Center-right gains buoy Barroso's EU bid

By Mark John
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Center-right parties stepped up their campaign to secure a second term for Jose Manuel Barroso as European Commission president on Monday, the day after winning the most seats in a European Parliament election.
Ruling parties were defeated in some countries worst hit by the financial crisis, and turnout slumped to a record low of 43 percent. Prime Minister Gordon Brown faced a possible leadership challenge in Britain, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her party's gains augured well for a re-election bid this year.
Barroso is the main candidate so far to lead the European Union's executive Commission, which has far-reaching powers to regulate and propose legislation. The role of Commission chief is vital in determining how the body deals with national EU capitals which often seek to resist its initiatives.
The European People's Party (EPP), the biggest group in the assembly, said it expected European leaders to back Barroso for a new term at a summit on June 18-19 and predicted he would win approval in parliament despite opposition from the left.
"I am extremely confident ... I am not worried about that at all," said EPP leader Joseph Daul said of resistance to the 53-year-old former Portuguese prime minister, accused by critics of promoting free markets at the expense of social concerns.
Daul rejected calls to delay a decision on who should be appointed head of the Commission until after Ireland holds a referendum on the EU's Lisbon reform treaty expected in October.
He said the EU executive needed to press on with efforts to tackle the economic slowdown in Europe.
"We need a president of the Commission, a president for the next five years. We can't leave this post vacant till the end of the year -- it would be like having no one in government," Daul told a news conference.
Incomplete results showed the Greens made gains and the big losers were the Socialists. Far-right forces won parliamentary seats in some countries, including Britain, but they and other fringe parties did less well than some pollsters had expected.
The passage of legislation through the assembly, which passes the majority of European Union laws, is likely to be smooth -- including further reforms of the financial regulatory system intended to prevent another global crisis.
QUEST FOR MAJORITIES
However the EPP will remain short of an absolute majority in the 736-seat assembly and will now scout for alliances to ensure its agenda dominates. A tie-up with the smaller Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) would take it close to a majority, but it would still need other allies.
Barroso vowed on Sunday to tackle climate change decisively after the success of ecologists in countries including France, where a coalition of Green politicians led by 1968 student leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit won about 16 percent of the vote.
Center-right parties won in countries including France, Germany, Italy, Poland in four days of voting across the 27 EU member states that ended on Sunday.
"It shows a trend, and we want to use this trend in coming weeks right up to the general election," Merkel said in Berlin of a result which if repeated in the national poll would free her from a loveless coalition with rival Social Democrats. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Spain's La Vanguardia says Gabon's Bongo dead

By Marco Trujillo
BARCELONA (Reuters) - A Spanish newspaper said Gabon's President Omar Bongo died on Monday in a Spanish clinic where he was being treated for a serious illness, hours after the Gabonese prime minister said he was alive and well.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Gabonese authorities or from the hospital.
La Vanguardia, a Barcelona newspaper with excellent contacts in the region, said on its website that Bongo, Africa's longest-serving leader had died at 1200 GMT (8:00 a.m. EDT). A few hours earlier Gabonese Prime Minister Jean Eyeghe Ndong told a media conference at the Quiron hospital in Barcelona, where Bongo's family had been visiting him, that he was alive and well.
Reports that Bongo is ill have raised questions over the future leadership of Gabon, which has maintained close ties with former colonial ruler France and attracted investors with a Eurobond as well as its long-established oil industry.
French media initially said on Sunday that Bongo had died, after 41 years in power. But Gabon's government said on Monday that it would officially complain to France over the press reports.
"I have made a statement not only to reassure the Gabonese people but to condemn this tendency in the French press, which only wants to sow doubt in the spirit of the Gabonese for undesirable ends," Ndong said early on Monday.
Gabon's deputy foreign minister handed the official complaint to France's ambassador in Libreville.
The oceanside capital was quiet, despite the confusion. But some residents kept their children out of school as a precaution and stocked up on provisions, while others called for proof their president was alive.
Concerns over the Bongo's health grew last month after he suspended his functions as head of state for the first time since taking power in 1967.
The country has a well-developed oil industry with France's Total SA one of the biggest investors.
It also has a $1 billion Eurobond, which is due to mature in 2017, and which the government is in the process of buying back.
SHOW US PROOF
The 73-year-old checked into the clinic in Barcelona in May, officially to rest after the sudden death of his wife. But reports that he was suffering from cancer fueled speculation over who would lead the country if he died.
Although there have been some concerns about stability, analysts say that, even if Bongo dies, the ruling party is likely to tightly manage the transition and that Bongo's successes in easing ethnic tensions will reduce the risk of turmoil.
Despite the government's denials of the French media's claims, some residents sought further reassurances. Continued...
Source: Reuters

