LONDON, May 31 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in South Africa on Thursday on the final leg of a trip to the continent where he is due to bid farewell to Nelson Mandela.
Blair arrived in Johannesburg on a trip where he is also expected to ask South Africa to step up pressure on Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, whose country is sliding towards economic collapse.
South Africa is Blair's third stop on a trip aimed at building momentum for a rich nation summit that will focus on Africa and also to push for a world trade deal.
Blair, who already visited Libya and Sierra Leone, is making one of his last overseas trips before he resigns on June 27 and hands over power to finance minister Gordon Brown.
Blair is due to deliver a major policy speech on Africa and bid goodbye to Mandela on Thursday, and hold talks with President Thabo Mbeki on Friday.
The visit takes place on the eve of the Group of Eight Summit scheduled for Germany during which Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to press rich nations to fulfil aid pledges to Africa under a 2005 Blair initiative.
In Sierra Leone on Wednesday, Blair called on Western countries to finance, train and equip African peacekeeping troops so they could intervene to end conflicts on the continent like the one in Sudan's Darfur.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Hill talks about NKorea with Chinese
BEIJING — Talks between China and the U.S. on how to resolve a financial dispute that is stalling North Korea's nuclear disarmament have ended without result, with the American envoy appealing Thursday for more action from Pyongyang.
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill met twice with Chinese nuclear envoy Wu Dawei on Wednesday to discuss ways to resolve a financial dispute involving North Korean funds that were earlier frozen in a Macau bank.
The bank, Banco Delta Asia, is accused by the U.S. of aiding Pyongyang in money laundering and counterfeiting
Hill said he had "useful exchanges" with Wu but that he had "no news" to announce. He urged Pyongyang to start shutting down their nuclear reactor even before receiving their funds.
The North has made the resolution of the banking dispute an absolute precondition for nuclear disarmament.
"I think we have established that we are really working to resolve this matter and will resolve it ... Rather than standing around waiting for us to do things, they should get going on their own obligations," Hill said. "There is no purpose in that reactor operating today."
Hill said Wednesday he exchanged ideas with Wu on ways to resolve the matter but wouldn't give specific details.
The U.S. helped unfreeze the $25 million being held in Banco Delta Asia, but the money's transfer has been delayed because foreign banks are unwilling to touch the funds.
Pyongyang boycotted international negotiations for more than a year over the release of the funds, and conducted a nuclear test in October. Last week, it launched at least one short-range missile into coastal waters — a move played down by Seoul and Washington as part of the North's regular military drills.
Hill on Wednesday rejected a suggestion that the six-party disarmament dialogue, which has been stalled since February, was over.
"It's certainly not dead," he said. "Certainly we have a pretty serious bump in the road here, we plan to get over it ... It really is a technical matter which cannot just be solved through political means."
Meanwhile in Seoul, U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow said Wednesday that Washington was "prepared to move forward toward the establishment of normal relations with the DPRK," using the abbreviation of the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
In February, the U.S. agreed as part of the pact to enter talks with North Korea aimed at normalizing relations and putting aside the hostility that has lingered since they fought each other in the 1950-53 Korean War. The conflict ended in a cease-fire that has never been replaced by a peace treaty.
"We're ready to begin the process of removing North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and from the application of the Trading with the Enemy Act," Vershbow said at a symposium.
"But progress on all these tracks depends on achieving the complete elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons and nuclear programs," he said. "We are not ready to settle for a partial solution. It is only with complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization that we can contemplate the full normalization of relations."
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill met twice with Chinese nuclear envoy Wu Dawei on Wednesday to discuss ways to resolve a financial dispute involving North Korean funds that were earlier frozen in a Macau bank.
The bank, Banco Delta Asia, is accused by the U.S. of aiding Pyongyang in money laundering and counterfeiting
Hill said he had "useful exchanges" with Wu but that he had "no news" to announce. He urged Pyongyang to start shutting down their nuclear reactor even before receiving their funds.
The North has made the resolution of the banking dispute an absolute precondition for nuclear disarmament.
"I think we have established that we are really working to resolve this matter and will resolve it ... Rather than standing around waiting for us to do things, they should get going on their own obligations," Hill said. "There is no purpose in that reactor operating today."
Hill said Wednesday he exchanged ideas with Wu on ways to resolve the matter but wouldn't give specific details.
The U.S. helped unfreeze the $25 million being held in Banco Delta Asia, but the money's transfer has been delayed because foreign banks are unwilling to touch the funds.
Pyongyang boycotted international negotiations for more than a year over the release of the funds, and conducted a nuclear test in October. Last week, it launched at least one short-range missile into coastal waters — a move played down by Seoul and Washington as part of the North's regular military drills.
Hill on Wednesday rejected a suggestion that the six-party disarmament dialogue, which has been stalled since February, was over.
"It's certainly not dead," he said. "Certainly we have a pretty serious bump in the road here, we plan to get over it ... It really is a technical matter which cannot just be solved through political means."
Meanwhile in Seoul, U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow said Wednesday that Washington was "prepared to move forward toward the establishment of normal relations with the DPRK," using the abbreviation of the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
In February, the U.S. agreed as part of the pact to enter talks with North Korea aimed at normalizing relations and putting aside the hostility that has lingered since they fought each other in the 1950-53 Korean War. The conflict ended in a cease-fire that has never been replaced by a peace treaty.
"We're ready to begin the process of removing North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and from the application of the Trading with the Enemy Act," Vershbow said at a symposium.
"But progress on all these tracks depends on achieving the complete elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons and nuclear programs," he said. "We are not ready to settle for a partial solution. It is only with complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization that we can contemplate the full normalization of relations."
Chaturon plans to appeal after verdict
(BangkokPost.com) - Acting Thai Rak Thai party leader Chaturon Chaisaeng said Thursday he is studying a way to fight the Constitution Tribunal's verdict that ordered the party be dissolved and its executive members be banned from politics for five years.
Mr Chaturon said he plans to file an appeal, after learning that the decision of the nine tribunal judges was not unanimous and that President of the Supreme Court Panya Thanomrod refrained himself from voting.
Mr Chaturon, who earlier said he would accept the court verdict regardless of outcome, said he will also fight on the ban on 111 executive members, saying the coup makers' Announcement 27 that bans executive members from politics can be applied.
He claimed the announcement cannot be retroactively applied because it was announced by coup makers after the offences were committed.
Thai Rak Thai party offers its members an opportunity to sign up for a new party, and Mr Chaturon insisted that the new party will use the old name Thai Rak Thai without changing a single alphabet.
He admitted, however, that he has not received any contacts from banned executive members who had planned to found new political parties including Somsak Thepsuthin and Suwat Liptapanlop.
Mr Chaturon denied to reveal whether he invites ex-prime minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh to be a leader of the new party.
Mr Chaturon said he plans to file an appeal, after learning that the decision of the nine tribunal judges was not unanimous and that President of the Supreme Court Panya Thanomrod refrained himself from voting.
Mr Chaturon, who earlier said he would accept the court verdict regardless of outcome, said he will also fight on the ban on 111 executive members, saying the coup makers' Announcement 27 that bans executive members from politics can be applied.
He claimed the announcement cannot be retroactively applied because it was announced by coup makers after the offences were committed.
Thai Rak Thai party offers its members an opportunity to sign up for a new party, and Mr Chaturon insisted that the new party will use the old name Thai Rak Thai without changing a single alphabet.
He admitted, however, that he has not received any contacts from banned executive members who had planned to found new political parties including Somsak Thepsuthin and Suwat Liptapanlop.
Mr Chaturon denied to reveal whether he invites ex-prime minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh to be a leader of the new party.
Militia blamed for kidnapping of Britons
TONY JONES: Well the Iraqi Foreign Minister is pointing the finger at the Shiite Mehdi Army over the kidnapping of five Britons in Baghdad yesterday.
The Mehdi Army's spiritual leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, recently withdrew political support from the Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki.
The Foreign Minister says yesterday's well-orchestrated kidnapping operation is an open challenge to the authority of the Government by Mr al-Sadr.
Tom Iggulden reports.
TOM IGGULDEN, REPORTER: US and Iraqi forces are sweeping through Sadr City tonight in a desperate attempt to find the five Britons or extract information about their whereabouts. Locals say two were killed in the raids. The military is refusing to comment.
DAN O'SHEA, FORMER HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR: I can guarantee that this is a tier one top notch focus effort.
TOM IGGULDEN: The men were snatched from the Finance Ministry, just outside Baghdad's green zone on the edge of Sadr city. The abductors pulled up in up to 40 vehicles. Dressed in Iraqi paramilitary police fatigues, they swept past guard posts, entered the building and demanded, "Where are the foreigners?" One Briton got away and another five gave in without a fight.
DAN O'SHEA: Because of the sensitivity of them being kidnapped at a finance - an actual ministry building, there will be close coordination at the highest levels of both the British Government, the American Government and the Iraqi Government. All efforts will be going out to fleece the street, find out who is involved and put pressure on the appropriate individuals to secure their release.
TOM IGGULDEN: These were the types of uniforms the kidnappers were wearing. Shiite militants have infiltrated the paramilitary police, forming feared death squads operating outside the law to hunt down sectarian enemies, but so far there is no confirmation of the kidnappers' identities. The brazen snatching also has re-focused attention on the role of private security firms operating in Iraq.
ROBIN HORSFALL, FORMER SAS OFFICER: The situation for civilian contractors working in Iraq is far more dangerous than it is for soldiers working in Iraq. They don't have the tactical backup, they don't have the quality of men to work alongside. In many cases they don't know who they're going to work with until they arrive in country.
TOM IGGULDEN: May is now the deadliest month this year for the US military in Iraq after 10 soldiers were killed yesterday. A coordinated attack outside Baghdad killed eight. Two pilots died when their reconnaissance helicopter was downed by heavy machine gun fire. A Bradley fighting vehicle sent to investigate was then hit by a roadside bomb which killed five soldiers. A second armoured vehicle sent to rescue survivors was blown up by a second bomb, killing another soldier. The attacks show a new level of planning and roadside bomb technology from the insurgency.
GENERAL MONTGOMERY MEIGS, US MILITARY: The person who is developing ways of penetrating armour is always going to have an advantage over the armour builder.
TOM IGGULDEN: There was little to protect the 38 civilians who died in two separate car bombings yesterday in central Baghdad. Tom Iggulden, Lateline.
The Mehdi Army's spiritual leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, recently withdrew political support from the Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki.
The Foreign Minister says yesterday's well-orchestrated kidnapping operation is an open challenge to the authority of the Government by Mr al-Sadr.
Tom Iggulden reports.
TOM IGGULDEN, REPORTER: US and Iraqi forces are sweeping through Sadr City tonight in a desperate attempt to find the five Britons or extract information about their whereabouts. Locals say two were killed in the raids. The military is refusing to comment.
DAN O'SHEA, FORMER HOSTAGE NEGOTIATOR: I can guarantee that this is a tier one top notch focus effort.
TOM IGGULDEN: The men were snatched from the Finance Ministry, just outside Baghdad's green zone on the edge of Sadr city. The abductors pulled up in up to 40 vehicles. Dressed in Iraqi paramilitary police fatigues, they swept past guard posts, entered the building and demanded, "Where are the foreigners?" One Briton got away and another five gave in without a fight.
DAN O'SHEA: Because of the sensitivity of them being kidnapped at a finance - an actual ministry building, there will be close coordination at the highest levels of both the British Government, the American Government and the Iraqi Government. All efforts will be going out to fleece the street, find out who is involved and put pressure on the appropriate individuals to secure their release.
TOM IGGULDEN: These were the types of uniforms the kidnappers were wearing. Shiite militants have infiltrated the paramilitary police, forming feared death squads operating outside the law to hunt down sectarian enemies, but so far there is no confirmation of the kidnappers' identities. The brazen snatching also has re-focused attention on the role of private security firms operating in Iraq.
ROBIN HORSFALL, FORMER SAS OFFICER: The situation for civilian contractors working in Iraq is far more dangerous than it is for soldiers working in Iraq. They don't have the tactical backup, they don't have the quality of men to work alongside. In many cases they don't know who they're going to work with until they arrive in country.
TOM IGGULDEN: May is now the deadliest month this year for the US military in Iraq after 10 soldiers were killed yesterday. A coordinated attack outside Baghdad killed eight. Two pilots died when their reconnaissance helicopter was downed by heavy machine gun fire. A Bradley fighting vehicle sent to investigate was then hit by a roadside bomb which killed five soldiers. A second armoured vehicle sent to rescue survivors was blown up by a second bomb, killing another soldier. The attacks show a new level of planning and roadside bomb technology from the insurgency.
GENERAL MONTGOMERY MEIGS, US MILITARY: The person who is developing ways of penetrating armour is always going to have an advantage over the armour builder.
TOM IGGULDEN: There was little to protect the 38 civilians who died in two separate car bombings yesterday in central Baghdad. Tom Iggulden, Lateline.
Contractor "not told" of condition
The letter written by Mercury Energy to the State Owned Enterprises Minister following the death of a South Auckland woman has been released by the government.
Folole Muliaga, 44, died within hours of her power being disconnected on Tuesday for failing to pay her power bill.
In the letter, Mercury Energy says the contractor who turned the power off was not told of her medical condition but before leaving the property her son asked the contractor to speak to Mrs Muliaga.
She asked him how long it would take to reconnect and was told that would happen when payment had been arranged.
The contractor did notice a medical tube in her nose but says it was not connected to anything.
Meanwhile, police say they have been continuing their enquiries into the death of Muliaga to determine the facts surrounding the case.
Police say they have received full co-operation from all those involved including the power company, their contractor and the Muliaga family, and enquiries will be ongoing until police establish a clear picture of the events in question.
They say they are also investigating Muliaga's pre-existing health conditions and have been in discussion with both the coroner's office and pathology staff.
Police say they acknowledge the tragedy that has occurred and the public interest in the case but the disclosure of any police enquiries will not be possible until a decision can be made about what took place.
System not up to scratch
An infrastructure and energy specialist says the death of the South Auckland woman after her power was cut off is proof New Zealand's electricity market is not up to scratch.
Deloitte consultant Paul Callow says the family would not have been affected if there was a "supply of last resort regime".
He says many other countries use the scheme which includes installing pre-paid meters so if people don't pay for their electricity they cut themselves off.
Callow says after a warning is sent, the power isn't cut off, and the electricity commissioner or ombudsman would appoint the supplier of last resort who would have rights to install a prepaid meter. He says it means families can pay for their electricity as they use it, with the meters.
