Sunday, June 28, 2009

Iraq lessons learned, U.S. Marines turn to Afghanistan

Iraq lessons learned, U.S. Marines turn to AfghanistanBy Peter Graff
DESERT OF DEATH, Afghanistan (Reuters) - After five years coping with the most dangerous province in Iraq, the U.S. Marines have been given their next assignment: the most dangerous province in Afghanistan.
But this time around, they say they will talk a little more and shoot a little less.
"We spent so much time in Iraq learning from our mistakes," said Corporal Mahmoud Awada, a 21-year-old Lebanese-American Marine from Utah, who spent the second half of 2007 and early 2008 in Anbar west of Baghdad.
"We learned that we can`t just go around kicking down doors because that won`t work. In Iraq, what really helped us win over there, make the situation better, was gaining the trust of the people, becoming friends with them."
The Marines that have arrived in recent weeks in Afghanistan`s wild southern Helmand province are a different force from the Marines who blasted their way into Anbar.
Back then, the Marines were still learning the art of counter-insurgency warfare.
An Arabic speaker, Awada worked closely with the Iraqi army. It was frustrating at times, but it opened his eyes.
"You have to sit down and talk with them, talk for a while, enjoy a nice cup of tea, get to know them a little better, ask them how their family is doing," Awada said.
The Marines fought two massive battles for the Anbar city of Fallujah in 2004, the biggest engagements of the Iraq war.
Anbar was almost completely in the hands of insurgents for the next 2 or 3 years and the Marines gained an early reputation for heavy-handed use of firepower.
They had turned it around by late 2007, forming an alliance with local tribal leaders against al Qaeda militants that helped transform Iraq`s most violent province into one of its safest.
Today, they are being asked to repeat the trick in Helmand, the heartland of Afghanistan`s Taliban. U.S. President Barack Obama, overseeing a troop drawdown in Iraq, has made Afghanistan the military`s top priority.
BIGGEST WAVE
The 8,500 Marines sent to Helmand are the biggest wave of a reinforcement strategy that will see U.S. forces in Afghanistan rise from 32,000 at the end of 2008 to 68,000 by the end of 2009.
Southern Helmand, like Anbar, is virtually entirely made up of a vast, empty desert, cut through by a single river, surrounded by a band of densely populated agricultural land. Insurgents infiltrate across a long and poorly guarded border.  Continued...
Original article

Life after U.S. pullout brings worries for Iraqis

Life after U.S. pullout brings worries for IraqisBy Daniel Wallis
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Sitting in his small room in northern Baghdad, a pistol nearby and assault rifles stacked under the bed, Khalil Ibrahim is worried over Iraq`s future.
Six years after the U.S. invasion, Iraqis are contemplating the reality of life after a major milestone -- Tuesday`s withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from urban centres.
Glancing at his seven-year-old son playing a war game on a computer in the corner, Ibrahim, a chain-smoking former military intelligence officer, said he has two main worries.
"Iran has good relations with our political parties. They run militias. If the U.S. troops complete their withdrawal, Iran will do whatever it wants in Iraq," he said, scowling.
Shi`ite-ruled Iran is often accused of arming and funding Shi`ite militias who have killed Sunnis, a charge Tehran denies.
"Also, if the Americans pull out, al Qaeda will return," Ibrahim said. He knows the Islamist militants better than most.
As leader of a U.S.-backed Sunni Arab guard unit made up of many former insurgents, some of his men fought with the rebels against the U.S. military, before switching sides and helping drive al Qaeda fighters out of much of Iraq.
But as U.S. forces increasingly hand control to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki`s Shi`ite Muslim-led government under a security pact that requires them to withdraw completely by 2012, tensions are rising.
Violence has dropped sharply across Iraq, but militants still launch devastating bombings. They are usually blamed on Sunni Arab insurgents like al Qaeda, and seem aimed at undermining Maliki`s administration and tipping the nation back into the sectarian slaughter of 2006/07.
WAVE OF BOMBINGS
The last few days have seen two of the worst attacks in more than a year. A suicide truck bomb killed at least 73 worshippers leaving a Shi`ite mosque near northern Kirkuk city on June 20. Four days later another blast tore through a market in Baghdad`s Sadr City, a Shi`ite slum, killing 72 people.
The government has warned that bloodshed is likely to intensify ahead of an even more important milestone for Iraq than this week`s -- a parliamentary election due in January.
With the U.S. withdrawal from cities, many Iraqis from Shi`ite and Sunni sects say they feel exposed to what they say is corruption and incompetence afflicting Iraqi security forces.
"We`re afraid of what will happen in the next few days," 40-year-old Shi`ite civil servant Salah Abd told Reuters by the wreckage of the Sadr City blast. "We could lose a lot of lives."
Others are more optimistic about the U.S. withdrawal, which will see almost all U.S. troops pull back to rural bases.  Continued...
Original article