NATO to reduce Kosovo force by January: U.S. official

By David Brunnstrom
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO plans to scale down its 15,000-strong KFOR peacekeeping force in Kosovo to 10,000 by January because security and political conditions have improved, a U.S. official said on Monday.
"KFOR is looking to shift to the next phase of operations -- to a deterrence presence," the official, who requested anonymity, told a news briefing.
KFOR has been in Kosovo since 1999 under a United Nations mandate since NATO's bombing campaign to drive Serb forces out of the province, which declared independence from Serbia last year.
The official said a mission review had found the security situation had improved enough for the reduction.
The military recommendation has been considered by NATO ambassadors and will be formally decided at a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels this week, he said.
KFOR was now operating as a third line of security after the local Kosovo Security Force and a 2,000-strong European Union mission, he said, and had not had to intervene for some time.
"It is the recommendation of the military authorities, based on the security situation on the ground, and recognizing the political conditions in the country, that we can now move to this new phase and reduce the forces," the official said.
Any further reduction in the force would be made only if recommended by NATO's military and agreed by all NATO states.
PRESENCE 'UNNECESSARY'
In April, Kosovo asked the United Nations -- which officially remains in charge of the country on the basis of a 1999 Security Council resolution -- to end its mission.
It said its presence was unnecessary following Pristina's independence declaration.
The U.S. official said the United States opposed any unilateral decisions by NATO member states, such as that taken by Spain, to reduce their Kosovo commitments.
Spain, one of five EU states that has refused to recognize Kosovo's independence, has said it will withdraw most of its 600 troops from Kosovo in months. Britain said in March it would pull out all its 167 KFOR personnel by September.
Kosovo's independence is recognized by 58 countries including the United States and most EU member states. Serbia and Russia, a permanent Security Council member with veto rights, have said they will not recognize an independent Kosovo.
The United Nations has reduced its staff over the past year but wants to keep a small presence, mainly in northern Kosovo where the inhabitants are mostly Serbs.
(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Source: Reuters

U.S. allies hand Lebanon's Hezbollah election blow

Lebanese vote in tight contest
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By Nadim Ladki
BEIRUT (Reuters) - A surprise victory in Lebanon by an anti-Syrian coalition against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its allies should be confirmed on Monday with the release of official results of the country's parliamentary election.
Officials from rival camps estimated the bloc won around 70 seats in the 128-member assembly in Sunday's vote. Interior Minister Ziad Baroud was set to announce the final results later in the day, officials said.
Supporters of the coalition celebrated into the early hours after voters renewed their majority in parliament four years after the "Cedar Revolution" that helped drive Syria's army out of Lebanon and wrest control of the government.
The outcome was a blow to Syria and Iran, which support Hezbollah, and welcome news for the United States, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which backs the "March 14" bloc, named after the date of a huge rally against Syria's military presence in 2005.
The U.S. State Department had no immediate comment on the outcome of the election.
Hezbollah and its allies swept the vote in mainly Shi'ite areas, but defeat of their Christian ally, Michel Aoun, in two key districts deprived the alliance of the majority many had predicted.
Saad al-Hariri, the Sunni Muslim leader of "March 14," emerged from the poll as frontrunner to lead the new government and follow in the footsteps of his assassinated father Rafik al-Hariri.
"Congratulations to Lebanon, congratulations to democracy, congratulations to freedom," the billionaire politician said in a victory speech at his mansion in Beirut shortly after midnight.
"There are no winners and losers in this election, the only winner is democracy and the biggest winner is Lebanon," Hariri, 39, said.
GUERRILLA ARMY
Lebanon's rival camps are at odds over Hezbollah's guerrilla force, which outguns the Lebanese army, and the ties with Syria, which dominated Lebanon for three decades until 2005.
The likeliest outcome of the poll is another "national unity" government, analysts say, though its formation might not go smoothly if the Hezbollah camp insists on veto power.
The United States, which lists Hezbollah as a terrorist group, has linked future aid to Lebanon to the shape and policies of the next government. Hezbollah, which says it must keep its arms to deter Israel, is part of the outgoing cabinet.
The anti-Syrian majority coalition has enjoyed firm backing from many Western countries, as well as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, since the 2005 assassination of Hariri's father.
The coalition took power in an election following the killing, but struggled to govern in the face of a sometimes violent conflict with Hezbollah and its allies. Continued...
Source: Reuters

