Netanyahu says will accept demilitarized Palestinian state

Israel bombs Gaza tunnels
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By Ori Lewis
RAMAT GAN, Israel (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted on Sunday the U.S.-backed goal of a Palestinian state but balked at meeting President Barack Obama's demand to stop Jewish settlement expansion.
Netanyahu's reversal on statehood appeared to be a bid to end the worst rift in U.S.-Israeli relations in a decade. But further friction appeared likely over his refusal to budge on settlements.
Netanyahu said he would support the establishment of a Palestinian state -- but only if Israel received in advance international guarantees the new nation would have no military and Palestinians recognized Israel as a Jewish state.
A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Netanyahu had not gone far enough. Palestinians have long resisted calls to declare that Israel is a Jewish state.
"If we receive this guarantee for demilitarization and the security arrangements required by Israel, and if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the nation of the Jewish people, we will be prepared for a true peace agreement (and) to reach a solution of a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside the Jewish state," Netanyahu said.
SETTLEMENTS
But he stood by his refusal to declare a complete settlement freeze sought by Washington under a 2003 peace "road map."
"We have no intention to build new settlements and to expropriate land for new settlements," Netanyahu said at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv.
"But there is a need to allow settlers to lead normal lives, to allow mothers and fathers to raise their children like all families around the world," he said, alluding to the concept of "natural growth" or construction within existing settlements.
Obama, in a speech on June 4 aimed at repairing U.S. relations with Muslims, said such building must stop.
In his address, Netanyahu, leader of right-leaning coalition, reiterated his readiness to meet Arab leaders and urged Palestinians to resume peace talks.
But on the thorny issue of Palestinian refugees, Netanyahu repeated long-standing Israeli policy by saying they could not return to areas in Israel from which they fled or were forced to flee during a 1948 war that led to its creation.
Israel says such an influx would erase the country's Jewish identity.
It was not immediately clear whether Abbas would accept Netanyahu's call to resume talks.
Abbas has said talks with Israel could not be renewed until Netanyahu accepted the goal of a two-state solution and halted settlements. A settlement freeze could fracture the governing coalition that came to power in Israel last March.
(Writing by Jeffrey Heller, Editing by Adam Entous)

Source: Reuters

Pakistan orders offensive against Taliban chief

Deadly bomb in Pakistan
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By Kamran Haider
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan has ordered the military to carry out an offensive against Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and his fighters, a provincial governor said on Sunday.
The announcement came hours after a bomb in a market killed eight people in a northwest Pakistani town, the latest in a wave of attacks since the army launched an offensive against Taliban militants in the Swat valley northwest of Islamabad.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan is struggling to push back a growing Taliban insurgency and security forces have made progress in more than a month of fighting against militants in Swat.
The militants have responded with a string of bombs in towns and cities.
Mehsud has been blamed for many of the suicide attacks in Pakistan, including the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, in December 2007.
Expectations have been rising that the military will launch an offensive against him as the army enters the final stages of its campaign in Swat.
"The military and law enforcement agencies have been ordered to carry out a full-fledged operation to eliminate these beasts and killers by using all resources," Awais Ahmed Ghani, governor of North West Frontier Province, told reporters, referring to Mehsud.
He did not say when the offensive would be launched but said Mehsud and his people had provided shelter to "anti-Pakistan forces," including many foreigners, and had been training suicide bombers.
The violence has raised fears for Pakistan's stability and for the safety of its nuclear arsenal but the offensive in Swat has reassured the United States, which needs its Muslim ally's help to defeat al Qaeda and stabilize neighboring Afghanistan.
DRONE STRIKE
Earlier on Sunday, a bomb planted on a cart in a market in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan killed eight people and wounded 25, a government official said.
Separately, a suspected U.S. drone aircraft fired a missile in South Waziristan killing three militants traveling in a vehicle, a witness and officials said.
A government official in the region confirmed the attack, saying drones had been flying over South Waziristan since early morning. The identity of the dead militants was not known.
The United States, alarmed by the deteriorating security in Afghanistan, has also been using drone aircraft to attack Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in northwestern Pakistani militant strongholds.
Though a staunch U.S. ally, Pakistan objects to the U.S. missile strikes saying they violate its sovereignty and undermine efforts to deal with militancy because they inflame public anger and bolster militant support. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Madagascar's government quits crisis talks

By Alain Iloniaina
ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Madagascar's government has quit internationally mediated talks to end its political crisis, rejecting a political amnesty deal that would allow ousted leader Marc Ravalomanana to return to the island.
President Andry Rajoelina said there was no scope to negotiate the homecoming of the exiled Ravalomanana, who he overthrew with support from dissident soldiers in March after weeks of civil unrest.
Although sources close to the talks have said it would be possible to continue dialogue with three out of four political movements, it was not immediately clear how any deal would stick without the government's signature.
Political turmoil has gripped the Indian Ocean island since the beginning of the year, shattering its $390 million-a-year tourism sector, alarming foreign investors and stunting growth.
"The people will not accept an amnesty which makes way for a discussion over the return of Ravalomanana," Rajoelina told supporters on Saturday while touring isolated provinces.
His comments were broadcast on state radio on Sunday.
The African Union's (AU) mediator, Ablasse Ouedraogo, told Reuters he was not aware of the government's withdrawal.
Regional leaders and foreign powers, who generally branded Rajoelina's power-grab a coup, have urged the formation of a consensus government to lead Madagascar into presidential elections as soon as possible.
SHARED POWER?
On Sunday, Ravalomanana's allies called for a return to real-politik and said Ravalomanana could share power with Rajoelina under an interim authority.
"We are absolutely prepared to divide the powers of the executive body," said Raharinaivo Andrianantoandro, spokesman for Ravalomanana's political party.
The multiparty talks have faltered repeatedly as the various delegations set conditions and jostle for position ahead of any eventual pact.
Mediators from the AU and United Nations have failed to broker a compromise on amnesty for political prisoners -- a condition set down by another former leader, Didier Ratsiraka.
Ratsiraka, who fled to France after hotly contested elections in 2001 but remains a kingmaker in Malagasy politics, demanded all politically motivated charges from then until December 2008 be annulled.
Ravalomanana's camp said the amnesty should be active up until the signing of a new charter -- which would shield the self-made millionaire from investigation into alleged crimes committed during this year's uprising. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Mousavi seeks to overturn Iran election result

