U.S. WIDENS THE TERROR WAR TO YEMEN In the midst of two unfinished major wars, the United States has quietly opened a third, largely covert front against al-Qaida in Yemen. A year ago, the CIA sent many field operatives with counterterrorism experience to the country, according a former top agency official. At the same time, some the most secretive Special Operations commandos have begun training Yemeni security forces in counterterrorism tactics, senior military officers said. The Pentagon is spending more than $70 million over the next 18 months, and using teams of Special Forces personnel, to train and equip Yemeni military, Interior Ministry and coast guard forces, more than doubling previous military aid levels. AT LEAST 10 KILLED AS IRANIANS FIGHT POLICE IN STREETS Iranian police officers fired into crowds of protesters on Sunday, killing at least 10 people, witnesses and opposition Web sites said, setting off a day of chaotic street battles that seemed poised to deepen the country's civil unrest. The nationwide protests, during the holiday commemorating the death of Imam Hussein, Shiite Islam's holiest martyr, were the bloodiest and among the largest since the uprisings that followed Iran's disputed presidential election last June, witnesses said. Hundreds of people were reported wounded in cities across the country, and the Tehran police said they had made 300 arrests. 4 KILLED IN IRAQI BOMBING A bomb killed four people in northern Iraq, but a massive deployment of security forces kept the culmination of the Shiite observance of Ashura on Sunday largely peaceful, foiling several other plots to kill pilgrims, officials said. The bombing in Tuzkhormato, near Kirkuk in northern Iraq, struck as a procession of Shiites went to a mosque, the police said. Four people were killed and 27 were wounded, security and medical officials said. The central security focus was the city of Karbala, where the authorities said 6 million to 8 million Shiite pilgrims visited. THAI MILITARY BEGINS TO REPATRIATE 4,000 HMONG TO LAOS Armed with riot shields and batons, the Thai military began early Monday to forcibly return 4,000 Hmong asylum seekers to Laos in a lingering echo of the Vietnam War. A government spokesman, Panitan Wattanayagorn, said in a telephone interview that the repatriation had started and would be completed within days. The asylum seekers have said they fear retribution by the Laotian government, which continues to battle a ragged insurgency of several hundred Hmong fighters. MULTIPLE ATTACKS BUFFET PAKISTAN A handful of deadly attacks ravaged parts of Pakistan this weekend and highlighted the multiple security challenges confronting the embattled Islamabad government, from violent vendettas by Taliban militants to sectarian violence against minority Shiites. The bloodiest attack happened Sunday in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir in the north of the country, where a suicide bomber killed at least 10 people and wounded more than 80 during a Shiite religious procession. UZBEKISTAN, AMID CRITICISM, HOLDS PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION Voters went to the polls in Uzbekistan on Sunday for a parliamentary election its president has trumpeted as a test for democracy, despite the fact that all four parties in the race staunchly support his government. Turnout as the polls closed was nearly 88 percent of the eligible voters, according to the Central Election Commission. President Islam A. Karimov, a former Communist Party boss who has led the country since 1989, has been criticized for silencing political opposition. 