EU vows economic leadership after assembly vote

By Timothy Heritage
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European leaders pledged to steer the region through economic crisis after center-right parties tightened their grip on the European Parliament in an election that drew a record low turnout of voters.
Although ruling parties were defeated in some of the countries worst hit by the global financial crisis and the turnout was only about 43 percent, the ruling center-right parties did well in most of the big European economies.
Incomplete results showed the European People's Party (EPP) won most votes, the Greens made gains and the big losers were the Socialists.
Far-right forces won parliamentary seats in some countries, including Britain, but they and other fringe parties did less well than some pollsters had expected.
The passage of legislation through the assembly, which passes the majority of European Union laws, is likely to be smooth -- including reforms of the financial regulatory system intended to prevent another global crisis.
"Overall, the results are an undeniable victory for those parties and candidates that support the European project and want to see the European Union delivering policy responses to their everyday concerns," Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the EU's executive European Commission, said late Sunday.
"From today onwards, Europe owes it to the voters to show once again that it can deliver. It must continue to pave the way through the economic and financial crisis. It must do all it can to support those most vulnerable in society, especially those facing unemployment."
Barroso vowed to tackle climate change decisively after the success of Green parties in countries including France, where a coalition of Green politicians led by 1968 student leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit won about 16 percent of the vote.
Center-right parties won in large countries including France, Germany, Italy, Poland in four days of voting across the 27 EU member states that ended Sunday.
Countries where ruling parties were defeated included Britain, Spain, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Hungary, Ireland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Portugal, Sweden, Greece and Slovenia.
VOTERS' CONCERNS OVER ECONOMY
The 736-member parliament passes many laws, has the final say on the appointment of the EU's leaders and budget, and is a democratic watchdog over the other EU institutions -- the Commission and the Council of EU heads of state and government.
Its powers will be enhanced under reforms set out in the EU's Lisbon treaty, which is intended to streamline decision making but has not yet won the approval of all member states.
The election was dominated by voters' fears over rising unemployment and concerns that the EU has done too little to tackle the economic crisis, although it eventually poured in money to try to revive Europe's economy.
The Socialists appeared too divided to make gains, despite the worst recession since the 1930s. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Angry Pakistani villagers fight, surround Taliban

By Kamran Haider
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani villagers enraged with the Taliban after the bombing of a mosque battled the militants on Monday, underscoring a shift in public opinion away from the hardline Islamists.
The military has been fighting the Taliban in the Swat valley, northwest of the capital, for more than a month after the militants took advantage of a peace pact to conquer new areas.
In retaliation for the offensive, the Taliban have stepped up bomb attacks and are suspected of being behind a suicide blast at a mosque in the Upper Dir region, near Swat, that killed about 40 people on Friday.
Outraged by the attack, villagers formed a militia, known as a lashkar, of about 500 men and began fighting the militants on Saturday in an bid to force them out of their area.
A top government official in Upper Dir, Atif-ur-Rehman, said the militia fighters had pushed the Taliban out of three villages and surrounded them in another two.
"About 150 militants are believed to be there putting up resistance. But the villagers are doing well, they're squeezing the militants," Rehman told Reuters by telephone.
The United States, which needs sustained Pakistani action to help defeat al Qaeda and to cut off militant support for the Afghan Taliban, has been heartened by the resolve the government and military are showing in the Swat offensive.
Alarmed by the prospect of nuclear-armed Pakistan drifting into chaos, the United States had criticized a February pact with the Taliban in the former tourist valley of Swat.
The Swat offensive also has broad public support in a country where many people have long been suspicious of the United States and government critics have decried fighting "America's war."
CLOSE QUARTERS
The February pact aimed at placating the Taliban in Swat by introducing Islamic sharia law sailed through parliament with only one or two voices of dissent.
But much has changed since then.
A Taliban push into a district 100 km (60 miles) from Islamabad, a widely circulated video of Taliban flogging a teenaged girl and the Islamists' denunciation of the constitution as "unIslamic" have sharply shifted public opinion.
The villagers' action in Upper Dir is the latest in a series of instances of people turning on the Taliban. Rehman said security forces could help the militia if necessary.
"We don't want to step in right now as they're fighting at close quarters and there is a chance of losses on the villagers' side if we use artillery," he said. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Crews find more bodies from Air France crash