Callow says the government's job is to make sure essential services are available to everyone.
Folole Muliaga, 44, died within hours of her power being disconnected on Tuesday for failing to pay her power bill.
In the letter, Mercury Energy says the contractor who turned the power off was not told of her medical condition but before leaving the property her son asked the contractor to speak to Mrs Muliaga.
She asked him how long it would take to reconnect and was told that would happen when payment had been arranged.
The contractor did notice a medical tube in her nose but says it was not connected to anything.
Meanwhile, police say they have been continuing their enquiries into the death of Muliaga to determine the facts surrounding the case.
Police say they have received full co-operation from all those involved including the power company, their contractor and the Muliaga family, and enquiries will be ongoing until police establish a clear picture of the events in question.
They say they are also investigating Muliaga's pre-existing health conditions and have been in discussion with both the coroner's office and pathology staff.
Police say they acknowledge the tragedy that has occurred and the public interest in the case but the disclosure of any police enquiries will not be possible until a decision can be made about what took place.
System not up to scratch
An infrastructure and energy specialist says the death of the South Auckland woman after her power was cut off is proof New Zealand's electricity market is not up to scratch.
Deloitte consultant Paul Callow says the family would not have been affected if there was a "supply of last resort regime".
He says many other countries use the scheme which includes installing pre-paid meters so if people don't pay for their electricity they cut themselves off.
Callow says after a warning is sent, the power isn't cut off, and the electricity commissioner or ombudsman would appoint the supplier of last resort who would have rights to install a prepaid meter. He says it means families can pay for their electricity as they use it, with the meters.
Callow says the government's job is to make sure essential services are available to everyone.
Australian hospitality, a trick or a treat?
The year is 1830. Dutch Governor-General Markus de Kock invites Pangeran Diponegoro to meet in Magelang to negotiate a cessation of a five-year uprising in Java.
But it was all a trick. By the end of the meeting the Javanese prince had been taken captive and exiled in the most devious of deceptions.
It would be pure hyperbole to mention Sutiyoso's name in the same breath as the legendary Javanese prince, but Jakarta's 12th governor surely feels the same kind of rage and betrayal suffered by Diponegoro.
At least Diponegoro knew he was betrayed by the enemy.
Tuesday's incident in Sydney, in which Australian officials attempted to serve Sutiyoso with a subpoena in his hotel room, leaves much to be regretted and underscores why relations between the two nations are (still) burdened with a deep-seated mistrust.
Despite the treaties, embraces between dignitaries, charity and unending exchange of peoples, Australia remains a nice destination but never home for Indonesians.
A sociocultural anomaly on the fringes of Asia proper.
Don't believe the propaganda of "good relations". There is a large portion of Indonesians, not least officials, who are genuinely wary of that large island -- excuse me continent -- to the south. They just don't admit it in public.
Jakartans are not in love with their governor. In fact, if a popularity contest were to be held here today Australian Prime Minister John Howard would likely score as high, or low, as Sutiyoso. But the manner in which he was reportedly treated in Sydney was just plain rude.
According to Indonesian officials, two Australian officers snuck into the governor's hotel room without his permission, waving around a summons to appear before an inquest into a 32-year-old case which, by all accounts, Sutiyoso probably had nothing to do with.
Even if Sutiyoso was traveling as a private citizen this behavior would be uncouth. But he was there in his capacity as governor, an official guest of the New South Wales premier.
There are more appropriate means by which his testimony could have been sought, and if pursued many Indonesians may even have been supportive of the endeavor.
The zealousness with which the attempted subpoena was handled raises distressing questions for Indonesians heading to Australia. Many officials have a military background. Most served tours of duty in East Timor, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Is this the kind of treatment they can expect?
Forget diplomatic immunity, what about courtesy?
Even hosts are expected to knock first when they have a guest staying in their extra bedroom.
Australia is a great nation in which many things can be admired. Its democratic traditions, the inherent sense of personal manifestation and its strong vein of egalitarianism.
But it is this unbridled sense of impartiality which leads to unnecessarily rude assaults on propriety.
Two years ago the speaker of India's lower house, Somnath Chatterjee, canceled a planned visit to meet with the executive committee of the Commonwealth Parliament Association after Australian authorities refused to grant a waiver which would have ensured he and his wife would not be frisked by airport security.
Earlier a diplomatic row erupted when Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Michael Somare was made to remove his shoes during a security check at Brisbane airport.
If Australia takes so much pride in the way it treats a neighboring head of state, the governor of Southeast Asia's biggest metropolis and the speaker of a parliament which represents the world's largest democracy, then Sutiyoso would do well to echo Chatterjee's remark: "If I am not trusted then I should not go there."
Perhaps the legal advances of the Australian inquest were done in view of transnational justice.
But Sutiyoso is hardly in the same league as Chile's Augusto Pinochet who was detained in London in 1998, or Chad's Hissein Habre who was arrested in Senegal two years later.
The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations regulates the concept of immunity. Nevertheless its application depends on a quid pro quo that all countries honor our rights as scrupulously as we honor theirs.
Though Indonesians do not perceive their former colonial masters the Dutch with loathing, neither do they remember them with any fondness.
It is not that they were especially brutal -- all colonial powers had bouts of butchery -- instead it was probably their deceitful ways and means which left a spiteful aftertaste.
The Dutch eventually only became part of history, but never a memory.
More incidents like that which befell Sutiyoso will result in an equally apathetic association with Australia -- acquaintances not friends, neighbors not allies.
Perhaps we in Indonesia are at fault for expecting too much from one who is merely an acquaintance and neighbor.
The worst part of it all is that the impetuousness of two Australian officers will elevate Sutiyoso to a martyr for the next few days.
That is something we could have done without; a tribute the governor does not deserve.
But it was all a trick. By the end of the meeting the Javanese prince had been taken captive and exiled in the most devious of deceptions.
It would be pure hyperbole to mention Sutiyoso's name in the same breath as the legendary Javanese prince, but Jakarta's 12th governor surely feels the same kind of rage and betrayal suffered by Diponegoro.
At least Diponegoro knew he was betrayed by the enemy.
Tuesday's incident in Sydney, in which Australian officials attempted to serve Sutiyoso with a subpoena in his hotel room, leaves much to be regretted and underscores why relations between the two nations are (still) burdened with a deep-seated mistrust.
Despite the treaties, embraces between dignitaries, charity and unending exchange of peoples, Australia remains a nice destination but never home for Indonesians.
A sociocultural anomaly on the fringes of Asia proper.
Don't believe the propaganda of "good relations". There is a large portion of Indonesians, not least officials, who are genuinely wary of that large island -- excuse me continent -- to the south. They just don't admit it in public.
Jakartans are not in love with their governor. In fact, if a popularity contest were to be held here today Australian Prime Minister John Howard would likely score as high, or low, as Sutiyoso. But the manner in which he was reportedly treated in Sydney was just plain rude.
According to Indonesian officials, two Australian officers snuck into the governor's hotel room without his permission, waving around a summons to appear before an inquest into a 32-year-old case which, by all accounts, Sutiyoso probably had nothing to do with.
Even if Sutiyoso was traveling as a private citizen this behavior would be uncouth. But he was there in his capacity as governor, an official guest of the New South Wales premier.
There are more appropriate means by which his testimony could have been sought, and if pursued many Indonesians may even have been supportive of the endeavor.
The zealousness with which the attempted subpoena was handled raises distressing questions for Indonesians heading to Australia. Many officials have a military background. Most served tours of duty in East Timor, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Is this the kind of treatment they can expect?
Forget diplomatic immunity, what about courtesy?
Even hosts are expected to knock first when they have a guest staying in their extra bedroom.
Australia is a great nation in which many things can be admired. Its democratic traditions, the inherent sense of personal manifestation and its strong vein of egalitarianism.
But it is this unbridled sense of impartiality which leads to unnecessarily rude assaults on propriety.
Two years ago the speaker of India's lower house, Somnath Chatterjee, canceled a planned visit to meet with the executive committee of the Commonwealth Parliament Association after Australian authorities refused to grant a waiver which would have ensured he and his wife would not be frisked by airport security.
Earlier a diplomatic row erupted when Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Michael Somare was made to remove his shoes during a security check at Brisbane airport.
If Australia takes so much pride in the way it treats a neighboring head of state, the governor of Southeast Asia's biggest metropolis and the speaker of a parliament which represents the world's largest democracy, then Sutiyoso would do well to echo Chatterjee's remark: "If I am not trusted then I should not go there."
Perhaps the legal advances of the Australian inquest were done in view of transnational justice.
But Sutiyoso is hardly in the same league as Chile's Augusto Pinochet who was detained in London in 1998, or Chad's Hissein Habre who was arrested in Senegal two years later.
The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations regulates the concept of immunity. Nevertheless its application depends on a quid pro quo that all countries honor our rights as scrupulously as we honor theirs.
Though Indonesians do not perceive their former colonial masters the Dutch with loathing, neither do they remember them with any fondness.
It is not that they were especially brutal -- all colonial powers had bouts of butchery -- instead it was probably their deceitful ways and means which left a spiteful aftertaste.
The Dutch eventually only became part of history, but never a memory.
More incidents like that which befell Sutiyoso will result in an equally apathetic association with Australia -- acquaintances not friends, neighbors not allies.
Perhaps we in Indonesia are at fault for expecting too much from one who is merely an acquaintance and neighbor.
The worst part of it all is that the impetuousness of two Australian officers will elevate Sutiyoso to a martyr for the next few days.
That is something we could have done without; a tribute the governor does not deserve.
Israel to keep hitting Gaza militants
JERUSALEM — Israel resolved Wednesday to keep striking Palestinians who fire rockets at Israeli border towns and a pre-dawn air attack on northern Gaza killed two members of a Hamas rocket squad.
The supreme leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas, which has been behind the latest surge in rocket attacks, vowed that attacks on Israel would continue, too.
Israel said it was not negotiating a truce with "terror" groups.
Hamas, the senior partner in the Palestinian government, has launched most of the 270 rockets that the Israeli military says have been fired since violence flared in mid-May. The projectiles are crude but they have killed two Israeli civilians.
Israel has hit back with airstrikes that have killed more than 50 Palestinians, most of them militants.
Israel's Security Cabinet met to assess the situation and concluded that Israel's two-week-old military campaign has been effective in "relatively" reducing rocket fire, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said.
"There are results to the Israeli army's actions, and therefore we will continue our operations," Security Cabinet member Isaac Herzog told Army Radio after the meeting.
"Israel is not conducting any negotiations for a cease-fire with terror organizations," Olmert's office added.
In addition to striking back from the air, Israel has conducted limited ground operations inside Gaza, and arrested dozens of Hamas political leaders in the West Bank.
Two Palestinians traveling in a car in the northern West Bank were killed in an explosion Wednesday night, Palestinian security officials said. They said the cause of the blast was not known. The violent Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades group, linked to the moderate Fatah faction, said the two men were its militants and blamed Israel for the attack. But the Israeli army said it had no report of any military activity in the area.
In Berlin, the Quartet of Middle East peacemakers urged a halt to fighting between Israel and Hamas, calling on the Palestinian authority to "do everything necessary" to restore law and order.
The quartet — Russia, the United States, the United Nations and the European Union — met Wednesday in Berlin and issued a statement urging "all Palestinians to immediately renounce all acts of violence and respect the cease-fire."
It condemned the firing of rockets into southern Israel from Gaza and the buildup of arms by Hamas militants and "other terrorist groups" in Gaza.
Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal warned from his base in Damascus, Syria, that attacks on Israel would continue despite the Israeli reprisals.
"Under occupation people don't ask whether their means are effective in hurting the enemy," Khaled Mashaal told London's Guardian newspaper in an interview published Wednesday. "The Palestinians have only modest means, so they defend themselves however they can."
The latest cycle of violence is expected to top the agenda of Olmert's meeting next week with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a moderate who favors peacemaking, but has been ineffective in stopping the militant attacks.
Abbas has proposed a truce agreement that would commit Gaza militants to halt their rocket fire for a month to permit negotiations on a more comprehensive cease-fire including the West Bank, where Israel conducts frequent arrest raids against militants. He has also urged militants to take the first step in forging a new cease-fire, saying the alternative would be the collapse of the Palestinian national unity government.
Militants have said a truce was out of the question as long as Israel kept up its attacks and refused to extend any Gaza cease-fire to the West Bank. Israel has so far rejected the notion of applying the truce to West Bank, especially in light of the latest round of attacks from Gaza.
The supreme leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas, which has been behind the latest surge in rocket attacks, vowed that attacks on Israel would continue, too.
Israel said it was not negotiating a truce with "terror" groups.
Hamas, the senior partner in the Palestinian government, has launched most of the 270 rockets that the Israeli military says have been fired since violence flared in mid-May. The projectiles are crude but they have killed two Israeli civilians.
Israel has hit back with airstrikes that have killed more than 50 Palestinians, most of them militants.
Israel's Security Cabinet met to assess the situation and concluded that Israel's two-week-old military campaign has been effective in "relatively" reducing rocket fire, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said.
"There are results to the Israeli army's actions, and therefore we will continue our operations," Security Cabinet member Isaac Herzog told Army Radio after the meeting.
"Israel is not conducting any negotiations for a cease-fire with terror organizations," Olmert's office added.
In addition to striking back from the air, Israel has conducted limited ground operations inside Gaza, and arrested dozens of Hamas political leaders in the West Bank.
Two Palestinians traveling in a car in the northern West Bank were killed in an explosion Wednesday night, Palestinian security officials said. They said the cause of the blast was not known. The violent Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades group, linked to the moderate Fatah faction, said the two men were its militants and blamed Israel for the attack. But the Israeli army said it had no report of any military activity in the area.
In Berlin, the Quartet of Middle East peacemakers urged a halt to fighting between Israel and Hamas, calling on the Palestinian authority to "do everything necessary" to restore law and order.
The quartet — Russia, the United States, the United Nations and the European Union — met Wednesday in Berlin and issued a statement urging "all Palestinians to immediately renounce all acts of violence and respect the cease-fire."
It condemned the firing of rockets into southern Israel from Gaza and the buildup of arms by Hamas militants and "other terrorist groups" in Gaza.
Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal warned from his base in Damascus, Syria, that attacks on Israel would continue despite the Israeli reprisals.
"Under occupation people don't ask whether their means are effective in hurting the enemy," Khaled Mashaal told London's Guardian newspaper in an interview published Wednesday. "The Palestinians have only modest means, so they defend themselves however they can."
