Ahmadinejad scraps African summit trip

(AHMADINEJAD, ELECTION, KAROUBI, RESULT, UNREST, SINCE)

By Fredrik Dahl and Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran`s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called off a trip to Libya for an African Union summit on Wednesday that would have given the hardline president another chance to appear at an international forum after his disputed re-election.
Mehdi Karoubi, a reformist cleric who came last in the June 12 poll, said he still rejected the result, which set off Iran`s gravest internal unrest since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
"I don`t consider this government legitimate," he said in a statement on his website. "I will continue my fight."
A spokesman at Ahmadinejad`s office said the Libya visit had been canceled. He gave no reason. It would have been the president`s second foray abroad since the election.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi later told state television Ahmadinejad was too busy to go.
In a show of confidence, Ahmadinejad attended a regional summit in Russia four days after the vote, ignoring huge street protests by supporters of losing candidates Mirhossein Mousavi and Karoubi, who both say the election was rigged.
The Guardian Council, a supervisory body, on Monday endorsed the election result and dismissed complaints of irregularities, saying a partial recount had shown these were baseless.
Karoubi and Mousavi, a moderate former prime minister, have stuck by their demands for the vote to be annulled, in defiance of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has upheld the result and denounced dissenters. Khamenei`s word is final.
"Some visible and invisible forces blocked any change in the executive power," Karoubi complained.
Security forces have crushed street protests, and hardliners have regained the upper hand in the world`s fifth biggest oil exporter, whose nuclear programme has alarmed the West.
Karoubi, a white-bearded cleric who was close to Iran`s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, demanded the release of "thousands" of people arrested during the unrest.
Iran`s police chief, Ismail Ahmadi-Moghaddam, put the number of detainees at 1,032 and said most had since been released.
"Those who are still in detention were referred to the public and revolutionary courts in Tehran," the semi-official Fars News Agency quoted him as telling a news conference.
Ahmadi-Moghaddam said 20 "rioters" had been killed during the unrest and more than 500 police had been injured.
"PLANNED SCENARIO"  Continued...
Original article

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Bomb kills 32 in Iraq as U.S. troops leave

(BAGHDAD, SECURITY, KIRKUK, PEOPLE, IRAQIS, MILITARY)

By Tim Cocks and Muhanad Mohammed
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Hours after U.S. troops handed over control of Iraq`s cities to its domestic security forces, a car bomb in the northern city of Kirkuk killed at least 32 people and wounded more than 100 on Tuesday, police said.
The blast tore through a busy market in a largely Kurdish part of the city, which is regarded as a potential flashpoint between ethnic Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen.
The U.S. pullback to rural bases from towns and cities is the first step toward a full U.S. withdrawal by 2012 agreed under a bilateral security pact.
Some Iraqis fear it leaves them open to attack by insurgent groups but many Iraqis celebrated what the government named "National Sovereignty Day," more than six years after the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.
Citizens and Iraqi soldiers drove around the streets of the capital in vehicles draped in flowers and Iraqi flags. Signs were draped on Baghdad`s many concrete blast walls reading "Iraq: my nation, my glory, my honor."
"This day, which we consider a national celebration, is an achievement made by all Iraqis," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in a televised address.
"Our incomplete sovereignty and the presence of foreign troops is the most serious legacy we have inherited (from Saddam). Those who think that Iraqis are unable to defend their country are committing a fatal mistake."
The day`s festivities included a parade in Baghdad`s heavily fortified Green Zone government and diplomatic district, viewed by Iraqis as the ultimate symbol of the foreign military presence until local forces took control of it in January.
In a display of the military muscle Iraq will use to combat a stubborn insurgency, thousands of soldiers and police paraded on foot or in U.S.-donated Humvees, armored cars and tanks in a compound where Saddam`s forces once staged elaborate displays.
U.S. and local officials said the pullback of U.S. troops showed how far the country had come since it was almost torn apart by tit-for-tat sectarian killing in 2006/2007.
But the Kirkuk bomb underscored the fragility of the security gains. Iraq is less violent that it has been for years, but militants still stage frequent attacks.
In Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama lauded the U.S. troop withdrawal as an important milestone but warned of "difficult days" ahead.
Frantic relatives of those who had been in the area dug through the rubble in Kirkuk, searching for missing loved ones.
"I went to the market to get some bread and there was a huge explosion," said Taseen Azad, 21, who was lightly wounded. "I saw people falling on the ground, shops burning and dead people. Then someone took me to the hospital."
The U.S. military said four U.S. soldiers based in Baghdad had died of combat-related injuries on Monday.  Continued...
Original article

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Bomb kills 25 in Iraq as U.S. troops leave

(BAGHDAD, IRAQI, TUESDAY, TROOPS, SECURITY, GOVERNMENT)

