By Hossein Jaseb

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran on Monday dismissed any prospect of new talks with the United States on Iraq, accusing U.S.-led forces on Monday of a “massacre” of the Iraqi people.

The two foes last year held three rounds of ground-breaking discussions in Baghdad, easing a diplomatic freeze of almost three decades, but Iraqi officials have expressed frustration that a fourth round has failed to get off the ground.

Iraq says it does not want its soil to become a battleground for a proxy war between the United States and Iran, which are also at loggerheads over Iran’s disputed nuclear program.

“Right now, what we observe in Iraq is a massacre of the Iraqi nation by the occupying forces,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told a news conference.

“Concerning this situation, talks with America will have no results and will be meaningless.”

Hosseini did not elaborate, but U.S. forces have been fighting daily battles with militiamen loyal to anti-American Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad for several weeks.

Washington accuses Iran of funding, arming and training “rogue” elements of Sadr’s Mehdi Army to attack U.S. and Iraqi forces, despite its public commitment to stabilizing Iraq.

Tehran blames the violence on the U.S. presence in Iraq.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey criticized Iran for its latest statements and reiterated U.S. accusations of Iranian meddling in its neighbor’s affairs.

“It is meaningless to have talks on anything with Iran as long as they don’t change their behavior. That said, we have continued to be willing and ready, and are willing and ready, to have additional discussions with the Iranians through this tripartite channel,” Casey told reporters.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said there was no point in continuing the talks at this point.

“We see the value of the talks to be continued, but when the conditions are right and conducive,” he told the U.S. television news network CNN.

SHI’ITE MILITIAS

Despite the mutual accusations, U.S. and Iranian officials had launched talks in May last year aimed at easing bloodshed in Iraq. The fourth meeting has been postponed repeatedly.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry also voiced support for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in cracking down on “illegal” Shi’ite militias, after an Iraqi delegation urged Tehran to stop backing such groups.

The U.S. military said last week “very, very significant” amounts of Iranian arms had been found in Basra and Baghdad during an offensive against gunmen loyal to Sadr.

Maliki has ordered the formation of a committee to compile evidence of Iranian “interference” in Iraq that would then be presented to Tehran, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh Dabbagh said on Sunday.

Hosseini said Tehran had always supported stability in Iraq.

“What Iran has repeatedly said … was its support for Mr Maliki’s government,” Hosseini said. “Iran believes that illegal armed groups that committed crimes should be legally confronted.”

Ties between Iran and Iraq have improved since Sunni Arab strongman Saddam Hussein was ousted in the U.S.-led invasion and a Shi’ite-led government came to power in Baghdad.

Analysts say Tehran wants to keep a friendly government in charge while ensuring that rival Iraqi Shi’ite factions look to Iran as a power broker.

(Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi, Aseel Kami in Baghdad, and Sue Plemingin Washington; Writing by Fredrik Dahl, editing by Ross Colvin and Myra MacDonald)

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON - Sales of new homes fell in February for the fourth straight month, pushing activity down to a 13-year low as the steep slump in housing continued.
 
The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that new home sales dropped 1.8 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 590,000 units, the slowest sales pace since February 1995. The decline was slightly worse than expected.

The median price of a home sold last month dropped to $244,100, down 2.7 percent from the level of a year ago.

The prolonged slump in housing has dragged down overall economic activity. Many analysts believe the slump could combine with a multitude of other problems including a severe credit crunch, soaring energy prices and plunging consumer confidence, to push the country into a full-blown recession.

The number of unsold homes on the market at the end of the month represented a 9.8 months’ supply at the February sales pace, the same as in January. That was the highest inventory level in more than 26 years and reflects the fact that increased numbers of mortgage foreclosures are dumping even more homes on an already glutted market.

Sales dropped the most in the Northeast, falling by 40.6 percent. Sales were also down in the Midwest, dropping by 6.4 percent, but posted gains in the South of 5.7 percent and 0.7 percent in the West.

Many analysts believe that the slump in housing, which began in 2006, could last into 2009. It was reported on Tuesday that the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index of home prices fell nearly 11 percent in January from a year ago, the biggest year-over-year decline in the history of the index.

Analysts said that housing is being hurt currently by tighter lending conditions as banks react to soaring mortgage defaults and the reluctance of prospective buyers to make a decision, fearing that prices have further to fall.

In other economic news, orders to factories for big-ticket manufactured goods fell 1.7 percent in February, a second consecutive decline and further evidence of the economic troubles gripping the country.

The declines in orders for durable goods, items expected to last at least three years, showed up in a number of areas. Demand for manufacturing equipment plunged by 13.3 percent, the largest amount on record, while orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft, the category that is seen as a good proxy for business investment, fell by 2.6 percent, the biggest decline in four months.