Barak open on Israel settlement freeze before U.S. trip

Barak open on Israel settlement freeze before U.S. tripBy Jeffrey Heller
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak left open the possibility on Sunday of a limited freeze on building in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
In comments to reporters, Barak stopped short of denying a report in Israel`s biggest newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, that he would propose a three-month halt to construction starts in settlements but allow current building work to continue.
"The matter mentioned in the headlines has not been finalised," Barak told reporters ahead of talks this week with U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell in the United States.
"The issue of the settlements, as part of a broad range of issues, is part of our dialogue with the Americans," Barak said.
An Israeli official called the report "speculative." Other officials said in any case, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu`s government had not issued any tenders for new construction in West Bank settlements since taking office in March.
U.S. President Barack Obama, in a rare rift between Israel and the United States, is pushing for a building freeze in a bid to spur the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
But U.S. officials said Washington was considering making allowances for some structures nearing completion.
Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Barak would propose that a three-month moratorium would not cover some 2,000 buildings under construction in West Bank enclaves. Work on homes for Jews in Arab East Jerusalem also would continue.
PEACE TALKS
"I spoke with the minister of defense and he said very clearly that there was no idea to freeze all building in the settlements," cabinet minister Gilad Erdan told reporters.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said U.S.-backed negotiations with Israel could not resume until all settlement construction ceased.
Netanyahu has publicly rejected any restrictions on building Jewish homes within the Israeli-designated municipal boundaries of Jerusalem, which include Arab East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank, territory Israel captured in a 1967 war.
Some 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Palestinians say Jewish settlement on occupied land, deemed illegal by the World Court, could prevent them from establishing a viable state.
Israel has sought to ease tensions over settlements by committing to remove more West Bank roadblocks and settler outposts built without Israeli government permission.
(Additional reporting by Adam Entous; Editing by Louise Ireland)
Original article

Barak open on Israel settlement freeze before U.S. trip

Barak open on Israel settlement freeze before U.S. tripBy Jeffrey Heller
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak left open the possibility on Sunday of a limited freeze on building in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
In comments to reporters, Barak stopped short of denying a report in Israel`s biggest newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, that he would propose a three-month halt to construction starts in settlements but allow current building work to continue.
"The matter mentioned in the headlines has not been finalised," Barak told reporters ahead of talks this week with U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell in the United States.
"The issue of the settlements, as part of a broad range of issues, is part of our dialogue with the Americans," Barak said.
An Israeli official called the report "speculative." Other officials said in any case, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu`s government had not issued any tenders for new construction in West Bank settlements since taking office in March.
U.S. President Barack Obama, in a rare rift between Israel and the United States, is pushing for a building freeze in a bid to spur the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
But U.S. officials said Washington was considering making allowances for some structures nearing completion.
Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Barak would propose that a three-month moratorium would not cover some 2,000 buildings under construction in West Bank enclaves. Work on homes for Jews in Arab East Jerusalem also would continue.
PEACE TALKS
"I spoke with the minister of defense and he said very clearly that there was no idea to freeze all building in the settlements," cabinet minister Gilad Erdan told reporters.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said U.S.-backed negotiations with Israel could not resume until all settlement construction ceased.
Netanyahu has publicly rejected any restrictions on building Jewish homes within the Israeli-designated municipal boundaries of Jerusalem, which include Arab East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank, territory Israel captured in a 1967 war.
Some 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Palestinians say Jewish settlement on occupied land, deemed illegal by the World Court, could prevent them from establishing a viable state.
Israel has sought to ease tensions over settlements by committing to remove more West Bank roadblocks and settler outposts built without Israeli government permission.
(Additional reporting by Adam Entous; Editing by Louise Ireland)
Original article