By Tim Cocks and Muhanad Mohammed
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A car bomb in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk killed at least 25 people on Tuesday, just after U.S. troops handed over full control of Iraq`s cities to the domestic security forces six years after the invasion.
The bomb, which wounded at least 40 people, struck a busy market in a largely Kurdish part of Kirkuk, a city viewed as a potential flashpoint between the Shi`ite Arab-led central government and Kurds. Police said the death toll could rise.
Many Iraqis fear the U.S. pullback from towns and cities and into rural bases, the first step toward a full U.S. withdrawal by the end of 2011, leaves them open to attack.
But the government declared Tuesday a holiday, "National Sovereignty Day," and held a parade to show off the military muscle it will use against a stubborn insurgency.
"This day, which we consider a national celebration, is an achievement made by all Iraqis," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in a televised address.
"Our incomplete sovereignty and the presence of foreign troops is the most serious legacy we have inherited (from Saddam Hussein). Those who think that Iraqis are unable to defend their country are committing a fatal mistake."
Citizens and Iraqi soldiers drove around the streets of Baghdad in vehicles draped in flowers and Iraqi flags to celebrate.
In another bloody reminder of the war unleashed by the 2003 U.S. invasion, the U.S. military said four U.S. soldiers based in Baghdad had died of combat-related injuries on Monday. It gave no further details.
By midnight on Tuesday, all U.S. combat units must have left Iraq`s urban centers and redeployed to rural bases, according to a bilateral security pact that requires all U.S. troops to leave Iraq by the end of 2011.
(Additional reporting by Sherko Raouf; editing by Robert Woodward)
Original article

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U.N. monitors leave Georgia, OSCE mission shuts

(MONITORS, MISSION, RUSSIA, AFTER, ABKHAZIA, SOUTH)

By Matt Robinson
TBILISI (Reuters) - United Nations monitors began pulling out of Georgia on Tuesday and the OSCE officially closed its observer mission, testing security almost a year since the former Soviet republic`s war with Russia.
A deadline for the OSCE to withdraw passed on Tuesday after negotiations with Russia broke down in May. The mission conducted its last patrol on Friday, and has already left its hillside headquarters in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.
Russia rejected extending the mandates of some 130 U.N. monitors in breakaway Abkhazia and 20 monitors of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, who operated in rebel South Ossetia until last August`s war.
Moscow recognized the territories as independent states after crushing a Georgian assault on South Ossetia in a five-day war. Russia demanded separate monitoring missions for the regions, which Georgia said would violate its sovereignty.
Greek Foreign Minister and OSCE chair Dora Bakoyanni lamented the lack of consensus.
"As a result, one of the largest on-the-ground missions of the OSCE in the region was led to an end -- despite the clear need, recognized by many states taking part in it, for the organization to be present in order to contribute toward security and stability in the region."
In Abkhazia on Monday, U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Edmond Mulet said U.N. military and police monitors would start leaving on Tuesday and complete the withdrawal by July 15, a month after Russia vetoed a new mandate, Abkhaz media reported.
OIL AND GAS TRANSIT
A U.N. official who declined to be named confirmed around 20 monitors were leaving on Tuesday. "We`re moving them out in batches," he said. Full closure and the departure of several hundred civilian staff will take several more months.
The U.N. and OSCE missions deployed after Abkhazia and South Ossetia threw off Georgia`s rule in wars in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Their departure leaves the European Union alone with some 225 unarmed monitors deployed after last year`s war to monitor a fragile ceasefire.
The EU mission, however, has been denied access to either South Ossetia or Abkhazia and currently conducts patrols only as far as the de facto borders.
Analysts warn the mission has neither the access nor the means to prevent frequent incidents -- gunfire and bomb blasts -- escalating into full-blown clashes in an important transit region for oil and gas to the West.
Russia has kept thousands of soldiers in South Ossetia and Abkhazia since the war. Departing OSCE mission head Terhi Hakala warned last week of the risk of fresh conflict.
Tensions are again running high, with Russia this week conducting annual large-scale military exercises across parts of its southern regions bordering Georgia, condemned by Tbilisi as "pure provocation."
(Additional reporting by Harry Papachristou in Athens, editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Original article

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Iraq steps into precarious but sovereign unknown

(TROOPS, FORCES, MILITANT, SECURITY, THEIR, IRAQI)

