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I'm John Riden from the VOA news center in Washington.

Two military helicopters have crashed north of Baghdad, killing 2 soldiers and injuring 5. In a statement, US military said today's crash appeared to be caused by a mid-air collision and not an insurgent attack. Elsewhere, security officials say 10 people were killed and 40 wounded when two car bombs exploded in quick succession in mostly Shiite neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad.

Officials in Afghanistan say a suicide bomber has killed 4 Afghan employees of a US-owned private security firm and wounded one other in southern Kandahar province. Authorities say the bomber rode a motor-bike next to a vehicle owned by the company US Protection & Investigations and detonated his explosives. Three guards and the vehicle's driver were killed and another guard was wounded. On Saturday, a suicide bomber killed seven police officers and a civilian and he is from Afghanistan's Coast province near the Pakistan border.

Palestian officials say they do not expect much progress from a meeting between President Mahmoud Abass and Israeli Prime Minister Olmert. The meeting in Jerusalem will be the first in a series of by weakling meetings agreed upon by Mr. Olmert and Mr. Abass following US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's trip to the region last month. /, a senior advisor to Mr, Abass, was quoted by / as saying there should be no expectation that this one meeting will perform miracles.

An April 14th deadline has passed and there are no signs that North Korea has begun to shut down its main nuclear reactor as agreed to do in February. VOA's Luis Ramirez reports from Beijing.

The 4-year-old process to get North Korea to begin dismantling its nuclear program remains stalled Saturday. North Korea failed to shut down its main reactor Yongbyon, because it has yet to receive any of the 25 million dollars that had been unfrozen at a bank in Macau. The transfer of the funds which were in North Korea's accounts has been delayed by what officials described as banking technicalities. The United States envoy to the six-nation nuclear negotiations Chritopher Hill met with Chinese officials here Saturday to discuss the next step. Hill said the momentum of the disarmament process has slipped and he plans to return to Washington on Sunday. "I will say when you set a deadline there's a reason to concern." However, Hill did not suggest the process has been derailed. He said all the participants of the negotiations, which also include the two Koreas, Japan and Russia, will remain in close contact. Luis Ramirez VOA news, Beijing.

The African Union says gunmen in Sudan's tribal Darfur region have killed another AU to peacekeeper. An AU spokesman says an unidentified attacker shot the peacekeeper and stole his vehicle late Saturday near the entrance of an AU compound in /, the capital of north Darfur state. The nationality of the dead peacekeeper was not disclosed.

Riot police in Russia detained more than 100 demonstrators including the former world chest champaign /, as they tried to stage a banned opposition rally in Moscow. Ammar Samton reports from Moscow for the VOA.

Russia was / the protesters shouted around 1,000 try to make their way the city's historic Pushkin square, not far from Kremlin. But they were met by a massive / force. Hundreds of officers in / gear flooded this city's center. Dozens of demonstrators were detained and loaded onto buses. The authorities banned the demonstration on the grounds that another group has permission to stage a rally there. They warned the protesters not to come to the square, but many protesters were outraged by what they believe will heavy-handed police tactics. There were more clashes as the protesters try to make the raid to another / for what they called of the center's march. Coalition behind it is unlikely alliance of western living liberals and combationists united by the opposition to President Putin. The vast majority of Russians support President Putin under whom they even joined rising living standards. Ammar Samton for VOA news, Moscow.

Rescue workers in Thailand are searching for survivors of a flash flood that killed at least 35 people at two popular waterfalls. Officials say at least ten people are still missing today after the waterfalls in Train province Saturday.