Iran's Mousavi says ready for "martyrdom": ally

Iran protests spread to Asia
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By Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi said he was "ready for martyrdom," according to an ally, in leading protests that have shaken the Islamic Republic and brought warnings of bloodshed from Iran's Supreme Leader.
Mousavi also called on Saturday for a national strike if he is arrested, a witness said. As darkness fell, rooftop cries of Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) sounded out across northern Tehran for nearly an hour, an echo of tactics used in the 1979 Islamic revolution against the Shah.
EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.
In an act fraught with symbolic significance, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the mausoleum of the father of Iran's Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, while unrest continued across Tehran in defiance of a ban on demonstrations.
Riot police deployed in force, firing teargas, using batons and water cannon to disperse protesters.
Witnesses said 2,000 to 3,000 were on the streets, fewer than the hundreds of thousands earlier in the week, but a clear challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who used a speech on Friday to endorse disputed election results that gave hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a landslide victory.
Defeated candidate Mousavi, a product of the Islamic establishment himself and a former prime minister, made clear he would not back down.
"In a public address in southwestern Tehran, Mousavi said he was ready for martyrdom and that he would continue his path," a Mousavi ally, who asked not to be named, told Reuters by telephone from the Jeyhun street in Tehran.
A witness to the address said Mousavi, center of protests unprecedented in the 30-year history of the Islamic Republic, appeared to anticipate action against him.
"Mousavi called on people to go on national strike if he gets arrested," the witness told Reuters.
Mousavi demanded the elections be annulled.
"These disgusting measures (election rigging) were planned months ahead of the vote ... considering all the violations ... the election should be annulled," Mousavi said in a letter to the country's top legislative body.
The scale of the demonstrations in Iran, a major oil exporter embroiled in dispute with major powers over its nuclear program, has taken Iranians and foreign governments by surprise. Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets in largely peaceful protests, though state media said seven or eight protesters were shot dead earlier in the week.
The attack on the mausoleum of Islamic revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini was likely to inflame passions among Iranians who revere the man who led a movement that overthrew the Western-backed Shah in 1979. It was not clear who carried out the bombing, confirmed by police; but such an incident could be cited by authorities in justifying a crackdown.
The bomber was killed and three others were wounded, according to the English-language Press TV. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Suicide truck bomber kills 56 in northern Iraq

Scores die in Iraq suicide blast
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By Khalid al-Ansary
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide truck bomber killed 56 people as they left a mosque on Saturday, after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki urged Iraqis not to lose faith if a U.S. military pull-back sparked more attacks.
Almost all U.S. soldiers will leave urban centers by June 30 under a bilateral security pact signed last year and the entire force that invaded the country in 2003 must be gone by 2012.
"Don't lose heart if a breach of security occurs here or there," Maliki told leaders from the ethnic Turkmen community, reiterating a warning that insurgents were likely to try to take advantage of the U.S. pull-back to launch more attacks.
Analysts warn there may also be a spike in violence by mainly Sunni Islamist insurgents, including al Qaeda, and other violent groups ahead of a parliamentary election next January.
Hours after Maliki spoke, a suicide bomber detonated a truck filled with explosives as crowds of worshippers left a Shi'ite Muslim mosque near Kirkuk, a northern city contested by Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds that sits over vast oil reserves.
Fifty-six people died, including women and children, and 170 were wounded as dozens of clay homes in the area were flattened.
"I was sitting in my house when suddenly a powerful blast shook the ground under me," said Hussain Nashaat, 35, his head wrapped in white bandages. "I found myself covered in blood and ran outside in a daze. My lovely neighborhood was just rubble."
There was chaos at Kirkuk's Azadi Hospital, where ambulance sirens wailed as workers rushed blood-splattered civilians into the wards.
Outside, security officials brandished assault rifles to stop traffic as pick-up trucks raced through the gates carrying more victims of the blast at the al-Rasul Mosque.
NEW TACTICS
Such attacks, including a string of devastating bomb blasts in April, cast doubt on the ability of Iraqi security forces to take over after U.S. troops leave. The bloodshed fell sharply in May and June has also seen fewer large-scale attacks.
It is not clear if that is due to the efforts of Iraqi police and soldiers or if it means insurgent groups, beaten back over the past two years in most of Iraq, now lack the organization and support to keep up the momentum.
Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Abdul-Karim Khalaf said al-Qaeda was resorting to paying people to fight for it, as well as recruiting some Shi'ites drawn by the cash. He said it had also turned to criminal activities to raise funds.
"Instead of recruiting people through faith or ideology, as it was in the past, now they are paying money to recruit people," Khalaf told reporters.
The sectarian bloodshed and insurgency unleashed by the invasion peaked in 2006/07, but ethnically mixed cities such as Mosul and Baquba remain dangerous. A suicide car bomber killed four policemen near Falluja in western Anbar province, once the heartland of the insurgency, on Saturday. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Suicide bomber attacks Khomeini shrine in Iran

Iran protests spread to Asia
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By Dominic Evans and Fredrik Dahl
TEHRAN (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew himself up at the mausoleum of the father of Iran's revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, state media said Saturday, in an attack coinciding with more unrest over a disputed presidential vote.
EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.
"A few minutes ago a suicide bomber exploded himself in the shrine," police official Hossein Sajedinia was quoted by the semi-official Mehr news agency as saying.
Press TV said the attacker died and eight people were injured. It said the attack took place at the northern entrance to the Imam Khomeini shrine.
Supporters of defeated presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi set on fire a building in southern Tehran used by backers of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a witness said.
The witness also said police shot into the air to disperse rival supporters in Tehran's south Karegar street.
Elsewhere in Tehran, riot police deployed in force, firing teargas, batons and water cannons to disperse protesters defying a ban on demonstrations, state media said.
Witnesses said 2,000 to 3,000 people had gathered, far fewer than the hundreds of thousands involved in earlier rallies.
The reported attack on Khomeini's mausoleum seemed likely to stir outrage among Iranians who deeply revere the Shi'ite cleric who led the 1979 revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah.
The past week of protests have been the most widespread expression of anti-government feeling since the revolution.
Iran's highest legislative body said it was ready to recount a random 10 percent of the votes cast in the June 12 poll to meet the complaints of Mousavi and two other candidates who lost to Ahmadinejad.
Mousavi, whose supporters have staged vast unauthorized rallies in the past week, has demanded the election be annulled.
Security forces had turned out in strength to prevent any further rallies in the Iranian capital, a day after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told protest leaders they would be responsible for any bloodshed if unrest continued.
WAFTS OF TEARGAS
Teargas billowed up from Enghelab (Revolution) Square as riot police confronted demonstrators, a witness said. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Singapore says would act if North Korea ship has WMD