By Fernando Exman and Tim Hepher
RECIFE, Brazil/PARIS (Reuters) - Searchers found 15 more bodies from a crashed Air France jet on Sunday and retrieved a large amount of debris from the plane that plunged into the Atlantic ocean in the worst air disaster since 2001.
Nearly a week after the Airbus A330 crashed on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Paris killing all 228 people on board, a total of 17 bodies have been recovered, following the discovery of two unidentified males on Saturday.
Investigators are considering the possibility the speed sensors on Flight 447 may have iced up and Air France said late on Saturday it was accelerating the replacement of speed sensors on all its Airbus long-haul planes.
Brazil's navy and air force said in a statement on Sunday night that they had retrieved seven more bodies and were transporting them along with the two corpses found on Saturday to the islands of Fernando de Noronha, 230 miles off the coast of Brazil.
Of the nine corpses, four were male and four were female, while the sex of the other body could not be identified.
A French ship picked up eight bodies on Sunday, the Brazilian military said, without giving further details.
"Hundreds of items are being found and being stored until we know where they should go," Brazilian Air Force spokesman Henry Munhoz told reporters in the northeastern city of Recife, where the bodies and debris will eventually be brought.
STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS FOUND
Brazil's military declined to give details about the debris found on Sunday, saying only that it was "structural components."
Brazilian network Globo reported on its website that a refrigerated truck used to store corpses was waiting on Fernando de Noronha. Brazilian media also said police were taking DNA samples from passengers' relatives to help identify the bodies.
Twelve Brazilian planes, one equipped with radar equipment that can detect material in the water, two French planes, one French ship and five Brazilian navy ships are searching the area about 680 miles northeast of Brazil's coast.
France also has sent a nuclear-powered submarine that should arrive on Wednesday to search for the black box flight data recorders that will be crucial to understanding why the plane fell from the sky as it passed storms on Monday.
The plane's pilots may have set the aircraft at a dangerous speed because they were relying on faulty speed readings, investigators say.
Air France said it had begun the switchover of speed sensors five weeks before the crash but only after disagreeing with Airbus over the planemaker's proposal to carry out tests before replacing them.
An Airbus spokesman declined to comment and said it could only discuss the investigation with French air authorities. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Anti-Syrian bloc celebrates Lebanon election win

Lebanese vote in tight contest
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By Laila Bassam
BEIRUT (Reuters) - An anti-Syrian coalition defeated Hezbollah in Lebanon's parliamentary election on Sunday in a blow to Syria and Iran and a boost to the United States.
"Congratulations to Lebanon, congratulations to democracy, congratulations to freedom," the coalition's leader Saad al-Hariri said in a victory speech at his mansion in Beirut.
The outcome was also welcome news for Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which back Hariri's "March 14" alliance - the date of a 2005 rally against Syria's military presence in Lebanon.
"We have lost the election," conceded a senior politician close to the bloc of Shi'ite groups Hezbollah and Amal and Christian ally Michel Aoun.
"We accept the result as the will of the people."
The vote will be viewed as a stinging setback to Aoun, who held the biggest bloc of Christian MPs in the outgoing assembly and had hoped to seal his claim to speak for the Christians.
A source in Hariri's campaign predicted a decisive victory, with his bloc taking at least 70 of the assembly's 128 seats.
Perhaps 100 of the seats were virtually decided in advance, thanks to sectarian voting patterns and political deals, with Sunni and Shi'ite communities voting solidly on opposing sides.
The real electoral battle centered on Christian areas, where Aoun was up against former President Amin Gemayel's Phalange Party, Samir Geagea's Lebanese Forces and independents.
Lebanon's rival camps are at odds over Hezbollah's guerrilla force, which outguns the Lebanese army, and ties with Syria, which dominated Lebanon for three decades until 2005.
The likeliest outcome of the poll is another "national unity" government, analysts say.
SINIORA WINS SEAT
According to unofficial results, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who has enjoyed Western and Arab support, won a parliamentary seat in the mainly Sunni southern city of Sidon.
Siniora, 66, has headed the cabinet since the Hariri-led coalition won the 2005 parliamentary election. He led the government through 18 months of political conflict with Hezbollah and its allies, but is not expected to keep his post.
Voting was relatively trouble-free across Lebanon, although there were many reports of vote-buying before the poll, with some Lebanese expatriates being offered free air tickets home. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Britain's Brown faces revolt after poll rout