Ahmadinejad rejects vote rigging
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By Parisa Hafezi and Dominic Evans
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi demanded on Sunday that Iran's presidential vote be annulled and urged more protests, while tens of thousands of people hailed the victory of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Mousavi's supporters again took to the streets after violence on Saturday, clashing with police in protests that have underscored harsh political divisions exposed by Friday's disputed election.
In a statement on his website, Mousavi said he had formally asked the Guardian Council, a legislative body, to cancel the election result. "I urge you, Iranian nation, to continue your nationwide protests in a peaceful and legal way," he added.
The unrest that has rocked Tehran and other cities since results were declared on Saturday is the sharpest expression of discontent against the Islamic Republic's leadership for years.
The election result has disconcerted Western powers trying to induce the world's fifth biggest oil exporter to curb its nuclear program. U.S. President Barack Obama had urged Iran's leadership "to unclench its fist" for a new start in ties.
Ahmadinejad waved and smiled at the flag-waving partisans thronging the capital's Vali-e Asr square to applaud the victory he won by a surprising 63 percent of the vote.
POLICE TACKLE PROTESTERS
About 2,000 students at Tehran University, some carrying Mousavi posters, others covering their faces with bandanas, chanted anti-government slogans and taunted riot police across the road outside. Some threw stones at police when they chased protesters who had tried to gather outside the university gates.
Abdul Reza, 26, standing behind the gates and watching as police charged the crowd outside, said: "Mousavi is the real president of Iran. Ahmadinejad did not win the election."
Mousavi supporters earlier chanted his name in central Tehran and threw stones at police, a Reuters witness said.
Police on motorcycles drove through the crowd to disperse the protesters. At least one person, a woman, was injured. Police briefly detained journalists filming the violence.
Ahmadinejad described the election as "clean and healthy," dismissing complaints by defeated candidates as sour grapes.
"They may be upset by their failure," he told a news conference. "They spent a lot of money to make propaganda (and) expected to win, so it is natural they are disappointed."
He consigned Iran's nuclear dispute to the past, signaling no nuclear policy change in his second term, and warned that any country that attacked his own would regret it. "Who dares to attack Iran? Who even dares to think about it?" he asked.
Iran's refusal to halt nuclear work the West suspects is aimed at making bombs, a charge Tehran denies, has sparked talk of possible U.S. or Israeli strikes on its nuclear sites. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Taliban raids increase, plan to disrupt Afghan poll: government

By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's interior minister said on Sunday the Taliban have stepped up their attacks in many parts of the country and warned the Islamist militants would attempt to sabotage an August 20 presidential election.
Hanif Atmar's comments mirror those of U.S. and NATO military commanders who said insurgent attacks soared 59 percent in the first five months of 2009 compared with the same period last year to reach the highest level since the Taliban's overthrow in 2001.
Like U.S. Central Command chief General David Petraeus, who is responsible for U.S. military strategy in the Middle East and Central Asia, Atmar also warned worse was to come as more U.S. and Afghan troops pursue Taliban fighters in their strongholds.
The August election, Afghanistan's second presidential poll, is seen as a crucial point for both Kabul and its Western-backed government and for Washington, which has identified Afghanistan as its top military priority.
Washington has already increased its military presence to 56,000 troops, up from about 32,000 in late 2008, in part to provide extra security for the August vote. U.S. troop numbers will rise further to 68,000 by year's end.
Atmar said more than 250 people, many of them militants and
including some foreign insurgents, were killed during attacks by the Taliban in 25 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces last week. Police and civilians were also among the dead.
Petraeus identified the past week as having the most security incidents in Afghanistan's "post-liberation history."
The number of attacks, which included suicide strikes, roadside bombings and ambushes, was 40 percent higher than the previous week, Atmar told a news conference.
He said the escalation in attacks came with the thawing of snow in the mountains to mark the start of the traditional fighting season in Afghanistan. He said the militants also had two other purposes.
"The enemy wants to totally hinder this (poll) process ... and wants to send a message to the international community that even if you increase your troops, we will step up our attacks," Atmar said.
He said the Afghan government, with the help of its foreign backers, would do all it could to stop the Taliban achieving its aims.
Access to more money and arms from overseas had enabled the Taliban to increase their attacks, he said, reiterating that their main source of support was in the mountainous tribal regions of neighboring Pakistan.
U.S.-led troops overthrew the Taliban government after its leadership refused to hand over al Qaeda leaders wanted by Washington for masterminding the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The Taliban have called the August poll a sham and have vowed to drive foreign troops from Afghanistan.
(Editing by Paul Tait)

Source: Reuters

Airbus urges patience on crash, says A330 safe

PARIS (Reuters) - European planemaker Airbus has warned against speculating on the cause of an Atlantic plane crash but defended the safety record of its A330 jetliner.
An Air France A300 crashed into the Atlantic en route from Brazil to Paris on June 1, killing all 228 people on board in the world's worst aviation disaster in eight years.
"It is safe to say that the aviation community is still under some shock," Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders told journalists.
"And it certainly doesn't provide consolation to the families that if we look at the statistics of flying compared with 30 years ago, the statistics show that the A330 is one of the safest aircraft that has ever gone into service."
Enders was speaking on Saturday in a briefing ahead of the June 15-21 Paris Airshow alongside EADS Chief Executive Louis Gallois. Contents of the briefing were embargoed for Sunday.
The crash has cast a pall over the world's largest aviation event, adding to economic pressures which have forced airlines to cancel or defer plane orders and travel fears over swine flu.
Gallois appealed for media calm over the cause of the crash.
"Please be patient," he said. "Such an inquiry is long and we should not launch into ideas because it is an issue for families, colleagues and friends. They don't know if what they are reading in newspapers is true or not."
Enders said Airbus personnel had been deployed on rescue ships searching the Atlantic for bodies and wreckage and were ready to lend expertise on the jetliner if required.
"We are supporting Air France. And we are supporting investigating authorities to find out what exactly happened up there in the sky, and we are hoping that the black boxes, the digital data recorder and the voice recorder, will be found soon so that we can find out what happened there," Enders said.
"Any speculation undermines the work that the authorities are doing," he added.
Investigators have said the aircraft sent our automated warning messages to maintenance crews including one suggesting the speed readings were unreliable, prompting speculation that the wide-body aircraft's speed sensors may have been faulty.
Airbus last week denied a newspaper report it was thinking of grounding the worldwide fleet of almost 1,000 A330s as well as A340s, a larger sister model, to change speed sensors and said the planes were safe to fly.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher)