Mid-term elections seen weakening Argentine leader

Mid-term elections seen weakening Argentine leaderBy Fiona Ortiz
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentines voted in congressional elections on Sunday and are expected to throw out allies of President Cristina Fernandez in a rejection of her interventionist economic policies and combative style.
Fernandez, a center-leftist who in 2007 succeeded her husband ex-President Nestor Kirchner, has stagnated with a 30 percent approval rating as Latin America`s No. 3 economy hits turbulence after a six-year expansion.
Polls show Fernandez`s wing of the ruling Peronist party will lose its majority in the 257-seat lower house and barely maintain control of the 72-seat Senate in the mid-term vote.
The key race is in Buenos Aires province, home to 38 percent of Argentines, where dueling Peronist factions are scrambling for the largest share of the 35 lower house seats up for grabs in that district alone.
Kirchner, widely seen as co-governing the country with his wife, is running for Congress in the populous province to shore up her administration and possibly position himself for a presidential run to extend their hold on power through 2015.
The mid-terms are viewed as a springboard for the 2011 presidential race, and Kirchner`s chances will fade if he comes in second in a tight race with millionaire Peronist dissident Francisco de Narvaez.
Argentines` biggest concerns are crime and inflation, according to opinion polls, and Fernandez`s failure to tame high prices is one reason her popularity has flagged.
"I voted for someone else because this government is a disaster. You know what the biggest problem is? Crime. I`ve got to be off the street behind locked doors by 6 p.m.," said Ernesto, a 67-year-old retiree who did not want to give his last name and who voted in an upper-middle-class neighborhood of the province.
COMBATIVE STYLE
The Kirchners` confrontational style -- including frequent clashes with business leaders -- over their six years in power has also worn thin on Argentines.
On the campaign trail, Kirchner warned the country will return to the chaos of the 2001-2002 economic and political meltdown if people do not back him and his wife.
Argentina`s powerful agricultural sector rebelled last year against Fernandez`s plans for higher taxes on soy, the country`s top crop. If she is weakened, farmers will push for less government intervention in farm exports and grain markets.
The presidents of neighboring Brazil and Chile have seen their popularity soar even as their economies go into recession because people in those countries approve of how they are handling the crisis.
But Fernandez`s measures to combat a dramatic economic slowdown and rising unemployment have not generated confidence even though she moved up the mid-term by four months to get them out of the way in case the crisis worsened.
The newly elected members of Congress will not take office until December, so uncertainty looms over how she will govern during the next five months.  Continued...
Original article

Skeptical West debates Russia security plan

Skeptical West debates Russia security planBy David Brunnstrom and Ingrid Melander
CORFU, Greece (Reuters) - The West looked at Russia`s call for a new pan-Europe security pact on Sunday but the EU`s top diplomat said it must not undermine NATO.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana spoke outside a 56-nation meeting of foreign ministers where Western delegates voiced reservations over Russia`s proposal for a new security "architecture."
Ministers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) met a day after NATO and Russia restored formal cooperation on security threats frozen after Russia`s military intervention in Georgia last year.
But there was no progress on keeping OSCE peace monitors in Georgia. Their mission expires on Tuesday and Moscow is blocking a decision to extend their presence by insisting on recognition of independence for Georgia`s pro-Moscow, breakaway South Ossetia region and a separate OSCE mandate there.
Russia is worried over NATO`s expansion and Kremlin leader Dmitry Medvedev has said Cold War-era institutions like the U.S.-led alliance are ill-equipped to defuse tensions in a multipolar world.
His proposed Treaty on European Security would grant equal status to participating countries, rule out military alliances adopting policies detrimental to the security of the other parties, and deny any country or alliance the right to maintain peace and stability on the continent.
"(This is) maybe the beginning of a serious process in which we will take a look at the architecture of security in Europe," Solana said before joining the closed-door meeting on the Greek island of Corfu.
But any pan-European pact must encompass not just "hard" -- or military security -- but also "soft" issues of economy and human rights and democratic governance, Solana, a former NATO secretary-general, told reporters.
DON`T JEOPARDIZE "FANTASTIC STABILITY," SOLANA SAYS
"There are many (aspects of security) we can develop further (but) without putting at risk the basic structures that have provided fantastic stability for many, many years," Solana said, alluding to NATO and the OSCE.
Russia`s proposal stresses only "hard" security. Western officials say Russia must ditch its old adversarial "sphere of influence" approach to security.
The West also criticizes Moscow for what it sees as a trend back to authoritarian rule at home and muscle-flexing in former Soviet republics such as Georgia.
The Kremlin accuses the United States trying to extend its geopolitical sway. The Russian military is concerned by U.S. plans for a missile shield in central Europe and possible future entry of ex-Soviet states like Georgia into NATO.
Russia and its Western counterparts in the OSCE stuck to opposing positions, participants said, but were looking for points in common ahead of a December OSCE summit in Athens.
"We heard a long complaint from Russia, (asking) to consider improvements in European security because in their view everything is falling apart," one European diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.  Continued...
Original article