By Keith Weir and Adrian Croft
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown faced a renewed challenge to his leadership on Monday after support for the ruling Labour Party plunged to its lowest level in a century in European elections.
Compounding Labour's woes, the far-right British National Party won two seats in the European Parliament for the first time. The BNP gained the seats in two regions of northern England at the expense of Brown's Labour Party, which has been hurt by a scandal over politicians' expenses.
Brown, who reshuffled his government after six ministers resigned last week, was set to meet on Monday evening with Labour members of parliament, a number of whom have called on him to quit ahead of a general election due within a year.
The political turmoil rattled markets last week, pushing the pound lower. Investors are wary of uncertainty when Britain faces its deepest recession since World War Two and the budget deficit has reached a record 175 billion pounds ($281 billion).
Brown's departure would almost certainly precipitate an early general election which the center-right opposition Conservatives are expected to win after 12 years out of power. They are yet to flesh out their plans for restoring order to public finances.
A projection for the BBC put Labour on 16 percent of the vote, just behind the anti-European Union UK Independence Party and 11 points adrift of the main opposition Conservatives who are also critical of the EU.
Labour's share of the vote was down about seven points from the last European election in 2004.
MESSAGE TO YOU, GORDON
The performance gave fresh ammunition to Brown's critics in the Labour Party after a traumatic week in which one departing minister, James Purnell, called on Brown to step aside and said he was an electoral liability.
Former finance minister Brown has not faced the electorate since he took over as prime minister from Tony Blair in 2007.
"If Labour MPs and Gordon Brown don't get the message from these results we are finished," said left-wing Labour MP John McDonnell, noting that Labour's share of the vote was its lowest in a nationwide election since 1910.
"The message is clear, we need a complete change of political direction," he added.
Former Labour minister Charles Falconer called for a change at the top to improve Labour's chances in the general election.
Rebels among Labour members of parliament (MPs) are said to be canvassing support for a letter calling on Brown to go.
Critics say Labour lacks a coherent policy agenda and that Brown is indecisive and a poor communicator, adding he appears to be unable to transfer his confidence on the world economic stage to domestic politics. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Centre-right wins EU vote, turnout hits record low

By Timothy Heritage
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Center-right parties retained control of the European Parliament in an election that ended on Sunday with a record low turnout but which spared most big national governments from embarrassing defeats.
Partial results showed the European People's Party crushed the Socialists and would remain the main group in parliament, strengthening its ability to set the agenda in an assembly that passes many of the European Union's laws and its budget.
The governing center-right groups won in Germany, France, Poland and Italy, and Green parties did well on a bad night for the Socialists, who failed to cash in on widespread discontent with Europe's handling of the global economic crisis.
Turnout was a record-low 43 percent. Exit polls and early results showed ruling parties beaten or heading for defeat in some of the countries worst hit by the crisis -- Britain, Ireland, Latvia, Greece, Hungary, Bulgaria and Spain.
But EU leaders could breathe a sigh of relief that far-right parties did not fare better, despite gains in some countries such as Hungary, and welcomed the stability in the 736-seat parliament as it embarks on financial regulatory reforms.
"I don't expect any major difficulties in decision-making. The composition of this parliament will not be significantly different from the previous one," EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said.
The victory of center-right forces after four days of voting is likely to help Jose Manuel Barroso, a conservative, win a new term as president of the EU's executive European Commission -- a post that requires the parliament's approval.
The European People's Party was on course to win 267 seats in parliament compared to the Socialists' 159.
"It is bitterly disappointing, we had hoped for a better result," said Martin Schulz, head of the Party of European Socialists. "In most countries it went pretty bad for us."
PRESSURE ON SOME GOVERNMENTS
Many voters are worried by rising unemployment and say the EU has done too little to tackle the economic crisis, although it eventually poured in money to try to revive Europe's economy. Others regard it as having little impact on their daily lives.
Critics of the 27-state European Union may seek to use the low turnout among the 375-million electorate as evidence the parliament lacks legitimacy and the bloc has lost contact with its 495 million citizens, many of whom voted on national issues.
Although there are no formal or direct consequences for governing parties defeated in the election, they could face increased pressure for changes of policy or personnel.
The British National Party won its first seat in the parliament and far-right groups appeared to have gained in the Netherlands, Romania and Hungary but did not make as big an impact as some political analysts had expected.
"The extreme parties are very heterogeneous, they will hardly represent a cohesive bloc," said Antonio Missiroli of the European Policy Center. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Eighteen killed in Acapulco drug shootout

