Iraqi citizens register to vote in the forthcoming elections in Iraq, at a registration center in Wembley, London, Jan. 17. (Reuters Photo)

LONDON, Jan. 17--From Sydney to London via Tehran, up to a million Iraqis scattered around the world on Monday began registering to vote in their country's landmark general elections on January 30.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Geneva was coordinating the registration effort, AFP reported.
"We estimate up to a million people in the 14 host countries could register," said Peter Erben, speaking for the organization in Amman.
"This is a beautiful day," said Mohammed Kamal, 18, who registered to vote "for democracy" in Amman.
More than 1,000 Iraqis in Australia were the first to register to vote Monday and, Erben said "the feedback is good".
Iraqis interviewed by AFP in Amman said they hoped their vote would open a new page in the history of their embattled country, following decades of dictatorship.
But the escalating level of violence cast a shadow over the organization of the election in Iraq itself, where insurgents sought to block the process.
"We want to turn the page on the past. We seek democracy, security, an end to dictatorship and to unemployment," said Faysal Shaker Janabi, a father of three who traveled with his wife to register in a high school in Amman.
Iraqis abroad over the age of 18 will be able to vote for a 275-seat provisional national assembly, while those in the country will also be able to vote for 18 provincial councils and a parliament for the semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
In Denmark, Danish television reported that an Iraqi woman was the first to register and was handed a bunch of flowers by electoral officials.

COTONOU, Benin, Jan. 17--Iran and Benin signed a joint declaration here Monday at the end of the visit of Iran's President Mohammad Khatami to the country.
Foreign ministers of the two countries signed the declaration in the presence of their presidents, IRNA reported.
The declaration stresses consolidation of bilateral relations in political, economic, trade, industrial and cultural arenas, including construction of dams, water and power plants, and export of technical know-how.
In the declaration, Benin also expressed satisfaction over Iran's readiness to support Benin in different fields.
The two countries also expressed concern over continued clashes in the Middle East and stressed the right of the Palestinian nation to form their own state.
At the end of his visit to Benin, President Khatami extended his official invitation to his counterpart to visit Iran which was welcomed by President Mathieu Kerekou.
Khatami arrived here Sunday night on the fifth leg of a seven-nation tour of African states and conferred with his Beninese counterpart.
Khatami left for Zimbabwe on Monday and is scheduled to pay a visit to Uganda later. He has already visited Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Mali.

WASHINGTON,
Jan. 17--Teams of US commandos have been operating inside Iran since last summer, selecting suspected weapons sites for possible air strikes, The New Yorker reported Monday.
The magazine's award-winning reporter Seymour Hersh, who last year exposed the extent of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, wrote that he was repeatedly told by US intelligence and military sources that "the next strategic target was Iran," AFP reported.
President George W. Bush has signed a series of orders authorizing commando groups to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as ten nations in the Middle East and South Asia, the New Yorker said.
The Bush administration has been conducting secret spying missions inside Iran at least since mid-2004, gathering intelligence on declared and suspected nuclear, chemical and missile sites, it said.
"The goal is to identify and isolate three dozen, and perhaps more, such targets that could be destroyed by precision strikes and short-term commando raids," Hersh wrote.
A top government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon told the magazine that Pentagon civilians--especially Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz--"want to go into Iran and destroy as much of the military infrastructure as possible."
But White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett on Sunday called the Hersh article "riddled with inaccuracies" and said the administration was using diplomacy to address the Iran issue.
"We're working with our European allies to help convince the Iranian government to not pursue weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear weapons. We'll continue to work through the IAEA protocol to do just that," Bartlett said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan on Monday denied it was helping American special forces target suspected weapons sites for air strikes in neighboring Iran.
"There is no such collaboration," Pak Foreign Ministry Spokesman Masood Khan said, referring to the New Yorker article that claimed Pakistani scientists were providing the US with information on Iranian nuclear sites.
"We do not have much information about Iran's nuclear program so I think this report is far-fetched and it exaggerates facts which do not exist in the first place," Khan told a weekly press briefing in Islamabad.
"I do not think there is any substance in what has been reported. I think this is pure conjecture."