By Michael Christie
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq takes a major step toward reasserting its sovereignty on Tuesday when U.S. combat troops hand urban areas over to its relatively untested police and soldiers.
Will the end of one aspect of the "surge" strategy -- the ramped-up deployment of U.S. forces in militant strongholds that helped drive al Qaeda and other fighters underground -- lead to a collapse in security?
WILL VIOLENCE SOAR?
It is highly likely that insurgents will increase their attacks following the departure of U.S. combat troops from city centers, both U.S. and Iraqi officials say.
Some militant groups may want to create the impression that they deserve the credit for driving out the occupation forces.
The fact that the partial withdrawal has been dictated by a bilateral security pact agreed last year between the United States and Iraq is immaterial to them.
Some of the insurgents may also think Iraq and its population will be more vulnerable once the Americans pull back to their bases, and that they have a better chance of reigniting widespread sectarian bloodshed through massive bombings.
There have been indications, however, that insurgent and militant groups have lost the capacity to keep up the momentum.
While the past month saw two of the deadliest bombings in more than a year, the overall number of incidents has plunged, and major attacks are followed by weeks of relative calm.
WHAT IS AT STAKE POLITICALLY?
If Iraqi security forces fail to protect the Iraqi people from escalating attacks, Shi`ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is likely to suffer politically.
He is staking his hopes for a second term after a parliamentary poll next January on his ability to claim credit for a sharp fall in violence over the past 18 months.
Maliki has called the withdrawal a great victory as Iraq tries to shake off stigma of occupation, and he has declared June 30, "National Sovereignty Day," a public holiday.
Analysts say he has essentially backed himself into a corner by exalting the occasion -- if violence soars it will be politically unpalatable to call on the U.S. military for help.
The prime minister`s stance may also dictate commanders` behavior on the ground. They may be loathe to call on U.S. troops or air cover, no matter how much it is needed, out of fear of being punished by their superiors for apparent weakness.  Continued...
Original article

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Iran upholds Ahmadinejad victory, says matter closed

(ELECTION, COUNCIL, RECOUNT, PROTESTS, STATE, OPPOSITION)

By Fredrik Dahl and Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran confirmed hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president and said a row over his June 12 re-election was over, leaving opponents who cried foul with few options.
Iran`s top legislative body, the Guardian Council, said a partial recount on Monday had disproved complaints of irregularities by pro-reform opponents, who said the count was inadequate and that only annulling the election would do.
Riot police beefed up their presence in the capital Tehran but there were no signs of major unrest late on Monday, in contrast to protests by tens of thousands that erupted when Ahmadinejad was first declared victor of the June 12 vote.
State media say 20 people died in that violence which the government and opposition blamed on one another. Pro-government Basij militia and riot police broke up the protests.
"The secretary of the Guardian Council, in a letter to the interior minister, announced the final decision of the Council ... and declares the approval of the accuracy of the results of ... the presidential election," state broadcaster IRIB said.
The poll and its turbulent aftermath have exposed splits in Iran`s political establishment and plunged the country into its deepest crisis since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
But options for the opposition look limited now the election result has been officially upheld, after the recount of what the council said was a random 10 percent of the vote.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei signaled on June 19 that mass protests would no longer be tolerated. There is little scope for more legal fights, and hundreds of opposition supporters have been detained, leaving protesters leaderless.
After dark, some people are still chanting "Allahu Akbar (God is greatest)" from their rooftops, mimicking tactics used during the 1979 revolution, but the nightly cries are weakening.
There has been talk of other forms of civil disobedience, including strike action, but these have yet to materialize.
DOSSIER CLOSED
"The Guardian Council statement was issued when it became convinced about the accuracy of the election," a council spokesman said, adding that no irregularities were found.
"The dossier of the ... election has been closed today."
The recount system was not immediately clear, but state media said it had been spread over at least several provinces.
Opposition supporters say the vote was rigged to favor the hardline president over reformist rivals including Mirhossein Mousavi, who came second. Mousavi had rejected the idea of a recount and sent no representatives to watch it.  Continued...
Original article

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Blast in Baghdad marketplace kills 72, injures over 100

(EXPLOSION, BAGHDAD, WEDNESDAY, LOCAL, CITIES, NUMBER)

Powerful explosion kills more than 70 in Baghdad
MOSCOW, June 25 (RIA Novosti) - Police have confirmed at least 72 people have died and more than 100 injured in a blast in a Baghdad marketplace, al Jazeera reported on Thursday.
The bomb was hidden in a motorcycle rickshaw loaded with fruit and vegetables which detonated on Wednesday evening at the Mraidi outdoor market in north Baghdad`s Sadr City. The bomber abandoned his vehicle and ran off prior to the detonation.
Many women and children are among the victims.
"I heard a boom and saw a ball of fire," Najim Ali, a 30-year-old local, who was shopping in the market, told al Jazeera. "I saw cars flying in the air because of the force of the explosion."
This latest attack comes as U.S. troops prepare to hand over control of several Iraqi cities to local authorities by June 30.
The number of explosions has dropped in recent months in Iraq with May having one of the lowest casualty figures since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of the country. However recent violence, including a blast in Kirkuk on Saturday which killed 73, has pushed the death toll this month to over 150.
Earlier on Wednesday, a U.S. military spokesman said only a small number of U.S. troops would remain in Iraqi cities after the June 30 deadline, but that the exact number was still being worked on.
Some U.S. soldiers will stay behind in urban centers at so-called Joint Security Stations to train and advise local security forces.
 