By Gerardo Torres
ACAPULCO, Mexico (Reuters) - Eighteen people were killed in a shootout between drug gangs and soldiers in the Mexican beach resort of Acapulco, the army said on Sunday.
The gun battle, near tourist hotels in the Pacific Ocean resort, was a further blow to Mexico's tourism industry, already reeling from cancellations by foreigners scared away by the swine flu epidemic.
Gunmen battled troops from a cartel safe house, throwing hand grenades at soldiers who had surrounded them and spraying gunfire into military vehicles and nearby homes. The shooting began late on Saturday and went on until after midnight.
"There were grenade and rocket explosions, and weapons like AK-47s," said an employee of a neighboring hotel. "The fight lasted almost two hours."
Sixteen suspected members of the Beltran Leyva drug gang were killed as well as two soldiers, including a captain.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has staked his presidency on crushing drug gangs whose turf wars have killed about 2,300 people this year. Some 45,000 troops and federal police have been deployed across the country.
While the clash was several miles away from the main area where foreign tourists stay in high-rise hotels, a resurgence of violence in Acapulco is bad news for the tourism industry.
Rival drug gangs fought over territory in Acapulco, home to around a million people, several years ago, but the resort has been relatively free of drug violence in recent years.
Tourism, a key industry for Mexico, took a hit in late April and early May when the H1N1 flu virus spread through Mexico and scared off travelers.
Violence associated with drugs across Mexico has damaged investor sentiment and the U.S. government is concerned about instability in Mexico, an ally and big oil supplier.
President Barack Obama visited Mexico City in April, praised Calderon for tackling the drug gangs and offered more U.S. help in the war.
Drug violence has also hurt Mexican beach resorts, like Cancun and Ixtapa.
The Beltran Leyva gang, rivals of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, is believed to dominate the drug trade around Acapulco, a popular destination for vacationing U.S. college students.
Also on Sunday, the attorney general's office said police arrested Olga Cristina Lerma, a financial operative in the Sinaloa cartel, which is based in northwest Mexico.
Lerma is responsible for bringing $22 million from drug sales from the United States into Mexico and will be extradited, the attorney general's office said in a statement.
(Additional reporting by Noel Randewich in Mexico City)

