Turkish troops leave Iraq
IRBIL, Iraq, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Turkish troops who rolled about two miles into northern Iraq to engage Kurdish rebels Tuesday began to pull back to their side of the border, it was reported.
The Gulf Daily News said more than 500 Turkish troops had made forays into Iraq but were returning to their own territory.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which seeks a separate Kurdish state, is "threatening our national unity and we are using our rights stemming from international law against this terrorist organization." Turkish President Abdullah Gul stated his country has only one target in Iraq "and that is terrorism."
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said his country recognizes Turkey's "legitimate concerns" about the rebels, but Iraq complained it wasn't given advance notice of Turkish air strikes.
Last month, the Turkish Cabinet authorized cross-border attacks to root out members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known as the PKK and designated by the U.S. State Department as a terror group. Turkey claims the group uses Iraq as a base to attack inside Turkey as it seeks to establish a Kurdish nation.
About 37,000 people have died in associated fighting since 1984, KUNA, the Kuwaiti news agency, said.
Mullah Omar claims Taliban stronger
KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- A statement attributed to Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar claims the group is stronger than ever in Afghanistan.
The statement released to news agencies by the Afghan Islamic Press quoted the fugitive, sought by the U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, as dismissing the recent NATO-led forces' recapture of the town of Musa Qala in Helmand Province from Taliban insurgents as a "minor victory," the BBC reported.
He was quoted as saying celebrating such a "minor victory" is the biggest proof of the foreign forces' weakness. He said the Taliban is far stronger now than when its regime fell in 2001.
"The aggression by the Americans and their allies against Afghanistan and Iraq brought with it economic and financial losses that affected not just occupied states -- the aggressors are also suffering," Omar was quoted as saying.
"International institutions and all countries, especially Muslim states, should find ways for the evacuation of aggressor forces, and ... help form a permanent and independent government."
Alleged gambling operation busted
TRENTON, N.J., Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Alleged members and associates of the Lucchese crime family were charged Tuesday with running a multibillion-dollar gambling ring in New Jersey.
The Lucchese family also collaborated with a branch of the Bloods gang in a plot to smuggle drugs and cell phones into a state prison, New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram said.
The state division of criminal justice rounded up 20 people in a series of raids. Among those arrested were two reputed members of the Lucchese family's ruling board and leaders of the New York crime organization's New Jersey faction.
Another eight people were given summonses and four remained at large.
Most of the charges involve the alleged gambling operation, Milgram said. But the defendants also included a corrections officer formerly assigned to East Jersey State Prison and an alleged member of the Nine Trey Gangster set of the Bloods in Newark.
Milgram said the arrests of Joseph DiNapoli of Scarsdale, N.Y., Matthew Madonna of Seldon, N.Y., and Ralph Perna, a reputed capo in New Jersey, would disrupt the Lucchese command structure.
Investigators say the gambling operation included a wire room in the Dominican Republic and took in $2.2 billion in bets in 15 months.
Pakistan opposition seeks poll boycott
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- An alliance of Pakistan opposition parties is urging voters to boycott upcoming elections to press its demand for the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf.
The All Party Democratic Movement is questioning the very premise for the Jan. 8 elections, saying Musharraf was re-elected unconstitutionally, the BBC reported.
The alliance wants Musharraf to resign and Supreme Court judges he dismissed when he imposed emergency rule last month reinstated before the elections are held, the report said.
The two main opposition parties led by former Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, however, have opted to take part in the parliamentary polls.
There is concern any boycott of the elections would only help strengthen pro-government parties, the report said.