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore will take action against a North Korean ship that the United States is monitoring, if the vessel heads to its port with a cargo of weapons, the government said on Saturday.
"Singapore takes seriously the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, their means of delivery and related materials," said a spokeswoman from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"If the allegation is true, Singapore will act appropriately." The U.S. Navy is monitoring a vessel called Kang Nam at sea under new U.N. sanctions that bar North Korea from exporting weapons, including missile parts and nuclear materials.
Fox News quoted a senior U.S. military source saying the ship appeared to be heading toward Singapore and that the navy destroyer USS John McCain was positioning itself in case it gets orders to intercept, according to a story on its website.
Singapore, a U.S. ally, has the world's busiest shipping port, with most containers being trans-shipments between East and West, and it is also the world's top ship refueling hub.
Singapore government agencies could not give information on the current location of the ship.
"We don't know even whether she is coming to Singapore," said a source at the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, which is responsible for security in Singapore waters and at its port.
The U.S. officials said the ship became "a subject of interest" after leaving a North Korean port on Wednesday.
The Kang Nam is the first ship to be monitored under the U.N. sanctions adopted last week after Pyongyang raised tensions by test-firing missiles, restarting a plant to produce arms-grade plutonium and conducting a nuclear test.
The U.S. has deployed anti-missile assets to the Pacific in case Pyongyang launches more missiles, U.S. officials have said.
North Korea's media on Saturday said it was not threatened by new sanctions after a U.N. committee said it was considering blacklisting more North Korea companies, and individuals, for supporting Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs.
"It is foolish and ridiculous of our enemy powers to call for more sanctions and isolation... (do they think) it could make us even raise our eyebrows one bit?" North Korea's Rodong Sinmum newspaper said in a commentary.
"If they point a gun at us, we will get back with a cannon. If they point a cannon, we will point missiles and for sanctions, we will give them revenge. Getting back with a nuclear weapon for a nuclear weapon is what we do."
(Reporting by Neil Chatterjee; Editing by David Fox)

Source: Reuters

Somalia's cabinet declares state of emergency

Kenya struggles with Somali refugees
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By Abdi Guled and Mohamed Ahmed
MOGADISHU, June 20 (Reuters - Somalia's neighbors should send troops to help its embattled government within the next 24 hours, parliament speaker Sheikh Aden Mohamed Madobe said on Saturday.
Two legislators have been killed in the last two days in intensified fighting between government forces and hardline Islamists trying to oust the Horn of Africa nation's leadership.
Al Shaabab insurgents stepped up an offensive against Somalia's government last month and on Thursday killed the country's security minister and at least 30 other people in a suicide car bomb attack.
They also killed an MP in northern Mogadishu on Friday.
"We are asking the world and neighboring countries to intervene in Somalia's situation immediately," Madobe told a parliament meeting urgently convened as the opposition fighters advanced toward the presidential palace.
"We want them to come here within 24 hours," he said.
"We've been forced to make this request because of the escalating violence. Those fighting the government are being led by a (former) Pakistani army general, they are burning the flag and killing people," Madobe said.
Kenya said on Friday that it would not sit by and allow the situation in its neighbor to deteriorate further because it would destabilize the rest of the region.
Kenya and other countries in the region as well as Western nations fear that if the chaos continues in Somalia, groups with links to al Qaeda will become entrenched and threaten the stability of neighboring countries.
Kenya said on Friday that the African Union was committed to beefing up its 4,300-strong peacekeeping mission in Somalia and helping to build a police force.
But an al Shaabab spokesman warned Kenya against any intervention.
"Kenya had been saying that it will attack the mujahideen of al Shaabab for the last four months. If it tries to, we will attack Kenya and destroy the tall buildings of Nairobi," Sheik Hasan Yacqub told reporters in the southern port city of Kismayu. Fighting in Mogadishu since May 7, in which about 300 people have been killed, is the worst for years and the chances of a negotiated peace are waning, analysts say.
In 2006, Ethiopian sent troops to Somalia to defend the government against Islamists. They withdrew earlier this year but local media has reported that villagers have seen them back on Somali soil.
Residents in Baladwayne said on Saturday Ethiopian troops were very close to the central town near the border.
"They are not inside the town now. They are about 5 km (3 miles) away and are expected any minute," resident Muna Abdi told Reuters by telephone. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Zimbabwe's Tsvangirai booed for "come home" plea

By Phakamisa Ndzamela
LONDON (Reuters) - Zimbabwean expatriates in London jeered Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai when he urged them to return home to help rebuild the country's ruined economy after a decade of crisis.
Tsvangirai, touring Europe and the United States to garner financial support for Zimbabwe, was booed and heckled during a speech in London when he said: "Zimbabweans must come home."
People listening to the speech gave him a thumbs down sign and chanted "Mugabe must go" before a priest appealed for quiet.
After a disputed presidential election in 2008 which Tsvangirai contested, he joined a unity government with President Robert Mugabe in February.
When Tsvangirai spoke of the country's progress toward peace and stability, most of the audience of several hundred Zimbabweans erupted, saying it was still too dangerous.
"I did not say you must pack your bags and go back tomorrow," he said in response to the boos at Southwark Cathedral in London. Before speaking, he was welcomed with loud cheers and ululations.
The once-prosperous country has endured a 10-year economic battering that has left more than half of its people surviving on food aid and forced a quarter to go abroad as economic refugees.
Tsvangirai warned the country needed support from the international community and from Zimbabwean professionals living overseas to avoid "sliding back" into chaos.
His government says Zimbabwe requires $10 billion to rebuild the economy, wrecked by years of recession and hyper-inflation.
Many in the audience said afterwards that they would only go home if Zimbabwe becomes safer and there are more jobs.
"We need to know if the situation has improved in terms of career prospects and security," said Preston Kandayi, 32, who left for Britain 10 years ago because there were no jobs.
Inflation has been helped by the adoption of the U.S. dollar, replacing the Zimbabwe dollar.
Tsvangirai earlier met British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and business leaders to discuss ways to attract more foreign investment and restore prosperity.
"His country is in desperate need of investment and economic development," Miliband said in a statement.
Britain's Africa Minister Mark Malloch-Brown, however, said it was too soon to lift sanctions against its former colony. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Suicide truck bomb kills 34 in northern Iraq

