Militants attack Pakistani hotel, 5 dead, 25 injured

By Alamgir Bitani
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Militants attacked a hotel popular with foreigners in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar with guns and a truck bomb on Tuesday, killing five people and wounding 25, government and security officials said.
Taliban militants stepped up bomb attacks after the military launched an offensive in the former tourist valley of Swat and neighboring districts northwest of the capital in April.
A Reuters reporter saw two wounded foreigners coming out of the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar which security officials said militants attacked with guns and a suspected suicide truck-bomb.
"I was in the Chinese restaurant when we heard firing and then a blast. It was totally dark and people started shouting and running," Ali Khan, a hotel waiter, told Reuters.
Intelligence officials said some attackers scaled the wall of the hotel into its compound and opened fire before a big truck-bomb blast in the front car park.
Dozens of cars were destroyed. A hospital official said a wounded foreign woman worked for the U.N. children's fund.
The United Nations is heavily involved in providing relief for more than 2.5 million people displaced by the fighting in Swat and elsewhere in the northwest.
A suicide truck bombing killed 55 people in September last year at Islamabad's Marriott Hotel.
The United States, which needs sustained Pakistani action to help defeat al Qaeda and 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 possibility of nuclear-armed Pakistan drifting into chaos, the United States had criticized a February pact with the Taliban in Swat.
It was not immediately clear how many attackers were involved in the Peshawar hotel attack and what their fate was.
TURNING ON THE TALIBAN
Earlier on Tuesday, the army came to the help of a pro-government militia fighting the Taliban in a northwestern district after outrage over a suspected Taliban bomb attack at a mosque last week that killed about 40 people.
The villagers' action is the latest in a series of examples of people turning on the Taliban in recent weeks, underscoring the shift in public opinion away from the Islamists.
Senior police officer Rahim Gul told Reuters by telephone two army helicopters had attacked militants surrounded by militia fighters in a village in the Upper Dir district. Continued...
Source: Reuters

WHO on verge of declaring H1N1 flu pandemic

By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) is on the verge of declaring the first influenza pandemic in more than 40 years, but wants to ensure countries are well prepared to prevent a panic, its top flu expert said on Tuesday.
Keiji Fukuda, acting WHO assistant director-general, voiced concern at the sustained spread of the new H1N1 strain -- including more than 1,000 cases in Australia -- following major outbreaks in North America, where it emerged in April.
Confirmed community spread in a second region beyond North America would trigger moving to phase 6 -- signifying a full-blown pandemic -- from the current phase 5 on the WHO's 6-level pandemic alert scale.
"The situation has really evolved a lot over the past several days. We are getting really very close to knowing that we are in a pandemic situation, or I think, declaring that we are in a pandemic situation," Fukuda told a teleconference.
Fukuda said a move to phase 6 would reflect the geographic spread of the new disease.
"It does not mean that the severity of the situation has increased or that people are getting seriously sick at higher numbers or higher rates than they are right now," he said.
A decision to declare a pandemic involved more than simply making an announcement, he said. The United Nations agency had to ensure that countries were able to deal with the new situation and also handle any public reaction.
"One of the critical issues is that we do not want people to 'over-panic' if they hear that we are in a pandemic situation. That they understand, for example, that the current assessment of the situation is that this is a moderate level," Fukuda said.
The WHO and its 193 member states are working hard to prepare for a pandemic, for instance developing vaccines and building up supplies of anti-viral drugs, he said.
The disease, which has infected over 26,500 people in 73 countries, with 140 deaths, has been most severe in Mexico, which has reported the highest number of fatalities, more than 100. These include infections in otherwise healthy young people.
PRESSURE ON HOSPITALS
A very real danger after declaring a pandemic was that hospitals could be overwhelmed by people seeking help when they did not really need it, while other patients requiring emergency treatment risked being neglected, according to Fukuda.
"In earlier pandemics, in earlier outbreaks, we have often seen that people who are in the category of being worried but who are not particularly sick, have overrun hospitals," he said.
Since the new flu strain first appeared, many people have stopped eating pork, pigs have been culled in some countries, trade bans on meat imposed, travelers quarantined, and some countries have discussed closing borders.
"These are the kinds of potential adverse effects that you can have if you go out without making sure people understand the situation as well as possible," Fukuda said. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Blast near U.S. convoy kills Afghan, wounds scores

By Amin Jalili
ASADABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A blast near a stalled U.S. troop convoy in eastern Afghanistan killed one child and wounded scores of civilians and three U.S. soldiers on Tuesday, Afghan officials and the U.S. military said.
Some witnesses and the Afghan Education Ministry initially blamed a U.S. soldier for throwing a grenade into a crowd, but the U.S. military said the grenade was Russian-made and had been thrown by an insurgent.
Asadabad hospital doctor Ehsanullah Fazli said most of the wounded were children. Some were in critical condition, he said.
The military said in a statement that up to 54 Afghan civilians had been wounded in the incident in Asadabad, capital of Kunar province in the east. It issued photos of what it said was a grenade fragment with Russian serial numbers.
"The grenade was definitely not thrown by a U.S. service member," U.S. military spokeswoman Captain Elizabeth Matthias said. She said a convoy of U.S. troops had stopped when one of their armored vehicles became stuck.
The convoy took ground fire before the grenade was thrown at them, she said.
Still, many Afghans were quick to blame the Americans. The Afghan Education Ministry said in a statement that U.S. forces based in Asadabad had thrown the grenade and that one student was killed and another 15 children were wounded.
CIVILIAN CASUALTIES
Some of the wounded said they believed a U.S. soldier had thrown the grenade after a U.S. armored vehicle stopped because of a burst tire.
"I was on my way to school. Their tire burst, and then a soldier hurled a hand grenade from the convoy," said Abdul Wahab, 12, lying in a hospital bed with two shrapnel wounds in his leg.
Two other wounded victims at the Asadabad hospital gave similar accounts. A 20-year-old shopkeeper near the scene, Umranullah, who uses only one name like many Afghans, also said a U.S. soldier from the convoy had thrown a grenade.
Civilian casualties caused by U.S. forces have become a big source of friction between the Afghan authorities and their U.S. allies, and have hurt public support even as the number of U.S. troops in the country more than doubles this year.
The Pentagon acknowledged on Monday that procedures had been violated during an air strike last month in which the Afghan government says 140 civilians were killed. Washington says 20-35 civilians were among 80-95 people killed, most of them Taliban fighters, in that strike in western Farah province in early May.
(Additional reporting and writing by Sayed Salahuddin and Peter Graff in KABUL)

Source: Reuters

Russia drops unilateral WTO bid for ex-Soviet pact

By Gleb Bryanski
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia threw its 16-year bid to join the World Trade Organization into jeopardy on Tuesday when Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Moscow would only join the trade body in partnership with two former Soviet republics.
Putin, announcing plans to form a customs union with Belarus and Kazakhstan, blamed tortuous WTO accession talks for blocking integration with its ex-Soviet neighbors, only days after the European Union said the Kremlin's wait could be over this year.
The surprise move by Russia, the largest country outside the 153-member WTO, implies talks will start afresh on the basis of a new agreement between the three former Soviet states, which intend to form the customs union from January 1, 2010.
Russia has previously accused the United States and the European Union of hindering its WTO bid for political reasons.
Putin, speaking at a joint news conference with the Kazakh and Belarussian prime ministers, Karim Masimov and Sergei Sidorsky, said the three countries would notify the WTO that their separate negotiations will be stopped.
"It's a sign of frustration on the Russian side, but it's also recognition that WTO membership is no longer such a priority," said Roland Nash, chief strategist at investment bank Renaissance Capital.
Five days ago, EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton said she had agreed with Russian Economy Minister Elvira Nabiullina that Moscow's WTO accession should be completed by year-end, saying the two sides had a "common understanding.
But the creation of a customs union with countries whose WTO negotiations are less advanced may force the EU to think again.
"This could create a new situation, which we would first need to carefully analyze to determine the potential impact on Russia's WTO negotiations," said Lutz Guellner, spokesman for Ashton.
Kazakhstan started WTO talks in 1996 but has continuously put off the accession deadline. Russia, still running the world's third-largest gold and forex reserves, has used the economic crisis to increase influence in the post-Soviet space.
"Our priority remains WTO entry, we confirm this, but already as a united customs union and not as separate countries," Putin said. He said trade talks with the European Union would also be held within the framework of the new deal.
PUZZLING MOVE
Russian negotiators had been expected in Geneva next week for a new round of bilateral accession talks. Masimov said the three countries would now create a new group of negotiators.
Trade experts said the timing of the move was puzzling. No group of countries has ever joined the WTO as a single customs union, and the proposal is likely to delay the accession of the former Soviet states even more.
Although Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin flagged the move at the International Monetary Fund conference in April, his statement was not taken seriously at the time. On Monday, Kudrin said new accession talks will start in 2010. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Air France to replace speed sensors

