BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 12 prisoners died in separate attacks on detention centers in the Iraqi capital, one involving mortars and the other involving rockets, Iraqi and U.S. officials said Monday.

Firemen scramble to put out a fire at the Dora oil refinery in southern Baghdad on Monday.

Seven prisoners were killed when mortars slammed into a detention center in central Baghdad operated by the Iraqi Interior Ministry, a ministry official said. At least 23 people, including five police officers, were wounded in the attack, the official said.

Five more detainees were killed at a holding cell on a forward operating base in eastern Baghdad's Rusafa district, the U.S. military said. Nine 122 mm rockets were fired at the facility, at least one of which was on target.

Twenty-five people were wounded in the attack, the military said.

In central Baghdad's Karrada district, separate attacks left several people dead or wounded, the Interior Ministry official said. Two civilians were killed when gunmen fired into their car from another vehicle, the official said. In another attack, two mortars landed in Karrada, wounding three civilians.


In eastern Baghdad's Baladiat neighborhood, five people -- four of them police officers -- were wounded when a roadside bomb detonated near an Iraqi national police convoy, the official said.

In southern Baghdad, a fire erupted at the Dora oil facility, one of Iraq's main refineries fueling Baghdad's power plants. No injuries were reported.

Conflicting stories emerged about how the fire started, with U.S. and Iraqi officials saying it was sparked by an accidental pipeline explosion. But Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said he was at the refinery hours after the incident and workers there confirmed the facility had been attacked.

The fire was contained, Jihad said, but it continued to burn 4 million liters (more than 1 million gallons) of benzene, a carcinogenic and highly flammable liquid used in oil refineries. He stressed that the fire has not affected the refinery's production

(CNN) -- Political parties in Belgium have been unable to form a ruling coalition since the June 10 general election, leaving the country without a government for half a year.


Outgoing Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt has remained in charge since June.

Outgoing Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, who has remained in charge, is making informal attempts to solve the impasse.

The prime minister was expected to raise the issue during his weekly audience with the king on Monday, said Koert Debeuf, a spokesman for Verhofstadt's office.

Belgium's political crisis may be the result of years of problems finally rearing their heads, said Hugo Brady, a research fellow at the Center for European Reform in London.

"Belgium has always been a country that has worked better in practice than in theory, and I think theory may have intervened finally," Brady said, in a reference to how the nation was constructed.

He said a problematic political setup in Belgium has always made it difficult for the parties to agree on a coalition.

Elections pit Flemish parties in Dutch-speaking Flanders against French-speaking parties in Wallonia. None represents the entire country, and and none holds a majority in parliament.

Brady said Belgium's political parties have always felt they struck an unfair bargain in order to rule the country. That sentiment has now peaked, Brady said, leaving the parties unable to form a coalition.

The public is annoyed at their politicians' behavior, Brady said.

The situation could affect the signing of a major European treaty this week. The Lisbon Treaty will reshape the proposed EU constitution which was scrapped in 2005.

Every EU member nation is sending a representative to attend a formal signing of the treaty in the Portuguese capital. If the Belgians are unable to send one, it may delay the signing of the treaty.

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The British man who reappeared five years after he was believed to have drowned, appeared in court Monday, and his wife was charged with two counts of deception.


Detective Superintendent Tony Hutchinson shows a photo of a bearded John Darwin.

1 of 2 John Darwin, 57, appeared at Hartlepool Magistrates' Court in the northeast of England accused of obtaining £25,000 ($50,000) by deception and making an untrue statement to procure a passport, a spokeswoman for the court told CNN.

The court spokeswoman said Darwin was remanded in custody until December 14 when he will reappear at the same court via video link. No application for bail was made and none was granted, she said. He entered no plea, the spokeswoman said.

The first charge dates back to May 2003, when Darwin is accused of obtaining money fraudulently from Unat Direct Insurance Management Ltd. by falsely claiming that he had been killed in an accident the previous year.

Darwin's court appearance came as his wife, Anne, was charged with two offenses of deception, one relating to obtaining the £25,000 by cash transfer and the other relating to obtaining £137,000 by cash transfer. She is expected in court Tuesday, police said.

She was arrested by police Sunday after she flew in to Britain on a flight from via Atlanta, Georgia. She had been living in Panama City, Panama.