The latest cycle of violence is expected to top the agenda of Olmert's meeting next week with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a moderate who favors peacemaking, but has been ineffective in stopping the militant attacks.
Abbas has proposed a truce agreement that would commit Gaza militants to halt their rocket fire for a month to permit negotiations on a more comprehensive cease-fire including the West Bank, where Israel conducts frequent arrest raids against militants. He has also urged militants to take the first step in forging a new cease-fire, saying the alternative would be the collapse of the Palestinian national unity government.
Militants have said a truce was out of the question as long as Israel kept up its attacks and refused to extend any Gaza cease-fire to the West Bank. Israel has so far rejected the notion of applying the truce to West Bank, especially in light of the latest round of attacks from Gaza.
Pakistan near bottom of peace index: study
LONDON, May 30: Pakistan is only six places away from being the most dangerous country in the world, and ranks even lower than Lebanon. A study launched on Wednesday declares Norway the world’s most peaceful nation and Iraq the least. Ranking below Pakistan are Columbia, Nigeria, Russia, Israel, Sudan and Iraq.
The Global Peace Index, published a week before a Group of Eight (G8) summit in Germany, rates 121 countries from Algeria to Zimbabwe on some 24 factors including levels of violence, organised crime and military expenditure.
While most European countries including Britain rank in the top, more peaceful half of the league table, the United States is nearer the bottom in 96th place, while Iraq is at the bottom at number 121.
“This is a wake-up call for leaders around the globe,” said Steve Killelea, who commissioned the study from the Economist Intelligence Unit, which is linked to the news weekly The Economist.
“Countries like Japan and Germany can give hope and optimism to countries further down the index,” he added.
Norway, the peace-promoting Scandinavian country which brokered the 1993 Oslo Mideast accords and has also sought to resolve fighting in Sri Lanka is followed by New Zealand in second place and neighbouring Denmark in third.
Iraq, gripped by growing violence since the 2003 US-led invasion, comes at the bottom just below Sudan, with Israel only two places from the bottom on 119th place.
The index is backed by international figures including the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former US President Jimmy Carter and US economist Joseph Stiglitz, all winners of the Nobel peace prize. It is also supported by Queen Noor of Jordan.
Overall, the study found that small, stable countries which are part of regional blocs such as the 27-nation European Union are most likely to be more peaceful.
Income and education are crucial in promoting peace, it said, while also noting that countries which had seen turbulent times in the 20th century, such as Ireland and Austria, have emerged as “peace leaders” in the 21st century.
“I believe there is a link between the peacefulness and the wealth of nations and therefore business has a key role to play in peace,” said Killelea.
The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist leader who fled China after an aborted uprising in 1959, said the launch of the index could be a useful tool for policymakers.
“Compiling and maintaining an index of which countries are the most peaceful and publishing the results will undoubtedly make the factors and qualities that contribute to that status better known, and will encourage people to foster them in their own countries,” he said.
Organisers say the plan is to publish the index annually for the next two years, while after that the frequency with which it is updated will be reviewed.—AFP
Here are the top 10 and bottom 10 countries in the index:
TOP 10
1. Norway
2. N. Zealand
3. Denmark
4. Ireland
5. Japan
6. Finland
7. Sweden
8. Canada
9. Portugal
10. Austria
BOTTOM 10
112. Angola
113. Ivory Coast
114. Lebanon
115. Pakistan
116. Colombia
117. Nigeria.
118. Russia
119. Israel
120. Sudan
121. Iraq.
The Global Peace Index, published a week before a Group of Eight (G8) summit in Germany, rates 121 countries from Algeria to Zimbabwe on some 24 factors including levels of violence, organised crime and military expenditure.
While most European countries including Britain rank in the top, more peaceful half of the league table, the United States is nearer the bottom in 96th place, while Iraq is at the bottom at number 121.
“This is a wake-up call for leaders around the globe,” said Steve Killelea, who commissioned the study from the Economist Intelligence Unit, which is linked to the news weekly The Economist.
“Countries like Japan and Germany can give hope and optimism to countries further down the index,” he added.
Norway, the peace-promoting Scandinavian country which brokered the 1993 Oslo Mideast accords and has also sought to resolve fighting in Sri Lanka is followed by New Zealand in second place and neighbouring Denmark in third.
Iraq, gripped by growing violence since the 2003 US-led invasion, comes at the bottom just below Sudan, with Israel only two places from the bottom on 119th place.
The index is backed by international figures including the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former US President Jimmy Carter and US economist Joseph Stiglitz, all winners of the Nobel peace prize. It is also supported by Queen Noor of Jordan.
Overall, the study found that small, stable countries which are part of regional blocs such as the 27-nation European Union are most likely to be more peaceful.
Income and education are crucial in promoting peace, it said, while also noting that countries which had seen turbulent times in the 20th century, such as Ireland and Austria, have emerged as “peace leaders” in the 21st century.
“I believe there is a link between the peacefulness and the wealth of nations and therefore business has a key role to play in peace,” said Killelea.
The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist leader who fled China after an aborted uprising in 1959, said the launch of the index could be a useful tool for policymakers.
“Compiling and maintaining an index of which countries are the most peaceful and publishing the results will undoubtedly make the factors and qualities that contribute to that status better known, and will encourage people to foster them in their own countries,” he said.
Organisers say the plan is to publish the index annually for the next two years, while after that the frequency with which it is updated will be reviewed.—AFP
Here are the top 10 and bottom 10 countries in the index:
TOP 10
1. Norway
2. N. Zealand
3. Denmark
4. Ireland
5. Japan
6. Finland
7. Sweden
8. Canada
9. Portugal
10. Austria
BOTTOM 10
112. Angola
113. Ivory Coast
114. Lebanon
115. Pakistan
116. Colombia
117. Nigeria.
118. Russia
119. Israel
120. Sudan
121. Iraq.
Seven NATO Soldiers Die in Afghan Helicopter Crash
May 31 (Bloomberg) -- Seven NATO soldiers died when a Chinook helicopter went down late yesterday in Afghanistan's Helmand province, one of the country's most volatile regions where coalition forces are battling Taliban rebels.
Troops sent to the crash site were attacked by insurgents and called in an air strike ``to eliminate the enemy threat,'' the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said in an e-mailed statement today.
The cause of the crash, which killed the crew of five and two military passengers, is being investigated, NATO said. The Taliban said they shot down the helicopter, Associated Press reported. The news agency cited an unidentified U.S. military official as saying that five of the dead were American soldiers.
NATO is leading international efforts to stabilize Afghanistan under President Hamid Karzai's government and rebuild infrastructure destroyed by almost three decades of civil war and conflict. The helicopter came down near Kajaki in the north of the province where engineers are repairing a hydroelectric dam so it can provide electricity for the city of Kandahar.
The governments of Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan have traded blame for failing to control the insurgency.
Karzai says President Pervez Musharraf must do more to stop insurgents training and rearming in Pakistan's tribal regions. Musharraf points to the 80,000 soldiers his government has deployed in the border region and says Afghanistan must step up efforts to secure its side of the mountainous 2,430-kilometer (1,510-mile) frontier.
Boost Cooperation
The two presidents agreed to boost cooperation in the fight against terrorism when they met last month in the Turkish city of Ankara. Their foreign ministers continued the discussions yesterday in Potsdam, Germany, at a meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized nations.
Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta and his Pakistani counterpart Kurshid Kasuri renewed the ``commitment to strengthen cooperation and dialogue between their countries and governments at all levels,'' AP reported, citing a statement.
NATO has about 37,000 soldiers in Afghanistan from 37 countries, including 15,000 U.S. personnel. The U.S. has an additional 10,000 soldiers in the country carrying out counter- terrorism operations.
Several Chinook helicopters have crashed in Afghanistan in the past two years. A CH-47 Chinook came down in southern Zabul province in February because of mechanical failure, killing eight U.S. soldiers.
In May 2006, a Chinook crashed while attempting a nighttime landing in eastern Kunar province, killing 10 U.S. military personnel. Sixteen U.S. Navy Seals were killed in June 2005 when insurgents shot down a Chinook in Kunar with a rocket-propelled grenade.
Troops sent to the crash site were attacked by insurgents and called in an air strike ``to eliminate the enemy threat,'' the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said in an e-mailed statement today.
The cause of the crash, which killed the crew of five and two military passengers, is being investigated, NATO said. The Taliban said they shot down the helicopter, Associated Press reported. The news agency cited an unidentified U.S. military official as saying that five of the dead were American soldiers.
NATO is leading international efforts to stabilize Afghanistan under President Hamid Karzai's government and rebuild infrastructure destroyed by almost three decades of civil war and conflict. The helicopter came down near Kajaki in the north of the province where engineers are repairing a hydroelectric dam so it can provide electricity for the city of Kandahar.
The governments of Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan have traded blame for failing to control the insurgency.
Karzai says President Pervez Musharraf must do more to stop insurgents training and rearming in Pakistan's tribal regions. Musharraf points to the 80,000 soldiers his government has deployed in the border region and says Afghanistan must step up efforts to secure its side of the mountainous 2,430-kilometer (1,510-mile) frontier.
Boost Cooperation
The two presidents agreed to boost cooperation in the fight against terrorism when they met last month in the Turkish city of Ankara. Their foreign ministers continued the discussions yesterday in Potsdam, Germany, at a meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized nations.
Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta and his Pakistani counterpart Kurshid Kasuri renewed the ``commitment to strengthen cooperation and dialogue between their countries and governments at all levels,'' AP reported, citing a statement.
NATO has about 37,000 soldiers in Afghanistan from 37 countries, including 15,000 U.S. personnel. The U.S. has an additional 10,000 soldiers in the country carrying out counter- terrorism operations.
Several Chinook helicopters have crashed in Afghanistan in the past two years. A CH-47 Chinook came down in southern Zabul province in February because of mechanical failure, killing eight U.S. soldiers.
In May 2006, a Chinook crashed while attempting a nighttime landing in eastern Kunar province, killing 10 U.S. military personnel. Sixteen U.S. Navy Seals were killed in June 2005 when insurgents shot down a Chinook in Kunar with a rocket-propelled grenade.
Efforts to secure hostages' release
Urgent efforts to secure the release of five Britons kidnapped in Iraq and identify those responsible have continued.
The British group was snatched by up to 40 men, some dressed in police uniforms, from the finance ministry in Baghdad and driven towards Sadr City in the capital.
There is mounting speculation they may have been taken in retaliation for the killing of a Mahdi Army militia leader.
The Foreign Office has said there is no firm indication as to who was responsible for the abduction of the men in the broad-daylight raid.
There are suggestions they were taken by the Mahdi Army in retaliation for the killing of the Shiite militia's leader Abu Qadir in Basra last week by Iraqi special forces backed by British troops.
But in an interview with the BBC, a top aide of radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr said the Mahdi Army was not involved.
Sheikh Abdel al-Sattar al-Bahadli told the BBC Arabic Service the Sadrist movement and the Mahdi Army were innocent and wanted to peacefully build a new Iraq.
He told the broadcaster that clear and direct instructions from Moqtada Sadr stated "we want to build a new Iraq" through dialogue, the language of peace and by accepting other opinions.
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said that British officials were doing all they could to secure the "swift and safe release" of the men and were working with Iraqi authorities to establish what had happened.
And she added it was not sensible to speculate at this stage on what might have happened.
The British group was snatched by up to 40 men, some dressed in police uniforms, from the finance ministry in Baghdad and driven towards Sadr City in the capital.
There is mounting speculation they may have been taken in retaliation for the killing of a Mahdi Army militia leader.
The Foreign Office has said there is no firm indication as to who was responsible for the abduction of the men in the broad-daylight raid.
There are suggestions they were taken by the Mahdi Army in retaliation for the killing of the Shiite militia's leader Abu Qadir in Basra last week by Iraqi special forces backed by British troops.
But in an interview with the BBC, a top aide of radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr said the Mahdi Army was not involved.
Sheikh Abdel al-Sattar al-Bahadli told the BBC Arabic Service the Sadrist movement and the Mahdi Army were innocent and wanted to peacefully build a new Iraq.
He told the broadcaster that clear and direct instructions from Moqtada Sadr stated "we want to build a new Iraq" through dialogue, the language of peace and by accepting other opinions.
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said that British officials were doing all they could to secure the "swift and safe release" of the men and were working with Iraqi authorities to establish what had happened.
And she added it was not sensible to speculate at this stage on what might have happened.
Hariri: No ordinary muder
On face value, no politician or diplomat would be against prosecuting a serious crime, or bringing its perpetrators to justice.
No politician or diplomat would ever say that it is acceptable to assassinate political opponents and then proceed to assassinate other key figures close to them.
And yet, with a multitude of different agendas and principles whirling around, there are politicians and diplomats who are opposed to the setting-up of a UN International Tribunal to investigate the 2005 murder of Rafiq Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, in a massive car bomb.
But this was no ordinary murder, nor is this any ordinary tribunal.
Those countries, including Russia, China, South Africa and Qatar who abstained on Wednesday's resolution in the UN Security Council argued that they had good reason to do so.
Force
The resolution, supported by 10 countries, including the United States, Britain and France creates a precedent – although the UN might argue that it does not.
It is a Chapter Seven resolution, which is invoked in cases of threats to international peace and security. It is binding, mandatory and can be backed by force if necessary.
It gives the divided Lebanese parliament until June 10 to agree to the establishment of a tribunal.
The massive car bomb attack in 2005 killed
nine people, including Hariri [EPA]
For the first time perhaps, an individual government, in this case the Lebanese government, will be forced to co-operate with a UN-backed court.
Opinion is divided in Lebanon too. The country’s president is against. The country’s prime minister is for.
The opposition, official and unofficial is against. And yet the demonstrations marking Hariri’s murder two years ago were so massive, that the Syrian army, seen by some as occupiers, others as protectors, withdrew from much of the country.
Throughout the long process of the Hariri Inquiry, presided over by a UN-backed team, countries and people not connected to the investigation have been pointing towards Syrian complicity in the attack on Hariri's motorcade, although this remains unproved.
But for those who do believe that there was Syrian involvement, an international tribunal is seen as a device that may help make their cause.
However, it remains the case that the forensic investigation of the murder site, where the massive car bomb exploded, have not yet led to any suspects being named.
Bloodshed
The Lebanese parliament now has a deadline. Yet already some are asking what the UN could do enforce its decision if the parliament fails to meet it, or for some reason does not agree.