Guinea-Bissau votes to replace slain president

Guinea-Bissau votes to replace slain presidentBy Alberto Dabo
BISSAU (Reuters) - People in Guinea-Bissau voted on Sunday in an election to replace the slain president of the West African state, hoping for a chance to end years of turmoil worsened by military infighting and cocaine smuggling cartels.
President Joao Bernardo Vieira was shot dead by soldiers in March in apparent revenge for the killing of the head of the army. Eleven candidates are standing on Sunday. One top contender was killed during the election campaign.
There were no reports of trouble on Sunday and voters queued in Bissau, the run-down coastal capital of the former Portuguese colony.
"This is a great day. I`m voting for peace, calm and stability," said trader Binta Diallo. "I want a president able to bring peace and quiet and to end the criminality."
The vote is a test not only for the country of around 1.6 million people, but for a region worried at the retreat of democracy after coups in Guinea and Mauritania and a deepening political crisis in Niger.
Whoever wins, however, faces the challenge of pulling the state back from failure and reforming security forces that are little more than rival militias.
"The military has been far too dominant in Bissau-Guinean politics to date, so there is a real need for the international community to offer support for capacity building," said Kissy Agyeman-Togobo of IHS Global Insight.
PROMISES
The three front-runners all pledge peace and justice.
The biggest party in parliament, the PAIGC, is represented by Malam Bacai Sanha, interim president from 1999-2000 after a coup and brief civil war.
"The ballot is hugely important for bringing the return of peace stability and security," Bacai Sanha said as he voted, expressing confidence that he would win.
Former President Koumba Yala, overthrown in a 2003 coup, is also expected to do well. The former philosophy professor has the backing of the biggest tribe, the Balante.
Henrique Pereira Rosa, standing as an independent, served as interim president between the overthrow of Yala and the 2005 election won by Vieira.
It is possible there will be no outright winner in the ballot of around 600,000 voters on Sunday, meaning a second round would be held.
Polling stations opened officially at 7 a.m. (0700 GMT), although there were delays at some. They close at 5 p.m. About 150 foreign observers monitored the poll.  Continued...
Original article

Albania votes, rivals trade accusations of cheating

Albania votes, rivals trade accusations of cheatingBy Benet Koleka
TIRANA (Reuters) - Albania`s election was mostly orderly, the OSCE said on Sunday, although the main parties accused each other of manipulation in a ballot the West hopes will be the Balkan nation`s first free and fair election.
Polls predict a tight race between the ruling Democratic Party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha, one of the dominant leaders of the post-communist era, and the main opposition Socialist Party led by Edi Rama, the mayor of Tirana.
"So far it has been relatively calm," Robert Bosch, head of the Albanian office of Europe`s main human rights and security watchdog the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), told Reuters.
"There are some little irregularities but this time less than in past elections," he said.
A brief exchange of charges of manipulation between the two parties prompted President Bamir Topi, the U.S. envoy and Bosch to urge Albanians to vote calmly and not succumb to pressure.
The West sees Sunday`s vote as a test of Albania`s democratic maturity and its suitability to join the European bloc. Albania joined the NATO military alliance in April and the same month applied for European Union membership.
"Our partners` have focused their attention on the correctness of our elections. They will be decisive for the future of Albania. Surely, the parties should be more careful," Topi said.
"People should vote freely so that we realize for the very first time in the history of the Albanian transition free, correct, transparent and uncontested elections," he said.
U.S. Ambassador John Withers appealed to all to vote individually and not "succumb to any outside pressure."
"I believe very strongly that the importance of these elections is that they be free, fair, transparent and that the will of the Albanian people not the aspirations of the political parties be the fundamental principle," Withers said.
Earlier, the Central Election Commission said the voting was going well, but cited scattered problems including the lack of marker ink to make sure people do not vote twice, delays in starting the vote and discords over ID checking devices.
At one polling station in the mountainside town on Kruja, famed as the 15th-century stronghold of resistance to Ottoman invasion, a Reuters correspondent saw two separate incidents of men casting ballots for elderly women dressed in black.
A official who was putting ink on voters` thumbs to ensure they could not vote a second time said the practice was allowed, especially when the elderly had poor eyesight.
International observers say family voting for others is not allowed, but there were other instances reported elsewhere.
Outside the simple Kruja schoolhouse where locals lined up to get their ballots, Sajmir Laci, 19, part of a generation born after communism, had voted for the first time.  Continued...
Original article

