World Briefs

BAGHDAD

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Monday that the government is ready to compromise to reach a security accord with the U.S. because Iraq still needs American troops despite the drop in violence. In an interview with AP, al-Maliki said neither he nor Iraq's parliament will accept any pact that fails to serve the country's national interests. A poorly constructed plan would provoke so much discord in Iraq that it could threaten his government's survival, he said.

MOGADISHU, Somalia

U.S. warships and helicopters on Monday surrounded a hijacked the Ukrainian operated Faina loaded with 33 Russian-designed tanks, rifles and ammunition to keep the weapons from falling into the wrong hands. Faina was headed for Sudan and not Kenya as believed.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan

Suicide attacks have killed nearly 1,200 people in Pakistan since July 2007, most of them civilians, according to military statistics Monday that underscored the ferocity of the threat facing the U.S. ally in the war on extremist groups. Meanwhile, heavy fighting between Pakistani troops and insurgents in the lawless tribal regions of the country's northwest has caused some 20,000 Pakistanis to flee across the border into Afghanistan, the United Nations said. The Sept 20 Marriott bombing was the most recent attack.

UNITED NATIONS

Myanmar's foreign minister Foreign Minister Nyan Win on Monday called for the lifting of what he called "unwarranted" and "counter-productive" Western sanctions against his country. These sanctions are unwarranted," he said referring to sanctions imposed by the EU and the US.

HARARE, Zimbabwe

Banking authorities raised the daily withdrawal limit in Zimbabwe, prompting tens of thousands to line up Monday in desperate hopes of getting enough cash for groceries before spiraling inflation eats away more value. New rules went into affect the day President Robert Mugabe returned from the U.N. allowing withdrawals of up to 20,000 Zimbabwe dollars (US$35). The old 1,000 Zimbabwean-dollar limit was barely enough to buy a newspaper.

NEW DELHI

Five people were killed and 80 others injured in two suspected bomb attacks late Monday in areas of western India wracked by Hindu-Muslim tensions, Indian media reported. Four people died and at least 70 others were hurt in a powerful blast at a hotel near a mosque in the tinderbox town of Malegaon in Maharashtra state, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. Reports said rioting broke out after the blast, causing several more injuries.