Economic growth slowed to a barely discernible 0.6 percent in the final three months of last year, and many economists believe the gross domestic product will turn negative in the current quarter, signaling the start of a recession.

The 1.7 percent drop in orders for durable goods, items expected to last at least three years, was worse than the 1 percent increase that many economists had expected.

The weakness came even though orders for transportation equipment rebounded with a 0.6 percent rise in February after a big 12.6 percent plunge in January. The swing in both months reflected changes in demand for commercial aircraft, which rose 5.4 percent in February following a 30.2 percent plunge in January. Orders for motor vehicles fell by 2.7 percent in February as U.S. automakers continued to face weak demand, reflecting the weak economy and soaring energy prices.

Excluding transportation, orders fell by 2.6 percent in February, representing the fourth decline in the past five months.

Economists believe that if the country does slip into a recession, the downturn may not be as severe in manufacturing, which is being helped by continued strong growth overseas, which is bolstering U.S. exports.

ISLAMABAD: (The Associated Press) The Pakistani Parliament elected Yousaf Raza Gillani, a longtime aide to the slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, as the nation’s new prime minister Monday.

The National Assembly voted 264 to 42 to confirm Gillani to the post. He is to be sworn in Tuesday by President Pervez Musharraf.

Gillani immediately shook the hand of Bhutto’s son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who could be seen wiping away tears. His mother was prime minister twice before being killed in a suicide attack in December. Cheers of “Long live Bhutto, B. B. is still alive!” rang out through Parliament.

Gillani, 55, is seen as having the experience and track record to hold together an unwieldy coalition as it moves to neutralize Musharraf, whose government put Gilani in jail for years before a court ordered him freed.

Gillani is a longtime member of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, which was the biggest vote-getter among the opposition parties that swept elections last month.

Many in Pakistan see Gillani as essentially a placeholder for Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto’s widower and the head of the Pakistan People’s Party, until Zardari can assume the post himself.

Gillani will front an administration facing mounting economic problems, including double-digit inflation, power shortages and sagging foreign investment.

However, the declared priority for the parties that won the Feb. 18 parliamentary vote is bolstering Pakistan’s return to democracy by capping Musharraf’s already diminished powers.

“All political forces have to work together to take the country out of this crisis,” Gillani said Sunday, vowing to restore the independence of Pakistan’s judges and media.

Asked whether he would work with Musharraf or push him from office, he said only, “I will follow the Constitution.”

Followers of another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, hold the second-largest number of seats, and have pledged with Bhutto’s party to reinstate judges deposed by Musharraf within 30 days of forming a new government.

A spokesman for Sharif’s party, Sadiq ul-Farooq, said he hoped Gillani would uphold that promise. “The countdown will start the day he takes the oath as prime minister,” Farooq said Monday.

Acquittal for Zardari
A prosecutor says a Pakistani court has acquitted Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and the leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, in the murder of a retired judge, The Associated Press reported from Karachi.

Zardari was charged in 2002 with playing a role in the murder of Nizam Din and his son. The men were shot to death in Karachi in 1996.

The prosecutor, Naimatullah Randhawa, said Monday that a court had acquitted Zardari “due to lack of evidence.”

By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports

It started with a kick to the head. Then a wicked three-punch combo and soon another powerful kick, then a right cross, then a crushing upper cut and then finally an absolutely vicious knee to the face.

CHICAGO - Fossil hunters say they have discovered bones of two massive meat-eating dinosaurs in Africa. In the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, University of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno and co-author Stephen Brusatte named one Kryptops palaios, or “old hidden face,” because of a horny covering over its face.

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They named the other Eocarcharia dinops, or “fierce-eyed dawn shark,” for its razor-sharp teeth and bony brow.

Both were about 25 feet long and stood 7 feet high at the hip. Kryptops had a short snout with teeth better for gnawing, leading the scientists to believe it was more of a scavenger.

Eocarcharia’s brow was so pronounced that Sereno thinks it was used for head-butting rivals to win over potential mates.

“The only thing I can think of is they were smacking each other with it,” Sereno said.

The creatures lived at a time when land bridges connected Africa to India and even Antarctica, which was then a temperate home to dinosaurs. But Africa later became isolated and its dinosaurs followed unique evolutionary paths scientists have just begun to uncover.

“This is an important slice in geological time, and we don’t yet fully comprehend how dinosaurs on the southern continents were evolving then,” said Peter Makovicky, curator of dinosaurs at the Field Museum, who was not part of the Chicago team.

Makovicky called the discoveries “an important data point toward a deeper understanding of what happened.”

Sereno’s group found the new species during a 2000 expedition to the Niger desert. They found bones from about a dozen new species, and stumbled across one of the richest archaeological sites that’s been found in the region.

“We have not released even half of all that we found there,” Sereno said.