Troops detain Honduras president: government

Troops detain Honduras president: governmentTEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduran soldiers detained leftist President Manuel Zelaya on Sunday in a constitutional crisis over his attempt to win re-election, government officials said.
Troops took Zelaya, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, from his residence to an unknown location, Eduardo Reina, the president`s private secretary, told Reuters.
He said shots were fired during the incident, but that could not be independently confirmed.
"We have received reports that he was taken to a military air base," Rafael Alegria, a senior government official, told pro-Zelaya television station Channel 8.
The president fired the armed forces chief of staff last week for refusing to help him organize an unofficial referendum on Sunday on allowing presidents to serve more than a single four-year term.
The impoverished Central American country had been politically stable since the end of military rule in the early 1980s, but Zelaya`s push to change the constitution to allow him another term has split the country`s institutions.
The Supreme Court last week came out against Zelaya and ordered him to reinstate fired military chief General Romeo Vasquez -- a move the president said amounted to a "coup" against him.
The pro-government TV channel on Sunday called on Zelaya supporters to gather in the capital to support the president, but then went off the air without explanation. Phone calls to the presidential palace went unanswered.
The global economic crisis has curbed growth in Honduras, which lives off coffee and textile exports and remittances from Honduran workers abroad. Recent opinion polls have shown that public support for Zelaya has fallen as low as 30 percent.
Honduras, home to 7 million people, is a major drug trafficking transit point.
(Reporting by Mica Rosenberg and Gustavo Palencia; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
Original article

Mousavi rejects partial Iran vote recount

Mousavi rejects partial Iran vote recountBy Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi on Saturday rejected authorities` proposals for a partial recount of votes from this month`s election and repeated his demand the entire ballot be annulled.
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, the Guardian Council, had offered to recount 10 percent of ballot boxes from the June 12 vote in the presence of senior officials representing the government and opposition.
"This kind of recount will not remove ambiguities...There is no other way but annulment of the vote...Some members of this committee are not impartial," Mousavi said in a statement posted on his website.
Another beaten candidate, pro-reform cleric Mehdi Karoubi, also rejected the partial recount offer in a statement on his site.
Mass protests by Mousavi supporters have exposed splits in Iran`s political establishment and plunged the country into its deepest crisis since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. State media say 20 people have died in post-election violence.
The Guardian Council has already said it found no major violations in the vote that returned hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.
Ahmadinejad warned on Saturday he would take a tougher approach in his second term of office to make the West regret meddling in Tehran`s affairs.
"With no doubt, Iran`s new government will have a more decisive and firmer approach toward the West," the official IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
"This time the Iranian nation`s reply will be harsh and more decisive" to make the West rue its interference, he said.
OBAMA OVERTURES
He was speaking a day after U.S. President Barack Obama praised the bravery of Iranians who protested against the election in the face of what he called "outrageous" violence.
Before the vote, Obama had made diplomatic overtures to Iran after years of hostility between the two nations. Relations with the West have been overshadowed for years by Iran`s disputed nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at building an atomic bomb.
Iran denies this, insisting it only wants to produce energy for peaceful purposes.
Authorities have placed responsibility for the post-election violence on Mousavi, who says the vote was rigged.  Continued...
Original article