Source: Reuters

Ahmadinejad calls Iran vote clean, derides protests

Election clashes erupt in Iran
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By Parisa Hafezi and Dominic Evans
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian police again clashed on Sunday with people protesting in Tehran against the re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said in a victory news conference that the vote had been clean.
Supporters of defeated moderate Mirhossein Mousavi, who has dismissed Ahmadinejad's victory in Friday's election as a "dangerous charade," gathered in the city center, chanted his name and threw stones at police, a Reuters witness said.
Police on motorcycles drove through the crowd to disperse the protesters. At least one person, a woman, was injured. Police briefly detained journalists filming the violence.
Ahmadinejad consigned Iran's nuclear dispute to the past, signaling no nuclear policy change in his second term, and warned that any country that attacked his own would regret it.
"Who dares to attack Iran? Who even dares to think about it?" he said, in response to a question.
Iran's refusal to halt nuclear work the West suspects is aimed at making bombs, a charge Tehran denies, has sparked talk of possible U.S. or Israeli strikes on its nuclear sites.
Ahmadinejad described the election as "clean and healthy," dismissing complaints by defeated candidates as sour grapes.
"They may be upset by their failure," he said. "They spent lot of money to make propaganda (and) expected to win so it is natural they are disappointed and upset."
The unrest that has rocked Tehran and several other cities since official results were declared on Saturday is the sharpest expression of discontent against Iran's leadership for years.
Police have detained more than 100 reformers, including the brother of former President Mohammad Khatami, a leading reformer said on Sunday. A police official confirmed some detentions.
Ahmadinejad was planning celebrations in the capital later on Sunday. His unexpectedly overwhelming victory and its violent aftermath raised fresh questions about how Iran will respond to U.S. President Barack Obama's diplomatic overtures.
Analysts said the election result would disappoint Western powers trying to convince the world's fifth biggest oil exporter to halt sensitive nuclear work. Obama had urged Iran's leadership "to unclench its fist" for a new start in relations.
FRENCH CONCERN
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner voiced concern about events in Iran after the election, saying "brutal" repression of opponents was closing the door to dialogue.
"Brutality and never-ending military development will not bring any solutions," Kouchner said in Paris. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Blast in Pakistan market kills 8; U.S. drone strikes

Deadly bomb in Pakistan
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By Mustansar Baluch
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - A bomb blast in a market killed eight people in northwest Pakistan on Sunday, the latest in a wave of attacks since the army launched an offensive against Taliban militants.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan is struggling to push back a growing Taliban insurgency and security forces have made progress in more than a month of fighting against militants in the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad.
The militants have responded with a string of bombs in towns and cities.
Separately on Sunday, a suspected U.S. drone aircraft fired a missile in the South Waziristan region, a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, killing three militants traveling in a vehicle, a witness and officials said.
The bomb in a market in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan killed eight people and wounded 25, a government official said.
"The initial probe suggests that the device was planted in a push-cart parked in the middle of the market," Syed Mohsin Shah, the top government official in the city, told Reuters.
Rising violence has raised fears for Pakistan's stability and for the safety of its nuclear arsenal but the offensive in Swat has reassured the United States, which needs its Muslim ally's help to defeat al Qaeda and stabilize neighboring Afghanistan.
The United States, alarmed by the deteriorating security in Afghanistan, has been using drone aircraft to attack Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in northwestern Pakistani militant strongholds.
The drone strike on Sunday, the first since May 16, was in Laddah, in South Waziristan, about 60 km (40 miles) north of the region's main town of Wana.
"The missile destroyed the vehicle and I saw three bodies lying next to it," ethnic Pashtun tribal leader Habibullah Mehsud told Reuters by telephone from the region on the Afghan border.
A government official in the region confirmed the attack, saying drones had been flying over South Waziristan since early morning. The identity of the dead militants was not known.
Though a staunch U.S. ally, Pakistan objects to the U.S. missile strikes saying they violate its sovereignty and undermine efforts to deal with militancy because they inflame public anger and bolster militant support.
WARPLANES
Pakistani warplanes struck another Mehsud stronghold in south Waziristan on Saturday in retaliation for the killing of an anti-Taliban cleric in a suicide bomb attack in the city of Lahore the previous day.
The air strike killed 30 militants, including few foreigners, and wounded 50,the military said in a statement on Sunday. Continued...
Source: Reuters

South Sudan river ambush kills at least 40: official

By Andrew Heavens
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - At least 40 south Sudanese soldiers and civilians were killed when tribal fighters ambushed river barges carrying U.N. food aid, in the latest in a string of ethnic attacks, officials said on Sunday.
Armed members of the Jikany Nuer group opened fire on 27 boats loaded with emergency rations destined for an area controlled by the rival Lou Nuer tribe on Friday afternoon, the U.N. World Food Program said.
Hundreds have been killed and more than 135,000 displaced in south Sudan in 2009 in a surge of tribal killings rooted it long-standing feuds over cattle but aggravated by political discontent and weapons left over from two decades of civil war.
The minister of information for Upper Nile State Thon Mom told Reuters Friday's attack killed at least 40 people including troops from the south's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) who were escorting the convoy.
"Women and children who were on the boats were also killed, either directly by bullets or by drowning after jumping into the river," said SPLA spokesman Malaak Ayuen Ajok.
He said the Jikany Nuer fighters had first demanded to search some of the barges, south of the settlement of Nasir on the Sobat river, suspecting they were carrying arms and ammunition to their Lou Nuer enemy.
They searched one, finding only sorghum and other rations, but opened fire when the rest of the convoy continued on its journey, he added.
Both Ajok and Mom said they were awaiting detailed information on the attack. "It could be less than 40 killed. It could be more than 40 killed. We should find out later today," said Ajok.
INNOCENT SUFFER
The United Nations said there were fears for the fate of thousands of displaced people in and around Akobo now left without food aid after the attack.
"There are people who are desperately in need of food," said the WFP's program director in south Sudan Michelle Iseminger. "As always, it is the elderly, the women and the children who are most in need."
The WFP flew in an emergency delivery of 10 metric tons of food aid on Saturday, she added, short of the 735 metric tons that were either destroyed or looted from the boats.
"This year there have been roughly 135,000 people displaced by the violence. This time last year it was about half that number, and the year before even less," Iseminger said.
"Things are definitely getting worse and it is mostly the innocent who are suffering."
Heavy rains in Sudan's semi-autonomous south have wiped out roads and left the Sobat river, a tributary of the White Nile, the only viable route for large deliveries of food aid to the remote area. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Belarus-Russia rift widens, Minsk snubs Moscow meet