Union urges pilots not to fly A330
Play Video
By Crispian Balmer
PARIS (Reuters) - Air France has said all its flights using long-haul Airbus jets will be equipped immediately with new speed sensors after last week's disaster over the Atlantic, a pilots' union said on Tuesday.
The pitot tubes that gauge speed have become the focus of an investigation into the crash after messages showed they provided "inconsistent" data to the pilots and might have played a role in the June 1 crash that killed 228 people.
One Air France union urged its pilots to stop flying Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft until the old sensors were replaced and the company has since committed itself to a swift change-out, a union official said.
"Air France has provided us with an extremely proactive and very accelerated replacement program," said Erick Derivry, spokesman for the main SNPL pilots union.
"From today, all Air France A330 and A340 flights will use planes equipped with at least two new sensors out of three (on board)," he told France Info radio.
Air France, which has 19 A340s and 15 A330s, declined to comment.
The Air France A330 crashed en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris last week after flying into stormy weather.
MORE BODIES RECOVERED
The Brazilian air force and navy said on Tuesday that search teams had recovered 28 bodies from the Atlantic and moved some of them to the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha off Brazil's northeastern coast, which is being used as a base for the search operations.
Crews on Monday removed a large object from the water that an aviation expert identified as part of the plane's tail, but officials would not comment on what it was.
Analysts say identifying the wreckage could help establish what happened, but that a complete understanding of the mysterious crash will hinge on finding flight recorders that may lie on the very deep and rugged ocean floor.
A French nuclear submarine with advanced sonar equipment is due to arrive on Thursday to search for the aircraft's "black box" recorders.
The jet sent 24 automated messages in its final minutes on June 1, detailing a rapid series of system failures.
The small Alter union, which represents 15 Air France pilots, said in a statement that the first of these messages pointed to a problem with the pitot tubes.
ICED-UP TUBES Continued...
Source: Reuters

WHO getting close to declaring H1N1 pandemic

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization is getting close to declaring a full H1N1 influenza pandemic but wants to make sure countries are well prepared for such a move to prevent a panic, its top flu expert said Tuesday.
Keiji Fukuda, acting WHO assistant director-general, voiced concern at the sustained spread of the new strain in countries including more than 1,000 cases in Australia following major outbreaks in North America where it was first detected.
The disease, widely known as swine flu, which has infected over 26,500 people in 73 countries, with 140 deaths, has also spread widely in Britain, Spain and Japan.
Confirmed community spread in a second region beyond North America would trigger moving to phase 6 from the current phase 5 on the WHO's 6-level pandemic alert scale.
Asked whether there was any doubt that a pandemic was under way, Fukuda told a weekly teleconference: "We are really getting very close to that."
Fukuda said a decision to declare a pandemic involved more than simply making an announcement. The United Nations agency had to ensure that countries were able to deal with the new situation and also handle any public reaction.
"One of the critical issues is that we do not want people to 'over-panic' if they hear that we are in a pandemic situation," Fukuda said.
A very real danger was that hospitals could be overwhelmed by people seeking help when they did not really need it.
Since the new flu strain first appeared, many people have stopped eating pork, pigs have been culled in some countries, trade bans on meat imposed, travelers quarantined and some countries have discussed closing borders.
"These are the kinds of potential adverse effects that you can have if you go out without making sure people understand the situation as well as possible," Fukuda said.
(For a WHO note on its pandemic alert scale go to:
here )
(Reporting by Jonathan Lynn and Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

Source: Reuters

Iranian cleric slams Ahmadinejad "fabrications"

By Dominic Evans and Fredrik Dahl
TEHRAN (Reuters) - One of Iran's most senior politicians accused President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday of lying in a televised presidential election debate and called on the country's supreme leader to take action.
In an unprecedented public attack, former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said tens of millions of Iranians had witnessed "mis-statements and fabrications" in the debate last week, when Ahmadinejad accused Rafsanjani of corruption.
Ahmadinejad also said in the debate Rafsanjani was part of a political alliance supporting the main challenger, Mirhossein Mousavi, and seeking to prevent his re-election on Friday.
"I am expecting you to resolve this position in order to extinguish the fire, whose smoke can be seen in the atmosphere, and to foil dangerous plots to take action," Rafsanjani said in a letter to Khamenei, published by the semi-official Mehr news agency.
The election campaign has already been marked by fierce public debate between Ahmadinejad and his moderate rivals, but Rafsanjani's intervention is likely to raise tensions further.
"Even if I continue to tolerate this situation, there is no doubt that some people, parties and factions will not tolerate this situation," Rafsanjani said, hinting that supporters of Ahmadinejad's rivals could take matters into their own hands.
CLERICS CRITICIZE PRESIDENT
Fourteen high-ranking clerics from the holy Shi'ite city of Qom echoed Rafsanjani's remarks, expressing "deep concern and regret" that Iran's image had been harmed in the debate.
"Accusing those who were not present at that debate and could not defend themselves is against our religion," they said in a statement also published by Mehr.
Ahmadinejad faces three rival candidates, who have accused him of lying about the state of Iran's economy, while he has accused his moderate challengers of using their positions to enrich themselves.
The most liberal of Ahmadinejad's opponents, Mehdi Karoubi, said on Tuesday he would defy growing calls to stand aside and unify moderate voters behind Mousavi.
Mousavi's supporters say Karoubi cannot win the backing of more than 3 million of the 46 million eligible voters, and have pressured the former parliamentary speaker to pull out.
"I will never withdraw," he told a news conference. "I believe the larger the number of candidates, the better."
But an ally said Karoubi was likely to face continued pressure to stand down in the next few days in order to avoid splitting the pro-reform vote.
Like Karoubi, Mousavi accuses Ahmadinejad of isolating Iran with his vitriolic attacks on the United States, his combative line on Iran's nuclear policy and his denial of the Holocaust. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Expelled U.S. aid groups in talks over Darfur

By Katie Nguyen and Andrew Heavens
LONDON/KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Three U.S. aid groups expelled from Sudan three months ago are in talks to send new teams back into the country, relief workers said on Tuesday.
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir ordered 13 foreign aid agencies to leave north Sudan in March after the International Criminal Court indicted him for war crimes in the western Darfur region.
Khartoum had accused aid groups of giving the ICC information about alleged atrocities in Darfur, where the United Nations says six years of conflict has killed up to 300,000 people and uprooted more than 2.7 million. Khartoum says 10,000 people have died.
Although agencies have denied working with the ICC, Sudan has repeatedly said it will not allow them to return. However, analysts say a flurry of diplomatic activity by Washington, including visits by Senator John Kerry and U.S. special envoy to Sudan Scott Gration, has made progress.
Mercy Corps, an Oregon-based group which had large operations in Darfur and the volatile Abyei region claimed by both north and south Sudan, said it was discussing sending in new teams under the flag of Mercy Corps Scotland, an affiliated Edinburgh-based charity.
"There are ongoing negotiations with the Sudanese government, but nothing has been finalized as yet," said a spokesman for Mercy Corps Scotland. "We're hopeful an agreement can be reached as soon as possible."
Several aid sources said the expelled U.S. operations of CARE and Save the Children were also in talks with officials to bring new teams into north Sudan, via branches of their organizations affiliated to other countries.
The fate of the other expelled non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including Oxfam GB and the French and Dutch arms of Medecins Sans Frontieres, is still unclear, said the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Officials from the Khartoum government's Humanitarian Aid Commission were not immediately available for comment.
"PRACTICAL WAY FORWARD"
The United Nations' humanitarian chief John Holmes told Reuters he was aware of the negotiations involving the U.S. aid groups, calling it a "practical way forward."
"The government made clear that while they couldn't reverse the decision they had taken to expel the 13 international NGOs, if NGOs turned up with new names and new logos they had the possibility to be welcomed back again," Holmes said.
"Some of them are taking advantage of that and discussing how exactly that would work."
A CARE official declined comment because of the sensitivity of the issue. Save the Children officials were not immediately available for comment.
Before the expulsions, the United Nations and aid groups were running the world's largest humanitarian operation in Darfur. The expelled agencies carried out 40 percent of humanitarian work in the region, which is roughly the size of France. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Air France to replace sensors at once: union