Police question Australian opposition leader over email

SYDNEY, Jun (Reuters) - Australian opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull said on Sunday he had given a statement to police about a fake email at the heart of claims that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd misled parliament.
It follows a week of political controversy over the so-called "Utegate" affair, which relates to a small truck, known in Australia as a "ute," loaned to Rudd by a car dealer friend for electoral purposes.
The email in question allegedly came from Rudd`s office and was cited by the opposition as evidence that Rudd had lied over allegations he helped his friend gain access to a government scheme known as `OzCar`, set up to help dealers in the global economic crisis.
But the opposition tactics largely backfired when an intensive search of government computers failed to locate the email and a copy of it turned up at the house of a treasury official, Godwin Grech, who Turnbull has admitted meeting.
Rudd called in the police a week ago and the government spent most of last week calling for Turnbull to resign. Police have declared the email a fake.
On Sunday, Turnbull told Channel Ten television that he had given a statement on the matter to the Australian Federal Police. "I`ve met with the federal police, I`ve given them a statement," Turnbull said. "Let the police do their work."
However, Turnbull denied that the row, in which the opposition also accused Treasurer Wayne Swan of misleading parliament, had damaged his leadership of the main opposition Liberal Party. Turnbull has denied ever having a copy of the email.
"The party is united. We have survived a difficult week," he said.
Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said on Sunday that Turnbull had "made an idiot of himself," by accusing the government of lying "on the basis of an email that turned out to be fake." Tanner also said the opposition clearly had no intention of opening up its own computers for inspection and should do so.
"Given the nature of the potential crimes we`re dealing with here, that is appalling," Tanner told Channel Nine.
The allegations have had little impact on Rudd`s public standing and he remains far ahead in the polls, although Turnbull has been gradually clawing back ground since taking over as opposition leader last year.
Rudd`s current three-year term ends in late 2010 and there has been speculation he may seek an early election, although the prime minister has said he intends to serve his full term.
(Editing by Bill Tarrant)
Original article

Pakistani jets hit militant compounds in Waziristan

By Hafiz Wazir
WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani aircraft bombed Taliban on Sunday in their bastion of South Waziristan on the Afghan border after the militants attacked two military camps, killing two soldiers, officials and residents said.
The military, near the end of an offensive in the northwestern Swat Valley after two months of fighting, is preparing to launch a new drive in South Waziristan, where Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud is based.
The decision to go on the attack against the militants came after Taliban gains raised fears of the militants gradually taking over more of the country and even posing a risk to Pakistan`s nuclear arsenal.
The campaign has broad public support and has also won the praise of close ally the United States, which needs Pakistan to go after the militants as it tries to defeat al Qaeda and stabilize Afghanistan.
Sunday`s air strikes were on two villages in Laddah district, a Mehsud stronghold, and two militant compounds were destroyed, said a government official and residents.
"It was a heavy bombing. Two militant compounds and several houses have been completely destroyed," said the government official in South Waziristan`s main town of Wana, who declined to be identified.
The air strikes came after militants attacked an army and a paramilitary camp east of Wana on Saturday night, killing two soldiers and wounding four, said the government official.
Intelligence officials later said eight militants had been killed.
CIVILIANS FLEE
The government has said Mehsud, who carries a $5 million U.S. reward on his head, and his force of thousands of followers must be defeated.
The government posted in a newspaper on Sunday a reward of 50 million rupees ($615,000) for Mehsud, and 75 million ($920,000 ) in rewards for 10 of his top men.
Mehsud, who security analysts say has become increasingly close to al Qaeda, has been accused of a string of attacks in Pakistani towns and cities including the December 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Mehsud is allied with Afghan Taliban fighters but they concentrate on attacking U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan and are not the focus of the Pakistani offensive.
With an increase in military attacks on Mehsud in South Waziristan, about 45,000 people have fled from the area, according to military estimates.
Nearly 2 million people have fled from fighting in Swat and other parts of the northwest since late last year but aid workers are not expecting a huge exodus from South Waziristan as the population there is relatively small.  Continued...
Original article

