Suicide bombers killed at least 39 people and wounded dozens more Wednesday while targeting a procession of worshippers observing an important Shiite Muslim holiday in southeastern Iran, state media reported. 

The Jundallah organization, a militant Sunni group that claims to represent Iran”s mostly Sunni ethnic Baluch minority, posted on a website that it was responsible for the attack.  The bombing was the latest sign that the troubles in South Asia, including Sunni extremism, are increasingly seeping into Iran. 

Footage aired on Iranian television showed bloodstained asphalt in the city of Chabahar”s Farmandari Square as panicked crowds rushed toward the site of the blast and emergency response personnel loaded the injured into waiting ambulances. 

SYDNEY

Boat hits rocks off

Australia; 28 dead

Rescuers returned to treacherous seas today to hunt for possible survivors after a wooden boat smuggling up to 100 asylum seekers smashed against the cliffs of an Australian island, tossing people overboard and killing at least 28. 

The passengers included people of Iraqi, Iranian and Kurdish origin, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said. 

The deaths at remote Christmas Island underscored dangers faced by hundreds of refugees who have tried to sail from Indonesia to Australia in recent years — often in cramped, barely seaworthy boats — to start new lives after escaping from poor, war-ravaged countries. 

Navy and customs officers on the island pulled 42 people from raging surf in the hours after the boat was battered to pieces on limestone rocks, Gillard said.  Eleven children were among those rescued. 

Gillard said search efforts would continue. 

MOSCOW

1,000 detained to prevent ethnic clashes

Fearing more clashes between racist hooligans and ethnic minorities, Russian police detained 1,000 people in a standoff near a Moscow train station Wednesday, taking a strong stance against far right extremists after weekend rioting left dozens injured. 

Hundreds of riot police outside the Kievsky station hauled mostly young men and teenagers shouting racist slogans into police vans.  Some were lined up against buses and searched by police.  Officers confiscated an arsenal of weapons, including knives and metal bars, police spokesman Viktor Biryukov said. 

SEOUL,

SOUTH KOREA

Nationwide air raid drill first in 35 years

Air raid sirens blared, traffic stopped, fighter planes roared overhead and schoolchildren were hustled into subway stations Wednesday as South Korea, still tense after an artillery exchange with North Korea three weeks ago, held its biggest civil defense drill in decades. 

Mayor of Seoul, Oh Se-hoon, said the drill was conducted in a “swift but orderly” manner.  It was the first of its kind since 1975, he said.