Original article

Honduras isolated over coup, protests turn violent

(HONDURAS, PRESIDENT, ZELAYA, AMERICAN, LEADERS, CHAVEZ)

By Mica Rosenberg
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras came under pressure on Monday to reinstate ousted President Manuel Zelaya as many Latin American leaders agreed to withdraw envoys, Washington called his overthrow illegal and street protests turned violent.
Police in the Honduran capital fired tear gas at stone-throwing supporters of Zelaya, a leftist who was toppled in an army coup on Sunday and flown to exile in Costa Rica while a caretaker president was sworn in.
Some 1,500 protesters, some of them masked and carrying sticks, taunted solders and burned tires just outside the gates of the presidential palace in a face-off with security forces.
Zelaya was ousted over his push to extend presidential terms in Central America`s biggest political crisis since the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989. Honduras had been stable since the end of military rule in the early 1980s.
Congress named Roberto Micheletti, a conservative-leaning veteran of Zelaya`s Liberal Party as interim president.
Honduras is a major coffee producer, expected to export some 3.22 million 60-kg bags in the 2008/09 season, but there were no immediate signs that output or exports were affected as ports and roads remained open.
Left-wing Latin American presidents led by Venezuela`s President Hugo Chavez said at a meeting in Managua, capital of neighboring Nicaragua, that they would withdraw their ambassadors from Honduras in protest at the coup.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon followed suit, as did leaders from Central America, also meeting in Managua, according to a diplomatic source. The Central American leaders also announced a two-day halt in trade.
Chavez said he would stop sales of cheap oil to Honduras, an impoverished coffee, textiles and banana exporter of 7 million people which joined his ALBA trade bloc of allies last year under Zelaya.
MICHELETTI SLIPS PAST PROTEST
Visibly bolstered by the sea of support for him, Zelaya said he would travel to Honduras on Thursday with Organization of American States (OAS) chief Jose Miguel Insulza.
"I am going to Tegucigalpa on Thursday. The president elected by the people is coming," Zelaya said. He said he had accepted an offer by Insulza to accompany him but gave no details of how he expected to pull the trip off.
Zelaya is due to address the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Tuesday and travel to Washington on Wednesday.
Micheletti, who set himself up in the presidential palace despite the protests raging outside, told Reuters most Hondurans supported the coup, which had saved the country from swinging to a radical Chavez-style socialism.
"President Zelaya was moving the country toward `Chavismo`, he was following this model which is not accepted by Hondurans," he said in an interview, using a Spanish term for the style of socialism championed by Chavez.  Continued...
Original article

Partial recount in Iran, reformers want annulment

(ELECTION, MOUSAVI, STATE, OUTCOME, TEHRAN, RECOUNT, POLICE)

By Fredrik Dahl and Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN (Reuters) - A partial recount of Iran`s disputed election won by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began on Monday, but one defeated reformist candidate said an annulment of the poll was "the only way to regain the people`s trust."
In a sign that the process would not put into question Ahmadinejad`s victory, IRNA news agency said recounting so far in one Tehran district gave him more votes than in the June 12 poll that unleashed the worst unrest since the 1979 revolution.
Witnesses reported an increased police presence in some Tehran squares ahead of the expected announcement of the recount outcome later on Monday.One witness said dozens of riot police vehicles were driving toward southern Tehran.
Pro-reform cleric Mehdi Karoubi, fourth in the official count, reiterated his call for the vote to be annulled in a letter to Iran`s top legislative body, the Guardian Council, which is recounting a random 10 percent of the votes.
"The election`s annulment is the only way to regain the people`s trust," said Karoubi, in a position shared with defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi, who met on Sunday with a committee of the Council in a bid to resolve a political crisis that has exposed rifts in Iran`s ruling establishment.
The Council`s spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodai told state radio that talks over Mousavi`s proposal had no clear outcome, but the moderate candidate was not available for comment. Mousavi has said a "national arbitration committee" should examine the vote.
RECOUNT RESULTS
"This recount is being done before (state broadcaster) IRIB cameras in various provinces and cities and we will subsequently announce the outcome for public information. ... We will try to release the outcome by the end of working hours (on Monday)," Kadkhodai said.
State media have said 20 people were killed in violence since the election won by the hardline president, and authorities have accused Mousavi of responsibility for the bloodshed. He says the government is to blame.
Mass protests, which had echoes of the Islamic Revolution that toppled the shah, were broken up by pro-government Basij militia and riot police driving the reformist demonstrators who said the poll was rigged off the streets.
The hardline leadership, locked in a row with the West over its nuclear programme and which says the poll was fair, has also blamed turmoil in the world`s fifth biggest oil exporter on foreign powers rather than popular anger. "Americans and the Zionists (Israel) wanted to destabilise Iran," Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei said.
"Even months before the election they started to talk about the possibility of vote-rigging in Iran, and they continue this path after the election," the minister added.
Iranian authorities said on Monday five out of nine detained British embassy local staff had been released, while four others were being held for questioning. Britain has rejected accusations that the embassy helped to foment the mass rallies.
The United States and other major powers have questioned the election`s fairness and condemned the bloodshed in its turbulent aftermath. Britain and Iran have expelled two of each other`s diplomats since the election.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Sunday had demanded the release of all the staff held and said his European Union colleagues had agreed to a "strong, collective response" to any such "harassment and intimidation" against EU missions.  Continued...
Original article