MINSK (Reuters) - Belarus on Sunday signaled a growing rift with Russia, saying President Alexander Lukashenko did not attend a security summit in Moscow in protest against a Russian ban on dairy imports from Belarus.
Ties between the former Soviet republics have been strained since 2007. Minsk is angry at rising prices for Russian gas and Moscow by Lukashenko's growing overtures to the West.
Lukashenko was due at a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which groups Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
He pulled out after Moscow banned one of Belarus's key exports, dairy products, on health grounds. Moscow often uses trade bans to put political pressure on neighboring states.
"Economy serves as the basis for our common security. But if Belarus's closest CSTO ally is trying ... to destroy this basis and de facto put the Belarussians on their knees, how can one talk about consolidating collective security in the CSTO space?" Lukashenko's press service said in a statement.
A Kremlin official said: "Every state should understand very correctly the interests of its own people and soberly assess the situation in its own economy and make correct, measured conclusions rather than be guided by ambitions and emotions."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov chided Minsk for linking what he said were economic problems to issues of military and political security.
Russia froze a $500-million loan to Belarus last month. Lukashenko said Moscow refused the money because he turned down Kremlin demands to recognize the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states.
"Russia's actions do not help in any way the adoption of the decision which it is so keen to see," Sergei Maskevich, head of the Belarussian parliament's foreign relations committee, told Interfax news agency, referring to the issue of recognizing Akhazia and South Ossetia as independent states.
On June 6, Russia banned imports of dairy products from Belarus, cutting off a major source of exports for the indebted state, still run as a largely Soviet-style command economy.
Lukashenko canceled participation in Sunday's CSTO summit. The CSTO controls a key land route from Europe to Afghanistan and is sometimes billed as a counterweight to NATO.
It had been due to decide on Sunday on the creation of a rapid reaction force to fight common security challenges such as drug trafficking from Afghanistan and international terrorism.
Slav neighbors Russia and Belarus have pledged to build a "union state" and have declared a passport and customs union, but progress toward political union has long been stalled.
Belarus's border guard chief Ivan Bondarenko said on Sunday Minsk was ready to re-introduce controls on the Russian border.
Lukashenko has long been accused by the West of repressing dissent, muzzling the media and rigging elections.
But as relations with Moscow soured, he has tried to improve relations with the West by releasing dissidents from jail and promising to consider other political reforms. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Reformers detained after Iran election violence

Election clashes erupt in Iran
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By Parisa Hafezi and Dominic Evans
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran detained more than 100 reformers including the brother of a former president, a leading reformer said on Sunday, after violent street protests in Tehran against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Supporters of defeated moderate candidate Mirhossein Mousavi, who has dismissed Ahmadinejad's election victory to a second term as a "dangerous charade," gathered in the center of the capital again on Sunday and chanted his name.
The world's fifth biggest oil exporter saw the most widespread protests on Saturday since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, and residents in five other cities said people had taken to the streets to support Mousavi.
Hard-liner Ahmadinejad was planning celebrations in the capital later on Sunday. His unexpectedly overwhelming victory and its violent aftermath raised fresh questions about the direction of Iranian policies at a time when U.S. President Barack Obama wants to improve relations with Iran.
Iranian and Western analysts said Ahmadinejad's victory would disappoint Western powers aiming to convince Iran to halt a nuclear program they suspect is aimed at making bombs. Obama had urged Iran's leadership "to unclench its fist."
Mohammad Ali Abtahi, who served as a vice president under Mohammad Khatami, told Reuters the former president's brother Mohammad Reza Khatami was one of more than 100 members of Iran's biggest reformist party Mosharekat who were held on Saturday.
A judiciary spokesman said the reformers were summoned and warned not to increase tension. He said they were then released.
Mousavi's wife, Zahra Rahnavard, denied reports that her husband himself had been detained or put under house arrest.
"He is following the issue of the election. He says he is with the people and beside them," said Rahnavard, who campaigned actively alongside her husband during a campaign which drew tens of thousands of supporters onto the streets of Tehran.
"TURBULENCE" IN IRAN
Mousavi has rejected Ahmadinejad's victory, which he complained was marred by violations and vote-rigging and said would "jeopardize the pillars of the Islamic Republic and will establish tyranny."
Interior Ministry officials have rejected accusations of fraud and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on Iranians to back their president.
The anti-Ahmadinejad camp was "taken by surprise and is scrambling for a plan," according to Trita Parsi, director of the Washington-based National Iranian American Council.
"Increasingly, given their failure to get Khamenei to intervene, their only option seems to be to directly challenge -- or threaten to challenge -- the supreme leader," he wrote.
A senior Western diplomat in Tehran said he believed the street unrest would soon end. "It will not be allowed to spread. They will apply all their force to subdue it," he said. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Netanyahu set to deliver peace policy speech

By Jeffrey Heller
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a major policy speech on Sunday and will address the worst public rift with Washington in a decade over Jewish settlement building and Palestinian statehood.
Netanyahu was keeping a tight lid on details of the 8 p.m. (2 p.m. EDT) speech, cancelling his customary public remarks at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.
Setting confrontation lines with Netanyahu, U.S. President Barack Obama said in a speech on June 4 aimed at repairing U.S. relations with Muslims that continued construction in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank was intolerable.
He also reaffirmed a U.S. commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip alongside a secure Israel, a goal set by a 2003 peace "road map" that also calls for a halt to all settlement activity.
"The prime minister intends to articulate a clear view as to how he wants to move forward in the peace process with the Palestinians," said Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev.
"His vision is to move forward toward a historic reconciliation, and it is clear that all parties must play a role if this process is to succeed," Regev said, referring to Netanyahu's call for peace with Arab countries in the region.
Netanyahu has rejected a settlement freeze, saying "natural growth," which Israel describes as building within existing enclaves to accommodate growing families, will continue.
The Israeli leader, head of a right-leaning coalition government, has not publicly endorsed creating a Palestinian state, citing the continued rule of Hamas Islamists in Gaza.
"The test of his life" was how a banner headline in Israel's mass-circulation Maariv daily described the Netanyahu speech, due to be delivered a Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv.
NEGOTIATIONS
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, himself at loggerheads with Hamas, has said talks with Israel cannot resume until Netanyahu halts settlement and accepts a two-state solution.
Few in Israel expect Netanyahu to give ground on settlements and risk the possible collapse of his government, even at the price of a continued divided with Washington. But speculation was rife about how he would address the issue of statehood.
"I will be the first to admit I was wrong, but I don't think Netanyahu will use the expression 'two states for two peoples'," Ofir Akonis, a legislator from Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, told Israel Radio.
To sidestep the issue, Netanyahu could implicitly accept a two-state solution by stressing his government's acceptance of the road map as part of its pledge to honor diplomatic agreements signed by previous Israeli administrations.
But diplomats said this would not satisfy Washington. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Most Israelis could live with a nuclear Iran: poll

