http://192.168.2.6/music/20060914/2006VOA0914.mp3

It's 15:00 Universal Time, and here is the news from the Voice of America.

I'm David Deforest from the VOA news center in Washington.

Police in Iraq have found bodies of sixty men who have been tortured and shot. All apparently were victims of sectarian /. Also two car bomb explosions in Baghdad have killed at least 22 Iraqis and wounded about 80. Authorities say both bombs exploded near police targets in eastern Baghdad. The dead include both police and civilians. Also Iraqi official say the bodies of 60 men who were tortured and shot to death.

In other news, a militant group in a statement posted on Internet threatened to kill a Turkish hostage, unless the company that employs him shuts down its operations in Iraq within 72 hours. The US military announced today that two American soldiers were killed in combat one in Anbar province, and one south of Baghdad. Meanwhile, the lead prosecuter in the trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has asked the chief judge to step down. The prosecuter complains the judges has failed to control / outburst in the court by the defendants and their lawyers.

An European Union's foreign policy chief is to meet with Iran's top nuclear negotiator on Thursday to discuss possible ways to resolve Iran's nuclear standoff with the west. An EU spokeswoman told reporters in Brussels Javier Solana will meet Iran's Ali Larijani somewhere in Europe, but the place is yet to be decided.

Syria's official news agency says a fourth man involved in Tuesday's attempt to attack the US Embassy in Damascus has died of his wounds. The news agency SANA called an unidentified official as saying the man who was detented after being wounded in a fire fight with Syrian security forces died at a hospital late Tuesday.

Turkish official say a bomb blast in the Kurdish populated city of Diyarbakir has killed ten people including several children. The authorities say the explosion late Tuesday may have occurred by accident while the device was being transported in the southeastern city. It is unclear who was responsible.

The Sri Lankan government says it will hold talks with Tamil Tiger rebels, provided their commit to a comprehensive and verifiable ceasefire. Sri Lanka issued a statement after denying reports by international mediators that they had already agreed to hold unconditional talks with the rebels in Norway in October. VOA's P N has more from New Delhi.

Sri Lanka officials on Wednesday first said they will never consulted about holding unconditional peace talks with the Tamil rebels and said was misleading to suggest negotiations will take place soon. Norwegian peace mediator E S told a meeting with the international donors in Brussels the Colombo had agreed to talk to the rebels. He suggested that discussions could be held in Norwegian capital Oslo in early October. The government then agreed it was considering new talks. Norway broked a ceasefire between the government and the rebels, officially known as Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (or LTTE) in 2002. The Sri Lankan monitored mission was treated as part of that truce, and European monitors were deployed across the country. The truce is over clasped this year that two sides engaged in clashes that killed more than 1,000 people in the past two months. The rebels first demanded independence and then agreed autonomy for areas in the eastern-north of the country where the ethnic Tamil minority is predominated. More than 6,000 people have died in two decades of fighting. P N VOA news, New Delhi.

The international campaign to ban a landmines has issued the report as we hear from R C Bangkok.

The international campaign to ban landmine's report for 2006 released Wednesday, says that mine casualties occured in 58 countries last year. Casualties from mines and explosives recrements rose 11 percent to more than 7,328. A number the reported meets its publicly less than a half of the real total. The highest number of casualties more than 1,100 was recorded in Columbia.

Thai deputy prime minister Surakiart Sathirathai said as reports launched in Bangkok the despite efforts to stop landmine news send production. Mines keep killing. The military powers of China, India, Pakistan, Russia and the United States are among those states that have not yet signed up to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. R C for VOA news, Bangkok.

I'm David Deforest, VOA news. More news on the internet at VOAnews.com.