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Bangladesh textile workers go on rampage

(TEXTILE, WORKERS, BANGLADESH, EXPORT, EXPORTERS, GARMENT, POLICE)

By Ruma Paul
DHAKA (Reuters) - Textile workers set fire to a factory in Bangladesh on Monday in a third day of demonstrations for payment of wages, witnesses said, as the global economic crisis hits the South Asian country`s main export industry.
The workers were also protesting two colleagues` deaths blamed on police firing over the weekend at a similar demonstration on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka.
"The situation is now under control," a police official said after police fired rubber bullets and teargas to disperse the workers. At least 30 people were injured in the clashes.
Abdus Salam Murshedy, the President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said the global economic slowdown had hurt textile exporters and some of them could be facing financial difficulties.
A government survey released on Sunday reported 122 out of 825 factories had not paid workers on time between January and May.
Bangladesh earned $11 billion from textile exports last year, more than 75 percent of the impoverished country`s total export income and equivalent to 17 percent of the country`s GDP of around $65 billion.
Labor unrest in the textile industry has grown in recent years over unpaid wages and overtime. The minimum monthly wage of a textile worker is less than $25.
Exporters have ruled out any wage rise because of declining overseas sales.
The government would take strong action to prevent unrest in the garment sector, Labor Minister Mosharraf Hossain said.
"We will probe the incidents and punish those involved in the riots so that such incidents do not happen again," he said.
More than 100 people including several policemen have been injured since the protests began on Saturday.
Bangladesh has some 4,500 garment factories, employing more than 2.5 million workers.
(Reporting by Ruma Paul; Editing by Anis Ahmed and Jerry Norton)
Original article

Iran spars with U.S. and Britain over election

(ELECTION, TEHRAN, WHICH, UNITED, FOREIGN, MINISTER, SINCE)

By Fredrik Dahl
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran accused the United States of trying to destabilize it and sparked a new row with Britain on Sunday, underscoring the hardline leadership`s efforts to blame post-election unrest on foreign powers rather than popular anger.
(Editors` note: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.)
Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei rejected allegations of vote-rigging in this month`s presidential election, which unleashed the biggest street protests since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
"I am announcing that no organized rigging which could affect the result of the election took place," he said.
"Americans and the Zionists (Israel) wanted to destabilize Iran ... Even months before the election they started to talk about the possibility of vote-rigging in Iran, and they continue this path after the election," the minister said.
Mohseni-Ejei said the United States and Britain wanted to carry out a "velvet revolution" in Iran but declared that this was impossible. "People are wise and they are very close to their system," he said.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband demanded the release of several local British embassy staff detained by Iran, and said his European Union colleagues had agreed to a "strong, collective response" to any such "harassment and intimidation" against EU missions.
He said Iranian accusations that embassy staff had helped foment unrest were "wholly without foundation."
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei again denounced "interfering statements" by Western officials since the June 12 election.
"If the (Iranian) nation and officials are unanimous and united, then the temptations of international ill-wishers and interfering and cruel politicians will no longer have an impact," state radio quoted him as saying.
The United States and Britain reject accusations by Tehran of interference in this month`s vote, which official results showed was won by hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
His main challenger, moderate former prime minister Mirhossein Mousavi, says the vote was rigged and that the election should be annulled.
The West is at odds with Iran over its nuclear program, as well as its handling of the unrest.
"EVERYBODY DEPRESSED"
The streets of Tehran have sunk back into a sullen calm since riot police and religious Basij militia crushed huge demonstrations in which at least 20 people were killed.  Continued...
Original article

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In China, parents mourn children abducted by traffickers

(CHILDREN, CHINA, CHILD, POLICE, TRAFFICKING, PARENTS, LOCAL)