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Only one in five Israeli Jews believes a nuclear-armed Iran would try to destroy Israel and most see life continuing as normal should its arch-foe get the bomb, an opinion poll published on Sunday found.
The survey, commissioned by a Tel Aviv University think-tank, appeared to challenge the argument of successive Israeli governments that Iran must be denied the means to make atomic weapons lest it threaten the existence of the Jewish state.
Asked how a nuclear-armed Iran would affect their lives, 80 percent of respondents said they expected no change. Eleven percent said they would consider emigrating and 9 percent said they would consider relocating inside Israel.
Twenty-one percent of Israelis believe Iran "would attack Israel with nuclear weapons with the objective of destroying it," the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), which commissioned the poll, said in a statement.
The survey had 616 Jewish respondents and a margin of error of 3.5 percent, INSS research director Yehuda Ben Meir said.
Israeli Arabs who make up some 20 percent of the population -- and are generally less likely to see themselves as targets of the Jewish state's enemies -- were not included for budgetary reasons, he said.
Iran says its uranium enrichment program is for peaceful energy needs only. But its leaders' anti-Israel rhetoric and support for Islamist guerrillas in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories have stirred fears of a regional war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to give a major policy speech on Sunday citing Iran's reach among the reasons his government is reluctant to cede occupied land for a Palestinian state, as envisaged by U.S.-led peace mediators.
Some Israeli officials have said that the Islamic republic's ruling clerics may consider destroying Israel a goal worth the risk even of a devastating counter-strike: Israel is widely assumed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal.
Another scenario envisaged by the Netanyahu government is of Iran using the specter of its nuclear power to undermine Israelis' desire to stay in their homeland.
Like his predecessors, the right-wing Netanyahu has hinted Israel could attack Iran pre-emptively should Western diplomacy fail to curb its uranium enrichment.
The INSS survey found 59 percent of Israeli Jews would support such strikes, while 41 percent would not back the military option. A separate survey, commissioned by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, found 52 percent support for pre-emptive Israeli attacks on Iran, with 35 percent of respondents opposed.
(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
(For blogs and links on Israeli politics and other Israeli and Palestinian news, go to blogs.reuters.com/axismundi)

Source: Reuters

Blast in Pakistan market kills 8, U.S. drone strikes

By Mustansar Baluch
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - A bomb blast in a market killed eight people in northwest Pakistan on Sunday, the latest in a wave of attacks since the army launched an offensive against Taliban militants.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan is struggling to push back a growing Taliban insurgency and security forces have made progress in more than a month of fighting against militants in the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad.
The militants have responded with a string of bombs in towns and cities.
Separately on Sunday, a suspected U.S. drone aircraft fired a missile in the South Waziristan region, a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, killing three militants traveling in a vehicle, a witness and officials said.
The bomb in a market in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan killed eight people and wounded 25, a government official said.
"The initial probe suggests that the device was planted in a push-cart parked in the middle of the market," Syed Mohsin Shah, the top government official in the city, told Reuters.
Rising violence has raised fears for Pakistan's stability and for the safety of its nuclear arsenal but the offensive in Swat has reassured the United States, which needs its Muslim ally's help to defeat al Qaeda and stabilize neighboring Afghanistan.
On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved tripling aid to Pakistan to about $1.5 billion a year for five years to help combat extremism through development. Pakistan is now the biggest recipient of U.S. aid.
The United States, alarmed by deteriorating security in Afghanistan, has been using drone aircraft to attack Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in northwestern Pakistani militant strongholds.
Though a staunch U.S. ally, Pakistan objects to the U.S. missile strikes saying they violate its sovereignty and undermine efforts to deal with militancy because they inflame public anger and bolster militant support.
THREE BODIES
The drone strike on Sunday, the first since May 16, was in Laddah, in South Waziristan, about 60 km (40 miles) north of the region's main town of Wana.
"The missile destroyed the vehicle and I saw three bodies lying next to it," ethnic Pashtun tribal leader Habibullah Mehsud told Reuters by telephone from the region on the Afghan border.
A government official in the region confirmed the attack, saying drones had been flying over South Waziristan since early morning. The identity of the dead militants was not known.
Pakistani warplanes struck another Mehsud stronghold in south Waziristan on Saturday in retaliation for the killing of an anti-Taliban cleric in a suicide bomb attack in the city of Lahore the previous day. Continued...
Source: Reuters

At least 40 killed in south Sudan river ambush: officials

By Andrew Heavens
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - At least 40 south Sudanese soldiers and civilians were killed when tribal fighters ambushed river barges carrying U.N. food aid, in the latest in a string of ethnic attacks, officials said on Sunday.
Armed members of the Jikany Nuer group opened fire on 27 boats loaded with emergency rations destined for an area controlled by the rival Lou Nuer tribe on Friday afternoon, the U.N. World Food Program said.
Hundreds have been killed and more than 135,000 displaced in south Sudan in 2009 in a surge of tribal killings rooted it long-standing feuds over cattle but aggravated by political discontent and weapons left over from two decades of civil war.
The minister of information for Upper Nile State Thon Mom told Reuters Friday's attack killed at least 40 people including troops from the south's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) who were escorting the convoy.
"Women and children who were on the boats were also killed, either directly by bullets or by drowning after jumping into the river," said SPLA spokesman Malaak Ayuen Ajok.
He said the Jikany Nuer fighters had first demanded to search some of the barges, south of the settlement of Nasir on the Sobat river, suspecting they were carrying arms and ammunition to their Lou Nuer enemy.
They searched one, finding only sorghum and other rations, but opened fire when the rest of the convoy continued on its journey, he added.
Both Ajok and Mom said they were awaiting detailed information on the attack. "It could be less than 40 killed. It could be more than 40 killed. We should find out later today," said Ajok.
INNOCENT SUFFER
The United Nations said there were fears for the fate of thousands of displaced people in and around Akobo now left without food aid after the attack.
"There are people who are desperately in need of food," said the WFP's program director in south Sudan Michelle Iseminger. "As always, it is the elderly, the women and the children who are most in need."
The WFP flew in an emergency delivery of 10 metric tons of food aid on Saturday, she added, short of the 735 metric tons that were either destroyed or looted from the boats.
"This year there have been roughly 135,000 people displaced by the violence. This time last year it was about half that number, and the year before even less," Iseminger said.
"Things are definitely getting worse and it is mostly the innocent who are suffering."
Heavy rains in Sudan's semi-autonomous south have wiped out roads and left the Sobat river, a tributary of the White Nile, the only viable route for large deliveries of food aid to the remote area. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Belarus-Russia rift widens as Minsk snubs Moscow meet