Others claim that this decision by the UN Security Council will lead to yet further violence and bloodshed.
Many Lebanese people ask why their own country is not going to be allowed to run its own tribunal.
Questions over Syria's involvement
have yet to be answered [Reuters]
Although others argue that given the great divides in Lebanese society, it is quite impossible to imagine their country hosting an investigation and criminal court case of such political magnitude.
The United Nations, for its part, argues that there is no precedent; that there have been international tribunals in the former Yugoslavia, investigating war crimes and in Rwanda, investigating genocide.
Once again critics say that Yugoslavia had more or less ceased to exist as a state and Rwanda wasn’t functioning as a state.
Lebanon, on the other hand, despite its divisions and despite the terrible damage wrought by last year’s invasion by Israel, is a functioning state, and a state that cannot agree as to whether the tribunal is a good thing or not.
The many supporters of Hariri are jubilant now that they believe that justice may actually be done.
They believe that a line may at last be drawn under political assassinations if the perpetrators are brought to justice.
But for others in Lebanon, all of this reeks of outside interference.
Others still believe that far from putting a cap on the violence, the creation of an international tribunal may just fuel it.
Who is right and who is wrong, we shall see in the coming weeks and months.
No politician or diplomat would ever say that it is acceptable to assassinate political opponents and then proceed to assassinate other key figures close to them.
And yet, with a multitude of different agendas and principles whirling around, there are politicians and diplomats who are opposed to the setting-up of a UN International Tribunal to investigate the 2005 murder of Rafiq Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, in a massive car bomb.
But this was no ordinary murder, nor is this any ordinary tribunal.
Those countries, including Russia, China, South Africa and Qatar who abstained on Wednesday's resolution in the UN Security Council argued that they had good reason to do so.
Force
The resolution, supported by 10 countries, including the United States, Britain and France creates a precedent – although the UN might argue that it does not.
It is a Chapter Seven resolution, which is invoked in cases of threats to international peace and security. It is binding, mandatory and can be backed by force if necessary.
It gives the divided Lebanese parliament until June 10 to agree to the establishment of a tribunal.
The massive car bomb attack in 2005 killed
nine people, including Hariri [EPA]
For the first time perhaps, an individual government, in this case the Lebanese government, will be forced to co-operate with a UN-backed court.
Opinion is divided in Lebanon too. The country’s president is against. The country’s prime minister is for.
The opposition, official and unofficial is against. And yet the demonstrations marking Hariri’s murder two years ago were so massive, that the Syrian army, seen by some as occupiers, others as protectors, withdrew from much of the country.
Throughout the long process of the Hariri Inquiry, presided over by a UN-backed team, countries and people not connected to the investigation have been pointing towards Syrian complicity in the attack on Hariri's motorcade, although this remains unproved.
But for those who do believe that there was Syrian involvement, an international tribunal is seen as a device that may help make their cause.
However, it remains the case that the forensic investigation of the murder site, where the massive car bomb exploded, have not yet led to any suspects being named.
Bloodshed
The Lebanese parliament now has a deadline. Yet already some are asking what the UN could do enforce its decision if the parliament fails to meet it, or for some reason does not agree.
Others claim that this decision by the UN Security Council will lead to yet further violence and bloodshed.
Many Lebanese people ask why their own country is not going to be allowed to run its own tribunal.
Questions over Syria's involvement
have yet to be answered [Reuters]
Although others argue that given the great divides in Lebanese society, it is quite impossible to imagine their country hosting an investigation and criminal court case of such political magnitude.
The United Nations, for its part, argues that there is no precedent; that there have been international tribunals in the former Yugoslavia, investigating war crimes and in Rwanda, investigating genocide.
Once again critics say that Yugoslavia had more or less ceased to exist as a state and Rwanda wasn’t functioning as a state.
Lebanon, on the other hand, despite its divisions and despite the terrible damage wrought by last year’s invasion by Israel, is a functioning state, and a state that cannot agree as to whether the tribunal is a good thing or not.
The many supporters of Hariri are jubilant now that they believe that justice may actually be done.
They believe that a line may at last be drawn under political assassinations if the perpetrators are brought to justice.
But for others in Lebanon, all of this reeks of outside interference.
Others still believe that far from putting a cap on the violence, the creation of an international tribunal may just fuel it.
Who is right and who is wrong, we shall see in the coming weeks and months.
Detainee Found Dead in Guantánamo Cell
A Guantánamo detainee apparently committed suicide yesterday, military officials said in a succinct announcement last night.
The announcement, which immediately brought new criticism of the administration’s detention practices, included few details. It stated only that the unidentified detainee was a Saudi Arabian and that he “was found unresponsive and not breathing in his cell by guards” early yesterday afternoon. It said lifesaving efforts were exhausted but did not make clear why the officials had concluded that the death was a suicide.
A spokesman at the naval station at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where about 380 men are held, referred calls to the United States Southern Command in Miami, which posted the announcement on its Web site.
The death comes almost a year after three suicides at Guantánamo last June, which drew international attention. Some critics of the Bush administration said the suicides were testament to desperation in the detention camps. But the commander at the time, Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., asserted that “this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us.”
The death yesterday seemed to mark the end of a period of relative calm in which officials have appeared to take extraordinary steps to avoid detainee suicides, including force-feeding hunger strikers to assure they receive adequate nutrition.
Admiral Harris completed his tour of duty at Guantánamo this month and said at the time that the camp was in a much less turbulent state than last year.
Several of the detainees’ lawyers have said in recent months that the psychological condition of many of the detainees was markedly deteriorating. They said that some detainees had begun to feel that they would never emerge alive from Guantánamo, which was opened at a detention camp more than five years ago.
Some of the lawyers have publicly warned that more suicides are inevitable. Last night, one of those lawyers, Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, said that if the Saudi death was a suicide it was a public sign of the hopelessness at the camp.
“It was simply a matter of time before this suicide,” Mr. Colangelo-Bryan said, “and I imagine it is only a matter of time before the next.” He said that detainees in their sixth year of detention speak of being told that they have no legal rights and will never leave Guantánamo.
American officials have said they have decided that about 80 of the detainees can be released, but that few countries have been willing to accept them. Military officials have said they may bring war-crimes charges against about 80 others.
The remainder are being held as enemy combatants, and the Bush administration has argued that it can hold them until they cease to become a danger or until the war against terrorism is compete. The Pentagon conducts annual reviews of the detainees to asses whether they are still properly classified as enemy combatants.
Anant P. Raut, a Washington lawyer who represents 5 of about 80 Saudi detainees at Guantánamo, said he had not been told as of last night of the condition of his clients. He said that when he visited Guantánamo in February his clients had difficulty understanding why they were still there if the government was not planning to charge them with war crimes.
Mr. Raut said yesterday’s death should bring a thorough assessment of why a detainee might have committed suicide.
“The conditions that led to this have to be re-examined,” he said.
The announcement, which immediately brought new criticism of the administration’s detention practices, included few details. It stated only that the unidentified detainee was a Saudi Arabian and that he “was found unresponsive and not breathing in his cell by guards” early yesterday afternoon. It said lifesaving efforts were exhausted but did not make clear why the officials had concluded that the death was a suicide.
A spokesman at the naval station at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where about 380 men are held, referred calls to the United States Southern Command in Miami, which posted the announcement on its Web site.
The death comes almost a year after three suicides at Guantánamo last June, which drew international attention. Some critics of the Bush administration said the suicides were testament to desperation in the detention camps. But the commander at the time, Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., asserted that “this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us.”
The death yesterday seemed to mark the end of a period of relative calm in which officials have appeared to take extraordinary steps to avoid detainee suicides, including force-feeding hunger strikers to assure they receive adequate nutrition.
Admiral Harris completed his tour of duty at Guantánamo this month and said at the time that the camp was in a much less turbulent state than last year.
Several of the detainees’ lawyers have said in recent months that the psychological condition of many of the detainees was markedly deteriorating. They said that some detainees had begun to feel that they would never emerge alive from Guantánamo, which was opened at a detention camp more than five years ago.
Some of the lawyers have publicly warned that more suicides are inevitable. Last night, one of those lawyers, Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, said that if the Saudi death was a suicide it was a public sign of the hopelessness at the camp.
“It was simply a matter of time before this suicide,” Mr. Colangelo-Bryan said, “and I imagine it is only a matter of time before the next.” He said that detainees in their sixth year of detention speak of being told that they have no legal rights and will never leave Guantánamo.
American officials have said they have decided that about 80 of the detainees can be released, but that few countries have been willing to accept them. Military officials have said they may bring war-crimes charges against about 80 others.
The remainder are being held as enemy combatants, and the Bush administration has argued that it can hold them until they cease to become a danger or until the war against terrorism is compete. The Pentagon conducts annual reviews of the detainees to asses whether they are still properly classified as enemy combatants.
Anant P. Raut, a Washington lawyer who represents 5 of about 80 Saudi detainees at Guantánamo, said he had not been told as of last night of the condition of his clients. He said that when he visited Guantánamo in February his clients had difficulty understanding why they were still there if the government was not planning to charge them with war crimes.
Mr. Raut said yesterday’s death should bring a thorough assessment of why a detainee might have committed suicide.
“The conditions that led to this have to be re-examined,” he said.
Bush’s Nominee Has New Agenda for Bank
WASHINGTON, May 30 — The World Bank that Robert B. Zoellick stands ready to inherit may be battered, fractious and rudderless. But he said Wednesday that he saw himself not simply as a healer but as a leader ready to establish a new agenda to help the world’s poor.
“On the one hand, one has to calm the waters,” Mr. Zoellick told reporters in the afternoon. “But one also has to start to navigate the course of the future.” At another point he said, “People in the bank recognize that it’s going to have to go through some mission adjustment.” But he declined to specify details.
People close to Mr. Zoellick say that based on his record in past economic and diplomatic jobs, he is likely to bring a demanding approach that could disturb the status quo.
At his session with journalists, Mr. Zoellick signaled that he would retain and build on the anticorruption policies of the departing president, Paul D. Wolfowitz, who resigned nearly two weeks ago after a furor over charges of favoritism.
Mr. Zoellick’s nomination was formally announced Wednesday at the White House, where President Bush praised him for having “earned the trust and support of leaders from every region of the world.” Mr. Bush also praised Mr. Wolfowitz for making the bank “a more effective partner for development.”
The bank’s 24-member board has welcomed Mr. Zoellick’s nomination but said it would accept other nominations until June 15.
But bank officials dismissed the statement as a formality and predicted that the board would move smoothly toward making Mr. Zoellick president, despite reservations by some about the United States’ continuing to exercise its 60-year-old prerogative of filling the job.
European officials said they would not disturb the arrangement of having the American president picking the head of the bank, in part to leave intact the tradition of having Europeans pick the head of the International Monetary Fund.
Mr. Zoellick has been told by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and others that the bank must do more to provide concrete measures of the effects of its $23 million in lending to poor countries, in part to assure Congress about how the money is being spent.
In his remarks to reporters, Mr. Zoellick also suggested that the international community must rethink having the bank provide loans to countries like China that have access to global capital markets and possess huge foreign exchange reserves. The bank, he said, could move more into providing technical assistance to these countries.
“It would have been easy to get a figurehead,” an administration official involved in the selection process said of Mr. Zoellick. “Bob’s first posture at the bank will be to listen and to travel. But he definitely brings some ideas on development. He has thought about it a lot.”
Others who know Mr. Zoellick say that despite having a reputation for being a brusque and demanding executive, he is also good at setting long-term objectives and building consensus.
“The World Bank, like other international organizations, needs substantial reform,” said former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, who helped bring Mr. Zoellick into government in the 1980s. “I think Bob will be a very good agent of change. It’s a huge, humongous bureaucracy. But he’s a very resourceful person.”
Colleagues noted that Mr. Zoellick brought “tough love” to some of his previous jobs, most notably as United States trade representative during Mr. Bush’s first term.
As trade envoy, Mr. Zoellick worked with Europeans in 2001, shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to make the next round of global trade talks focus on helping poor countries by letting them export more farm products and industrial goods to rich countries.
But he also demanded that poor countries that gained from being able to export more also commit themselves to economic reforms.
“He believes in rewarding opportunity, encouraging small business and frankly reducing the power of entrenched oligarchies that thrive on closed markets and corrupt environments,” said Christopher A. Padilla, Mr. Zoellick’s chief of staff at the trade office and when he was deputy secretary of state.
“That agenda was a very important component of what we were trying to achieve,” said Mr. Padilla, now an assistant secretary of commerce for export administration. “I’m confident he will bring the same agenda to the World Bank.”
There are some at the World Bank, many bank officials say, who may resist a bias toward encouraging free-market economies, especially at a time when faith in that philosophy has faded in Latin America and elsewhere. But bank officials said they would welcome a new president with knowledge in this area.
“A lot of people used to think that if the Democrats win the White House in 2008, we might get a new president who won’t be pursing free markets and corruption,” said one bank official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “But most people at the bank also realize that reform is necessary.”
The official added: “Sure, Zoellick is coming with an agenda. People at the bank will be focusing on whether he is going to be fixated on trade. But he’s a basic policy wonk. He’s actually a lot closer in personality to the typical bank staffer than Wolfowitz was.”
“On the one hand, one has to calm the waters,” Mr. Zoellick told reporters in the afternoon. “But one also has to start to navigate the course of the future.” At another point he said, “People in the bank recognize that it’s going to have to go through some mission adjustment.” But he declined to specify details.
People close to Mr. Zoellick say that based on his record in past economic and diplomatic jobs, he is likely to bring a demanding approach that could disturb the status quo.
At his session with journalists, Mr. Zoellick signaled that he would retain and build on the anticorruption policies of the departing president, Paul D. Wolfowitz, who resigned nearly two weeks ago after a furor over charges of favoritism.
Mr. Zoellick’s nomination was formally announced Wednesday at the White House, where President Bush praised him for having “earned the trust and support of leaders from every region of the world.” Mr. Bush also praised Mr. Wolfowitz for making the bank “a more effective partner for development.”
The bank’s 24-member board has welcomed Mr. Zoellick’s nomination but said it would accept other nominations until June 15.
But bank officials dismissed the statement as a formality and predicted that the board would move smoothly toward making Mr. Zoellick president, despite reservations by some about the United States’ continuing to exercise its 60-year-old prerogative of filling the job.
European officials said they would not disturb the arrangement of having the American president picking the head of the bank, in part to leave intact the tradition of having Europeans pick the head of the International Monetary Fund.
