UPI NewsTrack TopNews

Bombs kill at least 15 in Istanbul

ISTANBUL, Turkey, July 27 (UPI) -- At least 15 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded Sunday when two bombs exploded minutes apart in Istanbul, Turkey, officials said.

Minutes after a bomb exploded in a telephone booth, a second, more powerful, blast went off in a trash bin a few yards away. The second bomb exploded as the first blast had begun to attract a crowd, NTV television reported.

Istanbul provincial Gov. Muammer Guler told reporters the attack was not a suicide bombing, the Times of London said.

"There is no doubt that this is a terror attack," he said. "The blasts occurred in a very busy district and this raised the casualties."

Guler said investigators would examine video from surveillance cameras to try to determine who placed the bombs.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul issued a statement denouncing the attack reiterating Turkey's commitment to what he called the struggle against terrorism, The New York Times reported.

"Nothing can be achieved by terror, violently claiming lives of the innocent," the statement said. "These attacks show the inhumanity and misery of the assailants."

Petraeus: 'Let's keep our powder dry'

BAGHDAD, July 27 (UPI) -- Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, says conditions are too unsettled to set a withdrawal timetable, McClatchy Newspapers reported.

Petraeus told McClatchy in an interview it is too soon "project out, and to then try to plant a flag on a particular date."

The timing of a U.S. troop withdrawal has become a major issue in the U.S. presidential campaign, with presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama insisting he will withdraw troops within 16 months after Inauguration Day, conditions on the ground permitting. Likely Republican nominee John McCain has opposed Obama's approach, but has said in the past few says he would like to withdraw troops as soon as conditions permit.

Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki seemed last week to endorse Obama's proposal, and the United States and Iraq announced agreement on so-called time horizons for withdrawal.

With violence in Iraq at reduced levels, Petraeus told McClatchy some commanders "have so many good weeks, (they think) it's won. We've got this thing. Well we don't."

He noted that violence in the past two-and-a-half months was at the lowest level since March 2004.

"Well that's encouraging," he said. "It's heartening. It's very welcome. But let's keep our powder dry. … Let's not let our guard down."

Gallup Poll: Obama widening lead

PRINCETON, N.J., July 27 (UPI) -- Democratic U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama has stretched his lead over his expected Republican opponent, John McCain, to 9 points, a poll indicates.

The Gallup Poll Daily tracking survey released Sunday indicated the Illinois senator has a 49 percent to 40 percent lead over his GOP colleague from Arizona.

Obama's 9-point lead comes after he held just a 2-point lead over McCain in the daily tracking poll last week. The poll released Sunday was conducted July 24-26, after Obama's speech at the Victory Tower in Berlin Thursday and extensive coverage of Obama's subsequent meetings with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the New Jersey pollsters said.

The survey was produced from interviews with 2,692 registered voters and has sampling margin error of 2 percentage points.

Yosemite wildfire burns out of control

MARIPOSA, Calif., July 27 (UPI) -- A wildfire near Yosemite National Park in California Sunday burgeoned to more than 18,000 acres and imperiling hundreds of homes, firefighters said.

The Telegraph Fire had already destroyed eight homes and seven out-buildings and forced the evacuation of 500 homes, The Sacramento Bee reported. It was headed toward Mariposa, a town of about 1,800 people.

More than 2,000 firefighters were working to control the blaze, which is believed to have started Friday by people shooting guns for target practice, the newspaper said. The flames, aided by very dry conditions, were moving through areas that hadn't experienced a wildfire in a century, fire officials said.

Despite the fire 5-10 miles to the southwest, the national park remained open.

The Seattle Times reported Sunday two firefighters died working blazes in Northern California in recent days.

Daniel Packer, 49, of Lake Tapps, Wash., who was chief of East Pierce County Fire & Rescue near Tacoma, Wash., was believed to have been killed Saturday when winds shifted and the fire he was fighting overran him.

Andrew Palmer, 18, also of Washington, died Friday when he was hit by a falling tree while battling another wildfire in Northern California.

Nearly 2,100 fires have been reported in California since June 20, consuming more than 1 million acres of woodland. Ninety-eight percent of them have been contained, fire officials said.