Union urges pilots not to fly A330
Play Video
By Crispian Balmer
PARIS (Reuters) - Air France has said all its flights using long-haul Airbus jets will be equipped immediately with new speed sensors after last week's disaster over the Atlantic, a pilots' union said on Tuesday.
The pitot tubes that gauge speed have become the focus of an investigation into the crash after messages showed they provided "inconsistent" data to the pilots and might have played a role in the June 1 crash.
One Air France union urged its pilots to stop flying Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft until the old sensors were replaced and the company has since committed itself to a swift change-out, a union official said.
"Air France has provided us with an extremely proactive and very accelerated replacement program," said Erick Derivry, spokesman of the main SNPL pilots union.
"From today, all Air France A330 and A340 flights will use planes equipped with at least two new sensors out of three (on board)," he told France Info radio.
Air France, which has 19 A340s and 15 A330s, declined to comment.
An Air France A330 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed into the Atlantic last week, killing all 228 on board.
The Brazilian Air Force and Navy said on Monday they had recovered 24 bodies from the Atlantic so far as well as an increasing pile of shattered debris.
The A330 sent 24 automated messages in its final minutes on June 1, detailing a rapid series of system failures.
The small Alter union, which represents 15 Air France pilots, said in a statement that the first of these messages pointed to a problem with the pitot tubes.
ICED-UP TUBES
The pitot tubes are small probes on the exterior of the fuselage that measure the pressure of air rushing into them and thereby gauge the plane's speed.
The French air accident agency has said it is too early to pinpoint any possible cause for the crash, but noted there were apparent problems with the jet's speed readings.
This has fueled speculation that its pitot tubes may have iced up, feeding wrong data into the cockpit which might have confused the plane's fly-by-wire computer system and its pilots.
Air France said at the weekend it had noticed icing problems on the speed sensors in May 2008 and had asked Airbus for a solution to reduce or overcome the difficulty. Continued...
Source: Reuters

U.S. envoy assures Israel of strong alliance

By Jeffrey Heller
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. envoy George Mitchell said on Tuesday that Washington was seeking swift renewal of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and promised Israel its alliance with the United States would remain strong despite differences.
"We all share an obligation to create the conditions for the prompt resumption and early conclusion of negotiations," Mitchell said at a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres.
In the most public rift between the United States and Israel in a decade, President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are at odds over Jewish settlement expansion and the Israeli leader's reluctance to endorse Palestinian statehood.
With Israelis fearing that Obama hoped to repair his country's image among Arabs by fostering a dispute with Netanyahu, Mitchell spoke in conciliatory terms to reporters.
"Let me be clear. These are not disagreements among adversaries. The United States and Israel are and will remain close allies and friends," Mitchell said.
Mitchell, Obama's special envoy to the Middle East, reaffirmed Washington's commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state "side by side in peace and security with the Jewish state of Israel."
In an address to the Muslim world in Cairo last week, Obama called on Israel to stop settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and accept the right of Palestinians to a state.
Peres, whose post is largely ceremonial, echoed Obama, saying it was time "to take the bull by the horns" and pursue "a state for us and state for the Palestinians."
POLICY SPEECH
Under pressure to soften his positions, Netanyahu is to spell out his policy on peacemaking with the Palestinians in a speech on Sunday. His security cabinet was to meet on Wednesday to consider U.S. calls to ease the blockade of the Gaza Strip, territory controlled by Hamas Islamists who oppose U.S.-sponsored peace efforts.
Netanyahu was to meet later in the day with Mitchell, who will see Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday.
Abbas has said it would be useless to resume talks with Israel unless Netanyahu froze settlement building and accepted a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Obama spoke to Netanyahu by phone on Monday. The White House said the president "reiterated the principal elements of his Cairo speech, including his commitment to Israel's security."
At the meeting with Peres, Mitchell said he wanted to state "emphatically beyond any doubt that the United States' commitment to the security of Israel remains unshakeable."
Netanyahu has cited Israel's security as paramount in any peace efforts and has said that any self-governing Palestinian entity must be demilitarized and have limited powers of sovereignty.
(Editing by Adam Entous and Angus MacSwan)

Source: Reuters

Thai authorities hunt gunmen in mosque attack

Ten dead in Thai mosque attack
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By Kittipong Soonprasert
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai security forces hunted on Tuesday for gunmen behind a bloody attack on a southern mosque that killed 10 people and raised tensions between the army and villagers.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the deadliest attack this year in Thailand's restive Muslim deep south, where nearly 3,500 Muslims and Buddhists have died in violence since 2004.
But residents of Cho Airong district pointed the finger at the military and police a day after five gunmen burst into a mosque and sprayed automatic rifle fire at praying Muslims, killing 10 and wounding 12.
"Local people believe security people did the shooting. They cannot believe that Muslims, even the very, very bad ones, can kill their brothers while praying," Worawit Baru, a senator and academic from the region, told Reuters.
Thailand's army, which has deployed 30,000 troops in the region bordering Malaysia, denied any involvement.
"The attack was absolutely not done by us," said Colonel Prinya Chaidilok, a spokesman for the southern 4th army.
He said forensic experts are studying bullet casings found inside the mosque, where the blood-stained bodies were removed for burial on Tuesday. Hundreds of mourners gathered outside the mosque which was guarded by scores of soldiers and police.
"We are looking for them," Prinya said, but he added there were few witnesses to help identify the gunmen.
"Survivors did not see them because they were shot while praying with their backs to the door where gunmen opened fired."
The army blamed separatist militants for the attack, accusing them of seeking to stoke hatred between Buddhists and Muslims in the southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani.
It was not first time that a mosque has been at the center of violence in the five-year rebellion.
A Muslim religious leader died in 2007 after a grenade was thrown into a mosque in Pattani. Police blamed insurgents.
In 2006, a Muslim border policeman was shot dead as he attended midday prayers at another mosque in Pattani.
The bloodiest incident in April 2004 saw 32 militants killed by security forces in a three-hour gun battle at Pattani's historic Krue Se mosque.
SURGE IN VIOLENCE Continued...
Source: Reuters

