Sri Lankan fighting kills 31 in move to secure port

Sri Lankan forces fought to push back rebel artillery positions aimed at a strategic port Monday resulting in at least 31 dead and 105 wounded, officials said.

Government forces advanced toward the rebel positions at the town of Sampur on the Koddiyar Bay.

The Tamil Tiger rebels said 20 civilians were killed and another 26 wounded in air and artillery attacks.


A wounded Sri Lankan soldier is rushed to the hospital in the Sri Lankan town of Vavuniya after a suspected Tamil Tiger insurgent opened fire on soldiers. AFP/T. Vivekarasa via Yahoo News.

Koizumi visits Central Asia with energy agenda

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will become the first leader from Japan to visit Central Asia where he will look to vie for the region's rich energy resources.

Japan is competing with fast-growing China and Russia for influence in the region's abundant oil and natural gas reserves.


Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visits central Asia this week to meet with leaders in the energy-rich region. AFP/File/Toshifumi Kitamura phot via Yahoo News.

The nation imports nearly all of its oil as is otherwise highly reliant on foreign energy sources.

Koizumi, who leaves office next month, will meet with Presidents Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan and Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan during his four-day trip to the two countries starting Monday.

Iran opens nuclear generator

Iran opened a heavy-water nuclear production plant Saturday raising the possibility of United Nations sanctions.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated the generator declaring that his nations was only interested in peaceful energy production.


Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, inaugurates a heavy-water nuclear generator in Arak, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2006. Tehran says the plant is for peaceful purposes but Western countries fear it could eventually be used to develop a nuclear bomb. AP Photo/ ISNA, Arash Khamoushi via Yahoo News.

"There is no discussion of nuclear weapons," he said. "We are not a threat to anybody even the Zionist regime, which is a definite enemy for the people of the region."

Israeli legislator Ephraim Sneh of the Labor Party said in response to the Iranian move that Israel should "prepare itself militarily."