MINSK (Reuters) - Belarus on Sunday signaled a growing rift with ally Russia, saying President Alexander Lukashenko would not attend a security summit in Moscow in protest at a Russian ban on dairy imports from Belarus.
Ties between former Soviet republics Russia and Belarus have been strained since 2007, with Minsk upset at steadily rising prices for Russian gas and Moscow angered by Lukashenko's growing overtures to the West.
Lukashenko had been due to take part in a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which groups Russia, Belarus, Armenia and four Central Asian states: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
But he pulled out after Moscow banned one of Belarus's key exports, dairy products. Russia said this was imposed on health grounds but Moscow has often used trade bans to put political pressure on neighboring states.
"In the current situation, Belarus ... is forced to cancel its participation in the CSTO meeting in Moscow on June 14," Belarus's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
It was not feasible to take decisions about security unless there was a halt to actions which undermined the economic security of CSTO partners, the statement said. "We believe it would be a mockery of common sense against the background of 'trade wars' waged by some CSTO members against others."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov chided Minsk for linking what he said were economic problems to issues of military and political security.
"Honestly, we cannot comprehend the motives behind the Belarussia side's decision not to take part in the CSTO events in Moscow today," Lavrov told the Interfax news agency.
Russia froze a $500 million loan to Belarus at the end of May, prompting an angry outburst by Lukashenko. He said Moscow refused the money because he turned down Kremlin demands to recognize the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states.
On June 6, Russia banned imports of dairy products from Belarus, cutting off a major source of exports for the indebted and struggling state, which still runs a largely Soviet-style command economy.
Lukashenko hit back by cancelling participation in Sunday's CSTO summit. The CSTO controls a key land route from Europe to Afghanistan and is sometimes billed as a counterweight to NATO.
It had been due to decide on Sunday on the creation of a rapid reaction force to fight common security challenges such as drug trafficking from Afghanistan and international terrorism.
"Our country will sign a package of documents on the rapid reaction force only once security within the CSTO has been restored in all its entirety," Belarus's Foreign Ministry said.
Slav neighbors Russia and Belarus have pledged to build a "union state" and have declared a passport and customs union, but progress toward political union has long been stalled and the latest moves have reversed progress in this area.
On Saturday, Lukashenko asked his ministers to look into the re-introduction of controls on the border with Russia.
Lukashenko has long been accused by the West of repressing dissent, muzzling the media and rigging elections. Continued...
Source: Reuters

U.S. drone kills 3 in Pakistan; bomb kills 7

By Mustansar Baluch
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suspected U.S. drone aircraft fired a missile on Sunday killing three militants in northwest Pakistan, while elsewhere in the region, a bomb blast in a market killed seven people, officials said.
Nuclear-armed Pakistani is struggling to push back a growing Taliban insurgency and security forces have made progress in more than a month of fighting against Taliban militants in the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad.
The militants have responded with a wave of bomb attacks.
Separately, the United States, alarmed by deteriorating security in Afghanistan, has been using drone aircraft to attack Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in northwestern Pakistani militant strongholds.
Pakistan, a nuclear-armed U.S. ally, objects to the U.S. missile strikes saying they violate its sovereignty and undermine efforts to deal with militancy because they inflame public anger and bolster militant support.
The strike on Sunday was in Laddah, in the South Waziristan region, about 60 km (40 miles) north of the region's main town of Wana, and a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.
"The missile destroyed the vehicle and I saw three bodies lying next to it," ethnic Pashtun tribal leader Habibullah Mehsud told Reuters by telephone from the region on the Afghan border.
A government official in the region confirmed the attack, saying drones had been flying over South Waziristan since early in the morning.
Pakistani warplanes struck another Mehsud stronghold on Saturday in retaliation for the killing of an anti-Taliban cleric in a suicide bomb attack in the city of Lahore the previous day, the military said.
The Sunday bomb attack was in a market in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan.
"It seems the bomb was planted. At the moment, we have at least seven dead and 50 wounded," Syed Mohsin Shah, the top government official in the city, told Reuters.
Rising violence has raised fears for Pakistan's stability and for the safety of its nuclear arsenal but the offensive in Swat has reassured the United States, which needs its Muslim ally's help to defeat al Qaeda and stabilize neighboring Afghanistan.
On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved tripling aid to Pakistan to about $1.5 billion a year for five years to help combat extremism through development. Pakistan is now the biggest recipient of U.S. aid.
(Reporting by Javed Hussain and Alamgir Bitani; Writing by Kamran Haider; Editing by Robert Birsel and Sanjeev Miglani)

Source: Reuters

Vietnam arrests defender of pro-democracy activists

HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnamese police have arrested a lawyer who defended pro-democracy activists, accusing him of working with "hostile" outside forces to sabotage the state and slandering leaders including the country's prime minister.
Le Cong Dinh was "colluding with domestic and foreign reactionaries to sabotage the Vietnamese State," the state-run Voice of Vietnam reported. Several other state-controlled news outlets in the Communist country also reported the arrest.
The General Department of Security was quoted as saying the Ho Chi Minh City-based lawyer had been arrested on Saturday under article 88 of the penal code, which bans the distribution of propaganda against the state.
Dinh had written and published on overseas web sites several articles that were designed to distort and damage socio-economic policies and libel key leaders, including Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, the newspaper Thanh Nien said in a report on its Web site (www.thanhnien.com.vn) on Sunday.
In 2007, Dinh defended two other prominent human rights lawyers, Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan, who were jailed on similar charges of "spreading propaganda against the state." Dinh also worked with Nguyen Quoc Quan, a U.S. citizen of Vietnamese origin who had planned to distribute pro-democracy literature.
Thanh Nien reported that Dinh had used the opportunity of defending those people to "damage and distort the constitution and other laws of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam."
Dai and Nhan had advocated a multiparty system and gave legal advice to people who said authorities prevented them from practicing religion. The government has said they broke the law and were not convicted for their political views. Quan was deported to America after several months in detention.
A brief bio of Dinh on Thanh Nien's Web site said he worked for the law firm Coudert Brothers for four years in the mid- to late-1990s, and then two years studying law in the United States.
(Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