Police investigating "Canoe Man" John Darwin's disappearance made a fresh appeal for sightings during the five years he was believed dead, issuing a new image and detailing another name he may have used.

Detective Superintendent Tony Hutchinson said Darwin may have gone under the name of "John Jones" and grown a long brown beard during his absence.

"We need to know if anyone has seen John Darwin in United Kingdom after his 'death,' " Hutchinson, of northeast England's Cleveland Police force, told a news conference.

Darwin was declared dead by a coroner after the remains of a kayak he paddled into the North Sea washed up on shore in 2002.

The former prison officer and teacher walked into a central London police station last week.


A massive air and sea rescue operation was launched in March 2002, when Darwin went missing.

Within 24 hours, the kayak paddle was recovered by police near the area where he was thought to have disappeared and, two months later, the remains of his kayak washed up on the coast.

DORASAN STATION, South Korea (AP) -- The first cargo train providing regular service across the border between the two Koreas in more than a half century left Tuesday for the North.


Korea Railway President Lee Chul shakes hands with the train's engine driver in Paju, South Korea, Tuesday.

The 12-car train carrying construction materials will cross through the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone dividing the peninsula on its journey to the North Korean border city of Kaesong, where the two Koreas operate a joint industrial zone. It was to cross back later Tuesday.

The service is one of the tangible results of an October summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun that outlined a series of joint projects. It comes months after the two sides conducted a one-time test run of passenger trains on two reconnected tracks on the western and eastern sides of the peninsula.

The cargo train will make a 10-mile round trip every weekday to North Korea.

It remains unclear whether regular passenger train service will start anytime soon, but one of the train's engineers was hopeful Tuesday.

"I expect a day will come when South Koreans visit North Korean tourist attractions freely by train," Shin Jang-chul, whose parents are from what is now North Korea, told reporters before departing.

South Korea hopes the inter-Korean railway will ultimately be linked through North Korea to Russia's Trans-Siberian railroad and allow an overland route connecting the peninsula to Europe -- significantly cutting delivery times for freight that now requires sea transport.


The cargo rail service is likely to give a further boost to the sprawling Kaesong complex, which marries South Korean technology and management expertise with North Korea's cheap labor.

Currently, 64 South Korean companies operate factories there, employing about 21,600 North Korean workers and producing a range of goods including watches, clothing and shoes.

South Korea hopes the Kaesong project will encourage isolated North Korea to reform its centrally controlled economy and eventually open up to the outside world.

The rail lines between the Koreas were severed shortly after the outbreak of the 1950 Korean War. The conflict ended in a 1953 cease-fire that has never been replaced by a peace treaty, leaving the sides technically at war.

Already, dozens of cars, trucks and buses regularly cross the border between the two Koreas via reconnected roads both to the Kaesong complex and also to a tourism resort at North Korea's Diamond Mountain.

The transport links between North and South were reconnected after the first-ever summit between leaders of the divided nation in 2000.

BALI, Indonesia (AP) -- A joint U.S.-European Union proposal to liberalize trade in green goods and services such as solar panels would boost the availability of technology to battle global warming, a top U.S. trade official said Sunday.


An Indonesian activist at a green protest in Jakarta Saturday.

U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said on the sidelines of the U.N. climate change conference in Indonesia that developing countries have an average of 9 percent tariffs on the list of 43 goods and services.

"The question is, how can we do a better job of making those available and ensuring additional use of climate mitigation technologies?" Schwab said after a meeting of trade ministers at the global warming conference in Bali.

Developing countries at the conference have called on wealthy nations to speed the transfer of climate-friendly technologies to help them reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases blamed for rising global temperatures.

The tariff cuts, made by the U.S. and E.U. last week, would not apply to so-called biofuels, something emerging economies such as Brazil had been pushing for. It is not clear how much support the trans-Atlantic offer will garner in the 151-member World Trade Organization.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, who also handles trade issues, objected to the proposal at a news conference after the trade meeting in Bali, saying that the list of goods was flawed because it omitted ethanol. Brazil is the leading exporter.

"This list is incomplete, it won't do much for climate change, it's not proven what effects that these goods will have on climate change," he said. "The single project whose effect on climate change is already shown and demonstrated, which is ethanol ... isn't part of the list."

Amorim said that use of ethanol over 30 years in Brazil had avoided the emission of 670 million tons of carbon dioxide.