Mr. Zoellick has been told by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and others that the bank must do more to provide concrete measures of the effects of its $23 million in lending to poor countries, in part to assure Congress about how the money is being spent.
In his remarks to reporters, Mr. Zoellick also suggested that the international community must rethink having the bank provide loans to countries like China that have access to global capital markets and possess huge foreign exchange reserves. The bank, he said, could move more into providing technical assistance to these countries.
“It would have been easy to get a figurehead,” an administration official involved in the selection process said of Mr. Zoellick. “Bob’s first posture at the bank will be to listen and to travel. But he definitely brings some ideas on development. He has thought about it a lot.”
Others who know Mr. Zoellick say that despite having a reputation for being a brusque and demanding executive, he is also good at setting long-term objectives and building consensus.
“The World Bank, like other international organizations, needs substantial reform,” said former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, who helped bring Mr. Zoellick into government in the 1980s. “I think Bob will be a very good agent of change. It’s a huge, humongous bureaucracy. But he’s a very resourceful person.”
Colleagues noted that Mr. Zoellick brought “tough love” to some of his previous jobs, most notably as United States trade representative during Mr. Bush’s first term.
As trade envoy, Mr. Zoellick worked with Europeans in 2001, shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to make the next round of global trade talks focus on helping poor countries by letting them export more farm products and industrial goods to rich countries.
But he also demanded that poor countries that gained from being able to export more also commit themselves to economic reforms.
“He believes in rewarding opportunity, encouraging small business and frankly reducing the power of entrenched oligarchies that thrive on closed markets and corrupt environments,” said Christopher A. Padilla, Mr. Zoellick’s chief of staff at the trade office and when he was deputy secretary of state.
“That agenda was a very important component of what we were trying to achieve,” said Mr. Padilla, now an assistant secretary of commerce for export administration. “I’m confident he will bring the same agenda to the World Bank.”
There are some at the World Bank, many bank officials say, who may resist a bias toward encouraging free-market economies, especially at a time when faith in that philosophy has faded in Latin America and elsewhere. But bank officials said they would welcome a new president with knowledge in this area.
“A lot of people used to think that if the Democrats win the White House in 2008, we might get a new president who won’t be pursing free markets and corruption,” said one bank official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “But most people at the bank also realize that reform is necessary.”
The official added: “Sure, Zoellick is coming with an agenda. People at the bank will be focusing on whether he is going to be fixated on trade. But he’s a basic policy wonk. He’s actually a lot closer in personality to the typical bank staffer than Wolfowitz was.”
Rice Clashes With Russian on Kosovo and Missiles
POTSDAM, Germany, May 30 — The United States and Russia, with relations between them at their most contentious since the collapse of the Soviet Union, openly sparred here on Wednesday at a meeting of foreign ministers of the Group of 8 industrialized nations.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, accused the United States of starting a new arms race and implicitly threatened to veto any United Nations Security Council resolution that, like the one proposed by the United States and its European allies, would recognize the independence of Kosovo.
Even as the White House and the Kremlin were announcing plans for a rare kiss-and-make-up meeting between President Bush and President Vladimir V. Putin, their top diplomats were clashing here in the historic castle where Churchill, Truman and Stalin met to decide how to carve up Germany after World War II.
This time, the big issue was the carving up of the former Yugoslavia, where the mostly Albanian-inhabited province of Kosovo wants to secede from Serbia. That, along with the American plan to place antimissile bases in Poland and the Czech Republic, has pitted Russia against the West in a war of words with flashbacks to the cold war.
Mr. Lavrov harshly criticized Washington’s plan to build a missile shield over countries that were once part of the Soviet sphere of influence. And he took issue with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for calling Russian concerns about it ludicrous.
“All they’re saying is, ‘Don’t worry, it’s not aimed at you,’ ” Mr. Lavrov said at a news conference after the meeting. “It’s such answers that are ludicrous.”
“We quite agree,” Ms. Rice said with a sly smile, countering that Russian officials themselves have bragged that their strategic defense systems can easily overwhelm any missile defense system that the United States puts up in Europe. Mr. Lavrov was having none of it. “I hope that no one has to prove that Condi is right about that,” he interjected.
Their clashes are indicative of a chill in their countries’ relations. In February, Mr. Putin delivered a blistering speech accusing the United States of undermining international institutions and making the Middle East more unstable through its clumsy handling of the Iraq war.
Russia is also deeply unhappy about the expansion of NATO into the former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and about the perception in Russia that the West has supported groups that have toppled other governments in Moscow’s former sphere of influence.
Mr. Bush, Ms. Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates have tried, without success, to reassure the Russians that the missile system is aimed at preventing attack by the likes of Iran or North Korea.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, accused the United States of starting a new arms race and implicitly threatened to veto any United Nations Security Council resolution that, like the one proposed by the United States and its European allies, would recognize the independence of Kosovo.
Even as the White House and the Kremlin were announcing plans for a rare kiss-and-make-up meeting between President Bush and President Vladimir V. Putin, their top diplomats were clashing here in the historic castle where Churchill, Truman and Stalin met to decide how to carve up Germany after World War II.
This time, the big issue was the carving up of the former Yugoslavia, where the mostly Albanian-inhabited province of Kosovo wants to secede from Serbia. That, along with the American plan to place antimissile bases in Poland and the Czech Republic, has pitted Russia against the West in a war of words with flashbacks to the cold war.
Mr. Lavrov harshly criticized Washington’s plan to build a missile shield over countries that were once part of the Soviet sphere of influence. And he took issue with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for calling Russian concerns about it ludicrous.
“All they’re saying is, ‘Don’t worry, it’s not aimed at you,’ ” Mr. Lavrov said at a news conference after the meeting. “It’s such answers that are ludicrous.”
“We quite agree,” Ms. Rice said with a sly smile, countering that Russian officials themselves have bragged that their strategic defense systems can easily overwhelm any missile defense system that the United States puts up in Europe. Mr. Lavrov was having none of it. “I hope that no one has to prove that Condi is right about that,” he interjected.
Their clashes are indicative of a chill in their countries’ relations. In February, Mr. Putin delivered a blistering speech accusing the United States of undermining international institutions and making the Middle East more unstable through its clumsy handling of the Iraq war.
Russia is also deeply unhappy about the expansion of NATO into the former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and about the perception in Russia that the West has supported groups that have toppled other governments in Moscow’s former sphere of influence.
Mr. Bush, Ms. Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates have tried, without success, to reassure the Russians that the missile system is aimed at preventing attack by the likes of Iran or North Korea.
U.S. and Iraqi Forces Seek Abducted Britons in Raid
BAGHDAD, May 30 — American and Iraqi troops raided Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood on Wednesday, looking for five British citizens abducted a day earlier from a nearby government building, military and diplomatic officials said.
The search was part of a larger effort involving the military and Iraqi officials, and diplomats from Britain and the United States to locate the British men or make contact with their abductors, according to two Western diplomats. The operation began in the early morning as troops surrounded houses demanding information about the kidnapping victims, a resident of the area said.
Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, an Army spokesman, confirmed that an operation was under way in Sadr City, a stronghold of the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army, but he would not say whether the troops were looking for the British kidnapping victims.
Separately, a spokesman for the American Embassy in Baghdad, Dan Sreebny, said that two of its Iraqi employees were believed to have been kidnapped. He gave no further details.
In a statement, the American military condemned the bombing of a Sunni mosque in southwest Baghdad on Wednesday and another bombing of a Shiite mosque a day earlier. The statement did not provide a location for the earlier bombing, and it gave no details about whether people were killed or wounded in the attacks. The bombings could not be independently confirmed.
The British kidnapping victims, a business consultant and four bodyguards, were abducted Tuesday from a Finance Ministry complex by a large group of uniformed men in multiple vehicles. The men entered a guarded Finance Ministry complex in eastern Baghdad, took the Britons and left without firing a shot, according to witnesses and Iraqi officials.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in an interview with Reuters that the Mahdi Army may have carried out the kidnappings in retaliation for the killing of the militia’s top commander by Iraqi special forces last week in Basra.
But Sheik Salah al-Ubaidi, a spokesman for the Sadr organization, denied involvement. “These claims are far from reality,” he said in an interview. “Baghdad has witnessed many kidnappings before, and the Mahdi Army has been accused many times, but the connection is not correct.”
The British foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, speaking to reporters in Germany, said British officials were working with the Iraqi authorities to find out how the Britons were abducted and to secure their swift release.
In a statement issued by the Iraqi Foreign Ministry late on Wednesday, Mr. Zebari said, “A thorough investigation has been launched into this serious breach of security, and the government is in close contact with British authorities on the developing situation.”
A Western diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity said he was unaware of any communication as of Wednesday night with the kidnappers. The leading theory among American and British diplomats, the official said, is that the kidnapping was the work of the Mahdi Army.
The diplomat said that the British business consultant, an employee of BearingPoint, a company in McLean, Va., had been giving a lecture at the Finance Ministry building as part of a contract with the United States Agency for International Development when he was taken.
Reuters reported his name as Peter Moore, attributing the information to Finance Ministry officials. But Steve Lunceford, a spokesman for BearingPoint, said the company was not identifying its employee. “We are fully cooperating with local and international authorities to ascertain facts surrounding this incident and are supporting efforts to ensure the employee’s safe release,” he said.
At least one other non-Iraqi was in the building at the time of the kidnapping but was not abducted, possibly because he was hidden in a separate room, according to a Western diplomat.
In raids unrelated to the search for the kidnappers, the American military said it had detained five people suspected of being insurgents and one person suspected of being a cell leader during a raid in Sadr City. The raid focused on members of a network suspected of importing roadside bombs and weapons from Iran.
One person was killed in Sadr City when a car bomb exploded, an Interior Ministry official said.
Meanwhile, the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella insurgent group that includes Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, claimed responsibility for shooting down an American helicopter that crashed in Diyala Province on Monday.
In the statement, the group said its operatives had shot down the helicopter and killed “the two crusader pilots.”
The American military confirmed the crash and confirmed that the two pilots were killed, but had not publicly announced the cause, though Iraqi officials have said the helicopter was shot down.
Five people were killed and 15 wounded on Wednesday when mortar shells landed in downtown Falluja, west of Baghdad, a hospital official said.
In Hilla, south of Baghdad, three Iraqi soldiers were killed Wednesday in an early morning attack on their checkpoint, the local police said.
Ten people were killed, including four policemen and an Iraqi soldier, in fighting that began after the police tried to arrest people suspected of being Sunni Arab insurgents in Khalis, north of Baghdad, the police said.
The bodies of 30 people who had been shot were found in different districts of Baghdad on Tuesday, the police said.
Khalid al-Ansary, Muhanad Seloom, and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times contributed reporting.
The search was part of a larger effort involving the military and Iraqi officials, and diplomats from Britain and the United States to locate the British men or make contact with their abductors, according to two Western diplomats. The operation began in the early morning as troops surrounded houses demanding information about the kidnapping victims, a resident of the area said.
Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, an Army spokesman, confirmed that an operation was under way in Sadr City, a stronghold of the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army, but he would not say whether the troops were looking for the British kidnapping victims.
Separately, a spokesman for the American Embassy in Baghdad, Dan Sreebny, said that two of its Iraqi employees were believed to have been kidnapped. He gave no further details.
In a statement, the American military condemned the bombing of a Sunni mosque in southwest Baghdad on Wednesday and another bombing of a Shiite mosque a day earlier. The statement did not provide a location for the earlier bombing, and it gave no details about whether people were killed or wounded in the attacks. The bombings could not be independently confirmed.
The British kidnapping victims, a business consultant and four bodyguards, were abducted Tuesday from a Finance Ministry complex by a large group of uniformed men in multiple vehicles. The men entered a guarded Finance Ministry complex in eastern Baghdad, took the Britons and left without firing a shot, according to witnesses and Iraqi officials.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in an interview with Reuters that the Mahdi Army may have carried out the kidnappings in retaliation for the killing of the militia’s top commander by Iraqi special forces last week in Basra.
But Sheik Salah al-Ubaidi, a spokesman for the Sadr organization, denied involvement. “These claims are far from reality,” he said in an interview. “Baghdad has witnessed many kidnappings before, and the Mahdi Army has been accused many times, but the connection is not correct.”
The British foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, speaking to reporters in Germany, said British officials were working with the Iraqi authorities to find out how the Britons were abducted and to secure their swift release.
In a statement issued by the Iraqi Foreign Ministry late on Wednesday, Mr. Zebari said, “A thorough investigation has been launched into this serious breach of security, and the government is in close contact with British authorities on the developing situation.”
A Western diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity said he was unaware of any communication as of Wednesday night with the kidnappers. The leading theory among American and British diplomats, the official said, is that the kidnapping was the work of the Mahdi Army.
The diplomat said that the British business consultant, an employee of BearingPoint, a company in McLean, Va., had been giving a lecture at the Finance Ministry building as part of a contract with the United States Agency for International Development when he was taken.
Reuters reported his name as Peter Moore, attributing the information to Finance Ministry officials. But Steve Lunceford, a spokesman for BearingPoint, said the company was not identifying its employee. “We are fully cooperating with local and international authorities to ascertain facts surrounding this incident and are supporting efforts to ensure the employee’s safe release,” he said.
At least one other non-Iraqi was in the building at the time of the kidnapping but was not abducted, possibly because he was hidden in a separate room, according to a Western diplomat.
In raids unrelated to the search for the kidnappers, the American military said it had detained five people suspected of being insurgents and one person suspected of being a cell leader during a raid in Sadr City. The raid focused on members of a network suspected of importing roadside bombs and weapons from Iran.
One person was killed in Sadr City when a car bomb exploded, an Interior Ministry official said.
Meanwhile, the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella insurgent group that includes Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, claimed responsibility for shooting down an American helicopter that crashed in Diyala Province on Monday.
In the statement, the group said its operatives had shot down the helicopter and killed “the two crusader pilots.”
The American military confirmed the crash and confirmed that the two pilots were killed, but had not publicly announced the cause, though Iraqi officials have said the helicopter was shot down.
Five people were killed and 15 wounded on Wednesday when mortar shells landed in downtown Falluja, west of Baghdad, a hospital official said.
In Hilla, south of Baghdad, three Iraqi soldiers were killed Wednesday in an early morning attack on their checkpoint, the local police said.
Ten people were killed, including four policemen and an Iraqi soldier, in fighting that began after the police tried to arrest people suspected of being Sunni Arab insurgents in Khalis, north of Baghdad, the police said.
