Iran hard-liners win Parliament control\nTEHRAN, Iran -- Conservatives formally reclaimed control of Iran's parliament Monday after disputed elections that were boycotted by reformists who called the vote a "historical fiasco" that denied citizens a free choice.\nCandidates considered loyal to Iran's Islamic rulers took at least 149 places in the 290-seat parliament, which has been controlled by pro-reform lawmakers since their landslide win four years ago.\nReformers and self-described independents had taken about 65 seats, according to Interior Ministry figures. The final count is expected Tuesday. Not even waiting for that tally, European Union foreign ministers denounced the election as undemocratic and warned of a new chill on efforts to warm relations between Tehran and the West.\n"It's plain for everybody to see that these were from the start flawed elections," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Monday as he arrived in Brussels for a meeting with his EU counterparts.\nThe conservative victory was expected even before Friday's elections. Reformers widely boycotted the vote after more than 2,400 liberal candidates were banned from running by the hard-line Guardian Council.
Palestinians, Israelis argue over barrier\nTHE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Palestinians presented an impassioned case to the world court Monday against the Israeli separation barrier in the West Bank, while Israel appealed to world opinion to ignore the proceedings it called inherently unfair.\nThe International Court of Justice began three days of oral hearings on the legality of the barrier slicing through Palestinian territory, bringing Israel's occupation policies before an international tribunal for the first time. But the United States and Europe joined Israel in staying away.\nThe opening session came a day after a Palestinian bomber killed eight Israelis and wounded dozens on a Jerusalem bus. The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a group with ties to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility.\nIsrael said the attack showed the need for the barrier, designed to impede terrorism. But the Palestinians argued the structure only fuels the resentment that inspires suicide bombers.\nOutside the baroque Peace Palace at the Hague, Israelis bearing photographs of relatives who died in suicide attacks clustered around the shell of a Jerusalem bus destroyed three weeks ago by a bomber who killed 11 people.
7 killed in Northern Iraq suicide blast\nKIRKUK, Iraq -- A suicide bomber detonated an explosive-packed vehicle Monday outside an Iraqi police station in a Kurdish neighborhood of this ethnically divided northern city, killing at least seven people and wounding at least 35 others, police and other officials said.\nThe attack was the latest in a string of vehicle and suicide bombings against Iraqi security forces and others seen as cooperating with the U.S.-led occupation that have killed more than 300 people this year, most of them Iraqis.\nIt was also the third blast since late January to target Kurds, who are pressing to maintain their self-rule region in northern Iraq, as well as the independent militias they say they need to protect to ensure their autonomy from Baghdad.\nThe blast occurred as U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld arrived in Baghdad for a brief visit. Rumsfeld met Monday with four young members of Iraq's new security forces and told them he was impressed with the progress they were making.