Saudis gleeful at Lebanon vote, now look to Iran

By Ulf Laessing and Andrew Hammond
RIYADH/DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia, which has led Arab attempts to hold back Iranian influence in the Middle East, has reacted triumphantly to the victory of its pro-U.S. allies in Lebanon's elections this week.
The surprise win by the incumbent Sunni Muslim-led bloc backed by Washington and Riyadh over the Hezbollah-led opposition, which is backed by Iran, was Saudi Arabia's first foreign policy break after a string of setbacks.
"I think the Saudis find the outcome of the Lebanese elections very satisfying," said a senior Western diplomat in Riyadh.
Saudi-controlled Arab media could hardly restrain their glee as presenters and correspondents cracked jokes on Dubai-based Al Arabiya news channel and papers ran boastful headlines on the blow to Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah.
"Nasrallah justifies, apologizes then accepts defeat," said the front page of Asharq al-Awsat daily, owned by the family of Riyadh governor Prince Salman, a brother of King Abdullah.
Tariq Alhomayed, editor of the paper, declared "the fall of the Iranian project" in Lebanon, reflecting the sectarian language witnessed during campaigning.
"This is above all a victory for the Arabness of Lebanon... the important thing is that Lebanese protected their country from subject status to Iran," he wrote.
EYES ON AHMADINEJAD
A cabinet statement late on Monday congratulated Lebanon over "victory for the Lebanese" and King Abdullah received a call from Syria's leader Bashar al-Assad, whose relations with Riyadh have been icy over its backing for Hezbollah. State media said only that they discussed their bilateral ties.
Results showed Saad al-Hariri's pro-Western bloc had won 71 of parliament's 128 seats, against 57 for an opposition alliance that groups Shi'ite factions Hezbollah and Amal with Christian leader Michel Aoun.
"The Saudis are very, very happy with what happened in Lebanon," said a Saudi analyst who declined to be identified.
Riyadh, which sees itself as the leader of Sunni Islam, has watched with alarm as Shi'ite Iran's influence grew in the region following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, which brought Iran-backed Shi'ite Muslims to power there.
Hezbollah managed to survive a month-long Israeli onslaught in 2006, then overwhelmed pro-government militias in street fighting in 2008 before securing a temporary power-sharing agreement that seemed to spell failure for Saudi diplomacy.
Iran's ally Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in fighting with Fatah forces loyal to U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007.
A defeat in Friday's Iranian election for populist President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has overseen Tehran's expansionist policy of recent years, would be a double-whammy for Riyadh. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Reporters' families seek mercy from North Korea

North Korea ups the stakes
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By Jon Herskovitz
SEOUL (Reuters) - Relatives of two U.S. journalists sentenced to 12 years hard labor in North Korea called on the reclusive state to show compassion, while Pyongyang threatened to use nuclear weapons to defend itself.
Monday's sentence by a top North Korean court has deepened a chill with Washington and comes as global powers look to punish Pyongyang for a nuclear test in May that put it closer to having a working atomic bomb.
Analysts say Pyongyang is using the journalists as bargaining chips to gain the upper hand with Washington, which for years has tried to use sweeteners in return for Pyongyang reducing the security threat it poses to the North Asia region, responsible for one-sixth of the world's economy.
"We ask the government of North Korea to show compassion and grant Laura and Euna clemency and allow them to return home to their families," relatives of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, of U.S. media outlet Current TV, said in a statement.
The two, both in their 30s, were arrested in March near the border China-North Korea border working on a story for the company, co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
The North convicted them of "grave crimes," saying they illegally entered the country but details of their arrest, including where they were taken into custody, are still sketchy.
Relatives have appeared on U.S. television shows to appeal for support and rallies have been held in major U.S. cities.
The hermit North maintains a network of prisons where inmates are overworked and underfed and brutality is the norm, human rights groups and defectors have said.
In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the journalists' fate should not be linked to the dispute over Pyongyang's nuclear program.
"If they (North Korea's leaders) wanted them for any other purposes, they would have made a big deal of it in domestic media," said B.R. Myers, an expert on the North's state ideology at Dongseo University in South Korea. "The fact that they have not gives me hope that a resolution can be reached."
MERCILESS OFFENSIVE
Markets have largely shrugged of the North's actions, and analysts say it would take a military clash at sea or on the border to have a major impact on global markets.
In a sign of growing tension with Seoul, a South Korean fur coat maker has become the first firm to pull out of a joint industrial complex in North Korea that was once a symbol of economic cooperation but has now turned into a point of conflict between the rival states.
North Korea appears ready to further ratchet up tensions by preparing for tests of a long-range missile that could reach U.S. territory and mid-range missiles capable of striking anywhere in South Korea and in most of Japan, officials have said.
A major North Korean newspaper said on Tuesday the country maintains a nuclear deterrent to maintain peace in the region, while warning: "it will be a means of merciless offensive of just retaliatory attack to those who damage our pride and sovereignty." Continued...
Source: Reuters

Arms dealers revel in Somali war business

By Abdi Sheikh
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Sitting on a mat at home between taking orders for arms on his two mobile phones, Osman Bare gives thanks for the riches flowing from Somalia's war.
"I have only been in the weapon business five years, but I have erected three villas. I have also opened shops for my two wives," said the 40-year-old, one of about 400 Somali men operating in Mogadishu's main weapons market.
"Peace means bankruptcy for us."
Despite a U.N. arms embargo on Somalia, the Horn of Africa nation is awash with weaponry from all over the world that has fueled one of Africa's longest-running conflicts.
In the latest cycle of civil war, militant Islamists have been fighting the Somali government for the last two years and 18,000 civilians have been killed in the crossfire.
Weapons are captured, sold and recycled constantly between both sides, experts say. Many arms have come from Ethiopian soldiers who intervened in Somalia between 2006 and early 2009.
African Union peacekeepers have been accused of trafficking arms, and regional bodies say Eritrea -- among others -- is funneling weapons toward the rebels.
Weapons are also said to pour across the porous borders of Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia, arriving by plane and through seas infested by pirates who are themselves armed to the teeth.
The Mogadishu arms market is just one part of an illicit global arms bazaar.
According to Geneva-based research body Small Arms Survey, there are at least 640 million firearms in the world, one for every 10 people on the planet.
Only a third of these are in the hands of armies or law enforcement agencies, the rest dispersed among non-state militia groups or the general population.
Dealers like Bare say the main Irtogte market, within the sprawling Bakara commercial area of Mogadishu, is holding its largest stock ever, and gunrunners are rolling in money.
The risks of being robbed, cheated or shot are high, however, and prices fluctuate greatly. They are at a low right now due to the abundance of supply.
"The good thing is that our goods are not perishable," Bare said. "We get a lot of cash, but we are always in terror."
Dealers say they can be arrested, or even beheaded by the Islamists, if caught outside the market. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Sri Lanka sends 2,000 war refugees home

By Ranga Sirilal
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka sent more than 2,000 people back to their home villages in the island nation's northwest on Tuesday, two years after they were displaced by the war with the Tamil Tiger separatists.
Tuesday's resettlement is only the second to happen since Sri Lanka's military finished off the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and declared total victory in a 25-year war on May 18.
Sri Lanka now has nearly 300,000 people living in refugee camps, and has pledged to resettle the bulk of them in six months -- a tall challenge given the thousands of landmines that have to be cleared across formerly LTTE-held areas.
Those who returned said they were happy to be free of the restrictions on movement they had to deal with while in the camps. The government said it must weed out LTTE infiltrators before they allow people out of the camps.
"We are relieved to be back in our village and houses, even though they're damaged. We were in the camps for two years and it was a very hard life there. We were not allowed to go out and no relatives were allowed to come in," said Julius Ranaweera, 25.
Sri Lanka's government has pledged to rebuild the north, and India has offered assistance with reconstruction of homes and infrastructure.
"We need good schools in our villages for our children. Because we have to begin our lives from step one," said Maryan Liyon, 32, a fisherman.
Sri Lanka is under international pressure to resettle people quickly as possible and give more access to them. Rights groups and the LTTE have criticized the camps, but the United Nations says they are up to standards except for the restrictions on movement.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka sent back a ship carrying an aid cargo paid for by expatriate Tamils and Tamil Tiger supporters.
Navy ships seized the Syrian-flagged Captain Ali on Thursday 160 km (100 miles) west of the capital and main port, Colombo.
"The government has the right to accept it and its cargo or reject it. It had not followed the proper procedure so government ordered it to leave," navy spokesman Commander Mahesh Karunaratne said.
The navy uncovered no illegal items, weapons or ammunition in the cargo of 884 tons of relief supplies, he said.
The U.K.-based Mercy Mission to the Vanni, which organized the voyage, said in a statement it was disappointed the "desperately needed emergency humanitarian relief has been rejected."
The Captain Ali was originally due to steam into the rebel-held area of the war zone, and Mercy Mission said it would bring aid to civilians, who were being held forcibly by the LTTE.
The ship aroused suspicion because of the LTTE's long history of using humanitarian organizations as fundraising fronts, several of which have been shut down under anti-terrorism laws. More than 30 countries list the LTTE as a terrorist group.
(Writing by Bryson Hull; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