Source: Reuters

Netanyahu wants "maximum understanding" with U.S

By Jeffrey Heller
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he would strive for "maximum understanding" with Washington on peace issues but gave no sign he intends to bow to its demand to halt settlement expansion.
Under pressure from U.S. President Barack Obama over settlements in the occupied West Bank and Palestinian statehood, which Netanyahu has not endorsed, the Israeli leader said he would set out his policies in a major speech later this month.
"I want to make clear, it is our intention to achieve peace with the Palestinians and with the countries of the Arab world while attempting to reach maximum understanding with the United States and our friends in the world," Netanyahu said.
"I aspire to a stable peace based on the solid foundations of the security of the state of Israel and its citizens," he told his right-wing cabinet at its weekly meeting.
By mentioning security, Netanyahu again highlighted an issue he has called paramount to Israel's approach to peace with the Palestinians, whom he has said should have self-government but only limited powers of sovereignty.
In a speech on Thursday to Muslims in which he reaffirmed a U.S. commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state, Obama said Washington "does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements."
Despite the rare rift with the United States, Israel's main ally, Israeli officials said Netanyahu has no intention of risking the collapse of his coalition by ceasing all settlement activity in the West Bank.
Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, urged Netanyahu to announce his acceptance of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a settlement freeze and "a return to serious negotiations."
Half a million Jews live in settlement blocks built in the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem, areas where, with the Gaza Strip, Palestinians want to establish a state.
U.S. ENVOY
Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, is to begin a visit to Israel and the West Bank on Monday. Western and Israeli officials said the White House was formulating a blueprint for a renewed peace process that could be presented early next month.
Without giving a date, Netanyahu said "Next week, I will make a major diplomatic speech in which I will present to the citizens of Israel our principles for achieving peace and security."
Israel Radio said he would deliver the address on June 14. A Netanyahu spokesman said he could not confirm the date.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak, head of the center-left Labour Party in Netanyahu's government, held out the possibility of a softening in Israel's position on Palestinian statehood in return for an easing of U.S. pressure over settlements.
Referring to a 2003, U.S.-endorsed peace plan, Barak told reporters the government should declare it is "committed to all previous agreements signed by previous governments, including the 'road map', whose goal is two states for two peoples." Continued...
Source: Reuters

Youth may be challenge for Ahmadinejad in poll

By Zahra Hosseinian
TEHRAN (Reuters) - The young Iranians cruising noisily around upscale northern Tehran in cars plastered with election posters have only one thing on their minds: denying President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term.
Millions of reform-minded Iranians stayed away from the polls in 2005, disillusioned by how hardliners had stymied former President Mohammad Khatami's liberal initiatives.
Ahmadinejad's political fate may well hang on how many of those jaded voters turn out on June 12 -- if only to thwart him.
"I will vote, but only because I want to see anyone but Ahmadinejad win. He has ruined the country," said Mina Sedaqati, a 25-year-old sociology student at Tehran University, over coffee and doughnuts with friends in northern Tehran.
More than two-thirds of Iran's 70 million people are aged under 30, making them too young to remember life before the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed Shah.
All four presidential candidates are wooing youthful voters in speeches and campaign messages and have used popular networking and content-sharing sites such as Facebook to target young people.
More than 150,000 Iranians are Facebook members, and young voters make up a huge bloc which helped Khatami win elections in 1997 and 2001. Access to Facebook was blocked for a few days last month, suggesting government concern at its influence.
But analysts say the anti-Ahmadinejad vote is likely to be split between the radical president's two moderate rivals, ex-Prime Minister Mirhossein Mousavi and former parliament speaker Mehdi Karoubi.
Karoubi, the only cleric in the race, has even met one of Iran's best-known underground rap singers, Sasy Mankan.
Mousavi and Karoubi's posters adorn the cars of the middle-class youngsters eager to stop Ahmadinejad out of fear he will lead Iran on a collision course with the West and further erode social freedom.
Ahmadinejad also faces a conservative challenger in Mohsen Rezai, a former Revolutionary Guard chief, but the president has his own support base among young people who admire his defiant nuclear rhetoric, simple lifestyle and devotion to Islam, as well as his pledges of social justice.
"I will vote for Ahmadinejad because his policies in the past four years have been a return to the fundamental values of the Islamic revolution," said Mohammad Reza Baqeri, 24, a member of the Basij, a religious militia group, who criticized previous governments for neglecting the poor.
"Ahmadinejad is a hero. He stood against those who were Iran's enemies for years, but in return he befriended other nations," said the religious studies graduate, referring to ties the president has forged with U.S. adversaries such as Venezuela and Bolivia.
An Iranian political analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of Iranian politics, described the election as a referendum on Ahmadinejad. "Some people, especially among the young, are for him and some are only voting to prevent his re-election," he said.
POST-REVOLUTIONARY GENERATION Continued...
Source: Reuters