By James Pomfret and Venus Wu
DONGGUAN (Reuters) - In the quiet village of Shang Di, wedged among factory towns in southern China, Deng Huidong wheels out a dusty two-seater tricycle that her 9-month-old son rode the day he was abducted outside her family house in 2007.
Little Ruicong, who was snatched by men in a white van as he played in an alleyway, hasn`t been seen since.
He is one of hundreds, perhaps thousands of children who go missing in China each year, victims of roving criminal gangs preying on vulnerable areas.
"My heart is bleeding," said Deng as she cried beside a framed photograph of her son splashing in a bath tub.
"I just want to find my son. Every time I see a child, it reminds me of my son and I wonder whether I will see him again."
While China has made giant economic and social strides over the past few decades, the number of abducted children remains alarmingly high in a nation whose wrenching one-child policy and yawning income disparities have fueled demand for children particularly male heirs, trafficked by underground syndicates.
Human trafficking is widespread across China with kidnapping cases reported in numerous provinces across the country, according to witnesses and postings on missing child websites. Some children are abducted to serve as props for beggars and women are also kidnapped and sold into prostitution or as forced labor in factories.
While many parents are aware of the problem and have bolstered supervision of their kids in known blackspots, elsewhere, particularly in rural areas, a lack of publicity and media exposure means parents are unaware of the problem and often let their children play outdoors unsupervised.
Estimates are difficult to come by, though the China Ministry of Public Security reported investigating 2,566 potential trafficking cases in 2008.
"Due to lack of information and the difficulty of tracing children in a vast country such as China, very few children have actually been found," Kirsten Di Martino, UNICEF`s Chief of Child Protection in China told Reuters in a written response to questions.
FIGHTING BACK
The plight of such torn families is often made worse by indifferent, sometimes callous treatment by local police, lax child trafficking laws and poor enforcement.
"In one case, the traffickers even dared to abduct a child right inside a police station ... this shows how rampant they are," Zheng Chunzhong, a bakery owner in Dongguan whose son was kidnapped in 2003, told Reuters.
Since then, the slim, softly-spoken Zheng has pressured Dongguan authorities to do more to fight the problem, forming a local alliance of some 200 parents who held a recent protest march outside local government offices.
"There are too many cases of missing children. They (the police) are too embarrassed to let higher-level officials know," he said during a lunch that was interrupted by a public security officer, a reminder of the police surveillance he says he`s long endured due to his outspokenness on the issue.  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)
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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)
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Iran bans Mousavi ally from leaving the country

By Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has banned an ally of the country`s opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi from leaving the Islamic state, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.
EDITORS` NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.
Abolfazl Fateh, head of Mousavi`s media office, said the ban would not change his political stance, adding he was banned from leaving Iran because of his role in post-election developments.
"Such pressures can not push people like me to change our political stances," he told IRNA. "The imposed ban will not change my political views."
Iranian authorities have used a combination of warnings, arrests and the threat of police action over the last week to drive mass rallies off Tehran`s street with smaller gatherings dispersed with tear gas and baton charges.
State media have said 20 people were killed in violence since the June 12 election -- won by hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- and authorities accuse Mousavi of responsibility for the bloodshed. He says the government is to blame.
The state-run Iran newspaper said Fateh, who had been studying for a doctorate in Britain, was banned from leaving the country because of his involvement in post-election developments.
Mousavi has called for an annulment of the vote because of "election rigging."
The semi-official ILNA news agency said Mousavi urged the Interior Ministry to allow a rally by his supporters at Azadi square in southwest Tehran. No date was mentioned in the report.
Iran`s top legislative body has said it found no major violations in the presidential election which it described as the healthiest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but said 10 percent of ballot boxes would be recounted.
"STOP INTERFERING"
Tehran streets were calm on Saturday and life was back to normal.
The establishment has made it clear it had no intention of holding a new election and has set up a special court to deal with hundreds of detained protesters. A hardline Iranian cleric has called for the execution of leading "rioters."
Group of Eight powers on Friday deplored violence stemming from the disputed presidential election in the world`s fifth biggest oil exporter but held open the door for Tehran to take part in talks on its nuclear program.
Iran`s foreign Ministry on Saturday rejected the call by the group as "hasty interference" and insisted the election was fair. "The group is expected to deal with serious issues faced by its members and the international community," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi, IRNA reported.  Continued...
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Pakistan bombs Taliban in Waziristan, 5 shot in Karachi