Suicide bomber targets Kirkuk mosque
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By Khalid al-Ansary
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide truck bomb killed at least 34 people leaving a mosque on Saturday, hours after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki urged Iraqis not to lose faith if a U.S. military pullback resulted in more insurgent attacks.
Almost all U.S. soldiers will leave urban centers by June 30 under a security pact signed by Baghdad and Washington last year, and the whole force that invaded the country in 2003 must be gone by 2012.
"Don't lose heart if a breach of security occurs here or there," Maliki told leaders from the ethnic Turkmen community, reiterating a warning that insurgents were likely to try to take advantage of the U.S. pullback to launch more attacks.
Analysts warn there may also be a spike in violence by mainly Sunni Islamist insurgents, including al Qaeda, and other violent groups ahead of a parliamentary election next January.
Hours after Maliki spoke, a suicide bomber detonated a truck filled with explosives as worshippers left a Shi'ite Muslim mosque near the northern city of Kirkuk, a city contested by Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds and which sits over vast oil reserves.
Thirty-four people were killed, including women and children and about 150 civilians were wounded as dozens of clay homes in the area were flattened. Many people were feared trapped under the rubble, and the death toll was expected to rise.
There was chaos at Kirkuk's main Azadi Hospital, where ambulance sirens wailed as workers rushed blood-splattered civilians, including several children, into the wards.
Outside, security officials brandished assault rifles to stop traffic as pick-up trucks raced through the gates carrying more victims of the blast at the al-Rasul Mosque.
AL-QAEDA "USING NEW TACTICS"
Such attacks, including a string of devastating bomb blasts in April, have cast doubt on the ability of Iraqi security forces to take over after U.S. troops leave.
The bloodshed diminished significantly in May, and June has also seen fewer large-scale attacks.
It is not clear if that is due to the efforts of Iraqi police and soldiers, or if it means that insurgent groups, beaten back over the past two years in most of Iraq, now lack the organization and support to keep up the momentum.
Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Abdul-Karim Khalaf said al-Qaeda was resorting to paying people to fight for it. It had also turned to criminal activities to raise funds.
"It is a very important development. It shows al-Qaeda is starting to loss its impact," Khalaf told reporters. "Instead of recruiting people through faith or ideology, as it was in the past, now they are paying money to recruit people."
The sectarian bloodshed and insurgency unleashed by the invasion peaked in 2006/07, but volatile and ethnically mixed cities such as Mosul and Baquba remain dangerous. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Fighter jets hit militants in Pakistan's Waziristan

By Hafiz Wazir
WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani warplanes resumed strikes against militant hideouts in South Waziristan on Saturday, security officials said, with more than 30 insurgents killed in the Afghan border tribal region in the past 24 hours.
After securing much of the scenic Swat Valley in the past month, the military plans to extend its offensive with operations in South Waziristan against the main stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, a key al Qaeda ally.
The operations came after Taliban gains in the region raised fears for the future of nuclear-armed Pakistan, a vital ally for the United States as it strives to defeat al Qaeda and stabilize neighboring Afghanistan.
A full-scale offensive has not yet begun in South Waziristan but fighter jets have been softening up targets for the past several days.
"Our jet fighters bombed and destroyed two militant hideouts in Maula Khan Sarai," a security official in the region said, referring to a militant-held area east of South Waziristan's main town of Wana.
He gave no other details but an intelligence official said 15 militants were killed in those strikes.
On Friday, jet fighters killed more than 30 militants in attacks in the South Waziristan villages of Barwand, Sarwaki and Kundsari, said security officials who asked not be identified.
The military was not available for comment on those incidents and there was no independent verification of the casualties.
In a statement released on Saturday, the military said 32 insurgents were killed when armed forces retaliated after militants blocked a road between Sarwaki and the town of Tanai.
It was not immediately clear if those insurgent casualties were separate to those in Friday's air strikes.
VITAL CAMPAIGN
Pakistani troops are near the end of the offensive, launched in late April, in the Swat valley and surrounding areas northwest of Islamabad. More than 1,300 militants have been killed in those operations, according to the military.
The start of the campaign against Mehsud will likely further reassure Western allies who see Pakistan as vital for their campaign to eliminate al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan but who in the past have voiced concern about Islamabad's commitment to the fight against militancy.
Waziristan has long been regarded as a militant sanctuary and military experts see the showdown in South Waziristan as a possible watershed for al Qaeda and its allies.
About 2 million people have fled the fighting in northwest Pakistan. The exodus grew with the start of the campaign in Swat and nearby Buner district and the prospect of more people abandoning their homes with new fighting in Waziristan will add to fears of a humanitarian crisis. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Somalia's speaker says needs urgent military help

By Abdi Guled and Mohamed Ahmed
MOGADISHU, June 20 (Reuters - Somalia's neighbors should send troops to help its embattled government within the next 24 hours, parliament speaker Sheikh Aden Mohamed Madobe said on Saturday.
Two legislators have been killed in the last two days in intensified fighting between government forces and hardline Islamists trying to oust the Horn of Africa nation's leadership.
Al Shaabab insurgents stepped up an offensive against Somalia's government last month and on Thursday killed the country's security minister and at least 30 other people in a suicide car bomb attack.
They also killed an MP in northern Mogadishu on Friday.
"We are asking the world and neighboring countries to intervene in Somalia's situation immediately," Madobe told a parliament meeting urgently convened as the opposition fighters advanced toward the presidential palace.
"We want them to come here within 24 hours," he said.
"We've been forced to make this request because of the escalating violence. Those fighting the government are being led by a (former) Pakistani army general, they are burning the flag and killing people," Madobe said.
Kenya said on Friday that it would not sit by and allow the situation in its neighbor to deteriorate further because it would destabilize the rest of the region.
Kenya and other countries in the region as well as Western nations fear that if the chaos continues in Somalia, groups with links to al Qaeda will become entrenched and threaten the stability of neighboring countries.
Kenya said on Friday that the African Union was committed to beefing up its 4,300-strong peacekeeping mission in Somalia and helping to build a police force.
But an al Shaabab spokesman warned Kenya against any intervention.
"Kenya had been saying that it will attack the mujahideen of al Shaabab for the last four months. If it tries to, we will attack Kenya and destroy the tall buildings of Nairobi," Sheik Hasan Yacqub told reporters in the southern port city of Kismayu. Fighting in Mogadishu since May 7, in which about 300 people have been killed, is the worst for years and the chances of a negotiated peace are waning, analysts say.
In 2006, Ethiopian sent troops to Somalia to defend the government against Islamists. They withdrew earlier this year but local media has reported that villagers have seen them back on Somali soil.
Residents in Baladwayne said on Saturday Ethiopian troops were very close to the central town near the border.
"They are not inside the town now. They are about 5 km (3 miles) away and are expected any minute," resident Muna Abdi told Reuters by telephone. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Southern African leaders meet over Madagascar

By Agnieszka Flak and Alison Raymond
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Leaders of the Southern African Development Community met on Saturday to try to help restore political order in Madagascar after internationally mediated talks on the island collapsed earlier this week.
SADC mediators sent to the island will report to the heads of state and governments after the African Union and United Nations suspended talks indefinitely citing a lack of political will.
Southern African leaders suspended Madagascar from the SADC regional grouping in March, saying they would not recognize Andry Rajoelina, who took power in a move condemned as a coup by the international community.
SADC chairman, South African President Jacob Zuma, said on Saturday the grouping was hopeful of a resolution to the political turmoil, which has wrought havoc on the Indian Ocean island's $390-million-a-year tourism sector and unnerved foreign companies investing in its booming oil and mineral sectors.
"We believe that peace will be achieved if all parties to the conflict are committed to the process," Zuma said.
"It is crucial that there be an inclusive political dialogue, where all the relevant parties and stakeholders have an opportunity to be part of finding a resolution."
Rajoelina, 35, a former disc jockey, came to power in March when President Marc Ravalomanana stepped aside after intense pressure from the opposition and army chiefs.
Ravalomanana, who fled to southern Africa, insists he remains the legitimate leader of the Indian Ocean island and has rejected sharing power with Rajoelina.
Ravalomanana was to attend the SADC meeting.
Foreign leaders branded the transition a coup and have called for a quick election to restore constitutional order.
SADC Executive Secretary Tomaz Salomao said the various parties were close to reaching a breakthrough, but differences on major issues like a possible election remained.
"If we move to elections, if Mr. Rajoelina and President Ravalomanana will stand ... those are some of the issues that are of major concern," he said at a news conference on Friday.
The African economic bloc COMESA said earlier this month a military intervention to restore constitutional order on the island could be an option.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was also to attend the SADC meeting.