Source: Reuters

Myanmar court upholds ban on two Suu Kyi witnesses

By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON (Reuters) - A court in army-ruled Myanmar has upheld a ban on two defense witnesses in the widely-condemned trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, one of her lawyers said on Tuesday.
Although the court overturned a ban on one witness, Khin Moe Moe, the Nobel laureate's lawyer Nyan Win said he was disappointed by the ruling and would appeal the decision.
"We didn't get the result we expected and we will go to a higher court to appeal," Nyan Win told reporters.
Suu Kyi, 63, faces three to five years in prison if found guilty of breaking the terms of her house arrest by allowing an American intruder to stay for two days after he swam to her home on May 4.
A conviction is widely expected in the former Burma, where the courts have often bent the law to suit the ruling generals.
Suu Kyi's next scheduled court appearance is on June 12.
But Nyan Win said final arguments in the trial, which had been delayed several times, would likely be put back again.
"The final verdict on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is now expected after two weeks," he said.
Security was tight during Tuesday's hearing, with at least 20 trucks carrying riot police assembled in front of the City Hall, the site of previous anti-junta protests in the former capital.
The military regime insists the trial will be conducted "according to the law," but critics say the charges have been trumped up to keep the pro-democracy icon in detention during elections next year.
Suu Kyi has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years in some form of detention, mostly under house arrest at her home on Yangon's Inya Lake.
The banned witnesses are Win Tin, a senior member of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party, and its detained vice-chairman, Tin Oo.
The court's initial decision to allow Suu Kyi only one witness, lawyer and NLD MP Kyi Win, angered activists who saw it as an attempt by the regime to sabotage her defense.
Suu Kyi is accused of committing a violation under Section 22 of a draconian security law protecting the state from "subversive elements." Her lawyers argue that section is invalid because it is based on a constitution abolished years ago.
Her two female housemates and the American intruder, John Yettaw, are charged under the same law. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Reformist cleric says won't stand down in Iran vote

By Dominic Evans and Hashem Kalantari
TEHRAN (Reuters) - A reformist cleric contesting Iran's presidential election said on Tuesday he would defy growing calls to stand aside and unify moderate voters against hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Mehdi Karoubi, the most liberal of Ahmadinejad's rivals in Friday's election, is seen as an outsider in the race and has come under pressure from reformists to withdraw and boost the chances of former prime minister Mirhossein Mousavi.
"I will never withdraw," he told a news conference. "I believe the larger the number of candidates, the better."
But an ally said Karoubi, a former parliamentary speaker, was likely to face continued pressure to stand down in the next few days in order to avoid splitting the pro-reform vote.
Like Karoubi, Mousavi accuses Ahmadinejad of isolating Iran with his vitriolic attacks on the United States, his combative line on Iran's nuclear policy and his denial of the Holocaust.
He advocates easing nuclear tensions, while rejecting demands that Tehran halt nuclear work which the West fears could be used to make bombs. Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, says its nuclear program is peaceful.
Friday's election will not change Tehran's nuclear policy, which is decided by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but a victory for Mousavi could pave the way to a less confrontational relationship with the West.
The United Nations has imposed three sets of sanctions on Iran over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, steps which Ahmadinejad has repeatedly brushed aside.
"Let the world know that if the Iranian nation should re-elect this small servant, he would go forward in the world arena with the nation's authority and would not withdraw an iota from the nation's rights," Fars news agency quoted him as saying on Tuesday in the Caspian Sea province of Mazenderan.
HEATED CLASH
Mousavi's campaign has gained momentum in the run-up to the vote after he clashed with Ahmadinejad in a heated televised debate last week.
But analysts caution against predicting the election outcome, especially after the relatively unknown Ahmadinejad unexpectedly won the presidency in 2005.
Despite criticism that his free-spending policies have fueled inflation and squandered oil revenues, he still has the backing of Khamenei and can mobilize support of the Basij, a religious volunteer force with millions of members.
Mousavi will count on support of Iranians, particularly younger voters, disenchanted with Ahmadinejad's efforts to steer the country back to the Islamist austerity of the 1979 revolution.
Thousands of Mousavi's supporters have thronged the streets of relatively affluent northern Tehran in nightly demonstrations, dressed in his green campaign colors, waving his picture and blocking traffic into the early hours. Continued...
Source: Reuters

U.S. envoy begins new Middle East peace push

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's special Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, began a new push to facilitate Israeli-Palestinian peace talks on Tuesday by opening a series of talks with leaders in the region.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is at odds with Obama over the president's demand to halt Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and has not endorsed the creation of a Palestinian state, a cornerstone of U.S. Middle East policy.
Obama spoke to Netanyahu by phone on Monday and the White House said the president "reiterated the principal elements of his Cairo speech, including his commitment to Israel's security."
In his address to the Muslim world in Cairo last week, Obama also called on Israel to freeze settlements.
Netanyahu is to make a major policy speech on Sunday in which a senior official said the Israeli leader would "articulate his vision on how to move forward in the peace process with the Palestinians and with the larger Arab world."
A statement issued by the Netanyahu's office said "President Obama said he was waiting to hear the speech with interest."
Mitchell opened his meetings in Tel Aviv with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and was later to travel to Jerusalem to meet Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and President Shimon Peres.
He meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday.
"The president has told me to exert all efforts to create the circumstance when the parties can begin immediate discussions," Mitchell told reporters at a Palestinian donors' conference in Oslo, referring to renewed negotiations that President Barack Obama has pledged to pursue.
(Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Matthew Jones)

Source: Reuters

Blast near U.S. convoy wounds 34 Afghans: officials

By Amin Jalili
ASADABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A blast near a U.S. troop convoy in Afghanistan killed at least one child and wounded 34 civilians on Tuesday, officials said, but witnesses blamed a U.S. soldier for throwing a grenade into a crowd.
Abdul Jalal Jalal, chief of police in Kunar province, said officials were investigating whether the blast in the provincial capital Asadabad was caused by a grenade thrown by U.S. troops or by an insurgent attack.
A U.S. military spokesman in Kabul said he was checking the reports.
Several of the wounded and other witnesses told Reuters a U.S. soldier had thrown a grenade after the military convoy was stopped because a vehicle's tire had burst.
Civilian casualties caused by U.S. forces have become a major source of friction between the Afghan authorities and their U.S. allies, and have hurt public support even as the number of U.S. troops in the country more than doubles this year.
"I was on my way to school. Their tire burst, and then a soldier hurled a hand grenade from the convoy," said Abdul Wahab, 12, lying in a hospital bed with two shrapnel wounds in his leg.
Two other wounded victims at the Asadabad hospital gave similar accounts.
A 20-year-old shopkeeper near the scene, Umranullah, who uses only one name like many Afghans, also said a U.S. soldier from the convoy had thrown a grenade.
Asadabad hospital doctor Ehsanullah Fazli said most of the wounded were children.
The Pentagon acknowledged on Monday that procedures had been violated during an air strike last month in which the Afghan government says 140 civilians were killed.
Washington says 20-35 civilians were among 80-95 people killed, most of them Taliban fighters, in the air strike in western Farah province.
Fearing strikes by suicide bombers and other attacks by Taliban, foreign troops in the past have fired at Afghan civilians, causing casualties.
(Additional reporting and writing by Sayed Salahuddin in KABUL; Editing by Peter Graff and Paul Tait)