By Hafiz Wazir
WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani warplanes killed at least a dozen Taliban fighters on Saturday, in a strike on their stronghold near the Afghan border, while police in the southern city of Karachi shot dead five militants.
U.S. officials have issued a steady stream of praise for Pakistan since the government first took the decision to go on the offensive against the militants over two months ago.
Operations in Swat and Buner, two valleys north of the capital of Islamabad, are in their final stages and the focus has switched to the stronghold of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan, a remote tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
The air raid on Saturday on Mehsud`s mountainous redoubt was the latest in a series over recent weeks, and the government has already given orders for the military to mount an all-out assault.
The army is still assembling its forces in South Waziristan, and some diplomats expect some of the troops fighting in Swat to be moved there soon.
Mehsud is accused of a wave of suicide and bomb attacks, and while the body of his force has been focused inwards against Pakistan, his men also cross into Afghanistan to join the insurgency led by Mullah Mohammad Omar.
U.S. President Barack Obama has put Afghanistan and Pakistan at the center of his foreign policy agenda and has launched a strategy aimed at defeating al Qaeda and stabilising Afghanistan, where thousands of extra U.S. soldiers are arriving.
The latest encouragement for Pakistan was delivered by Obama`s National Security Adviser Jim Jones, when he visited Islamabad this week on a trip that coincided with the Senate`s approval for the tripling of aid to Pakistan to about $1.5 billion a year for five years.
RISK OF MILITANT ATTACKS ELSEWHERE
A close ally of al Qaeda, Mehsud carries a $5 million U.S. reward on his head.
He is accused of being behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December 2007, though there are several conspiracy theories over who was behind the former prime minister`s death.
Diplomats estimate that Mehsud has more than 20,000 men holed up with him, protected by a series of mountain ridges and dried out river beds, and gullies that provide excellent cover for the guerrilla fighters.
In Saturday`s air raid, fighter jets pounded a base run by a militant commander loyal to Mehsud in the Makeen area, around 70 km (44 miles) north of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan.
"The planes heavily bombed bases of Commander Shameem in Makeen and we have reports that 12 to 15 militants were killed," an intelligence official in the region told Reuters by telephone.
The great worry is Mehsud`s ability to mobilize Taliban elsewhere in Pakistan in retaliation against any attack.  Continued...
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Thailand`s "red shirts" rally again in Bangkok

By Kittipong Soonprasert
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thousands of "red shirt" supporters of ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra rallied in Bangkok on Saturday in their biggest protest since violent street clashes two months ago.
The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), better known as the "red shirts," gathered in the capital to demand that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolve parliament and call an election.
Six hundred police were on duty and hundreds more on standby at Sanam Luang, a public square near Bangkok`s Grand Palace.
Police estimated there were 12,000 protesters, who braved pouring rain in anticipation of a telephone address expected at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT) by Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and fled Thailand last year to avoid a two-year jail sentence for graft.
"This is the kick-off of our campaign to call for the dissolution of the house," one of the UDD`s leaders, Jaran Ditthapicha, told the cheering crowd.
The "red shirts" are supporters of Thaksin and the Puea Thai Party that he backs from exile. He is widely believed to be staying in the United Arab Emirates.
The party`s power base is mainly drawn from millions of rural and urban poor who loved Thaksin`s populist policies and gave him two landslide election victories.
The UDD staged a peaceful demonstration at Government House for several weeks in April, but the protests intensified when "red shirts" broke police and military lines and forced the cancellation of an Asian leaders` summit in the town of Pattaya.
A state of emergency was declared a day later and troops were sent to disperse crowds that were blocking a key Bangkok intersection.
The crackdown sparked Thailand`s worst street violence in 15 years and severely dented investor confidence.
The UDD says Abhisit is an illegitimate stooge who came to power because of a series of parliamentary defections that they say were engineered by the powerful military.
Abhisit, who was elected in a parliamentary vote in December with the help of former Thaksin allies, has refused to call an election until the battered economy recovers and a process of constitutional reform is complete.
"I joined the rally because I want democracy in Thailand," said one protester.
"I want Thaksin back because of the way he has been treated. The majority of people can see this injustice."
(Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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Iran election violence "outrageous," says Obama

By Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday praised the bravery of Iranians who protested against a disputed election in the face of "outrageous" violence, while a hardline Iranian cleric called for the execution of leading "rioters."
Iran`s top legislative body, which had said it found no major violations in the presidential election which set off the worst unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, said 10 percent of ballot boxes would be recounted.
Authorities have rejected a call for annulment of the vote by reformist former prime minister Mirhossein Mousavi who led mass protests after he was declared a distant second behind
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after the poll two weeks ago.
Obama, whose administration along with major powers is locked in a row with Iran over its nuclear program, said hopes for U.S. dialogue with Iran would be affected by the post-election crackdown.
"There is no doubt that any direct dialogue or diplomacy with Iran is going to be affected by the events of the last several weeks," Obama told a White House news conference, adding: "We don`t yet know how any potential dialogue will have been affected until we see what has happened inside of Iran."
Iranian authorities have used a combination of warnings, arrests and the threat of police action to drive mass rallies
off Tehran`s street since Saturday with smaller gatherings dispersed with tear gas and baton charges.
Authorities have accused Mousavi of responsibility for the bloodshed, while he says the government is to blame. State media have said 20 people were killed in the violence.
ISLAMIC LAW
Ahmad Khatami, a member of the powerful Assembly of Experts, said the judiciary should charge leading "rioters" as "mohareb" or one who wages war against God.
"I want the judiciary to ... punish leading rioters firmly and without showing any mercy to teach everyone a lesson," Khatami told worshippers at Tehran University on Friday.
"They should be punished ruthlessly and savagely," he said. Under Iran`s Islamic law, punishment for people convicted as "mohareb" is execution.
Obama, who said Mousavi had "captured the imagination" of people who want to open up to the West, hailed Mousavi supporters at the news conference.
"Their bravery in the face of brutality is a testament to their enduring pursuit of justice. The violence perpetrated against them is outrageous," Obama said.  Continued...
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Bomb kills 13 in latest Baghdad bombing