The bodies of 30 people who had been shot were found in different districts of Baghdad on Tuesday, the police said.
Khalid al-Ansary, Muhanad Seloom, and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times contributed reporting.
U.N. Sets Up Tribunal for Hariri Killing
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- The U.N. Security Council voted Wednesday to unilaterally establish an international tribunal to prosecute suspects in the killing of Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri whose supporters celebrated by dancing in the streets of Beirut.
The vote at U.N. headquarters in New York was 10-0 with five abstentions _ Russia, China, South Africa, Indonesia and Qatar. Nine votes were needed for passage. The five countries that abstained objected to establishing the tribunal without approval of Lebanon's parliament and to a provision which would allow the resolution to be militarily enforced.
Holding back tears, Hariri's son said in Lebanon that the resolution was a turning point that would protect his country from further assassinations. Saad Hariri called it a "victory the world has given to oppressed Lebanon and a victory for an oppressed Lebanon in the world."
"Enough divisions. .. Let's put our energies together for the sake of the nation," he urged.
A massive suicide truck bomb in Beirut killed Hariri and 22 others in February 2005. The first U.N. chief investigator, Germany's Detlev Mehlis, said the complexity of the assassination suggested Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services played a role. Four Lebanese generals, top pro-Syrian security chiefs, have been under arrest for 20 months, accused of involvement.
The issue of the tribunal has sharply polarized Lebanon. It is at the core of a deep political crisis between the Western-backed government and the Syrian-backed opposition led by Hezbollah. The tensions have taken on an increasingly sectarian tone and has erupted into street battles in recent months, killing 11 people.
Current Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora asked the Security Council earlier this month to establish the tribunal. He cited the refusal of opposition-aligned Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to convene a session to ratify statutes to create the tribunal, already approved by his government and the United Nations.
The resolution gives the Lebanese parliament a last chance to establish the tribunal itself.
If it doesn't act by June 10, a tribunal will be created outside Lebanon with a majority of international judges and an international prosecutor.
The U.S., Britain and France, who sponsored the resolution, expressed satisfaction after it passed.
"By adopting this resolution, the council has demonstrated its commitment to the principle that there should be no impunity for political assassination, in Lebanon or elsewhere," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Zalmay Khalilzad said.
In Lebanon, joyful Hariri supporters wept and even danced in the streets when they got word of the U.N. approval. About 200 people holding flags erupted in cheers. Some cried near Hariri's downtown Beirut grave. A giant screen broadcast the Security Council vote live from New York. Dozens of people prayed before the vote was taken.
The vote at U.N. headquarters in New York was 10-0 with five abstentions _ Russia, China, South Africa, Indonesia and Qatar. Nine votes were needed for passage. The five countries that abstained objected to establishing the tribunal without approval of Lebanon's parliament and to a provision which would allow the resolution to be militarily enforced.
Holding back tears, Hariri's son said in Lebanon that the resolution was a turning point that would protect his country from further assassinations. Saad Hariri called it a "victory the world has given to oppressed Lebanon and a victory for an oppressed Lebanon in the world."
"Enough divisions. .. Let's put our energies together for the sake of the nation," he urged.
A massive suicide truck bomb in Beirut killed Hariri and 22 others in February 2005. The first U.N. chief investigator, Germany's Detlev Mehlis, said the complexity of the assassination suggested Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services played a role. Four Lebanese generals, top pro-Syrian security chiefs, have been under arrest for 20 months, accused of involvement.
The issue of the tribunal has sharply polarized Lebanon. It is at the core of a deep political crisis between the Western-backed government and the Syrian-backed opposition led by Hezbollah. The tensions have taken on an increasingly sectarian tone and has erupted into street battles in recent months, killing 11 people.
Current Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora asked the Security Council earlier this month to establish the tribunal. He cited the refusal of opposition-aligned Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to convene a session to ratify statutes to create the tribunal, already approved by his government and the United Nations.
The resolution gives the Lebanese parliament a last chance to establish the tribunal itself.
If it doesn't act by June 10, a tribunal will be created outside Lebanon with a majority of international judges and an international prosecutor.
The U.S., Britain and France, who sponsored the resolution, expressed satisfaction after it passed.
"By adopting this resolution, the council has demonstrated its commitment to the principle that there should be no impunity for political assassination, in Lebanon or elsewhere," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Zalmay Khalilzad said.
In Lebanon, joyful Hariri supporters wept and even danced in the streets when they got word of the U.N. approval. About 200 people holding flags erupted in cheers. Some cried near Hariri's downtown Beirut grave. A giant screen broadcast the Security Council vote live from New York. Dozens of people prayed before the vote was taken.
5 Americans Die in Afghan Chopper Crash
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Five Americans and two other soldiers died when a Chinook helicopter was apparently shot down Wednesday evening in Afghanistan's most volatile province, a U.S. military official said. The Taliban claimed responsibility.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force said other troops rushing to the scene were ambushed and had to call in air support to drive off their attackers.
Initial reports suggested the helicopter was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade, said the U.S. official, who insisted on speaking anonymously because the crash was still under investigation. NATO said there were no survivors.
Along with the five Americans, two soldiers from Britain and Canada who had been passengers were also killed, military officials said.
A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, claimed in a phone call to The Associated Press that militants shot the helicopter down in southern Helmand province, the world's largest opium poppy-growing region where combat has been heavy in recent months.
Ahmadi did not offer any proof for his claim, but he specified the helicopter crashed in the Kajaki district hours before NATO reported that information. Kajaki is the site of a hydroelectric dam and the scene of recent fighting.
NATO said the CH-47 Chinook was carrying a crew of five and two military passengers when it crashed. The cause was "being determined by military officials," it said.
NATO said troops going to the crash site were ambushed by enemy fighters and the unit called in an airstrike "to eliminate the enemy threat." It did not say if the troops were from the U.S.-led coalition, NATO's force or the Afghan army. One civilian was injured by gunfire.
The CH-47 Chinook, a heavy transport helicopter with two rotors, can carry around 40 soldiers plus a small crew. The fact it was flying at night suggested the aircraft might have been carrying troops on a nighttime air assault.
Kajaki is the site of a large U.S.-funded hydroelectric dam now being repaired so it can provide electricity to the southern city of Kandahar. British troops, who make up the bulk of the forces in Helmand province, have been engaged in fierce fighting around the dam protecting it.
The NATO force, which is responsible for a countrywide counterinsurgency campaign, has 37,000 soldiers, including about 14,000 Americans. There are 12,000 U.S. troops in the separate U.S.-led coalition, which trains the Afghan army and conducts Special Forces anti-terrorism operations.
Helicopter crashes in Afghanistan have been relatively rare. A Chinook crashed in February in the southern province of Zabul, killing eight U.S. personnel. Officials ruled out enemy fire as the cause.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force said other troops rushing to the scene were ambushed and had to call in air support to drive off their attackers.
Initial reports suggested the helicopter was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade, said the U.S. official, who insisted on speaking anonymously because the crash was still under investigation. NATO said there were no survivors.
Along with the five Americans, two soldiers from Britain and Canada who had been passengers were also killed, military officials said.
A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, claimed in a phone call to The Associated Press that militants shot the helicopter down in southern Helmand province, the world's largest opium poppy-growing region where combat has been heavy in recent months.
Ahmadi did not offer any proof for his claim, but he specified the helicopter crashed in the Kajaki district hours before NATO reported that information. Kajaki is the site of a hydroelectric dam and the scene of recent fighting.
NATO said the CH-47 Chinook was carrying a crew of five and two military passengers when it crashed. The cause was "being determined by military officials," it said.
NATO said troops going to the crash site were ambushed by enemy fighters and the unit called in an airstrike "to eliminate the enemy threat." It did not say if the troops were from the U.S.-led coalition, NATO's force or the Afghan army. One civilian was injured by gunfire.
The CH-47 Chinook, a heavy transport helicopter with two rotors, can carry around 40 soldiers plus a small crew. The fact it was flying at night suggested the aircraft might have been carrying troops on a nighttime air assault.
Kajaki is the site of a large U.S.-funded hydroelectric dam now being repaired so it can provide electricity to the southern city of Kandahar. British troops, who make up the bulk of the forces in Helmand province, have been engaged in fierce fighting around the dam protecting it.
The NATO force, which is responsible for a countrywide counterinsurgency campaign, has 37,000 soldiers, including about 14,000 Americans. There are 12,000 U.S. troops in the separate U.S.-led coalition, which trains the Afghan army and conducts Special Forces anti-terrorism operations.
Helicopter crashes in Afghanistan have been relatively rare. A Chinook crashed in February in the southern province of Zabul, killing eight U.S. personnel. Officials ruled out enemy fire as the cause.
Diplomats: Iran considered slowing nuke program
MADRID, Spain (AP) — Tehran recently suggested a readiness to discuss a partial suspension of uranium enrichment, but the U.S. and key allies rejected the overture and Iran pulled back from the idea for starting talks on its nuclear program, diplomats said Wednesday.
With both sides back at their hard-line stances, an exploratory meeting Thursday between Iran's chief international negotiator and the European Union's senior foreign policy official was unlikely to make substantial headway, the diplomats told The Associated Press.
In another sign of defiance, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boasted that his country's military has become so strong that no adversary would risk an attack. "We have passed our point of vulnerability," he told Iranian state television.
Both Iran and the United States reiterated tough positions ahead of the Madrid meeting between Iranian envoy Ali Larijani and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
"Suspension is not the right solution for solving Iran's nuclear issue," the Iranian state news agency quoted envoy Larijani as saying before he flew to Spain.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Iran | Iran | Tehran | Condoleezza Rice | United States | EU | Madrid | Ali Larijani | Suspension
On arrival in Madrid, he obliquely put the blame for the impasse on the insistence of the U.S. and its allies that Tehran freeze all enrichment, referring to "some mischievous moves by some countries."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, meanwhile, said the world should not soften demands that Iran halt all disputed nuclear work. "That would be a very big mistake," she said.
Rice was responding to questions about increasing sentiment in Europe that the five permanent U.N. Security Council nations plus Germany — the powers trying to engage Iran — should drop the demand for an enrichment freeze as a condition for talks on an incentive package intended to persuade Iran to rein in its nuclear program.
At their most recent round of talks last month in Turkey, both Larijani and Solana spoke of progress and agreed to meet again to try to bridge the divide.
Iran insists it has the right to develop uranium enrichment to produce fuel for nuclear reactors that would generate electricity, while the Security Council demands it freeze such activities until Tehran allays fears it is trying to develop atomic weapons.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because they were discussing confidential information, diplomats familiar with the issue said at least part of the optimism after the first meeting was based on Iran's apparent readiness to discuss a temporary, but partial suspension of enrichment.
Iran was ready to stop some of its centrifuge machines, which can enrich uranium both to the low level needed for reactor fuel and to high-grade material used for nuclear warheads, one diplomat said.
Insistence by the U.S. and key Security Council allies Britain and France that Tehran fully suspend enrichment doomed chances for agreement, the diplomat said.
"It was clear that those on the Western side did not accept any centrifuges (running) at all," the diplomat said. "As a result, the Iranians have gone completely hard-line."
Diplomats said evidence of that surfaced last Friday in Brussels, when Larijani's deputy, Javed Vaidi, met with senior civil servants of Britain, France and Germany who report directly to their foreign ministers. Also present was a senior Solana aide.
"It was a disaster," said one of the diplomats, saying the two sides parted with no signs of progress.
Larijani did leave room for some hope. Before leaving Tehran, he said Iran wanted to allay the West's concerns over its nuclear program. "We want to continue our peaceful nuclear program, but others should have no concerns about it as well," he was quoted as saying.
It was not clear, however, if Larijani's comment signaled that Iran would take concrete steps to alleviate concerns, such as giving more leeway to U.N. inspectors whose monitoring of Iranian nuclear facilities was curtailed by Tehran after the latest Security Council sanctions.
The Security Council first imposed limited sanctions on Iran in December for defying the demand for an enrichment freeze and modestly increased penalties in March. It is now preparing to debate on a third round of punitive measures.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., told CNN Wednesday that the United States will seek to have the Security Council expand and tighten the sanctions. He cited possible sanctions on military supplies to Iran "and expanding the economic, financial parts, in terms of travel issues."
"I think we need to look at the whole range of sanctions that need to be applied to increase the incentive of the regime to cooperate on this issue because ... this regime's acquisition of nuclear weapons is a huge problem for the entire world," he said.
He said Russia and China, like the United States, "don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons."
"But the question is, how much of a price are they willing to pay to increase the pressure, and that will be subject of our discussions in the coming weeks with them," Khalilzad said.
Washington and others fear Iran is trying to develop atomic weapons in violation of its commitments under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. The worries are fed by two decades of Tehran's clandestine nuclear activities, including questionable black-market acquisitions of equipment and blueprints that appear linked to weapon plans.
Iran denies working on atomic weapons and says the treaty gives it the right to pursue uranium enrichment for peaceful purposes.
Relations between the U.S. and Iran also are strained by Washington's accusation that Tehran is supporting insurgents in Iraq and supplying them with roadside bombs that have killed U.S. troops. Iran denies the claim.
Despite the tensions, the U.S. and Iran held landmark talks in Baghdad earlier this week. Though the ambassador-level meeting was limited to Iraq's security, it was the first formal talks between the two countries since the U.S. broke diplomatic relations with Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
With both sides back at their hard-line stances, an exploratory meeting Thursday between Iran's chief international negotiator and the European Union's senior foreign policy official was unlikely to make substantial headway, the diplomats told The Associated Press.
In another sign of defiance, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boasted that his country's military has become so strong that no adversary would risk an attack. "We have passed our point of vulnerability," he told Iranian state television.
Both Iran and the United States reiterated tough positions ahead of the Madrid meeting between Iranian envoy Ali Larijani and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
"Suspension is not the right solution for solving Iran's nuclear issue," the Iranian state news agency quoted envoy Larijani as saying before he flew to Spain.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Iran | Iran | Tehran | Condoleezza Rice | United States | EU | Madrid | Ali Larijani | Suspension
On arrival in Madrid, he obliquely put the blame for the impasse on the insistence of the U.S. and its allies that Tehran freeze all enrichment, referring to "some mischievous moves by some countries."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, meanwhile, said the world should not soften demands that Iran halt all disputed nuclear work. "That would be a very big mistake," she said.