Mid-term elections seen weakening Argentine leader

Mid-term elections seen weakening Argentine leaderBy Fiona Ortiz
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentines cast ballots in congressional elections on Sunday and are expected to throw out allies of President Cristina Fernandez in a rejection of her interventionist economic policies and combative style.
Fernandez, a center-leftist who in 2007 succeeded her husband ex-President Nestor Kirchner, has stagnated with a 30 percent approval rating as Latin America`s No. 3 economy hits turbulence after a six-year expansion.
Polls show Fernandez`s wing of the ruling Peronist party will lose its majority in the 257-seat lower house and barely maintain control of the 72-seat Senate in the mid-term vote.
The key race is in Buenos Aires province, home to 38 percent of Argentines, where dueling Peronist factions are scrambling for the largest share of the 35 lower house seats up for grabs in that district alone.
Kirchner, widely seen as co-governing the country with his wife, is running for Congress in the populous province to shore up her administration and possibly position himself for a presidential run to extend their hold on power through 2015.
The mid-terms are viewed as a springboard for the 2011 presidential race, and Kirchner`s chances will fade if he comes in second in a tight race with millionaire Peronist dissident Francisco de Narvaez.
Argentines` biggest concerns are crime and inflation, according to opinion polls, and Fernandez`s failure to tame high prices is one reason her popularity has flagged.
COMBATIVE STYLE
But the Kirchners` confrontational style -- including frequent clashes with business leaders -- over their six years in power has also worn thin on Argentines.
On the campaign trail, Kirchner warned the country will return to the chaos of the 2001-2002 economic and political meltdown if people don`t back him and his wife.
Argentina`s powerful agricultural sector rebelled last year against Fernandez`s plans for higher taxes on soy, the nation`s top crop. If she is weakened, farmers will push for less government intervention in farm exports and grain markets.
The presidents of neighboring Brazil and Chile have seen their popularity soar even as their economies go into recession because people in those countries approve of how they are handling the crisis.
But Fernandez`s measures to combat a dramatic economic slowdown and rising unemployment have not generated confidence even though she moved up the mid-term by four months to get them out of the way in case the crisis worsened.
The newly elected members of Congress will not take office until December, so uncertainty looms over how she will govern during the next five months.
Some business leaders and investors are bracing for shock announcements such as state bank takeovers. The Kirchners are known for surprise moves such as last year`s nationalizations of the country`s biggest airline the private pension system.  Continued...
Original article

South Korea getting U.S. missiles to boost defences: report

South Korea getting U.S. missiles to boost defences: reportSEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea is acquiring 40 U.S.-made missiles for an Aegis destroyer this month to boost its defenses amid reports North Korea may soon test-fire missiles, Yonhap news agency on Sunday quoted a military source as saying.
North Korea, which rattled regional security with a May 25 nuclear test, is preparing to test a long-range missile that could hit U.S. territory and mid-range missiles that could hit all of South Korea, a South Korean presidential Blue House official said last week.
The surface-to-air missiles for the Aegis destroyer, designed to track and shoot down objects including missiles, can hit targets up to 160 km (100 miles) away, Yonhap quoted the source as saying.
North Korea has also warned ships to stay away from waters off its east coast city of Wonsan, Japan`s Coast Guard said last week, in a possible indication of a missile test.
North Korea launched in April a rocket it said was carrying a satellite. The move was widely seen as a disguised test of its long-range Taepodong-2 missile and a violation of U.N. resolutions barring the reclusive state from ballistic missile testing.
The U.N. Security Council punished it for the missile launch by tightening existing sanctions and imposing new ones after the nuclear test to halt its arms trading, one of the few items the cash-short state with a broken down economy can export.
The U.S. Navy has said it is monitoring a North Korean ship under the new U.N. security resolutions imposed after the nuclear test. A South Korean intelligence source said the ship is likely carrying missiles and parts, and it could be heading to Myanmar, broadcaster YTN said.
At the weekend, the prickly North warned in an official media report it would shoot down any Japanese military plane that breached North Korean air space.
South Korean officials have said the North`s recent saber rattling may be a way for leader Kim Jong-il to build internal support as he prepares for succession in Asia`s only communist dynasty.
(Reporting by Cheon Jong-woo; Editing by Jon Herskovitz)
Original article

