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U.S. medics join Iran relief effort

BAM, Iran, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Aid workers from the United States have joined teams from more than 20 countries in the devastated Iranian city of Bam.

The Iranian government Wednesday raised the death toll to 30,000 in Friday's earthquake that measured 6.6 on the Richter scale and there are fears the final number could approach 50,000, CNN reported.

The numbers came after the nation's top political and spiritual leaders visited the ancient city and promised to rebuild.

A team of 60 doctors and 20 logistical experts from the United States was setting up a field hospital in the city Wednesday and planned to begin treating patients later in the day.

The Americans have been "warmly and positively received by the people of Iran," said U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli.

Some have called U.S. involvement a possible avenue for improved relations between Tehran and Washington, which have been strained since the Carter administration.

Calif. murder-suicide leaves 4 dead

RICHMOND, Calif., Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Police in the San Francisco Bay area believe the deaths of four members of a suburban family were the result of a murder-suicide.

Law enforcement officials said Wednesday they were treating the incident as a homicide, but they did not believe anyone else was involved in the killings other than the victims.

The San Francisco Chronicle said the tragedy in the city of Richmond was discovered Tuesday night when the lone survivor, a 10-year-old boy, ran bleeding from a stab wound to a neighbor's house.

The victims who were killed inside included two adults and two small children.

Five dead in Baghdad explosion

KIRKUK, Iraq, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A powerful explosion late Wednesday destroyed a restaurant in central Baghdad, killing at least five people, the BBC reported.

Lt. Gen. Ahmed Kadhem, the deputy Iraqi interior minister and Baghdad chief of police, said the blast in the upscale Karrada district left at least five people dead.

Dozens were injured in the blast and rushed to hospitals, medical officials confirmed.

The restaurant, Nabil's, was filled with foreigners celebrating the New Year when the explosion ripped through the facility.

The U.S. military and Iraqi police have been on high alert due to the risk of guerrilla attacks to mark the New Year in Baghdad.

Meanwhile, Kurdish militiamen in Iraq opened fire on an anti-Kurdish demonstration in Kirkuk Wednesday, killing two and injuring 14 others.

Some 2,000 demonstrators, most of them Arabs and Turkmen, were grouped in front of the government offices to protest the proposal for federalism when the Kurdish militia, or peshmergas, based in the area opened fire on the crowd, Colonel Salem Talib Tahar told al-Jazeera.

The protesters were angry with the push by the city's Kurdish majority to incorporate the oil-rich center into a Kurdish state.

Officials deny Michael Jackson was abused

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- California law enforcement officers denied Wednesday that pop superstar Michael Jackson was abused during his arrest for child molestation.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff Jim Anderson said Jackson was treated properly while in his department's custody and denied anything improper had been done to the self-styled king of pop, Fox News reported.

"I'm shocked and troubled by his allegations," Anderson said. "He was in no way manhandled or abused. His treatment by this department can only be described as professional."

To support his claim, he played a videotape showing Jackson appearing well, rather than in any obvious pain.

Jackson, 45, is charged with seven counts of performing lewd or lascivious acts on a child under 14 and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent, reportedly wine. The singer is free on $3 million bail and has maintained his innocence.

During a Sunday broadcast of a CBS "60 Minutes" television interview, the singer accused law officers of separating his shoulder and bruising him during his Nov. 20 arrest.

Jackson told interviewer Ed Bradley the entire booking process was meant "to try and belittle me, to try and to take away my pride."