia shrine in Samarra just over a year ago.

Baghdad has been at the centre of a three-week-old US-Iraqi security push, and US military commanders have been warning that militants may focus their efforts on launching attacks outside the capital.

Some commentators have suggested that the Baghdad security push, which has weakened Shia militias, has had the effect of leaving them unable to protect their communities from Sunni militants.In other attacks on pilgrims, at least 10 people were killed in car bombings and shootings in Baghdad while three were killed in two separate shootings in Latifiya, to the south.

The attack in Hilla happened in the late afternoon.

At one local hospital, Dr Mohammed Timini told: "Among the wounded, there are 50 in a critical condition. Eighty percent of the casualties are young men, but there are women and children among the dead."

The worst single attack since the 2003 invasion was in Baghdad early last month, when at least 130 people were killed in a lorry bombing.

Thousands of pilgrims are heading to Karbala, 100km (70 miles) south of Baghdad, to attend the Arbaeen religious ceremony.

Arbaeen marks the end of 40 days of mourning for Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Imam Hussein, who was killed along with his family in 681, by the Muslim ruler of Arabia, Yazid.

The day is one of the most solemn in the Shia calendar.

US troops kill Afghan civilians

An incident described by US forces in Afghanistan as a "complex ambush" has left 16 civilians dead.

The incident occurred on the road from the eastern city of Jalalabad to Pakistan when a suicide bomber targeted a convoy, sparking a fire fight.

The killing of the civilians has reportedly sparked a protest by thousands of local people.

Separately, Nato said two British soldiers had been killed in fighting in southern Afghanistan.

The US military said a minibus containing explosives was driven at the convoy, injuring one soldier.

US troops were then attacked from several directions and returned fire in defence of the patrol.

local people reported that the US forces had fired on civilians in the aftermath of the bomb attack.

One injured civilian, Tur Gul, told the Associated Press news agency: "They opened fire on everybody, the ones inside the vehicles and the ones on foot."

"When we parked our vehicle, when they passed us, they opened fire on our vehicle," said Mohammad Ishaq, 15, who was also hit by bullets.

Our correspondent says there has been a huge increase in the number of suicide attacks over the past 12 months, but a coordinated ambush is relatively rare.

He says there have also been other demonstrations in the same province, Nangarhar, recently, mainly at opium poppy eradication by government officials.

The two British servicemen killed in southern Afghanistan died in the Sangin area of Helmand province on Saturday.

Twenty foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year.

Nato fears that Taleban violence will escalate in several areas of Afghanistan as the winter snows thaw.

Nato commanders have said they need more soldiers to tackle the expected spring offensive.

Last Tuesday at least nine people were killed in a suicide bombing at the main US base in Afghanistan, Bagram near Kabul, during a visit by US Vice-President Dick Cheney.

Thousands of people gathered to demonstrate, shouting "Death to America, Death to Karzai", referring to the Afghan president, and blaming the US patrol for shooting passers-by.

US military spokesman Maj William Mitchell said: "We certainly believe it's possible that the incoming fire from the ambush was wholly or partly responsible for the civilian casualties."

However, Mohammad Khan Katawazi, chief of Shinwar district, said the US troops treated everyone as a potential attacker even if they had no evidence.