The U.S.-EU proposal would only come into force as part of an overall agreement in the Doha round of trade liberalization talks, which have repeatedly stalled since their inception in Qatar's capital six years ago.

The U.S. and European Union targeted 43 goods "with clear environmental benefits," in order to promote their use worldwide and help combat global warming. But they rejected earlier this month a move by Brazil to include biofuels, such as ethanol.


American and European delegates to the WTO argued that the special environmental tariffs ought to be reserved solely for industrial goods, and not agricultural products. Brazil has been touting its sugarcane-based ethanol around the world as a cheap, eco-friendly alternative to fossil fuels that is being held back by high U.S. and European tariffs.

According to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the global market for environmental goods and services is worth several hundred billion dollars each year.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) -- Hugo Chavez and leaders of six other South American nations launched a regional development bank Sunday that the Venezuelan leader is touting as the continent's answer to U.S.-influenced international lenders.


Venezuela's Hugo Chavez talks to Nestor Kircher, left, and Cristina Fernandez at the bank's launch.

With as much as $7 billion in expected startup capital, backers say the Banco del Sur, or Bank of the South, will offer Latin American countries loans with fewer strings attached than those given by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund or the Inter-American Development Bank.

The leaders signed the "founding act" at a ceremony at Argentina's presidential palace hosted by President Nestor Kirchner and his wife, president-elect Cristina Fernandez, who takes office Monday.

South American dignitaries and government officials cheered after the leaders signed the accord on a glass-topped table, backed by flags of their South American nations.

"This is the start of a historical moment," said Bolivian President Evo Morales, whose country is the continent's poorest.

He praised the bank as a new tool to fight poverty and ease inequalities and criticized what he characterized as heavy-handed lending practices of international lenders who demand austerity prescriptions as conditions for extending credit.

"Only strong and united can South America occupy its rightful place among nations," Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said. "This will be the first international bank truly controlled by the nations of our continent."


Earlier, Chavez said the bank is "aimed at freeing us from the chains of dependence and underdevelopment."

The institution is one of several far-reaching proposals under Chavez's ambitious call to unite Latin American countries in a "confederation of republics." His vision also includes a transcontinental natural gas pipeline and trade alliances.

Critics note much remains to be determined about how the bank will operate and say it might turn out to be a largely symbolic project used by Chavez to spread his oil-financed influence.

But others call it a bold stroke for Latin America's financial independence.

"What you had in the past decade was the collapse of a very powerful creditors' cartel headed by the IMF," said Mark Weisbrot of the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research. "This is the first step in creating an alternative."

Finance ministers of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela will sit on the bank's board. Officials say it will dispense loans for projects from road-building to anti-poverty programs and regional integration plans such as cross-border rail lines.

Venezuelan officials say the bank's loans will be issued at interest rates similar to those of other international lenders.

"The bank is not against anything or anyone. It is in favor of the people of South America," Venezuelan Finance Minister Rodrigo Cabezas said when Brazil, the continent's largest economy in South America, committed to joining the enterprise.

Rodolfo Sanz, a Venezuelan state bank official, said initial capitalization is expected between $5 billion and $7 billion, depending on final pledges.

The bank will be headquartered in Caracas, with Bolivian and Argentine branches.

Augusto de la Torre, World Bank chief economist for Latin America, welcomed the bank.

"It's a very interesting initiative which I think expresses the desire to find stronger cooperation between Latin American governments," he told The Associated Press in a recent interview. "As far as the World Bank is concerned, this new initiative is not perceived as a competitor."

IMF-watcher Paul Blustein at Washington's Brookings Institution said the project highlights Latin America's yearning for greater autonomy after decades of sporadic financial crises and imposed austerity measures -- such as IMF missteps ahead of Argentina's 2002 economic meltdown.

"It's really emblematic of how Latin America has become disillusioned with the model that the IMF and the World Bank and the U.S. Treasury promotes -- the so-called Washington consensus," he said.


But he noted the IMF and World Bank have decades of know-how.

"I'm not so sure this institution is going to be any more successful," he said.

SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, and Iran have signed a long awaited agreement for development of the Yadavaran oilfield, the official Xinhua News Agency and Iranian reports said Monday.


Sinopec and Iranian government officials sign a $2 billion deal on Sunday in Tehran.