Source: Reuters

Sri Lanka turns back aid ship that entered illegally

By Ranga Sirilal
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka sent back a ship carrying an aid cargo paid for by expatriate Tamils and Tamil Tiger supporters, after intercepting the vessel entering its waters illegally, the navy said Tuesday.
Navy ships seized the Syrian-flagged Captain Ali on Thursday 160 km (100 miles) west of the Indian Ocean island's capital and main port, Colombo, three weeks after the rebels lost a 25-year war.
"The government has the right to accept it and its cargo or reject it. It had not followed the proper procedure so government ordered it to leave," navy spokesman Commander Mahesh Karunaratne said.
The navy uncovered no illegal items, weapons or ammunition in the cargo of 884 tonnes of relief supplies, he said.
The U.K.-based Mercy Mission to the Vanni, which organized the ship, said in a statement it was disappointed the "cargo of desperately needed emergency humanitarian relief has been rejected."
"We assure all of our donors and volunteers that this food and medicine will reach Tamil refugees and that their efforts and donations will not be in vain," the statement said.
It also apologized for failing to ensure the shipping documents were in order. Nearly 300,000 Tamils are being held in government-run refugee camps, which are guarded by the military and from which people are not free to leave.
The Captain Ali was bound for formerly rebel-held areas, and the group that organized its voyage had first planned for it to bring aid to civilians forcibly held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the war zone.
But the ship arrived three weeks after the military finally wiped the LTTE out on May 18, and Mercy Mission then said the cargo was destined for Tamil refugees.
The ship aroused suspicion in Sri Lanka because of the LTTE's long history of using humanitarian organizations as fundraising fronts, several of which have been shut down under anti-terrorism laws. More than 30 countries list the LTTE as a terrorist group.
Some of Mercy Mission to Vanni's organizers were linked to the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization, which had its funds frozen in Sri Lanka on those grounds.
The navy said none of the crew of 15, including a citizen of Iceland who was a member of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission that kept watch over a barely-observed 2002 ceasefire, was arrested.
(Editing by Valerie Lee)

Source: Reuters

Uzbekistan accepts Obama's call for "new beginning"

By Maria Golovnina
ALMATY (Reuters) - Uzbekistan strongly welcomed U.S. President Barack Obama's call for a "new beginning" in ties between Washington and the Muslim world, signaling a departure from the Central Asian state's usual anti-Western sentiment.
Lying on a new supply route for U.S. troops fighting in neighboring Afghanistan, mainly Muslim Uzbekistan ceased contacts with the United States after a row over human rights in 2005 and closed a key U.S. military base in Central Asia.
Breaking with its tradition of fierce anti-Western sentiment, the former Soviet republic praised a speech Obama delivered at Cairo University last week as pragmatic and sober.
"This sober and realistic approach to solving key issues will definitely attract positive feedback from the international community," its official Jahon news agency said on its Web site.
"It shows willingness to find new bridges between the United States and Muslims around the world in the name of everyone's interests, justice and progress," the agency, run by the Uzbek Foreign Ministry, said late on Monday.
President Islam Karimov, long criticized in the West for not allowing dissent and locking up political opponents, has agreed to help anti-Taliban efforts in Afghanistan by allowing NATO forces to transport non-lethal cargo through its territory.
RUSSIA WORRIES
This change of diplomatic attitude is a worry to Russia which sees Central Asia, and its most populous nation Uzbekistan in particular, as part of its traditional sphere of interest where the U.S. military presence is not welcome.
In a move harking back to the 19th century diplomatic shadow-boxing between the Russians and the British in the region, the so-called Great Game, Russia scored an important win this year when another key Central Asian nation, Kyrgyzstan, ordered U.S. troops to shut a military base on its land.
Kyrgyzstan announced its decision in February after securing pledges of $2 billion in aid and credit from Russia. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has sent a personal appeal to Kyrgyzstan asking its leadership to abandon the plan.
The United States and other Western nations condemned Uzbekistan in 2005 after its troops fired on protesters in the town of Andizhan, killing hundreds, according to witnesses.
Uzbekistan has rejected all criticism, saying it was a riot organized by Islamist extremists seeking to topple Karimov and set up a Islamist state in Central Asia.
In a further sign of warming ties, Karimov met U.S. ambassador Richard Norland last week to discuss security.
"The gist of these new approaches (voiced by Obama) lies in the fact that it is counter-productive to impose values on other nations," Jahon said. "It is crucial to be a good example for others to follow while defending democracy, rule of law, freedom of speech and religion as a set of values important to all."
(Editing by Jon Hemming)

Source: Reuters

U.S. envoy sees Pakistanis backing fight vs Taliban

By William Schomberg
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pakistan's politicians and armed forces are showing more cohesiveness in the fight against Islamic extremists and public opinion is increasingly on the government's side, the U.S. envoy to the region said on Monday.
"Public opinion is solidifying behind the government. People are really fed up with what the Taliban and the other extremists have done," Richard Holbrooke told Reuters shortly after arriving in the United States from Pakistan.
Pakistan's 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 the region.
It remains "critically important" that the campaign against the Taliban and other extremists should succeed and that an estimated 2.5 million refugees displaced by fighting should be able to return home securely, he said.
"So this is far from over," Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said after a speaking engagement in New York late on Monday.
"But events in the last few weeks have been very positive from the government's point of view. I also found an increased sense of cohesiveness on this issue between the government, the opposition and the army."
Compared with the political crisis of three months ago, Pakistan now has opposition leader Nawaz Sharif in support of the government on the fight against the Taliban and the military is also behind the campaign.
"That's a big step forward," Holbrooke said.
Pakistan's offensive to expel Taliban militants from the Swat valley has been welcomed by Western allies worried that the nuclear-armed country was sliding into chaos.
The military says more than 1,200 militants and 90 soldiers have been killed in the Swat offensive.
Pakistan's support is vital in a broader campaign to defeat al Qaeda and stabilize Afghanistan.
In his speech on Monday to the American Council on Germany, a transatlantic business and policy forum, Holbrooke renewed his calls on other Western countries to provide more aid to help the refugees in Pakistan who fled the fighting.
"The international community has not responded adequately to their needs so far," he said.
The United States has pledged more than $300 million for the Pakistani refugee crisis, compared with less than $200 million from the rest of the world, Holbrooke said.
"We have called on other countries to join us in this effort. In the end we are going to need several billion dollars for this small part of Pakistan." Continued...
Source: Reuters

Journalists' families ask North Korea for leniency

North Korea ups the stakes
Play Video
By Jon Herskovitz
SEOUL (Reuters) - Relatives of two U.S. journalists sentenced to 12 years hard labor in North Korea called on the reclusive state to show compassion, while U.S. President Barack Obama's spokesman said the two were innocent and should be freed.
Monday's harsh sentence by one of the North's top courts deepened the chill between Washington and comes as global powers are looking to punish destitute Pyongyang for a nuclear test in May that put it closer to having a working atomic bomb.
Analysts said Pyongyang is using the journalists as bargaining chips to gain the upper hand with Washington, which for years has tried to use sweeteners in return for Pyongyang reducing the security threat it poses to the North Asia region, responsible for one-sixth of the world's economy.
"We believe that the three months they have already spent under arrest with little communication with their families is long enough," the families for Laura Ling and Euna Lee, of U.S. media outlet Current TV, said on a statement obtained on Tuesday.
The two were arrested in March near the border between North Korea and China while working on a story for the company, co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. The North convicted them of "grave crimes," saying they illegally entered the country.
"We ask the government of North Korea to show compassion and grant Laura and Euna clemency and allow them to return home to their families," they said.
The communist North maintains a network of prisons where inmates are overworked and underfed and brutality is the norm, human rights groups and defectors have said.
In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the journalists' fate should not be linked to the dispute over Pyongyang's nuclear program.
"If they (North Korea's leaders) wanted them for any other purposes, they would have made a big deal of it in domestic media," said B.R. Myers, an expert on the North's state ideology at Dongseo University in South Korea.
"The fact that they have not gives me hope that a resolution can be reached."
FURTHER PROVOCATIONS
South Korea's main stock index dipped late on Monday as the news of the sentencing weighed on sentiment. Analysts say it would take a military clash at sea or on the border to have a major impact on global markets.
North Korea appears ready to further ratchet up tension by preparing for tests a long-range missile that could reach U.S. territory and mid-range missiles capable of striking anywhere in South Korea and in most of Japan, officials have said.
The North also issued a no-sail warning through the end of this month for a wide area off its east coast, indicating possible short-range missile tests. It launched a short-range missile in the area in May and a barrage of short-range missiles in 2006.
Analysts said the military grandstanding may be primarily aimed at the internal audience to help leader Kim Jong-il, 67, arrange for eventual succession in Asia's only communist dynasty for his youngest son, Swiss-educated Jong-un. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Iraqi cops train to hunt militants with DNA and dogs