TEHRAN, Jan. 17--The controversy about summoning the human rights activist Shirin Ebadi to the revolutionary court ended on Monday after the head of Tehran Justice Department Abbasali Alizadeh conceded a mistake has been made.
Alizadeh noted that the complaint filed by a private plaintiff at the revolutionary court and the judge preferred to examine the case as a "gesture of courtesy" in light of Ebadi's distinguished personality, IRNA reported.
A revolutionary court had forwarded a notice to Ebadi to report to the court yesterday. She challenged the call, saying the private complaint has nothing to do with the revolutionary court.
The revolutionary court set up since February 1979 deals with charges about national security.
Lawyer Shirin Ebadi said the private complaint does not fall within the jurisdiction of the revolutionary court and she ignored the summons on legal grounds.
"If the reason for the summons is a private plaintiff's complaint, the revolutionary court should not examine such a charge. If there is no private plaintiff, why did they not mention the charge in the notice?" Ebadi asked at a press conference at the Center for Human Right Advocates.
Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel peace prize winner, said her lawyers contacted Branch 14 of the revolutionary court to follow up the case and they were informed that the summons was issued on the basis of a private complaint.
Asked whether she would run for the presidency in the upcoming election, she said, "I'm only a human rights activist and do not like to enter into political conflicts."

Ahmad Hosseini

TEHRAN, Jan. 17--Iran firmly confronts the illegal entry of Afghans into the country, Director General of Interior Ministry's Bureau for Alien Affairs Ahmad Hosseini said on Monday.
Hosseini referred to the recent remarks of the head of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Rudd Lubbers, and said Iran distinguishes between legal and illegal immigrants, IRNA reported.
"UNHCR does not have the right to interfere in our internal affairs. Lubbers has adopted a stance on the basis of false information," he said.
Lubbers had deplored the issue of mandatory deportation of Afghan refugees from Iran, stating that Iran exerted increasing pressures on refugees.
Hosseini noted that if the UNHCR office in Tehran and other provinces cannot compile an accurate report on the repatriation of Afghan refugees, then the Interior Ministry should carefully examine the performance of UNHCR in Iran.
"Last summer, the UNHCR cut the budget allocated for Afghan refugees, but suddenly it is worried about their conditions," he said.
He pointed out that so far 140,000 illegal immigrants have been arrested.
"These people have violated Iranian laws and regulations," he said.
Hosseini also said that since Monday Iraqi nationals residing in Iran can register for voting during the upcoming Iraqi parliamentary elections.
"Twelve centers and 70 stations have been designated for this purpose in six provinces of the country," he said.

RASHAYA, Lebanon, Jan. 17--The Israeli air force launched two bombing raids on an area adjacent to the disputed Shebaa Farms Monday, following an attack by Shiite militant group Hezbollah on an Israeli bulldozer, Lebanese police said.
A fighter-bomber fired two missiles on a hilltop position in Alman Al-Qusair that had been held by Israel before its 2000 pullout from south Lebanon, slightly wounding two Lebanese women, the police said, AFP reported.
An hour later, a jet ploughed two more missiles into a valley next to the western sector of the Israeli border but caused no casualties, they added.
Israeli artillery also opened up after the Hezbollah attack, firing nearly 45 shells in 15 minutes around the villages of Kfar Shuba, Rashaya Al-Fakhar, Kfar Hamam and Halta without causing any casualties, police added.
An AFP correspondent saw Israeli helicopters and other aircraft could be seen flying over Lebanese soil at low altitude.
A military spokesman said that the air raid was "responding to today's Hezbollah attack and the prior attacks", referring to a Hezbollah strike last week in the same disputed Shebaa Farms district that killed one Israeli soldier and wounded three.
Retaliatory Israeli fire hit a UN peacekeeping patrol, killing a French soldier and wounding a Swede.
The United Nations later said Hezbollah bore the principal blame for the casualties. It rejected the militant group's argument that attacks on the Shebaa Farms were legitimate because the district remained Israeli-occupied.
Seized from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war along with the rest of the strategic Golan Heights, the Shebaa Farms are now claimed by Lebanon with Syrian blessing.