Peruvian troops patrol Amazon towns after 60 die

By Marco Aquino
BAGUA GRANDE, Peru (Reuters) - Peruvian troops patrolled Amazon towns searching for missing policemen on Sunday after 60 people died in clashes with native tribes opposed to plans to drill for oil and mine resources in the jungle.
Troops controlled the town of Bagua Grande, 870 miles north of the capital Lima, after an overnight curfew was enforced to defuse the worst violence faced by President Alan Garcia's government.
An indigenous leader said 40 protesters were killed and the government said 23 members of the security forces perished in two days of battles over Garcia's push to open up the rainforest to billions of dollars in foreign investment.
Thousands of Indians armed with wooden spears vowed to dig in at blockades on remote Amazon highways to defend their ancestral lands from outside developers.
"We are looking for the missing police and the weapons the Indians stole from them," said Major Jose Luis Santillan, police chief in nearby Bagua Chica, close to the stretch of highway known as "Devil's Curve," where 11 police died when they moved to break up a roadblock on Friday.
Dozens of police were held hostage by protesters, but most were freed hours later. On Sunday, two were still missing.
Hundreds of natives who sought refuge at a Catholic mission in Bagua Grande drew up a list of dozens of missing people and sought guarantees to search for bodies of the slain.
"We have been told that many of our dead brothers have been thrown into the Maranon river to cover up the killing," said Carlos Anchanchi, one of the group's leaders.
Garcia has accused protesters of acting like terrorists and said the unrest had been fomented from abroad. Garcia, who is a fierce critic of Latin America's leftist leaders, did not specify who he meant.
But in the past, members of the Peruvian government have accused the leftist governments of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivian leader Evo Morales of links to Garcia's ultranationalist rival, Ollanta Humala.
"There is a conspiracy aimed at stopping us from using our natural resources for the good, growth and quality of life of our people," Garcia said on Sunday, blaming foreign interests that would benefit if Peru did not tap its gas and oil.
RED TUNICS AND WOODEN SPEARS
Champion Nonimgo from AIDESEP, Peru's leading indigenous rights group, said more than 40 protesters had been killed in the violence and ruled out dialogue with the government.
Protesters include women and children from the surrounding subsistence farming region, some dressed in long red tunics and headbands and holding traditional wooden spears. Families have set up tents of plastic sheeting along the roadside.
"We are dealing with a government that massacres Indians from helicopters. We are not going to hold talks under these conditions," Nonimgo said. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Villagers fight Taliban after Pakistan mosque blast

By Kamran Haider
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Villagers in northwest Pakistan have attacked Taliban militants killing seven of them in revenge for a bomb attack on a mosque that killed at least 40 people, a top government official and residents said on Sunday.
It was the latest in a series of instances of people turning their guns on the Taliban in recent weeks and trying to force them out of their areas and will encourage the Pakistani government which needs public support to defeat the militants.
The United States, which needs sustained Pakistani action to help defeat al Qaeda and cut off militant support for the insurgency in Afghanistan, will also be heartened by the move.
The Pakistani military has been battling Taliban in the Swat valley, northwest of the capital, for more than a month after the militants took advantage of a peace pact to gain new ground.
The army offensive has broad public support even though many in Pakistan are ambivalent about the Taliban and are wary of the government's close alliance with the United States.
Taliban militants have also launched a string of bomb attacks in response to the military offensive and are suspected of being behind a suicide bomb attack on a mosque in the Upper Dir region, near Swat, that killed about 40 people on Friday.
After the blast, enraged villagers formed a militia, known as a lashkar, of about 500 men to expel the militants from the area, said the top government official in the region.
"They are standing up against the militants themselves as they consider them troublemakers," the government administrator, Atif-ur-Rehman, told Reuters by telephone.
Alarmed by the prospect of nuclear-armed Pakistan drifting into chaos, the United States had criticized a February peace pact with the Taliban in the former tourist valley of Swat as tantamount to abdicating to the militants.
"THEY HAVE TO GO"
One resident of Upper Dir said the militia had demolished houses where Taliban were known to stay.
"We are Muslims, we pray regularly and read the Koran. We don't want them, they have to go," resident Samiullah Khan said by telephone. "Attacking a mosque is not Islam. They're not Muslim."
Ethnic Pashtun tribal elder Mohtabar Khan said letting the Taliban stay was asking for trouble.
"It means inviting a military offensive which we don't want. We know how to defend our land," Khan said.
The military says it has snuffed out "organized resistance" in Swat and would conduct operations on a "limited scale" to destroy militant hideouts and run their leaders to ground. Continued...
Source: Reuters