By Aseel Kami
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At a sparkling new forensic crime office in Baghdad, trainees in white lab coats drip blood into test tubes in search of genetic clues.
The seven-month-old DNA analysis facility is an important part of efforts by Iraq to bolster its security forces as the U.S. military hands over responsibility to locals ahead of the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from urban centers this month.
"This is the first step, to analyze DNA in Iraq," said Shafan Khalid, a student from Arbil in the widely autonomous northern region of Kurdistan, looking up from his work.
The Iraqi police had to start from scratch after the U.S. authorities disbanded Saddam Hussein's security forces shortly after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Now the country has about half a million police officers who are being prepared to take over the security reins as U.S. combat forces gradually withdraw from Iraq. In the next room at the facility, the "K9" unit is training sniffer dogs to seek out explosives, crucial work in a nation where car bombs and suicide blasts have claimed thousands of lives.
Five policemen stand as a trainee leads a Belgian Shepherd dog past them on a chain. When it reaches the man hiding the fake device, it sits down to alert its handler.
There are 63 bomb sniffing dogs imported from South Africa and the United States now working in Iraq, 33 of them in the capital. There are 11 Iraqi trainers taught by U.S. instructors.
"Now the training depends 100 percent on our Iraqi cadre," said Brigadier-General Mohammed Musshib, the head of the unit, adding that 30 Iraqis are taking part in the eight-week course.
"Even now if the Americans want to leave, it will not be a big deal for us," he added in a corridor lined with dog cages.
"THEY ARE DOING THE JOB"
U.S. combat forces are due to leave the country by August 2010, although some 50,000 U.S. soldiers will stay on to train and give advice until a 2011 deadline.
As those dates loom, Iraq is stepping up preparations to fill the void in law enforcement and security.
Facilities as mundane as DNA labs will enable professional criminal investigations based on hard evidence instead of current methods that all too often involve rounding up suspects and holding them without charge for extended periods, officials said.
In another department of the Interior Ministry's training institute, about 50 women are taking computer lessons. They hope to graduate in November, becoming Iraq's first ever policewomen to achieve the rank of officer.
Outside on the parade ground, male trainees practice guarding a senior official in a scenario where two gunmen hurl a hand grenade at the VIP as he steps out of his car. Continued...
Source: Reuters

UK's Brown wins support from Labour MPs

By Adrian Croft and Frank Prenesti
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown beat off a challenge to his authority on Monday, winning over Labour members of parliament after admitting mistakes and taking responsibility for a week of political turmoil.
Addressing Labour's 350 MPs a day after his party suffered a resounding defeat in European elections, Brown expressed contrition but said he was determined to fight on as leader after one of the most difficult weeks of his premiership.
"I know I need to improve," Brown told the MPs, according to a spokesman. "I have my strengths and I have my weaknesses. There are some things I can do well, some not so well.
"You solve the problem not by walking away but by facing it and doing something about it," he said, earning cheers and applause from the majority in the room, according to witnesses.
Several senior Labour members, including Charles Clarke, a former interior minister, called for Brown to step down. However, most threw their weight behind him ahead of a general election due within a year which the opposition center-right Conservatives are tipped to win.
The head of Labour's parliamentary group, Tony Lloyd, said he now saw little chance of Brown being ousted from office.
"I do not believe there will be any challenge to Gordon Brown within our party," he told Sky News.
Brown critics at the meeting said the prime minister had been "put on probation," suggesting there would be no immediate further challenge to his leadership.
EX-MINISTER CALLS FOR BROWN TO GO
Minutes later, a former Labour cabinet minister called for Brown to go.
"Now is the time for Gordon Brown to stand down as Labour leader and as prime minister," Stephen Byers, an ally of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, told a meeting of Labour activists.
Brown, in power since 2007 when he took over from Blair in mid-term, has been under pressure since a parliamentary expenses scandal caused popular disillusion with politics and, particularly, the party that has been in power for 12 years.
The unrest prompted six senior ministers to resign last week. Brown reshuffled his cabinet but Sunday's European election results -- giving Labour its smallest share of a national vote in 100 years -- dealt a new blow to his authority.
An opinion poll in Tuesday's Independent newspaper may give ammunition to those wanting a new leader.
The ComRes survey found that the Conservatives would win a big parliamentary majority if Brown leads Labour into the next election. However, if interior minister Alan Johnson replaced Brown, the Conservatives would fall six seats short of an overall majority. Johnson has pledged allegiance to Brown. Continued...
Source: Reuters

North Korea jails U.S. journalists and warns U.N.

North Korea ups the stakes
Play Video
By Jack Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea raised the stakes in its confrontation with Washington on Monday by sentencing two American journalists to 12 years hard labor for "grave crimes" while President Barack Obama's spokesman said the two were innocent and should be freed.
Obama is due to meet with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak at the White House on June 16 to discuss a number of issues, expected to include including growing threats by North Korea which tested a nuclear bomb in May.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday Washington was considering putting the reclusive North back on its list of states that sponsor terrorism, further isolating a country already facing additional United Nations sanctions.
The journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, of U.S. media outlet Current TV, were arrested in March working on a story near the border between North Korea and China. The trial for the two, working for the company co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, had opened on Thursday.
"The trial confirmed the grave crime they committed against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing as they had already been indicted and sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor," the official KCNA news agency said.
In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the journalists' fate should not be linked to the dispute over Pyongyang's nuclear program.
The White House said in a statement Obama was "deeply concerned" and added: "We are engaged through all possible channels to secure their release."
The journalists' sentence seemed certain to deepen the chill in relations with the United States which has been trying for years to convince Stalinist North Korea to give up its ambition of becoming a nuclear weapons power.
"(North Korea) is using the sentence as bait to squeeze concessions out of the U.S. amid heightened tension," said Lee Dong-bok, a senior associate with the CSIS think tank in Seoul and an expert on the North's negotiating tactics.
South Korea's main stock index dipped as the news of the sentencing weighed on sentiment. "Although this (fall) will probably be short-lived, there still are concerns the United States may take stringent measures in response," said Lee Yun, a market analyst at Woori Investment & Securities.
Analysts say it would take a military clash at sea or on the border to have a major impact on global markets.
MILITARY GRANDSTANDING
Obama at the weekend called the North's nuclear test, which was followed by a series of missile tests, "extraordinarily provocative" and said that this time there would be no appeasement by Washington.
Communist North Korea kept up its rhetoric which is increasingly unnerving a region that accounts for a sixth of the world's economy.
It threatened to retaliate with "extreme" measures if the United Nations punished it for the nuclear test. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Pentagon admits "problems" with Afghan air strike

By Andrew Gray
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon acknowledged on Monday that there were "problems" with the way U.S. forces conducted a bombing raid in Afghanistan that provoked outrage over civilian casualties.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates was briefed on the investigation into the incident, which took place in early May in the western province of Farah, a Pentagon spokesman said.
"There were some problems with some tactics, techniques and procedures or... the way in which close air support was supposed to have been executed in this case," said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell, who sat in on the briefing.
The bombing heightened tensions between Afghans and foreign troops over civilian casualties. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has urged an end to U.S. air strikes in his country, but Washington has rejected his call.
Afghan officials put the civilian death toll from the Farah bombing as high as 140. An Afghan human rights watchdog put the total at 97 and said no more than two Taliban fighters were killed.
The U.S. military has said 20-35 civilians were among 80-95 people killed, most of them Taliban fighters who used the civilians as human shields.
Morrell said B-1 bomber, after identifying the targeted building, had to break off and then return to the scene to carry out the strike, without checking again whether the target was still appropriate.
There was no way to determine whether that had caused any civilian casualties, he said. "That was not part of the briefing that we received. It was just noted as one of the problems associated with these events, not that it was the cause of the civilian casualties."
Morrell said the investigation found that U.S. Marines on the ground took great care to limit civilian casualties.
He did not provide casualty figures, but said the civilian deaths were "greatly outnumbered" by the number of Taliban killed.
He declined to say whether the investigation, carried out by the U.S. military's Central Command, had found fault with any other part of the operation.
Morrell's remarks were the first public acknowledgment by the Pentagon of problems with the bombing operation. But last week military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed a New York Times report that said the investigation had uncovered mistakes in the air strikes.
Central Command expects to release a summary of the investigation's findings later this week.
(Editing by Chris Wilson)

