Mr Powell was due to meet the Palestinian leader on Saturday.

It sounded like a mountain exploded - the ground was moving

Eyewitness

The White House had earlier demanded a public condemnation from Mr Arafat of the latest attack. 

The bombing came soon after Mr Powell failed to win any concessions from the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, on a timetable for a pull-out of Israeli forces from Palestinian areas. 

The explosion, occurred in the late afternoon at a bus stop on Jaffa Road, one of West Jerusalem's main streets and the site of previous Palestinian suicide bombings.

Crowded

A female suicide bomber detonated her explosives as passengers were getting off a bus that had pulled alongside the stop. 

The area was crowded with shoppers from the nearby Mahane Yehuda market trying to get home before the start of the Jewish Sabbath.

More than 60 people were also injured . 

The bomb was detonated at a busy bus stop

"It sounded like a mountain exploded - the ground was moving. People ran away screaming," a municipal worker told Reuters news agency.

Ambulances and police were at the scene of the blast within minutes. The wounded were taken to four of Jerusalem's main hospitals.

	Jerusalem attacks 1 April: Car bomb explodes in West Jerusalem killing the bomber and critically injuring a policeman 29 March: Female bomber kills herself and two others at a supermarket 21 March: Three people killed including Palestinian suicide bomber on King George street 9 March, 2002: 11 killed, 54 injured in cafe suicide bombing Detailed map of the West Bank operation

Bodies lay in the road, along with fruit and vegetables and broken glass from nearby shop windows.

The bomber was identified as a woman from the Jenin refugee camp.

Police say she had earlier tried to enter the market but was probably deterred by the heavy security presence.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, claimed responsibility for the attack.

It is the second Palestinian such attack on a bus in three days.

On Wednesday, nine people were killed and scores injured when a bomber blew himself up on a bus outside the northern Israeli town of Haifa.

An Israeli government spokesman called Friday's attack "a message of terror and death" from the Palestinians to Mr Powell.

Military operation

But a senior Palestinian negotiator said the bombing appeared to be a revenge attack for Israel's West Bank offensive and was not linked to Mr Powell's peace mission.

"I believe that this operation is in response to what happened in Jenin refugee camp," said Mohammed Dahlan, Palestinian Preventive Security chief in the Gaza Strip. 

Israel says its campaign in the West Bank is aimed at dismantling the Palestinian "terror network".
 
 

Troops backing the town's incumbent governor in his imposing colonial hill-top fortress exchanged fire with the attackers and both sides claimed to have killed several members of the rival group.

Mr Ravalomanana says he won last December's elections outright but official results say that neither he nor incumbent President Didier Ratsiraka gained the 50% of the vote needed to be declared the winner.

The country is deeply divided with rival governments, two capitals and splits in the armed forces.

Supporters of Mr Ratsiraka based in the port city of Tamatave have imposed an economic blockade on the capital, Antananarivo, which is controlled by Mr Ravalomanana.

This has led to shortages of fuel and essential commodities in Antananarivo.

'Well-armed'

The 76-year-old monk was hit by a stray bullet as he lent out of the window of his mission, next to the gendarmerie, members of his Sacre Coeur community said. 

The fighting in Fianarantsoa had earlier left two soldiers and a child injured, said medical sources.

Mr Ravalomanana's "interior minister" Jean-Seth Rambeloalijaona said his men - a combination of police, soldiers and gendarmes - had killed four of their opponents as they fled from the governor's mansion.

Ravalomanana urged his supporters to hunt down his enemies

But Governor Emilson denied the claims, saying seven attackers had been killed and another 20 injured in the fighting. 

"I am still inside my office and the morale of my soldiers is high," he told the BBC's Johnny Donovan in Antananarivo by phone. 

"We are well-protected and well-armed and have one month of supplies," one of his bodyguards told the Associated Press news agency by mobile telephone. 

Correspondents say that Mr Ravalomanana's supporters believe that taking control of Fianarantsoa would enable them to lift the blockade on Antananarivo.

'Terrorists'

The conflict between Madagascar's two rival presidents has turned increasingly violent in recent days.

Earlier this week, an aide to Mr Ratsiraka died after being taken into custody by security forces loyal to Mr Ravalomanana.

On Monday, one person was killed and several others wounded during a shooting incident in Antananarivo between supporters of Mr Ravalomanana and troops loyal to Mr Ratsiraka.

This soldier was killed in Fianarantsoa last week

The shooting occurred outside the home of Gerard Andrialemirovason, a senior aide to President Ratsiraka. 

Last Friday, Mr Ravalomanana called on his supporters to hunt down his "terrorist enemies".

At the start of last week, a similar bloody attempt by supporters of Mr Ravalomanana to take over the governor's residence in Fianarantsoa failed.

At least one soldier loyal to Mr Ratsiraka was killed.

The end of Mr Chavez's three years in power came after a three-day general strike ended in a violent demonstration on Thursday in which 11 people died.

I want to call on the glorious Venezuelan people to stay calm and to the army to set an example of civility, rejecting any incitement to violence

General Lucar Rincon

Pedro Carmona, the head of the Venezuelan business association Fedecamaras, has said that he will head a transitional government at the request of the armed forces.