By Abdul Rahman Dhaher
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A bomb killed at least 13 people at a Baghdad market selling motorbikes and furniture on Friday, the latest in a series of attacks that have intensified ahead of the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraqi cities.
One police source said as many as 19 people were killed after the bomb, planted on a motorcycle, exploded in the market in the industrial area of Bab al-Sheikh, a mixed but majority Shi`ite Muslim part of central Baghdad.
Forty-five people were wounded, police said.
Shredded shoes and bits of bloody clothing were scattered around the twisted frames of motorbikes. The blast site was swiftly sealed off by Iraqi soldiers and police.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned they expect the number of attacks to rise as U.S. combat troops leave Iraq`s urban centers by June 30, a milestone in a bilateral pact that sets a deadline for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops by 2012.
A spate of bombings in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq has raised doubts about whether the Iraqi security forces can take over the fight against a stubborn insurgency.
Despite Friday`s bombing and two others this week that killed 151 people, U.S. President Barack Obama said Iraq`s security had continued to "dramatically improve," but that he had concerns about the political climate.
"I haven`t seen as much political progress in Iraq -- negotiations between the Sunni, the Shia and the Kurds -- as I would like to see," Obama said in Washington. "So there ... will continue to be incidents of violence inside of Iraq for some time. They are at a much, much lower level than they were in the past."
He said if the government could settle differences on issues like boundaries and oil revenues, Iraq`s security situation would improve further.
IRAQIS QUESTION THEIR FORCES
Iraqi police and army have had to be completely rebuilt since U.S. administrators disbanded the Iraqi forces after the U.S. invasion in 2003, a decision that left thousands of trained fighters unemployed and angry and fueled an insurgency.
Despite assertions from the government the U.S. pullback represents a victory for Iraq as it regains its sovereignty, many Iraqis lack faith in their own forces.
On Wednesday, 78 people were killed in a bomb attack in Baghdad`s Sadr City slum, just days after a truck bomb killed 73 people near the northern city of Kirkuk.
The attacks have prompted angry responses from Iraqis who blame local security forces for failing to protect them.
"I ask, what is the Iraqi government doing about these explosions?" said firebrand anti-American Shi`ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, many of whose supporters live in Sadr City. "The government is powerless to protect its people."  Continued...
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Lula signs land law aimed at reforming Amazon

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed a law granting more than a million people land titles in huge chunks of the Amazon, aiming to end decades of legal chaos in the world`s largest rain forest.
As a concession to environmentalists, who strongly criticized the law as legalizing land-grabbing and encouraging deforestation, Lula late on Thursday vetoed articles of the bill that would allow companies to take over land.
Over three decades, settlers, farmers and speculators have occupied, stolen and sold state land they did not own, fueling the destruction of about a fifth of the world`s largest rain forest. Land titles are often nonexistent or fake.
The government says granting ownership to residents of these areas will reduce illegal land trade and make it easier to police the rain forest. It says the law will also benefit impoverished peasants who were encouraged to settle the Amazon during the 1964-1985 military dictatorship but were never provided with legal support, public security or financial aid.
The new land owners, who will have to pay taxes and follow environmental regulations, are expected to help environmental regulators crack down on squatting and deforestation, as well as fund better enforcement efforts in remote Amazon areas.
The law will likely hand over ownership for 166 million acres (67.4 million hectares) in the Amazon, an area bigger than France, to individuals who can prove they have been occupying the public land since December 2004.
The distribution of plots will be based on good faith affidavits by claimants that they occupy an area. Authorities will not carry out on-site checks of such claims on plots under 990 acres.
Environmentalists, who often criticize Lula for siding with development rather than conservation in the world`s largest rain forest, say those are among the flaws in the bill that make it ripe for abuse.
"It`s not just regulation that will avoid deforestation but how you regulate," said Paulo Barreto, a senior researcher at the Imazon institute on Amazon conservation.
"If you give land, subsidize and give discounts or long payment periods it makes access very easy and encourages the extensive use of land. It makes it easier to deforest a certain area than to invest to raise productivity."
To receive title for plots between 1,000 and 3,700 acres, occupants will have to pay market price for the land, which will be defined by the National Land Reform Institute. Claimants can pay for the land in installments of up to 20 years and can resell it within three years.
(Reporting by Natuza Nery and Stuart Grudgings; writing by Reese Ewing; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
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