Source: Reuters

Pope "visibly upset" over Irish abuse report

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Pope Benedict was very upset by revelations that priests and nuns had beaten and raped children for many years in Irish industrial schools, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin said on Monday.
A harrowing report into the systemic abuse in Ireland's now defunct system of industrial and reform schools has shocked the once devout Catholic country and put pressure on religious orders who ran the institutions to pay more compensation.
"He was very visibly upset, I would say, to hear of some of the things that are told in the Ryan Report and how the children had suffered," said Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.
Martin and the leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, met the Pontiff last week to update him about the fallout from the report. Benedict, who apologized for sexual abuse by clergy during a visit to Australia last year, has not commented publicly on the Irish revelations.
Brady said Benedict told them to ensure that "justice is done for all" following the report, which was chaired by High Court Justice Sean Ryan.
The report did not name any abusers following a successful legal challenge by the Christian Brothers, a Catholic order.
The 18 orders named in the report, including the Brothers, have said they will pay more compensation to thousands of victims following public and political pressure.
A 2002 deal capped the orders' contribution to a redress fund at 127 million euros ($175.7 million). The total bill is now expected to top 1 billion euros.
In the United States, the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed in 2007 to pay $660 million to 500 victims in the largest compensation package of its kind.
The Irish report detailed floggings, slave labor and rape by priests throughout the 20th century, describing over thousands of pages how children were also preyed upon by foster parents and volunteer workers.
(Reporting by Carmel Crimmins, editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Source: Reuters

Pope "visibly upset" over Irish abuse report

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Pope Benedict was very upset by revelations that priests and nuns had beaten and raped children for many years in Irish industrial schools, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin said on Monday.
A harrowing report into the systemic abuse in Ireland's now defunct system of industrial and reform schools has shocked the once devout Catholic country and put pressure on religious orders who ran the institutions to pay more compensation.
"He was very visibly upset, I would say, to hear of some of the things that are told in the Ryan Report and how the children had suffered," said Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.
Martin and the leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, met the Pontiff last week to update him about the fallout from the report. Benedict, who apologized for sexual abuse by clergy during a visit to Australia last year, has not commented publicly on the Irish revelations.
Brady said Benedict told them to ensure that "justice is done for all" following the report, which was chaired by High Court Justice Sean Ryan.
The report did not name any abusers following a successful legal challenge by the Christian Brothers, a Catholic order.
The 18 orders named in the report, including the Brothers, have said they will pay more compensation to thousands of victims following public and political pressure.
A 2002 deal capped the orders' contribution to a redress fund at 127 million euros ($175.7 million). The total bill is now expected to top 1 billion euros.
In the United States, the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed in 2007 to pay $660 million to 500 victims in the largest compensation package of its kind.
The Irish report detailed floggings, slave labor and rape by priests throughout the 20th century, describing over thousands of pages how children were also preyed upon by foster parents and volunteer workers.
(Reporting by Carmel Crimmins, editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Source: Reuters

Hezbollah accepts election loss, U.S. backs allies

Lebanese vote in tight contest
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By Yara Bayoumy
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah accepted on Monday the result of a parliamentary election in Lebanon in which his U.S.-backed opponents secured a majority over the Iranian-backed group and its allies.
"We accept these results...with sportsmanship and in a democratic way and we accept that the ruling camp has won the parliamentary majority," Nasrallah said in a televised address, a day after the surprise victory by the anti-Syrian coalition.
The United States, which backs that "March 14" alliance, renewed its support to the group, which also enjoys the backing of regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Egypt. President Barack Obama said Washington would "continue to support a sovereign and independent Lebanon, committed to peace."
"It is our sincere hope that the next government will continue along the path toward building a sovereign, independent and stable Lebanon," he said in a statement.
Results declared by Interior Minister Ziad Baroud showed Saad al-Hariri's pro-Western bloc had won 71 of parliament's 128 seats, against 57 for an opposition alliance that groups Shi'ite factions Hezbollah and Amal with Christian leader Michel Aoun.
Hariri's total includes three independents who ran on his lists in Sunday's election. Many analysts had predicted the election would produce a slim victory for the "March 8" alliance, composed of Hezbollah and its partners.
Their loss is a major blow to Hezbollah's patrons, Syria and Iran, where hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will also be competing against rivals who advocate less confrontation with the West in an election this week.
HEZBOLLAH POPULAR
Nasrallah said opposition leaders would meet soon to agree on a joint position on the naming of a new prime minister and the formation of a new government.
Despite his coalition's defeat, Nasrallah said the result showed his group still enjoyed massive popular support.
Hezbollah and Amal swept the vote in mainly Shi'ite areas but defeat for Aoun in the key Christian districts of Zahleh and Ashrafiyeh deprived the alliance of the majority it had sought.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Lebanese to respect the results and hoped the process to start forming a government would begin immediately, his spokesman Farhan Haq said.
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, whose Carter Center was also observing the election, said the results were "fairly accurate as a judgment of the will of the people."
Michael Williams, the U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon, said the formation of the new cabinet could take several weeks after the designation of the new prime minister.
Hariri has previously said the opposition could join a unity government, but without veto power. Continued...
Source: Reuters

U.S. pushes for Israeli-Palestinian discussions

By Jeffrey Heller
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday it would make a new push for Israeli-Palestinian talks and U.S. envoy George Mitchell, en route to the region, hoped to lay the groundwork.
"The president has told me to exert all efforts to create the circumstance when the parties can begin immediate discussions," Mitchell told reporters at a Palestinian donors' conference in Oslo, referring to renewed negotiations that President Barack Obama has pledged to pursue.
In the Gaza Strip, militants opposed to a dialogue tried to blast open Israel's border fence.
Israeli forces killed three Palestinian militants who had planned to breach the border fence with the Hamas-run territory by detonating explosives they had tied to five horses, a military spokesman said.
Middle East envoy Tony Blair said after the Oslo meeting that Obama's push for a peace deal should be embraced by Arab states.
"For the Arab countries in particular we need their support...," Blair said. "We need their support for the Palestinian Authority, their support for the peace process, their support in coming to a new ... understanding about how we can establish peace in the Middle East.
"President Obama needs something to come back to him. He's reaching out but he needs people to reach back and I think the next few months is all about seeing whether we can create the circumstances where that happens," he told Reuters.
POLICY SPEECH
Mitchell was to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday.
Netanyahu is at odds with Obama over the president's demand to halt Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and has not endorsed the creation of a Palestinian state, a cornerstone of U.S. Middle East policy.
Obama spoke to Netanyahu by phone on Monday and the White House said the president "reiterated the principal elements of his Cairo speech, including his commitment to Israel's security." Obama also used last week's Cairo address to the Muslim world to press Israel for a settlements freeze.
Netanyahu is to make a major policy speech on Sunday in which a senior official said the Israeli leader would "articulate his vision on how to move forward in the peace process with the Palestinians and with the larger Arab world."
Obama told Netanyahu he looked forward to hearing his views on peace and security in the speech, the White House said.
Netanyahu has said he is ready to meet Abbas and begin talks on economic, security and political issues, which he has not specified.
Palestinians have rejected his proposed shift of focus away from territorial issues, whose complexity, Netanyahu has said, has frustrated U.S.-backed attempts to reach a final peace deal. Continued...
Source: Reuters