He said the government would be made up of military and civilian personnel, and he announced an immediate end to the general strike. 

The strike has crippled the oil industry in Venezuela - the world's fourth largest oil exporter. 

Oil prices fall

In London, oil prices fell at the start of trading following Mr Chavez's resignation.

Opec, the cartel of leading oil exporting nations, said it was "concerned" by the situation in Venezuela, fearing the country might increase its oil output in order to boost state finances.

Thursday's opposition rally was in support of striking managers at the state oil company, who said Mr Chavez had tried to take it over by filling the board with his supporters. 

Eyewitnesses said snipers had opened fire on a crowd of more than 150,000. As well as 11 dead, more than 80 were injured.

Business leader Pedro Carmona is to head a transitional government

However, Finance Minister Francisco Uson, who is an army general, and National Guard chief Luis Camacho Kairuz resigned in protest at the killings.

They were joined by 10 other high-ranking military officers rebelling against Mr Chavez. 

Mr Chavez finally quit after overnight talks with a delegation of generals at the Miraflores presidential palace.

Appeals for calm

"The president was asked to resign from his post and he accepted," armed forces chief General Lucar Rincon said. 

"I want to call on the glorious Venezuelan people to stay calm and to the army to set an example of civility, rejecting any incitement to violence. Keep faith in your national armed forces," the general said. 

The United States said it was watching developments closely. 

Mr Chavez was driven away from the presidential palace to the Fuerte Tiuna military barracks in Caracas.

Opposition groups came under fire at the protest

Spanish radio reported that Mr Chavez had asked to be allowed to leave the country for Cuba. 

The BBC's Adam Easton, in Caracas, says there are noisy celebrations on the streets, with crowds gathering at La Carlota airport in Caracas hoping to see Mr Chavez depart. 

Guaicaipuro Lameda - a former army general and until recently president of Venezuela's state oil monopoly - said Mr Chavez's administration had been condemned because it began arming citizens' committees. 

He said it was these armed groups that had fired at opposition protesters. 

Mr Chavez's wife, Marisabel Rodriguez, was reported to have left Caracas on Thursday night with their children and flown to her home town of Barquisimeto. 

Italian airline Alitalia said it was cancelling flights on Friday to and from Caracas for "security reasons" after the rioting in the Venezuelan capital. 

Mr Chavez won a landslide election victory in 1998, six years after he led an abortive coup as a young army officer.

I accuse them of destroying Yugoslavia with the assistance of our greatest foreign enemy

Suicide note

Mr Stojiljkovic - who headed the police under former President Slobodan Milosevic - shot himself in front of the federal parliament just hours after its members voted to allow the extradition of suspects to The Hague tribunal.

Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica described the suicide as a "tragic event" and said it was a "warning to the international community that constantly sets conditions, pressures us and dictates behaviour".

The co-operation law was passed after the United States froze its aid to Yugoslavia because of delays in handing over war crimes suspects.

But State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said Washington would wait for "urgent and effective action" before deciding whether to free up the billions of dollars of funds.

 'Puppet authorities'

Mr Stojiljkovic is reported to be in a deep coma after an emergency operation by a team of neurosurgeons.

Still a member of the federal parliament, he left an angry suicide note, accusing the parliament of betrayal.

Other suspects are not expected to go quietly

It was read out by the Radical Party legislator Aleksandar Vucic in front of the parliament.

"By this act I, as a deputy of the federal parliament, express my protest against all members of the puppet authorities," said the note.

He singled out for blame the Serbian Prime Minister, Zoran Djinjdic, and Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, as well as other members of the coalition which took over following the overthrow of the Milosevic regime.

"I accuse them of destroying Yugoslavia with the assistance of our greatest foreign enemy... for ruthless violation of the constitution and laws of this country, the policy of treason and capitulation, ruin and suffocating of our national dignity," the note read.

"Patriotic citizens of this country will know how to avenge me," Mr Stojiljkovic wrote.

'No surrender'

Mr Milosevic's Socialist Party said Mr Stojiljkovic was the "first victim" of the law legalising "the hunt for Serb patriots and heroes of the war against Nato aggressors and Albanian terrorists" in Kosovo.

The party has called protests across the country, but a protest in Belgrade on Friday drew only a few dozen supporters.

The BBC's Alix Kroeger in Belgrade says Mr Stojiljkovic's attempted suicide has come as a shock, but it is not enough to bring many people out onto the streets. 

Mr Stojiljkovic is one of four senior officials accused alongside Mr Milosevic for alleged war crimes during the Yugoslav military campaign in Kosovo. 

During his time as interior minister, from 1998 to 1999, police units are alleged to have committed atrocities against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

He pledged never to surrender to the tribunal.

But the law passed by parliament on Thursday allows for the handing over of about 20 suspects, including Mr Stojiljkovic.

Yugoslav Interior Minister Zoran Zivkovic said earlier that the first extraditions could take place very soon - with all the suspects being transferred to The Hague by 1 May.