Source: Reuters

Ahmadinejad's victory greeted by Tehran protests

Protests erupt in Iranian capital
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By Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters clashed with police after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won an election which his reformist challenger called a "dangerous charade."
The protests were a rare direct challenge to Iranian authorities. The result and its violent aftermath raised fresh questions about the direction of Iranian policies at a time when U.S. President Barack Obama wants to improve relations with Iran.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iranians to respect Ahmadinejad's victory, which upset expectations that reformist candidate Mirhossein Mousavi might win the race.
Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli, an Ahmadinejad ally, declared the president had been re-elected with 62.6 percent of the vote, against 33.7 percent for Mousavi.
Mousavi complained of violations and vote-rigging -- allegations rejected by Interior Ministry officials.
"I'm warning I will not surrender to this dangerous charade. The result of such performance by some officials will jeopardize the pillars of the Islamic Republic and will establish tyranny," Mousavi said in a statement made available to Reuters.
After the result was announced, thousands of his supporters took to the streets, some chanting, "What happened to our vote?." Others shouted anti-Ahmadinejad slogans. "We are Iranians too," and "Mousavi is our president," they shouted.
Police beat protesters with batons as they spread out across the capital. Small fires burned at roadsides.
Though the protests were small compared to the mass demonstrations that led to the 1979 Islamic revolution, they were the most widespread in the city since then.
Khamenei, Iran's top authority, told defeated candidates and their supporters to avoid "provocative behavior."
"The chosen and respected president is the president of all the Iranian nation and everyone, including yesterday's competitors, must unanimously support and help him," Khamenei said in a statement read on state television.
Ahmadinejad, in a televised address to the nation, said the election had been "free and healthy."
Iranian and Western analysts said Ahmadinejad's re-election would disappoint Western powers aiming to convince Iran to halt a nuclear program they suspect is aimed at making bombs.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States was monitoring the outcome of the election closely and hoped the result reflected the will of the Iranian people.
On Friday night, before official results emerged, Mousavi had claimed to be the "definite winner." He said many people had been unable to vote and ballot papers were lacking. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Netanyahu to outline Israel's policies in speech

By Ari Rabinovitch
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will deliver a major policy speech on Sunday that officials say will outline his vision of how to advance the peace process with the Palestinians and the Arab world.
Israel faces pressure from its main ally, the United States, to end settlement-building and embrace Palestinian statehood.
"The prime minister intends to articulate a clear view as to how he wants to move forward in the peace process with the Palestinians," said Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev.
"His vision is to move forward toward a historic reconciliation, and it is clear that all parties must play a role if this process is to succeed," Regev said, referring to Arab countries in the region.
Netanyahu is at odds with U.S. President Barack Obama over Washington'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.
Netanyahu's three-month-old government has said construction in existing Jewish settlements would continue to accommodate growing families. Obama has called for a total freeze.
The Israeli leader will also discuss Iran, officials said, whose nuclear aspirations the Jewish state regards as an existential threat. Newly re-elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be wiped off the map.
Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and has so far shrugged off Western pressure to freeze its nuclear programme.
ROAD MAP
Netanyahu is bound by past Israeli agreements, which include a 2003 peace "road map" that sets out conditions to establish a Palestinian state, and has called for the immediate resumption of stalled peace talks.
But he has proposed shifting focus in talks with the Palestinians from tough territorial issues to a "triple-track" that improves economic, security and political relations.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said negotiations would be useless unless Netanyahu committed to statehood and a settlement freeze.
Ofir Akonis, a lawmaker in Netanyahu's Likud party and a former aide, said the prime minister will likely call on Abbas to resume immediate negotiations and speak in depth on Iran.
"I don't think that Netanyahu will use the expression 'two states for two people'," Akonis said on Israel Radio, referring to the so-called two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict the West is pushing for.
Netanyahu briefed U.S. envoy George Mitchell and other top diplomats this week on his planned speech. But the steps which Netanyahu outlined to Mitchell were "not adequate" to satisfy Washington, a U.S. official told a meeting of the so-called Quartet of Middle East mediators. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Tribal fighters attack South Sudan food barges

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Armed tribesmen attacked barges carrying U.N. food aid in south Sudan, leaving an unknown number of casualties in the latest in an outbreak of ethnic violence, officials said on Saturday.
Members of the Jikany Nuer tribe attacked 27 boats as they were carrying tonnes of food toward an area controlled by a rival ethnic group down the Sobat river on Friday afternoon, said the U.N.'s World Food Programme.
The remote region has seen a surge in ethnic fighting in recent months, fueled by traditional disputes over cattle and a ready supply of guns after more than two decades of civil war.
Officials said they were still trying to get detailed information on the attack which happened on the tributary of the While Nile close to the border with Ethiopia.
"We don't have information on how many people were killed or injured. But everyone we have talked to has described it as an attack," said Michelle Iseminger, the WFP's head of programs in southern Sudan.
"Many of the boats are unaccounted for."
Iseminger said the barges, carrying sorghum and other food for thousands of people displaced by tribal fighting, set off from the town of Nasir in Upper Nile State, but failed to arrive at their destination of Akobo.
So far, sixteen of the boats had returned to Nasir, and appeared to have been looted, she added.
Iseminger said the boats and their crews had been contracted to carry the food for the WFP and included an escort of soldiers from the southern Sudan People's Liberation Army. No U.N. officers were on board, she added
At least 49 people were killed when fighters from the Lou Nuer tribe raided the village of Torkeij, home to the Jikany Nuer, in Upper Nile state in May, in apparent revenge for cattle thefts.
Sudan's two-decade north-south war, which ended in 2005, left painful scars in the south, where some ethnic groups sided with northern forces.
The United Nations and South Sudan's government fear the violence may disrupt the fragile peace process and preparations for next February's national elections, a pillar of the 2005 peace accord.
(Reporting by Andrew Heavens)

Source: Reuters

Protests hit Tehran after Ahmadinejad wins

Protests erupt in Iranian capital
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By Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Thousands of people clashed with police Saturday after the disputed election victory of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparked the biggest protests in Tehran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iranians to respect Ahmadinejad's victory in an presidential election that his closest challenger described as a "dangerous charade."
Ahmadinejad's triumph in Friday's vote upset expectations that reformist candidate Mirhossein Mousavi might win the race.
Thousands of Mousavi supporters took part in the protests, some chanting, "What happened to our vote?." Others chanted anti-Ahmadinejad slogans, bringing traffic to a standstill. "We are Iranians too," and "Mousavi is our president," they shouted.
Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli, an Ahmadinejad ally, declared the president had been re-elected to a second four-year term with 62.6 percent of the vote, against 33.7 percent for Mousavi, in a record 85 percent turnout.
Mousavi protested against what he called violations and vote-rigging during the election -- allegations rejected by interior ministry officials.
He also said members of his election headquarters had been beaten "with batons, wooden sticks and electrical rods."
In one incident police on motorcycles beat Mousavi backers who were staging a sit-in protest at the capital's Vanak square.
At Tehran University, some 100 police with helmets and shields used tear and pepper gas as they chased 300-400 students. Shops in the area were closed and small fires were burning on the street.
Khamenei, Iran's top authority, told defeated candidates and their supporters to avoid "provocative behavior."
"The chosen and respected president is the president of all the Iranian nation and everyone, including yesterday's competitors, must unanimously support and help him," Khamenei said in a statement read on state television.
Ahmadinejad, in a televised address to the nation, said the election had been "free and healthy."
Saying that "people voted for my policies," he said that, "everybody should respect people's votes."
Mousavi, a veteran of the 1979 Islamic revolution, protested against what he said were many obvious election violations.
"I'm warning I will not surrender to this dangerous charade. The result of such performance by some officials will jeopardize the pillars of the Islamic Republic and will establish tyranny," Mousavi said in a statement made available to Reuters. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Venezuela TV channel urges Chavez talks