"The initial estimation of the project's cost is about $2 billion," Xinhua quoted Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari as telling reporters at the signing ceremony in Tehran.

Zhou Baixiu, head of Sinopec's International Exploration and Production Unit, and Hossein Noqreka-Shirazi, head of international affairs for the Iranian Petroleum Ministry, signed the agreement, which completes a memorandum of understanding signed in 2004, the Iranian Republic News Agency reported.

China has been snapping up energy resources across the globe as it seeks to ensure supplies of oil and gas to fuel its booming economy. Its investments in Iran and Sudan have prompted complaints it is undermining diplomatic efforts to bring recalcitrant regimes in line.

Beijing has balked at new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, arguing for diplomatic solutions to the standoff. A new U.S. intelligence report that Iran stopped atomic weapons development in 2003, contrary to U.S. suspicions, may have cleared the way for Sinopec to move ahead on Yadavaran, although Washington is still arguing in favor of sanctions.

The Yadavaran deal calls for the Chinese company to invest in developing the oilfield in two phases, with the first phase to produce 85,000 barrels per day to be carried out in four years and the second phase to produce another 100,000 barrels per day to be completed in another three years, Xinhua said, citing Nozari.

Earlier reports had said the two sides were divided over Sinopec's request for a 15 percent return from the project and over the planned capacity for the project. China had argued for a target of 180,000 barrels a day to avoid excess production, according to Chinese state media reports.


The Yadavaran field is expected to have a potential output of 300,000 barrels per day of crude oil. It has 3.2 billion barrels of recoverable reserves, with recoverable gas reserves estimated at 2.7 trillion cubic feet.

Sinopec, Asia's largest refiner, has shares traded in New York, London, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

(CNN) -- Struggling UBS admitted Monday it would write down a further $10 billion in U.S. subprime losses and said it could record losses for the entire financial year.


UBS's third quarter operating loss was its first in nine years.

The Swiss banking giant also said it would borrow 13 billion Swiss francs ($11.51 billion) to strengthen its capital base, including 11 billion Swiss francs from Singapore's state-owned investment company, GIC, making it UBS's largest single investor with a nine percent stake.

Another 2 billion Swiss francs came from an undisclosed Middle Eastern investor.

UBS's board has also approved the replacement of a 2007 cash dividend with a stock dividend and the re-sale of 36.4 million treasury shares, raising a further 4.4 billion Swiss francs, according to a statement.

Chief Executive Marcel Rohner said the company had updated its loss assumptions in response to deteriorating conditions in the U.S. mortgage and housing markets which had made the value of UBS's subprime holdings "unknowable."

"In our judgement these writedowns will create maximum clarity on this issue and will have the effect of substantially eliminating speculation," said Rohner.

"Losses in sub-prime are very disappointing but come at a time when most of our businesses are generating close to record levels of profit. I am confident that, after these writedowns and with a strong balance sheet, we are well positioned for growth and profitability."

UBS's latest problems come after the bank reported third-quarter net losses of Swiss francs 830 million for the period to September 30, the first time in nine years it had recorded an operating loss. In the statement Monday, UBS admitted it could now face further losses.

"UBS revises its outlook for its fourth quarter 2007 from an overall Group profit, as anticipated in its announcement of 30 October 2007, to a loss," the statement said.

"It is now possible that UBS will record a net loss attributable to shareholders for the full year 2007."

Tony Tan, deputy chairman of GIC, denied its investment in UBS meant it was seeking control of the banking group.

"GIC is now the single largest investor in UBS and this is the largest investment GIC has made in any company," Tan told a news conference, The Associated Press reported.

"We did not make it a condition that our investment should have a representation (on UBS's board.) We have no desire to control the business of the bank."

Previously, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup had been the biggest casualties of the subprime crisis with Merrill losing more than $8 billion on mortgage securities in the last quarter, prompting the resignation of chief executive Stan O'Neal. Further losses are expected when it reports again in January.

At Citigroup, chief executive Chuck Prince was also toppled after he had to admit the company could take a writedown of $8-11 billion in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley is expecting to lose $3.7 billion in the fourth quarter when it reports this month and Bear Stearns expects to post a $1.2 billion writedown.

Altogether, mortgage-related writedowns cost the banking industry $40 billion in the third quarter and the fourth looks set to be worse.