Northern Ireland`s paramilitaries dump arsenal

Northern Ireland`s paramilitaries dump arsenalBy Anne Cadwallader
BELFAST (Reuters) - Pro-British paramilitary forces Saturday completed a historic step in the Northern Ireland peace process by scrapping their weapons in front of independent witnesses.
The moves, confirmed by the British and Irish governments, underscored commitment across the sectarian divide to ending violence but did not remove a threat from hard-line splinter groups operating on both sides.
"The struggle has ended," said the Ulster Defense Association, which has also begun to fully decommission arms. "Peace and democracy have been secured and the need for armed resistance has gone. Consequently we are putting our arsenal of weaponry permanently beyond use."
An Ulster Volunteer Force statement was read to reporters in Belfast by a man representing the UVF and the Red Hand Commando and wearing an ordinary suit, a change from when paramilitary spokesmen addressed the media in masks, toting guns.
"The leadership of the Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando today confirms it has completed the process of rendering ordnance totally and irreversibly beyond use," the UVF and the RHC statement said.
The UVF killed more than 540 people during 30 years of conflict with pro-Irish nationalists, making it the most lethal of the province`s loyalist groups.
Northern Ireland has enjoyed relative peace since a 1998 deal ended the predominantly Catholic Irish Republican Army`s military campaign to end British control of the province and unite the island of Ireland.
`AN IMPORTANT LANDMARK`
"In recent years, loyalist organizations have been making effective progress toward conflict transformation, and today is an important landmark in this process," said Ireland`s Foreign Minister Micheal Martin.
Mainly Protestant military organizations that want to keep Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom have been under pressure for years to start getting rid of arms following the IRA`s decision to dispose of its weapons in 2005.
"The leadership of the UVF and RHC have delivered on what they said they would do," said Shaun Woodward, Britain`s Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, confirming the UVF and RHC had completed decommissioning in cooperation with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton welcomed the actions by the paramilitary forces.
"The announcements underscore the remarkable progress that has taken place in Northern Ireland over the years," Clinton said in a statement. "All parties agree, as the people of Northern Ireland do, that the only way forward is through peace and reconciliation, and not through violence."
More than 3,600 people were killed in violence between the late 1960s and the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement that paved the way for power sharing.
Efforts to consolidate peace were challenged in March when Republican splinter groups the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA killed two British soldiers and a policeman.  Continued...
Original article

Sabbath parking fuels Jerusalem religious tensions

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Ultra-Orthodox Jews, angry at the opening of a parking lot on the Jewish sabbath, clashed with police separating them from secular Jerusalem residents who held a protest on Saturday in support of the move.
Police moved in to separate the demonstrators after ultra-Orthodox Jews started hurling stones and vegetables. A police spokesman said 10 people were arrested.
Tensions have been brewing in the city over plans by Jerusalem`s Israeli mayor, Nir Barkat, to reopen a parking lot on Saturday, a move that could draw more traffic into the city on the Jewish sabbath.
Jewish religious law bans travel on the sabbath, and Jerusalem`s ultra-Orthodox community has negotiated with city authorities arrangements that limit or ban traffic in their neighborhoods on Saturdays.
Tensions reached a new peak on Friday when thousands of Ultra-Orthodox Jews walked through a main street in the city in protest at Barkat`s decision. Some scuffled with journalists and photographers covering the march.
The march occurred a day after Orthodox Jews held street prayers to mourn Thursday`s gay pride parade in the city, at which police deployed some 1,500 policemen.
Many devout Jews, Muslims and Christians view homosexuality as an abomination. In 2005, an ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed and wounded three participants in the gay march. He is serving a 12-year sentence.
Barkat became mayor in November after beating ultra-Orthodox Uri Lupolianski. He ran on a platform of reversing an exodus of secular young Jews who leave to cities like Tel Aviv and Haifa in search of better job opportunities.
He also vowed to fight poverty and unemployment in the city where religious and secular Jews live in a delicate balance.
In Orthodox neighborhoods, families in traditional black garb stroll to synagogues during the Sabbath and Jewish holidays on roads blocked to cars. In downtown Jerusalem, secular Jews frequent non-Kosher bars and eateries.
(Reporting by Eli Berlzon; Writing by Joseph Nasr, Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Original article
 

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