Source: Reuters

Foreigners warned before kidnapping: Yemen minister

SANAA (Reuters) - A group of foreigners were warned against going on an outing before a kidnapping which led to the killing of three of them, Yemen's interior minister said on Saturday.
"The authorities received the threat of an attack and there was a warning given to the Germans asking them not to travel outside their area of work," Muttahar al-Masri told reporters.
The killing of three women, identified as two German nurses and a South Korean teacher, coincided with a rise in separatist and militant tensions in Yemen whose instability has alarmed Western countries and Saudi Arabia.
The nine were seized last week outside the town of Saada, the center of a mountainous province in an attack that an analyst said bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda.
The nine comprised seven Germans, a Briton and a Korean, and included three children and their mother.
"We have a report that they (six hostages) are still alive but we cannot confirm it," Masri said.
Like other Yemeni officials, Masri blamed the Houthi tribal group, who belong to a Shi'ite Muslim sect, for the kidnapping, a charge the Houthis have denied.
"The nature of the operation indicates that a group of supporters of Houthis was behind it, but every possibility is still open," Masri said.
The minister said Yemeni security forces, who are scouring Saada and three nearby provinces for the kidnappers, were cooperating with agents from Germany, Britain and South Korea.
Yemen has offered a reward of $275,000 for information leading to the capture of the kidnappers.
If the killings were carried out by tribesmen, it would be the first time that female hostages have been their victims.
Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, is struggling with a revolt in the north, a secessionist movement in the south and growing militancy.
The unrest has raised concerns Yemen may slip into chaos and provide a base for al Qaeda or pirates operating in the Indian Ocean.
(Reporting by Mohamed Sudam; Writing by Firouz Sedarat)

Source: Reuters

Iran council offers partial recount, police deploy

Iran's news via Los Angeles
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By Dominic Evans and Fredrik Dahl
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's highest legislative body said on Saturday it was ready to recount a tenth of the votes in a disputed presidential election and one reformist party said it was calling off a protest rally planned for later in the day.
EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.
Police warned they would deal firmly with any further street demonstrations over the June 12 vote.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told protest leaders on Friday that they would be responsible for any bloodshed if rallies continued against the election, which he said was fairly won by hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The Etemad-e Melli party of one losing candidate, Mehdi Karoubi, said plans for a protest rally at 4 p.m. (7:30 a.m. EDT) in downtown Tehran had been scrapped for lack of a permit.
"Because of not obtaining permission, the rally today has been canceled," a party spokesman told Reuters.
Defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi, whose supporters have held huge unauthorized protests in Tehran and elsewhere in the past week, had demanded a complete annulment of the vote.
At their last rally in Tehran on Thursday, Mousavi supporters held banners saying they would gather again two days later. But an ally of Mousavi said the moderate politician had not urged people to demonstrate on Saturday or Sunday.
His supporters may show up anyway, as they did in their tens of thousands on Tuesday, even though Mousavi had told them to stay home. The protests have been the most widespread in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
PARTIAL RECOUNT
The 12-man Guardian Council, which must certify the result of the election, announced plans for a partial recount.
"Although the Guardian Council is not legally obliged ... we are ready to recount 10 percent of the (ballot) boxes randomly in the presence of representatives of the three (defeated) candidates," a council spokesman said.
The council had invited Mousavi, Karoubi and a third candidate, Mohsen Rezaie, to raise their complaints at a special session. But only Rezaie, a former Revolutionary Guard commander, attended.
Khamenei's warning on Friday was reinforced by a senior police commander who said: "Beginning today, any gathering critical of the election would be illegal and police will deal with it firmly and with determination."
"The organizers of these protests who have deceived the public will be prosecuted and dealt with legally," deputy national police commander Ahmadreza Radan added. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Russia ready for deep nuclear arms cuts: Medvedev

By Oleg Shchedrov
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Russia is ready to dramatically cut its nuclear stockpiles in a new arms pact with the United States if Washington meets Russia's concerns over missile defense, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday.
"We are ready to reduce by several times the number of nuclear delivery vehicles compared with the START-1 pact," he told a news conference in Amsterdam.
"As far as warheads are concerned, their numbers should be lower than envisaged by the Moscow 2002 pact," he added.
He was referring to an interim pact called the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT) which commits the sides to further cuts in their arsenals to between 1,700 and 2,200 warheads by 2012.
A new arms pact to follow the 1991 START treaty, which expires on December 5, is at the center of efforts by Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama to improve bilateral ties which sank to post-Cold War lows under the previous U.S. administration.
A successor treaty aimed at cutting long-range nuclear weapons amassed by the former superpower rivals during the Cold War arms race will be a major topic at talks between Medvedev and Obama in Moscow next month.
Negotiators from both sides are expected to start a new round of consultations on a new pact next week, Medvedev's spokeswoman Natalya Timakova told reporters.
START-1 stipulates that neither side can deploy more than 6,000 nuclear warheads and no more than 1,600 strategic delivery vehicles, which includes intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines and bomber aircraft.
A Kremlin source said Medvedev's remarks amounted to instructions to Russian arms negotiators.
But the Kremlin chief again made clear that progress on START was linked to the future of the U.S. missile shield project.
Russia deplores U.S. plans to deploy elements of its missile shield in Eastern Europe. It sees the move as a threat to Russia's national security and says it will not achieve its declared aim of averting a missile attack from Iran.
In a separate statement posted on the Kremlin web site and distributed by Kremlin officials to journalists, Medvedev said: "We cannot agree to the U.S. plans of a global Missile defense system."
"I would want to stress that cuts proposed by us are only possible if the United States lift Russia's concerns (about missile defense)," he added.
"In any case, the connection between offensive and defensive strategic weapons should be reflected in the new treaty," Medvedev's statement said.
Russian leaders see signs of the Obama administration taking a more cautious approach to the missile defense project and feel some kind of compromise can be worked out. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Iraq declares victory as U.S. troops leave cities