CARACAS (Reuters) - A private Venezuelan TV news channel threatened with closure by President Hugo Chavez urged dialogue with the government on Saturday after authorities fined the station and raided one top executive's property.
Chavez's targeting of Globovision, a fiercely anti-government channel, has fueled concerns over press freedom in the OPEC nation, where the government two years ago refused to renew a broadcasting license to another station.
A socialist allied with Cuba, Chavez has long accused Globovision of seeking to undermine his government and promote civil unrest. But critics say renewed threats to the channel illustrate his increasingly tough line with opponents.
"The president should know that if he wants to talk we are ready," Globovision owner Alberto Ravell told reporters. "We should have a dialogue like in any civilized country. Our door is always open, now it is up to the president to decide."
Closing down Globovision would likely trigger international criticism of Chavez. But it could further weaken his opponents and would be popular with core Chavez's supporters who blame the channel for backing a brief 2002 coup and an oil strike aimed at ousting him.
Globovision says it has broken no law and says it is being harassed for its editorial line. But a government watchdog is now reviewing all private broadcast permits.
"The president has called and told us to behave correctly or he'll close us down," Ravell said. "But what is behaving correctly? Not informing people?"
Authorities this month hit Globovision with a $2 million back-tax fine and officials have twice raided its president's property, saying he was illegally reselling cars and had kept rare stuffed animals. He has been charged with usury.
Small groups of Globovision supporters took to the streets in mainly wealthier parts of the capital Caracas on Saturday to collect cash to help the station pay its tax fine.
Chavez remains popular after spending oil wealth on projects for the poor as part of his socialist revolution. The former soldier is nationalizing key industries and carrying out an offensive on foes, including stripping powers from some elected opposition leaders.
(Reporting by Patrick Markey; Editing by Eric Beech)

Source: Reuters

New Moroccan party wins most local election seats

By Lamine Ghanmi
RABAT (Reuters) - A new Moroccan political party grouping King Mohammed's staunchest supporters won most seats in local elections after pushing opposition Islamists to the sidelines.
The Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) won 6,015 seats, giving it 21.7 percent of the vote, ahead of the governing Istiqlal (Independence) party with 5,292 seats and 19.1 percent, Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said Saturday.
PAM, created last year by activists from five small parties and leftist intellectuals, has positioned itself as an alternative to the Islamists and Istiqlal, and sought to combat voter apathy with promises to follow through on policy commitments.
It is the brainchild of Fouad Ali Himma, a former deputy interior minister and close friend of King Mohammed, who has won strong backing at home and abroad for reforms to combat poverty, improve the business climate and bolster women's rights.
The king, in power for almost a decade, controls the levers of government as head of state and religious leader.
The vote was the first major test for the governing coalition of conservatives and socialists since the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) scored its best result in 2007.
Critics of Istiqlal Prime Minister Abbas el Fassi say his administration lacks energy and direction. The government lost its parliamentary majority last month when PAM withdrew support.
"KING'S SHADOW"
The PJD won only 1,513 seats and 5.5 percent of the vote, leaving it in sixth place. It fielded fewer candidates than PAM and Istiqlal and was focusing on large towns where its support tends to be strongest.
Founding PJD member Mustapha Ramid said his party's ambitions foundered on a wave of vote-buying by rival parties. "On one side there was the PJD and on the other side there was money, only money," Ramid told Reuters.
He said he expected the PJD won most seats in northern cities like Casablanca, Rabat, Sale and Kenitra, but that other parties could keep it out of power there by forming coalitions.
Interior Minister Benmoussa said there were 1,767 complaints of irregularities in the election but incidents were "very minor" and did not affect the electoral process.
The authorities were hoping for a big turnout that would suggest a disillusioned population was re-connecting with the political system, especially in Morocco's large northern towns where poverty and youth unemployment are widespread.
The national turnout was 52.4 percent, below the 54 percent recorded in 2003 local elections but well above the 37 percent figure for legislative polls in 2007. Morocco's next parliamentary election is due in 2012.
Analysts attributed PAM's result to a slick campaign and a formidable party machine that fused local elites, business people, development workers and enthusiastic youngsters. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Berlusconi complains of "subversive" campaign

By Daniel Flynn and Antonella Cinelli
ROME (Reuters) - Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Saturday he was the victim of an orchestrated campaign of "subversion" over his relationship with an 18-year-old model and his use of state planes.
The 72-year-old media tycoon, whose center-right party comfortably won last weekend's local and European elections, told a meeting of business leaders that the campaign was aimed at replacing him with someone who had not been chosen by voters.
Berlusconi, who owns three of Italy's seven national TV channels, also urged media not to give time to the leader of the opposition, who responded by denouncing intimidation.
"To topple a prime minister democratically elected with the vote of the Italians and replace him with someone un-elected: if that is not subversion, what is?" said Berlusconi, in the resort of Santa Margherita Ligure. He did not provide further details.
The campaign for the local and European elections, in which Berlusconi's People of Liberty fell short of the 45 percent he forecast, was dominated by Berlusconi's lifestyle after his wife demanded a divorce and accused him of "frequenting minors."
Berlusconi, who was forced to deny having sex with 18-year-old Noemi Letizia, found himself on the defensive over photos showing topless women sunbathing at his luxury villa in Sardinia and allegations he used state planes to fly in guests.
Previously, Berlusconi blamed a row with Rupert Murdoch over pay TV tax for prompting negative coverage from News Corp of the Letizia case. Murdoch has denied this.
He urged business leaders to be optimistic in the face of the slowdown -- the worst since World War II -- and told media not to focus on "pessimists."
"When I say don't give any publicity to the pessimists, I am referring especially to the leader of the opposition," he said.
The leader of Italy's opposition Democratic Party, Dario Franceschini, said these remarks were "intimidation."
"According to Berlusconi I should not appear in the newspapers because he doesn't like what I say," Franceschini said. "He has never frightened me and never will."
In a wide-ranging speech, Berlusconi vowed to complete construction of houses for thousands left homeless by April's earthquake in central Italy by the end of November.
He also promised to build new towns for young Italians, many of whom are forced to live with their parents due to the high cost of housing.
Emma Marcegaglia, head of the Confindustria business chamber, said optimism was not enough.
"Italy risks losing part of its production capacity: there's a risk companies will die," she told the conference after Berlusconi spoke. "We need 100 days of concrete, strong action. The government needs to change pace."
(Editing by Robert Woodward)

Source: Reuters