Rice was responding to questions about increasing sentiment in Europe that the five permanent U.N. Security Council nations plus Germany — the powers trying to engage Iran — should drop the demand for an enrichment freeze as a condition for talks on an incentive package intended to persuade Iran to rein in its nuclear program.
At their most recent round of talks last month in Turkey, both Larijani and Solana spoke of progress and agreed to meet again to try to bridge the divide.
Iran insists it has the right to develop uranium enrichment to produce fuel for nuclear reactors that would generate electricity, while the Security Council demands it freeze such activities until Tehran allays fears it is trying to develop atomic weapons.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because they were discussing confidential information, diplomats familiar with the issue said at least part of the optimism after the first meeting was based on Iran's apparent readiness to discuss a temporary, but partial suspension of enrichment.
Iran was ready to stop some of its centrifuge machines, which can enrich uranium both to the low level needed for reactor fuel and to high-grade material used for nuclear warheads, one diplomat said.
Insistence by the U.S. and key Security Council allies Britain and France that Tehran fully suspend enrichment doomed chances for agreement, the diplomat said.
"It was clear that those on the Western side did not accept any centrifuges (running) at all," the diplomat said. "As a result, the Iranians have gone completely hard-line."
Diplomats said evidence of that surfaced last Friday in Brussels, when Larijani's deputy, Javed Vaidi, met with senior civil servants of Britain, France and Germany who report directly to their foreign ministers. Also present was a senior Solana aide.
"It was a disaster," said one of the diplomats, saying the two sides parted with no signs of progress.
Larijani did leave room for some hope. Before leaving Tehran, he said Iran wanted to allay the West's concerns over its nuclear program. "We want to continue our peaceful nuclear program, but others should have no concerns about it as well," he was quoted as saying.
It was not clear, however, if Larijani's comment signaled that Iran would take concrete steps to alleviate concerns, such as giving more leeway to U.N. inspectors whose monitoring of Iranian nuclear facilities was curtailed by Tehran after the latest Security Council sanctions.
The Security Council first imposed limited sanctions on Iran in December for defying the demand for an enrichment freeze and modestly increased penalties in March. It is now preparing to debate on a third round of punitive measures.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., told CNN Wednesday that the United States will seek to have the Security Council expand and tighten the sanctions. He cited possible sanctions on military supplies to Iran "and expanding the economic, financial parts, in terms of travel issues."
"I think we need to look at the whole range of sanctions that need to be applied to increase the incentive of the regime to cooperate on this issue because ... this regime's acquisition of nuclear weapons is a huge problem for the entire world," he said.
He said Russia and China, like the United States, "don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons."
"But the question is, how much of a price are they willing to pay to increase the pressure, and that will be subject of our discussions in the coming weeks with them," Khalilzad said.
Washington and others fear Iran is trying to develop atomic weapons in violation of its commitments under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. The worries are fed by two decades of Tehran's clandestine nuclear activities, including questionable black-market acquisitions of equipment and blueprints that appear linked to weapon plans.
Iran denies working on atomic weapons and says the treaty gives it the right to pursue uranium enrichment for peaceful purposes.
Relations between the U.S. and Iran also are strained by Washington's accusation that Tehran is supporting insurgents in Iraq and supplying them with roadside bombs that have killed U.S. troops. Iran denies the claim.
Despite the tensions, the U.S. and Iran held landmark talks in Baghdad earlier this week. Though the ambassador-level meeting was limited to Iraq's security, it was the first formal talks between the two countries since the U.S. broke diplomatic relations with Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
Norway ranked as world's most peaceful nation
LONDON — Japan, which only 65 years ago was seen as an aggressive war-mongerer, has been ranked as the world's fifth most peaceful nation in a report launched Wednesday by international businessman Steve Killelea in conjunction with the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Poling behind Norway, New Zealand, Denmark and Ireland, Japan is the only Group of Eight industrialized country to fall in the top 10 of the Global Peace Index — the first study of its kind to compare peace on a worldwide level.
The United States was ranked in 96th place out of the 121 countries, just ahead of Iran.
The ranking uses 24 indicators, including the number of external and internal wars fought, the level of respect for human rights and the import and export of major conventional weapons, in attempt to provide a quantitative measure of peace that is comparable over time.
"Japan is politically stable and measures of societal safety and security such as the level of violent crime, the likelihood of violent demonstrations and the number of homicides receive very low scores," the report states accounting for the positioning of the country.
Killelea — who is an advocate of peace as a tool to "solve the major challenges that the world faces" — believes that Japan can provide hope and optimism to countries further down the rankings that there can be "light at the end of the tunnel."
Lesson for nations
"When you look at the top 10, there are three nations, Japan, Germany and Ireland, which were all embroiled in conflict less than a century ago, so the lesson is that nations can change," he explained at the press launch of the index.
"I think that nations that are in conflict today have, in Japan, an example of how they can change over time but this is just a starting point — we need to understand why this change happens and then we can promote an environment of peace," Killelea added.
The report conveners were quick to point out, however, that nations could slide away from peacefulness, just as they could edge towards it and that Japan's steps to normalize its military could see the country falling down the rankings.
"Certainly if Japan deployed more troops outside of the United Nations mandate and made its military more sophisticated those things would count against it in the peace index and its scoring would change," said Robin Bew, editorial director for the Economist Intelligence Unit.
U.S. loses out
Remarking on the United States' low standing in the index, Bew said it was paying the price for extending its militarization beyond its own nation and creating a "pact Americana."
"The U.S. allows other countries, such as Japan, to shelter under its military umbrella and to perhaps spend less and have less sophisticated military machinery than they otherwise would," he explained.
"You could argue that to some extent America is being driven down the rankings after having taken on this role of global policeman and that has actually allowed other nations, notably including Japan, to score rather better on the rankings than it otherwise would," Bew added, emphasizing the often-ambiguous status of so-called peaceful countries.
Poling behind Norway, New Zealand, Denmark and Ireland, Japan is the only Group of Eight industrialized country to fall in the top 10 of the Global Peace Index — the first study of its kind to compare peace on a worldwide level.
The United States was ranked in 96th place out of the 121 countries, just ahead of Iran.
The ranking uses 24 indicators, including the number of external and internal wars fought, the level of respect for human rights and the import and export of major conventional weapons, in attempt to provide a quantitative measure of peace that is comparable over time.
"Japan is politically stable and measures of societal safety and security such as the level of violent crime, the likelihood of violent demonstrations and the number of homicides receive very low scores," the report states accounting for the positioning of the country.
Killelea — who is an advocate of peace as a tool to "solve the major challenges that the world faces" — believes that Japan can provide hope and optimism to countries further down the rankings that there can be "light at the end of the tunnel."
Lesson for nations
"When you look at the top 10, there are three nations, Japan, Germany and Ireland, which were all embroiled in conflict less than a century ago, so the lesson is that nations can change," he explained at the press launch of the index.
"I think that nations that are in conflict today have, in Japan, an example of how they can change over time but this is just a starting point — we need to understand why this change happens and then we can promote an environment of peace," Killelea added.
The report conveners were quick to point out, however, that nations could slide away from peacefulness, just as they could edge towards it and that Japan's steps to normalize its military could see the country falling down the rankings.
"Certainly if Japan deployed more troops outside of the United Nations mandate and made its military more sophisticated those things would count against it in the peace index and its scoring would change," said Robin Bew, editorial director for the Economist Intelligence Unit.
U.S. loses out
Remarking on the United States' low standing in the index, Bew said it was paying the price for extending its militarization beyond its own nation and creating a "pact Americana."
"The U.S. allows other countries, such as Japan, to shelter under its military umbrella and to perhaps spend less and have less sophisticated military machinery than they otherwise would," he explained.
"You could argue that to some extent America is being driven down the rankings after having taken on this role of global policeman and that has actually allowed other nations, notably including Japan, to score rather better on the rankings than it otherwise would," Bew added, emphasizing the often-ambiguous status of so-called peaceful countries.
Political ban raises tension in Thailand
Political tension rose in Thailand last night after a tribunal ruled that the party founded by deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra be dissolved and senior members barred from politics after upholding charges of serious electoral fraud.
The late-night decision against Thai Rak Thai (TRT) - the country's biggest party - banned more than 100 of the party's senior executives, including Mr Thaksin, for five years.
It threw Thai politics into further confusion after an earlier verdict spared the Democrat party and its executives when they were cleared of similar charges in a verdict that took hours to deliver.
Police set up checkpoints at key junctions across Bangkok yesterday and 13,000 troops were on standby for trouble after the ruling by the nine-judge panel established by the military-appointed government which took power in a bloodless coup last September.
There were fears of a prompt reaction by supporters of the TRT which remains popular among the poor, many of whom have suffered just as the economy has suffered since the junta took power.
Last week Thailand's revered king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, took the unusual step of warning in a televised address that the stability of the country depended on the fairness of the tribunal's judgment.
All day long yesterday several hundred TRT supporters gathered on the steps of the party's headquarters in Bangkok as the lengthy judgment was read out and beamed on large screens.
But when the Democrats, Thailand's oldest party, were cleared of six counts of cheating in last year's April 2 vote, even the TRT faithful cheered and burst into song, hoping the ruling was a harbinger of what lay ahead for their own party.
"This is not the last day of Thai Rak Thai, brothers and sisters," party spokeswoman Laddawan Wongsriwong told a distraught crowd of 1,000 people at party headquarters which hissed and booed at the verdict.
The constitutional tribunal cleared the Democrats of slandering Mr Thaksin's party and of using a smaller party to violate the rules governing the controversial snap election which was boycotted by the opposition. Shortly afterwards the poll result was annulled.
But TRT was not given the same lifeline. It was found guilty of bankrolling obscure smaller parties to run against it in constituencies where there was no opposition to get around laws requiring a minimum voter turnout.
Judges ruled that two key party members, former defence minister Thammarak Issaragura na Ayuthaya and former transport minister Pongsak Raktapongpaisal, were guilty of breaking electoral laws to ensure the TRT returned to power swiftly.
Ahead of the verdict Mr Thaksin, who has not returned to Thailand since the coup and has set up home in London, urged his supporters to accept the court's verdict and maintain calm
It was unclear last night how the decision to disband TRT and ban its leaders would affect the general election which the junta has pledged would take place in December.
However, Thailand's law does allow members from the party to reform under a new banner and they could yet contest the poll if the uncertainty does not set back the timetable.
The late-night decision against Thai Rak Thai (TRT) - the country's biggest party - banned more than 100 of the party's senior executives, including Mr Thaksin, for five years.
It threw Thai politics into further confusion after an earlier verdict spared the Democrat party and its executives when they were cleared of similar charges in a verdict that took hours to deliver.
Police set up checkpoints at key junctions across Bangkok yesterday and 13,000 troops were on standby for trouble after the ruling by the nine-judge panel established by the military-appointed government which took power in a bloodless coup last September.
There were fears of a prompt reaction by supporters of the TRT which remains popular among the poor, many of whom have suffered just as the economy has suffered since the junta took power.
Last week Thailand's revered king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, took the unusual step of warning in a televised address that the stability of the country depended on the fairness of the tribunal's judgment.
All day long yesterday several hundred TRT supporters gathered on the steps of the party's headquarters in Bangkok as the lengthy judgment was read out and beamed on large screens.
But when the Democrats, Thailand's oldest party, were cleared of six counts of cheating in last year's April 2 vote, even the TRT faithful cheered and burst into song, hoping the ruling was a harbinger of what lay ahead for their own party.
"This is not the last day of Thai Rak Thai, brothers and sisters," party spokeswoman Laddawan Wongsriwong told a distraught crowd of 1,000 people at party headquarters which hissed and booed at the verdict.
The constitutional tribunal cleared the Democrats of slandering Mr Thaksin's party and of using a smaller party to violate the rules governing the controversial snap election which was boycotted by the opposition. Shortly afterwards the poll result was annulled.
But TRT was not given the same lifeline. It was found guilty of bankrolling obscure smaller parties to run against it in constituencies where there was no opposition to get around laws requiring a minimum voter turnout.
Judges ruled that two key party members, former defence minister Thammarak Issaragura na Ayuthaya and former transport minister Pongsak Raktapongpaisal, were guilty of breaking electoral laws to ensure the TRT returned to power swiftly.
Ahead of the verdict Mr Thaksin, who has not returned to Thailand since the coup and has set up home in London, urged his supporters to accept the court's verdict and maintain calm
It was unclear last night how the decision to disband TRT and ban its leaders would affect the general election which the junta has pledged would take place in December.
However, Thailand's law does allow members from the party to reform under a new banner and they could yet contest the poll if the uncertainty does not set back the timetable.
Pope blesses picture of Maddie
Madeleine's mother Kate appeared to be holding back tears as she and her husband Gerry, both Catholics, met the Pope in St Peter's Square.
"He said he would pray for us and our family and for Madeleine's safe return," Mrs McCann said.
During their brief meeting, Mrs McCann held up a photograph of Madeleine. The Pope touched it gently, blessed it by making the sign of the cross and then spoke words of comfort.
"It was very emotional but also a positive experience... that photograph will stay with me," she said.
The couple met the Pope when he walked over to a section reserved for special guests at the outdoor audience attended by tens of thousands of people.
Mr McCann, who kissed the Pope's hand, said later he and his wife were touched and encouraged by the Pope's gestures.
"It was more personal than anything I could have imagined it to be," he said.
"There was recognition immediately, looking at Madeleine's photograph, and his touch and thoughts and words were more tender than we could have thought and that will help sustain us during this most difficult time."
Mrs McCann was carrying a pink fluffy toy cat that Madeleine had named "cuddle cat" and without whom she could not fall asleep.
In his public comments during the audience, the Pope made no reference to Madeleine, who disappeared on May 3.
The McCanns said before the audience that they had "mixed emotions" about being in the Vatican.
"Under normal circumstances it would be one of the most exciting things we could do in our own lifetime, but very much on our minds is the fact that we're here without Madeleine," Mr McCann said.
Madeleine was snatched in the evening from a holiday apartment as her parents ate at a restaurant about 100m away, in sight of the apartment.
The world has been gripped by the tragedy and photographs of the blonde-haired child have rarely been off the front pages of newspapers since her abduction.
"One evil act seems to be generating so much good... and has restored my faith in humanity," Madeleine's father said.
He appealed to holidaymakers travelling in Europe to post pictures of his daughter in public places in the hope someone might have information that could lead to her safe return.
"He said he would pray for us and our family and for Madeleine's safe return," Mrs McCann said.
During their brief meeting, Mrs McCann held up a photograph of Madeleine. The Pope touched it gently, blessed it by making the sign of the cross and then spoke words of comfort.