By Khalid al-Ansary
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's leader declared victory Saturday as the country began to end a foreign occupation with the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from cities, and told Iraqis not to lose faith if the pullback resulted in attacks.
As part of a security pact signed between Baghdad and Washington last year, U.S. combat forces must leave urban centers by June 30 and the entire force that invaded Iraq in 2003 must be gone by 2012.
"It is a great victory for Iraqis that we are taking the first step toward ending the foreign presence in Iraq," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told a conference of leaders from the ethnic Turkmen community.
"I, and you, are sure that many don't want us to succeed and celebrate this victory. They are getting themselves ready to move in the dark to destabilize the situation, but we will be ready for them, God willing."
A series of devastating bomb attacks in April cast doubt on the ability of Iraqi security forces to take over from U.S. troops in protecting the population from mainly Sunni Islamist insurgents, including al Qaeda, and other violent groups.
But the bloodshed fell back again significantly in May, and June has also seen few large-scale attacks.
It is not clear if that is due to the efforts of Iraqi police and soldiers, or if it means that insurgent groups, beaten back over the past two years in most of Iraq, now lack the organization and support to keep up the momentum for long.
The sectarian bloodshed and insurgency unleashed by the invasion peaked in 2006/07, but volatile and ethnically mixed cities like Mosul and Baquba remain dangerous. Baghdad also continues to see a steady stream of bombings and shootings.
"Don't lose heart if a breach of security occurs here or there," Maliki said, reiterating a warning that insurgents were likely to try to take advantage of the U.S. pullback to launch more attacks. Analysts warn there may also be a spike in violence ahead of parliamentary elections next January.
Maliki, a Shi'ite Muslim, called for national unity among Iraq's fractured groups but took the opportunity to take a stab at Sunnis, who dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein and formed the core of the resistance to the U.S. invasion.
Many Sunnis mistrust Maliki and fear the prime minister is not overly interested in giving fair slice of power to Sunnis, who repressed Iraq's majority Shi'ites under Saddam.
"Those who spoke of the need to resist the occupation are today talking about the opposite, that the (foreign) forces should stay," Maliki said, referring to Sunni fears that without a U.S. presence they will be left unprotected.
"It is impossible for the multinational forces to stay. If we speak of keeping the foreign forces here, it means we have no confidence in ourselves, in our unity, in our brotherhood and in the competence of our forces."
(Writing by Michael Christie; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

Source: Reuters

Iran state TV says clerics cancel rally

Iran's news via Los Angeles
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EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.
By Dominic Evans and Fredrik Dahl
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's state broadcaster said a group of moderate clerics had called off a planned protest rally in Tehran on Saturday against disputed election results because no permission had been granted.
The announcement, hours before the rally was due to go ahead at 4 p.m. (7:30 a.m. EDT), contradicted a statement from an aide to one of the defeated election candidates who earlier said the rally would go ahead.
"The demonstration plan has not been canceled and accordingly it must be held this afternoon," said the aide to liberal cleric Mehdi Karoubi, a day after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demanded an end to street protests.
Khamenei issued a strong warning on Friday to leaders of demonstrations that they would be responsible for any bloodshed if protests continued against the June 12 vote, which he said was fairly won by hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
His words hinted at a future crackdown by authorities on rallies after the election, which Ahmadinejad's main challenger Mirhossein Mousavi says was rigged. Mousavi and Karoubi have called for the poll to be annulled.
Khamenei's warning was reinforced by a senior police commander who said that "beginning today any gathering critical of the election would be illegal and police will deal with it firmly and with determination."
Mousavi, Karoubi and the third defeated candidate Mohsen Rezaie were invited to a special session of Iran's top legislative body, the Guardian Council, which has said it could recount disputed ballot boxes but ruled out a fresh election.
At their last rally in Tehran on Thursday, Mousavi supporters held banners saying they would gather again two days later at around 4 p.m. But an ally of Mousavi said the moderate politician had not called for people to take to the streets on Saturday or Sunday.
His supporters may decide to show up anyway, as they did in their tens of thousands last Tuesday despite a call by Mousavi for them to stay home. The protests have been the most widespread in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
"If there is any bloodshed, leaders of the protests will be held directly responsible," the white-bearded Khamenei told huge crowds thronging Tehran University for Friday prayers.
State media have reported seven or eight people killed in unrest since the election outcome was published on June 13, prompting Mousavi's supporters to hold mass rallies in Tehran, with demonstrations reported in several Iranian cities.
Scores of reformists have been arrested and authorities have cracked down on foreign and domestic media.
President Barack Obama condemned the violence carried out by security forces and believed Iranians should be free to protest, his spokesman said on Friday after Khamenei's speech, sharpening the White House's rhetoric over the post-election events.
In a sign of defiance, Mousavi backers took to Tehran rooftops after nightfall on Friday to shout Allahu Akbar (God is greatest), an echo of tactics in the 1979 Islamic revolution. Continued...
Source: Reuters

U.S. says Afghan strikes broke rules, orders retraining

By Peter Graff
KABUL (Reuters) - The United States will order all its troops in Afghanistan to undergo new training after concluding that pilots violated orders in air strikes last month that it accepts may have killed as many as 86 civilians.
In a long-awaited report, released six weeks after U.S. B1 bombers killed large numbers of civilians unleashing fury among Afghans, the Pentagon acknowledged that rules had not been followed, although it said the mistakes fell short of breaking the law.
The bombings took place on May 4 in western Afghanistan after a day-long battle that saw Afghan security forces ambushed by Taliban fighters and U.S. Marines come to their aid.
After nightfall, B1 bombers observed groups of people moving into two houses and a mosque. Pilots concluded they were fighters and bombed the buildings.
However, the report said pilots broke guidelines by striking without checking whether civilians were in the buildings.
The strikes, "while complying with the (laws of armed conflict) did not adhere to all of the specific guidance and Commander's Intent contained in the controlling directive," it said.
"Not applying all of that guidance likely resulted in civilian casualties."
While the report noted that U.S. investigators had concluded that about 26 civilians and about 76 fighters had died, it acknowledged the figures were imprecise and said the true civilian death toll would never be known.
But in the military's first public acknowledgement of Afghan accounts of much larger civilian tolls, the report noted that an Afghan human rights agency had concluded that 86 civilians had died and praised its findings as "balanced" and "thorough."
"NO IMMINENT THREAT"
The report, released by Central Command responsible for the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq, said the military needed to refine its rules for using weapons in Afghanistan, which should be published in new "stand-alone documents."
"Once this guidance is published, units will need to conduct immediate training/re-training of all personnel in theater," it said.
The report supports accounts from Afghan villagers that the B1 bombings after dark occurred far from the battle zone.
One of the buildings, which the B1 flattened with two 2,000 lb (900 kg) bombs and two 500 lb bombs, was more than a kilometer away from where U.S. and Afghan government troops were taking intermittent fire.
The report accepted that pilots and ground controllers believed the groups of people they were observing were fighters who might mass for an attack. But it acknowledged they were not firing from the buildings at the time they were struck. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Zimbabwe's Tsvangirai tells exiles to come home

