Iraqi Cabinet votes to approve SOFA

BAGHDAD, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Iraq's Cabinet Sunday approved a status of forces agreement with the United States allowing U.S. troops to stay there after Dec. 31, officials said.

Twenty-seven of 40 Iraqi Cabinet members voted to approve the status of forces agreement, or SOFA, and it will now go before the country's 275-member parliament, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told CNN Sunday.

The agreement, which has been the subject of months of negotiations between the U.S. Bush administration and Iraqi ministers, replaces a U.N. mandate that expires at the end of the year. It subjects off-duty U.S. troops and foreign contractors to Iraqi law in certain instances and calls for the withdrawal of all occupying forces by 2011.

Sami al-Askari, an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, told CNN the final draft of the SOFA included changes that made it "satisfactory" for the Iraqis.

Many in Iraq, including radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, oppose the SOFA because it allows U.S. forces to remain in Iraq after the Dec. 31. They say the deal compromises Iraq's sovereignty.

30,000 So. Calif. residents flee wildfires

YORBA LINDA, Calif., Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Ferocious wildfires aided by blasting winds and high temperatures forced 30,000 Southern California residents to flee their homes, officials said Sunday.

Eleven people were injured, including four firefighters, and at least 600 homes were destroyed in fires that struck the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County and suburbs along the Santa Ana Canyon in Orange and Riverside counties. An earlier blaze in Santa Barbara County that destroyed 111 homes appeared to be under control, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Parts of three major Los Angeles freeways were closed by smoke and rolling blackouts were imposed by utility officials worried about the safety of power lines.

The biggest concern Sunday morning was in Orange County, where a major blaze that began in Riverside County spread along the Santa Ana Canyon and into Yorba Linda, the newspaper said. That fire had destroyed 56 homes and an apartment complex.

Residents of a mobile home park in Sylmar, Calif., were allowed to inspect the rubble left by the fire in the San Fernando Valley, CNN reported. At least 500 mobile homes and 165 other homes were destroyed, making it one of Los Angeles' most destructive fires ever.

Israel kills four in Gaza City airstrike

GAZA, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Israeli warplanes killed four Palestinian militants and injured six people in a Gaza City strike Sunday, a Palestinian official said.

Abu Mujahed, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, a Palestinian organization based in Gaza, told Ynetnews.com that Israel Defense Forces fighter jets killed several senior members of its Salah al-Din Brigades in the airstrike.

Israeli military officials said the Palestinians were launching rockets into Israel. The airstrike came after two Qassam rockets landed near a kibbutz in southern Israel.

It was unclear if the violence would affect efforts by Israel and leaders of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, to start talks aimed at extending a cease-fire agreement, Ynetnews.com reported.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said the "Palestinian resistance" would respond to "the enemy's crimes," Ynetnews.com reported.

"The occupier violates the lull and we are certain that the resistance will respond to this crime as it has done in the past," Barhum said.

23 feared dead in Kashmir bridge collapse

URI, India, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- At least 23 workers were feared dead Sunday after a bridge being built collapsed in Indian-administered Kashmir, officials said.

The workers were considered missing in the rain-swollen Jhelum River near the border village of Uri, CNN reported, saying two people were pulled alive from river.

A local police official said the center of the bridge, which was in the final stage of construction, collapsed suddenly.

Japanese ship seized by Somali pirates

BOSSASSO, Somalia, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- A Japanese freighter carrying South Korean and Filipino crew members has been hijacked by armed pirates off Somalia in the Gulf of Aden, officials said.

The 20,000-ton cargo ship Chemstar Venus was seized Saturday, South Korean foreign ministry officials told the Yonhap news agency. Eighteen of the ship's 23-member crew were Filipinos and five were South Korean

"It was not yet learned who the hijackers are and whether the crewmen are safe," a ministry official told the news agency.

It was the second hijacking of a South Korean ship since September, when a freighter was also seized by pirates off Somalia. The crew of that ship was freed unharmed after more than a month of captivity.

The latest incident came as Seoul was laying plans to send a 4,500-ton destroyer loaded with missiles and other weaponry to protect its shipping in the Gulf of Aden, Yonhap said.

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