LONDON (Reuters) - Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai called on Zimbabweans living in Britain to "come home" and help in the country's redevelopment, the Daily Telegraph said on Saturday.
Tsvangirai, who is in Britain on a tour of Europe and the United States to woo financial support, said the country had achieved a lot since his Movement for Democratic Change entered a unity government with long-ruling President Robert Mugabe four months ago.
He urged the estimated one million Zimbabweans living in Britain to help rebuild his country.
"The government needs these professionals," he was quoted in the paper as saying.
"And we also need whatever savings they made to help economic development. It is time to come home."
Tsvangirai also called on the international community to support Zimbabwe through financial aid.
"We need support if we are to avoid sliding back to where we were," he said.
"I am telling these leaders that I need to re-establish Zimbabwe's relations with the outside world -- we must be part of the community of nations again and not a pariah state."
He pointed to inflation having been brought down and the re-opening of schools and hospitals.
Inflation has been helped by the adoption of the U.S. dollar, replacing the Zimbabwe dollar.
But Britain on Friday said it was too early to lift sanctions against its former colony.
Africa minister Mark Malloch-Brown, writing in the Times newspaper, said: "We will not lift the bulk of these measures until we are convinced that Zimbabwe's transition to democracy has reached a point of no return."
He said political activists were being harassed and farm seizures were continuing.
Tsvangirai, who has been charged with treason in the past, said he had a "workable relationship" with Mugabe, describing him as an important part of the "transitional solution".
"In fact, he is an indispensable, irreplaceable, part of the transition," he was quoted as saying "It is a workable relationship, surprisingly. Yes, I am actually surprised."
(Reporting by Avril Ormsby; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Source: Reuters

Mousavi rally in doubt after Iran leader warning

Iran's news via Los Angeles
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By Dominic Evans and Fredrik Dahl
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Backers of beaten presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi will decide on Saturday whether to defy a stern warning by Iran's top authority and stage mass protests over a disputed election.
(Editors' note: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.)
Iran's top legislative body holds an extraordinary session on Saturday morning to which it has invited Mousavi and the two other candidates who lost against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election, which Mousavi wants annulled.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demanded an end to the rallies on Friday, issuing a strong warning to leaders of the street protests that they will be responsible for any bloodshed.
President Barack Obama condemned the violence carried out by security forces and believed Iranians should be free to protest, his spokesman said on Friday after Khamenei's speech, sharpening the White House's rhetoric over the post-election events.
Khamenei's words appeared to hint at a future crackdown by authorities on rallies. Khamenei said the election was fairly won by Ahmadinejad and not rigged, as Mousavi who wants the poll annulled has said.
Another defeated candidate, Mehdi Karoubi, called in an open letter to the Guardian Council legislative body for the election to be canceled.
There was no immediate word from Mousavi's supporters whether they would still go ahead with a planned demonstration in downtown Tehran at around 4 p.m. (7:30 a.m. EDT) on Saturday.
An ally of Mousavi said he was not calling on people to take to the streets again. "Mousavi has no plans to hold a rally tomorrow or the day after tomorrow," he told Reuters.
But his supporters may decide to show up anyway, as they did in their tens of thousands last Tuesday despite a call by Mousavi for them to stay home.
If they proceed in defiance of Khamenei's explicit warning, they risk a severe response from security forces, which have so far not tried to prevent Iran's most widespread street rallies since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
"If there is any bloodshed, leaders of the protests will be held directly responsible," the white-bearded cleric told huge crowds thronging Tehran University for Friday prayers.
State media have reported seven or eight people killed in unrest since the election outcome was published on June 13, prompting Mousavi's supporters to hold mass rallies in Tehran, with demonstrations reported in several Iranian cities.
Scores of reformists have been arrested and authorities have cracked down on foreign and domestic media.
In a sign of defiance, Mousavi backers took to Tehran rooftops after nightfall on Friday to shout Allahu Akbar (God is greatest), an echo of tactics in the 1979 Islamic revolution. Continued...
Source: Reuters

U.S. says Afghan air strikes killed 26 civilians

By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. air strikes killed roughly 26 civilians during a battle in western Afghanistan in early May, the U.S. military said on Friday in a report that calculated a far lower death toll than other estimates.
The U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in Afghanistan, said a higher civilian death toll was possible and vowed to change its tactics to reduce civilian deaths.
But it said the air strikes were an "appropriate means to destroy the enemy threat" as it battled Taliban forces in Farah Province on May 4.
The air strikes fueled public anger against Western forces in Afghanistan and have heightened tensions between Kabul and Washington as the United States embarks on a massive troop surge in a bid to quell the growing Taliban insurgency.
"It is inconsistent with the U.S. government's objective of providing security for the Afghan people to conduct operations that result in their death or wounding, if at all avoidable," said the report, an unclassified summary of the investigation into the incident.
The killings occurred when U.S. aircraft were called in to bomb Taliban forces that were fighting U.S. and Afghan ground troops near the villages of Geraani and Ganj Abad.
The civilian deaths likely came during two B-1 bomber strikes that destroyed buildings where Taliban were believed to be hiding, the report said.
Ground troops and the bomber crew could not determine if civilians were also in the buildings, the report said.
Another bomber strike that destroyed a mosque used by the Taliban probably killed no civilians, the report said.
The Afghan government estimates that the air strikes killed 140 civilians, which would make the military action the deadliest for Afghan civilians since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has urged an end to U.S. air strikes in the country, a call rejected by Washington.
Central Command said it reached its estimate of 26 deaths after interviewing villagers, local officials, aid group workers and U.S. forces involved in the battle, as well as looking at new graves in the area.
At least 76 Taliban fighters and five Afghan National Police were killed in the battle, the report said.
Those totals are roughly in line with the military's initial estimate of 20 to 35 civilians out of a total of 80 to 95 killed in the incident.
But Central Command said an estimate of 86 civilian casualties by the Afghan Human Rights Commission was "balanced" and said the true death toll will probably never be known. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Drug trade grows in Bolivia, Peru: U.N.

By Terry Wade
LIMA (Reuters) - Cocaine production is growing fastest in Bolivia while Peru is on its way to matching output from Colombia, the top global producer of the drug, U.N. officials said on Friday.
Coca plant cultivation in Bolivia, which expelled U.S. anti-drug agents last year after accusing them of meddling in domestic affairs, grew 6 percent in 2008, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime's annual study of Andean nations.
Estimated cocaine production rose 9 percent to 113 metric tons in the impoverished South American nation.
"What concerns us is the trend, which keeps growing," Hugo Fernandez, Bolivia's Deputy Foreign Minister, said in response to the study.
Bolivia has pledged to step up efforts to eradicate plants used in the cocaine trade. But President Evo Morales, a former coca farmer, has defended the chewing of coca leaves as well as their use for brewing tea and in religious ceremonies.
The leaves when consumed in this way provide a light stimulant, nowhere near the power of a cocaine rush.
PLANT ERADICATION
Peru's leading coca growing area, in the Apurimac and Ene valleys, has become "the largest production zone in the country ... and the biggest producer in terms of density per hectare in all of the Andes," U.N. official Flavio Mirella said.
The region is controlled by remnant members of the radical leftist Shinning Path rebels, who have launched a series of deadly assaults this year on Peruvian soldiers trying to eradicate farms.
Peruvian coca cultivation grew 4.5 percent and estimated cocaine production rose 4.1 percent to 302 metric tons in 2008, according to the study.
"If Peru continues to grow at these rates, it may match production in Colombia," Mirella told reporters in Lima.
Colombian cocaine production fell 28 percent to 430 metric tons in 2008, its lowest level in a decade, due to coca plant eradication programs, including chemical spraying of coca fields.
Cultivation was cut by 18 percent to 81,000 hectares.
Colombia is the largest grower of coca, with 48 percent of total acreage, followed by Peru with 34 percent and Bolivia with 18 percent.
Andean countries have tried to encourage farmers to switch to specialty food crops and stop growing coca, most of which is grown for the drug trade. They have met some resistance in these efforts because coca prices are often far higher. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Iran's Khamenei says end protests, issues warning

Iran's news via Los Angeles
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By Fredrik Dahl and Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a strong warning on Friday to leaders of mass demonstrations against a disputed presidential election that they would be responsible for any bloodshed.
(Editors' note: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.)
His words appeared to hint at a future crackdown by authorities on rallies after the election a week ago, which Khamenei said was fairly won by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and not rigged, as defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi says.
After the speech, a spokesman for Barack Obama said the U.S. president condemned violence carried out by security forces and believed Iranians should be free to demonstrate.
Hours after Khamenei's speech, another beaten candidate -- pro-reform cleric Mehdi Karoubi -- called for the election result to be canceled, as Mousavi has done previously.
In another act of defiance after nightfall, Mousavi backers took to Tehran rooftops to shout Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest), an echo of tactics in the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Khamenei demanded an end to the demonstrations in his first address to the nation since the election results triggered the most widespread street demonstrations in the Islamic Republic's 30-year history.
"If there is any bloodshed, leaders of the protests will be held directly responsible," the white-bearded cleric told huge crowds thronging Tehran University for Friday prayers.
Mousavi's supporters had planned another demonstration on Saturday. But an ally of his said after Khamenei's speech that Mousavi had no plans to call a rally on Saturday or Sunday.
State media have reported seven or eight people killed in unrest since the election outcome was published on June 13, prompting Mousavi's supporters to hold mass protests in Tehran, with demonstrations also reported in several Iranian cities.
Scores of reformists have been arrested and authorities have cracked down on foreign and domestic media.
Khamenei called for calm in his country, a major oil exporter embroiled in dispute with major powers over its nuclear program, which the West suspects could be used to make bombs. Tehran says its nuclear work is peaceful.
"The result of the election comes from the ballot box, not from the street," he said.
Khamenei also attacked what he called interference by foreign powers who had questioned the result of the election, saying Iran's enemies were trying to undermine the legitimacy of its Islamic establishment.
Over the last days, the U.S. administration has muted its comments to keep the door ajar for possible dialogue with a country it has not had diplomatic relations with for nearly three decades. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Mubarak says time is right for Arab-Israeli peace

By Sue Pleming
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's "reassertion" of U.S. leadership in the Middle East offers a rare opportunity to get peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said.
In a commentary in The Wall Street Journal on Friday, Mubarak said Obama was willing to take a lead in achieving peace and the Arab world would reciprocate.
"A historic settlement is within reach, one that would give the Palestinians their state and freedom from occupation while granting Israel recognition and security to live in peace," wrote Mubarak.
"Egypt stands ready to seize that moment, and I am confident that the Arab world will do the same," he added.
The U.S. State Department welcomed Mubarak's opinion piece and said the Obama administration was fully committed to working with Egypt and others to get a comprehensive peace deal in the Middle East.
"In order for this vision to become a reality all parties in the region must do their part, including Arab states," said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly.
The Bush administration waited until its final years in office to make a concerted effort on Israeli-Palestinian peace and was criticized by many Arabs for doing too little, too late.
SETTLEMENTS STUMBLING BLOCK
Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell has traveled four times to the region this year in a bid to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that were cut off following Israel's invasion of Hamas-run Gaza last December.
Earlier this week, Mitchell was optimistic preparations for full-blown talks would be done soon although one stumbling block has been a dispute over Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank, occupied since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
"Israel's relentless settlement expansion, which has seriously eroded the prospects for a two-state solution, must cease, together with its closure of Gaza," said Mubarak, referring to a blockade by Israel of Gaza which is controlled by the militant group Hamas.
Egypt has been trying to broker a power-sharing deal between the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority and Hamas and Mubarak said the Palestinians must overcome their divisions to achieve their aspirations for statehood.
He said if Israel took "serious steps" toward peace with the Palestinians, the Arab world would do the same.
"The priority should be to resolve the permanent borders of a sovereign and territorially contiguous Palestinian state, based on the 1967 lines, as this would unlock most of the other permanent status issues, including settlements, security, water and Jerusalem," said Mubarak.
Mubarak praised Obama's speech in Cairo earlier this month, calling it a turning point in U.S. relations with the Muslim world, but also stressing it had to be followed up with "forward-looking" steps. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Kenya will not sit by as Somalia worsens: minister

Somali PM fears 100s killed by bomb
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By Wangui Kanina
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya will not sit by and allow the situation in neighboring Somalia to deteriorate further because it is a threat to regional stability, the country's foreign minister said on Friday.
Hardline Islamist insurgents stepped up an offensive against Somalia's government last month and on Thursday killed the Horn of Africa country's security minister and at least 30 other people in a suicide car bomb attack.
Opposition fighters also killed a legislator on Friday. Mohamed Hussein Addow was killed during fighting in the Kaaran area, north Mogadishu, a government official said.
Kenya, regional countries as well as Western nations fear that if the chaos continues in Somalia, groups with links to al Qaeda will become entrenched and threaten the stability of neighboring countries.
"We will not sit by and watch the situation in Somalia deteriorate beyond where it is. We have a duty ... as a government to protect our strategic interests including our security," said Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula.
"Kenya will do exactly that to ensure the unfolding developments in Somalia do not in any way undermine or affect our peace and security as a country," he told a news conference.
Asked about any specific action, Wetangula said an international partnership was dealing with the issue of the insurgency and instability in Somalia and it would be inappropriate to discuss details.
Al Shabaab insurgents, said to have hundreds of foreign fighters in their ranks, claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack.
The rebels that want to oust the government control much of southern Somalia and some of the capital.
"Engineer Mohamed Hussien Addow was killed in his house after opposition militia attacked Kaaran district," local district commissioner Muhudin Hassan Jurus told Reuters.
John Holmes, the top U.N. humanitarian aid official, said on Friday instability was making it very tough to deliver food and supplies to Somalis who are also struggling to cope with drought.
SIGNIFICANT SETBACKS
Wetangula's comments echoed a joint statement issued on Thursday by the European Union, the African Union, the Inter Governmental Agency on Development, the League of Arab States and the United Nations.
"These extremists, both Somali and foreigners, are continuing their indiscriminate violence. They are a threat not only to the country, but to the IGAD region and the international community," the bodies said.
Al Shabaab has so far resisted government attempts to drive its fighters from the capital. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Chilean to head U.N.'s Bhutto assassination inquiry

By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Chile's U.N. Ambassador Heraldo Munoz will head a six-month U.N. inquiry into the 2007 assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Friday.
The other two members of the U.N. "Bhutto Commission" are Indonesia's former attorney general Marzuki Darusman and Peter Fitzgerald, a retired senior officer with the Garda Siochana, Ireland's national police force, spokeswoman Michele Montas said.
Munoz was a co-founder of Chile's Party for Democracy and has held a number of government posts in democratic Chile. He was deputy foreign minister in 2000-2002 and has been Chile's ambassador to the United Nations since 2003.
As previously announced, Montas said the inquiry would not be empowered to launch criminal proceedings related to the assassination of Bhutto, who was killed in a suicide attack in December 2007.
"The commission is not a tribunal," she told reporters.
That will make it much less far-reaching than a probe by the world body of the 2005 killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, which is intended to lead to a U.N.-organized trial in The Hague.
"The Commission's mandate will be to inquire into the facts and circumstances of the assassination of former Prime Minister Bhutto," Montas said. "The duty of determining criminal responsibility of the perpetrators of the assassination remains with the Pakistani authorities."
She said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would inform the U.N. Security Council of the results of the inquiry "for information" and that it would be up to the 15-nation body to decide what, if anything, it does with the outcome.
Pakistan will provide security for members of the commission, Montas added.
Earlier investigations by Pakistan's previous government and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency accused an al Qaeda-linked militant of killing Bhutto, a staunch supporter of the U.S.-led campaign against Islamist militancy.
Some of Bhutto's aides have expressed dissatisfaction over those investigations.
(Editing by Anthony Boadle)

Source: Reuters

Chavez, Morales to attend U.N. finance crisis summit

By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - South American left-wing firebrands Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales are among the few heads of state attending next week's U.N. meeting on the global financial crisis, a U.N. spokesman said on Friday.
In addition to Venezuelan President Chavez and Bolivian President Morales, the leaders of Ecuador and Serbia, vice presidents of Iran and Zimbabwe and a Russian deputy prime minister will speak at the conference, U.N. General Assembly spokesman Enrique Yeves told reporters.
Most industrialized developed countries are sending much lower-level delegations to the meeting, which Western diplomats told Reuters was a reflection of their dissatisfaction with the way the president of the General Assembly, a leftist former foreign minister of Nicaragua, has organized the meeting.
The official purpose of the June 24-26 conference -- billed as a "summit" -- is to discuss the impact the financial crisis has had on the developing world and to agree on proposals to reform the global financial system.
Western diplomats have complained that assembly president Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann, a Roman Catholic priest who was in Nicaragua's Sandinista government throughout the 1980s, has tried to use the upcoming conference to put capitalism on trial, an allegation his spokesman has flatly rejected.
They also said they expected participants like Chavez and Morales would use the conference -- which U.N. officials and diplomats say will have no decision-making powers -- as an opportunity to rail against free markets.
Attempts to revise a set of draft proposals prepared by D'Escoto's office have been difficult and it remains unclear if delegations will be able to reach a consensus on concrete financial reform proposals, diplomats involved in the negotiations told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
G77 CRITICISM
Despite their criticism of the conference -- various senior Western envoys referred to it as a "joke," "tragedy" and a "waste of time" -- diplomats from the Group of Eight club of wealthy nations say they have not dismissed it altogether.
"We still want the U.N. to have something to say about the financial crisis," one Western diplomat said. "It's not too late for it to play a role as a key forum for ensuring that aid and climate are issues that are not forgotten about."
One senior diplomat from the Group of 77 bloc of developing nations, however, accused the Western powers of obstructing negotiations on reform proposals.
The G77 diplomat said it was possible there would be no proposals agreed at the conference. Some Western powers, he said, wanted to issue a bland political declaration so that participants could at least say they agreed on something.
But many G77 countries opposed the idea, he added.
"The G77 will not accept consensus at any cost," he said.
Among the reform proposals being discussed are the creation of a world council to oversee the global financial system, or the replacement of the U.S. dollar with the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) as the world's reserve currency, an idea that both Russia and China have endorsed.
In addition to Chavez and Morales, 19 other presidents, vice presidents and prime ministers and 31 ministers are expected to attend, Yeves said. Two-thirds of the 192 U.N. member states will participate in the conference.

Source: Reuters

Vatican rejects pressure on Nazi-era pope sainthood

By Phil Stewart
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict must be left alone to decide on whether to promote a controversial Nazi-era pontiff toward sainthood, the Vatican said on Friday, rejecting apparent pressure from within the Church to move ahead.
Pope Pius XII has been accused by some Jews of turning a blind eye to the Holocaust during World War Two, a charge his supporters and the Vatican deny.
The Vatican issued an unusually strong statement hours after Italian media quoted Rev. Peter Gumpel, the chief Vatican judge investigating Pius' sainthood cause, as suggesting Benedict had not yet acted out of fear it would harm relations with Jews.
The Vatican, citing news reports, said the Pope's decision on whether to sign beatification decrees "is the exclusive competence of the Pope, who should be left completely free in his evaluations and decisions".
"If the Pope thinks that study and reflection on Pius XII's cause should be further extended, his position must be respected without interference or unjustified and inopportune declarations," the Vatican's press office said.
Some say Pius did not do enough to save Jews. The Vatican and his Jewish defenders say he worked behind the scenes to help because direct intervention would have worsened the situation.
"HEROIC VIRTUES"
The Vatican's saint-making department in 2007 voted in favor of a decree recognizing Pius' "heroic virtues", a step in a long process toward possible sainthood that began in 1967.
Benedict has so far not approved the decree -- which is needed for beatification, the last step before sainthood -- opting for what the Vatican has called a period of reflection.
Gumpel, a major proponent of sainthood for Pius, said Benedict had been "struck" by some recent meetings with Jewish organizations.
"(Jewish groups) told him loudly and clearly that if he did anything in favor of Pope (Pius), relations between the Catholic Church and Jews would be definitively and permanently compromised," Gumpel was quoted as saying by ANSA news agency.
Jewish groups have asked the Vatican to freeze the procedure that can lead to his sainthood pending more study of wartime records.
Pius is one of several issues that have strained Catholic-Jewish relations. Benedict's decision to readmit to the Church a bishop who denied the extent of the Holocaust in January also strained ties.
Richard Williamson had said in an interview he believed there were no gas chambers and that no more than 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, rather than the 6 million accepted by most historians.

Source: Reuters