"It was very emotional but also a positive experience... that photograph will stay with me," she said.
The couple met the Pope when he walked over to a section reserved for special guests at the outdoor audience attended by tens of thousands of people.
Mr McCann, who kissed the Pope's hand, said later he and his wife were touched and encouraged by the Pope's gestures.
"It was more personal than anything I could have imagined it to be," he said.
"There was recognition immediately, looking at Madeleine's photograph, and his touch and thoughts and words were more tender than we could have thought and that will help sustain us during this most difficult time."
Mrs McCann was carrying a pink fluffy toy cat that Madeleine had named "cuddle cat" and without whom she could not fall asleep.
In his public comments during the audience, the Pope made no reference to Madeleine, who disappeared on May 3.
The McCanns said before the audience that they had "mixed emotions" about being in the Vatican.
"Under normal circumstances it would be one of the most exciting things we could do in our own lifetime, but very much on our minds is the fact that we're here without Madeleine," Mr McCann said.
Madeleine was snatched in the evening from a holiday apartment as her parents ate at a restaurant about 100m away, in sight of the apartment.
The world has been gripped by the tragedy and photographs of the blonde-haired child have rarely been off the front pages of newspapers since her abduction.
"One evil act seems to be generating so much good... and has restored my faith in humanity," Madeleine's father said.
He appealed to holidaymakers travelling in Europe to post pictures of his daughter in public places in the hope someone might have information that could lead to her safe return.
Palestinian gov't to make security reshuffle
GAZA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haneya of Hamas said on Wednesday that his government would make reshuffle among senior security chiefs.
Haneya's remarks came in his first public appearance after he decided to join other Hamas leaders who went underground to evade Israeli threats to target them due to ongoing rocket attacks against the Jewish state by Hamas militants.
"We are to launch the security plan and will take decisions involving some security chiefs and commands in the coming hours," Haneya told reporters without elaborating.
Haneya clarified that the Palestinian coalition government was supporting "a mutual and a coincident ceasefire with Israel to protect the Palestinian people's interests."
"The ball now is in the Israeli court," Haneya said after he met with the Egyptian security delegation in Gaza as political rivals of Hamas and Fatah headed Cairo to hold separate talks with the Egyptian side.
Haneya said the talks in Egypt would focus on the internal situation, especially the relation between the two movements, and the ways to renew ceasefire with Israel.
Earlier on the day, Haneya met President Mahmoud Abbas behind closed doors.
Haneya's remarks came in his first public appearance after he decided to join other Hamas leaders who went underground to evade Israeli threats to target them due to ongoing rocket attacks against the Jewish state by Hamas militants.
"We are to launch the security plan and will take decisions involving some security chiefs and commands in the coming hours," Haneya told reporters without elaborating.
Haneya clarified that the Palestinian coalition government was supporting "a mutual and a coincident ceasefire with Israel to protect the Palestinian people's interests."
"The ball now is in the Israeli court," Haneya said after he met with the Egyptian security delegation in Gaza as political rivals of Hamas and Fatah headed Cairo to hold separate talks with the Egyptian side.
Haneya said the talks in Egypt would focus on the internal situation, especially the relation between the two movements, and the ways to renew ceasefire with Israel.
Earlier on the day, Haneya met President Mahmoud Abbas behind closed doors.
Beijing Olympics to showcase Wushu in optimal way
Wushu, the world famous Chinese martial arts, will be featured at the Beijing Olympic Games in an optimal way, a sports official of China said here Wednesday.
"Wushu will definitely be a special part of the 2008 Olympics," said Chen Guorong, deputy director of the martial arts administration center of China, at the conclusion of the 2007 National Women's Wushu Sanshou Championship here.
But Chen did not give the details of the optimal way. "It is up to the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games to unveil it at a proper time," he added.
Although Denis Oswald, a member of the IOC Executive Board, recently expressed his concern that Wushu is not popular enough to become an Olympic program as people in most countries of the world do not practice on it, Chen believes Wushu has become more and more influential around the world.
"Since the establishment of the International Wushu Federation (IWUF) in 1991 (in Beijing), altogether 114 associations of martial arts from five continents have joined in. You can say that IWUF is qualified as a large-scale international sports organization," said Chen.
According to Chen, China began to promote Wushu in 1982, and successfully held the first International Wushu Invitation Tournament in 1985 (in Xi'an). Since then Wushu has sprouted in many countries and regions. Until now eight World Wushu Championships and three Sanshou World Cups have been held.
"Wushu develops rapidly, especially in Asia," said Chen, "It was admitted as official program by the Asian Games in 1990, and gradually earned its admission by the East Asian Games, the Southeast Asian Games and the South Asian Games. Meanwhile, Wushu championships have been held in Europe and pan-American countries, and Wushu is expected to enter the All-Africa Games soon."
As for the competitions, Chen said:"China used to be dominant in the field, but now things have changed greatly. For Taolu, China's Hongkong, China's Macao, Chinese Taipei, Malaysia and Vietnam have become our arch rivals now; For Sanshou, Russia, France, Italy, Iran and the Philippines have become quite competitive. In certain heavy-weight categories, players from Europe even bear more potentials for further development than we do."
For the next 10 years, Chen pointed out that IWUF will help some other associations in contest organizing and marketing operation.
"Wushu will definitely be a special part of the 2008 Olympics," said Chen Guorong, deputy director of the martial arts administration center of China, at the conclusion of the 2007 National Women's Wushu Sanshou Championship here.
But Chen did not give the details of the optimal way. "It is up to the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games to unveil it at a proper time," he added.
Although Denis Oswald, a member of the IOC Executive Board, recently expressed his concern that Wushu is not popular enough to become an Olympic program as people in most countries of the world do not practice on it, Chen believes Wushu has become more and more influential around the world.
"Since the establishment of the International Wushu Federation (IWUF) in 1991 (in Beijing), altogether 114 associations of martial arts from five continents have joined in. You can say that IWUF is qualified as a large-scale international sports organization," said Chen.
According to Chen, China began to promote Wushu in 1982, and successfully held the first International Wushu Invitation Tournament in 1985 (in Xi'an). Since then Wushu has sprouted in many countries and regions. Until now eight World Wushu Championships and three Sanshou World Cups have been held.
"Wushu develops rapidly, especially in Asia," said Chen, "It was admitted as official program by the Asian Games in 1990, and gradually earned its admission by the East Asian Games, the Southeast Asian Games and the South Asian Games. Meanwhile, Wushu championships have been held in Europe and pan-American countries, and Wushu is expected to enter the All-Africa Games soon."
As for the competitions, Chen said:"China used to be dominant in the field, but now things have changed greatly. For Taolu, China's Hongkong, China's Macao, Chinese Taipei, Malaysia and Vietnam have become our arch rivals now; For Sanshou, Russia, France, Italy, Iran and the Philippines have become quite competitive. In certain heavy-weight categories, players from Europe even bear more potentials for further development than we do."
For the next 10 years, Chen pointed out that IWUF will help some other associations in contest organizing and marketing operation.
Miss Japan sweeps stage; Miss USA gets political flak
Mexico City - The Japanese Riyo Mori could hardly believe her performance at the end of the Miss Universe gala in Mexico City.
'Yes, you are the winner,' her Puerto Rican predecessor Zuleyka Rivera told her in the Mexican capital's packed National Auditorium.
'Yes, I am Miss Universe,' a visibly moved Mori replied late Monday.
She had just given Japan its second Miss Universe title, after Akiko Kojima wore the coveted crown distinguishing the most beautiful woman in the world in 1959.
Mori, 20, received the crown adorned with 800 diamonds and 120 pearls - valued at 250,000 dollars - from Miss Universe 2006, Rivera.
According to the Miss Universe website, the world's most beautiful woman 'has been dancing since she was 4.'
'She loves traveling the world and enjoys visiting museums and watching musicals,' the organization said.
The flip side of the coin was for the United States representative, Rachel Smith. She came last among the five finalists, but that was probably not the worst of her day.
Miss USA fell to the ground on stage during the evening gown competition, and was later booed by the close to 10,000 people in the auditorium. A similar thing had already happened to her weeks ago, in the national costume parade on the streets of Mexico City.
Tycoon Donald Trump, one of the owners of the beauty pageant, said in a press conference that the jeering was not really intended for Smith, but rather for the policies of the United States.
In particular, the Mexican public is thought to have shown its displeasure with the current US attitude to Latin American immigrants, including the construction of a fence on the common border.
Be that as it may, the event's organizers made the most of a commercial break to remind the audience that the whole world was watching a minority of a few thousand people who took it upon themselves to harm the image of Mexico.
The mostly Mexican audience in the auditorium was also at odds with the jury's decisions. When fellow-Mexican Rosa Maria Ojeda - of Aztec descent - was eliminated in the semifinals, they backed Miss Brazil, Natalia Guimaraes.
Guimaraes - who had been considered a favourite - finally came second to Miss Japan, but the public at the auditorium applauded Mori just the same. Another Latin American, the Venezuelan Ly Jonaitis, took third place among the 77 candidates, while the remaining finalists were South Korean Honey Lee and Miss USA.
China's Ningning Zhang was chosen Miss Congeniality, and Filipino Anna Theresa Licaros was named Miss Photogenic.
Among many other benefits as Miss Universe, Mori is to receive a year-long salary, the use of a New York City apartment during her reign and a personal wardrobe, as well as a two-year scholarship from The NY Film Academy valued at up to 100,000 dollars.
In return for such privileges, she will be required to remain single and not to have children throughout her reign. Afterwards, she will return to a more normal lifestyle.
Mori's predecessor Zuleyka Rivera already made it clear early Tuesday that she intends to pursue a career as an actress.
The Miss Universe gala was broadcast to some 1 billion people in over 170 countries, according to the event's organizers.
The Miss Universe Organization, which produces Miss Universe, is a Donald J Trump and NBC broadcaster partnership, and aims among other things to promote global awareness of illnesses like AIDS and breast and ovarian cancer.
'The titleholders of the Miss Universe Organization personify the combination of beauty and intelligence that defines the 21st Century,' the organization says in its website.
The United States holds the most Miss Universe titles in history, with a total of seven. Puerto Rico follows, with five, while Venezuela has four.
Trump noted that Tokyo, Beijing and Moscow 'and six other cities' are candidates to host the Miss Universe 2008 gala.
'Yes, you are the winner,' her Puerto Rican predecessor Zuleyka Rivera told her in the Mexican capital's packed National Auditorium.
'Yes, I am Miss Universe,' a visibly moved Mori replied late Monday.
She had just given Japan its second Miss Universe title, after Akiko Kojima wore the coveted crown distinguishing the most beautiful woman in the world in 1959.
Mori, 20, received the crown adorned with 800 diamonds and 120 pearls - valued at 250,000 dollars - from Miss Universe 2006, Rivera.
According to the Miss Universe website, the world's most beautiful woman 'has been dancing since she was 4.'
'She loves traveling the world and enjoys visiting museums and watching musicals,' the organization said.
The flip side of the coin was for the United States representative, Rachel Smith. She came last among the five finalists, but that was probably not the worst of her day.
Miss USA fell to the ground on stage during the evening gown competition, and was later booed by the close to 10,000 people in the auditorium. A similar thing had already happened to her weeks ago, in the national costume parade on the streets of Mexico City.
Tycoon Donald Trump, one of the owners of the beauty pageant, said in a press conference that the jeering was not really intended for Smith, but rather for the policies of the United States.
In particular, the Mexican public is thought to have shown its displeasure with the current US attitude to Latin American immigrants, including the construction of a fence on the common border.
Be that as it may, the event's organizers made the most of a commercial break to remind the audience that the whole world was watching a minority of a few thousand people who took it upon themselves to harm the image of Mexico.
The mostly Mexican audience in the auditorium was also at odds with the jury's decisions. When fellow-Mexican Rosa Maria Ojeda - of Aztec descent - was eliminated in the semifinals, they backed Miss Brazil, Natalia Guimaraes.
Guimaraes - who had been considered a favourite - finally came second to Miss Japan, but the public at the auditorium applauded Mori just the same. Another Latin American, the Venezuelan Ly Jonaitis, took third place among the 77 candidates, while the remaining finalists were South Korean Honey Lee and Miss USA.
China's Ningning Zhang was chosen Miss Congeniality, and Filipino Anna Theresa Licaros was named Miss Photogenic.
Among many other benefits as Miss Universe, Mori is to receive a year-long salary, the use of a New York City apartment during her reign and a personal wardrobe, as well as a two-year scholarship from The NY Film Academy valued at up to 100,000 dollars.
In return for such privileges, she will be required to remain single and not to have children throughout her reign. Afterwards, she will return to a more normal lifestyle.
Mori's predecessor Zuleyka Rivera already made it clear early Tuesday that she intends to pursue a career as an actress.
The Miss Universe gala was broadcast to some 1 billion people in over 170 countries, according to the event's organizers.
The Miss Universe Organization, which produces Miss Universe, is a Donald J Trump and NBC broadcaster partnership, and aims among other things to promote global awareness of illnesses like AIDS and breast and ovarian cancer.
'The titleholders of the Miss Universe Organization personify the combination of beauty and intelligence that defines the 21st Century,' the organization says in its website.
The United States holds the most Miss Universe titles in history, with a total of seven. Puerto Rico follows, with five, while Venezuela has four.
Trump noted that Tokyo, Beijing and Moscow 'and six other cities' are candidates to host the Miss Universe 2008 gala.
Analysis: Russia bashes U.S., tests rocket
BERLIN, May 30 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has again lashed out at the West for provoking a new arms race on the day his country tested a massive new rocket that he said can overcome any missile defense system the United States may place in Eastern Europe.
Putin has long bashed Washington for its plans to place 10 bunker-protected rockets in Eastern Europe, arguing it was a threat against Russian territory and provokes a new arms race. At a joint news conference in Moscow Tuesday with Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, Putin fired another round at the United States.
"We consider it harmful and dangerous to transform Europe into a powder keg and fill it with new forms of weapons," he said. "It creates new unnecessary risks for the entire system of international and European relations."
Yet on the same day, Russia tested its own new weapons system, a strategic RS-24 MIRV intercontinental missile launched from the northeastern Arkhangelsk region. The multiple-warhead missile hit its target on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Pacific more than 3,700 miles away, Moscow said.
Russia may now also more explicitly portray itself as a global military power to heave Foreign Minister Sergei Ivanov into the top spot in the race for Putin's successor as Russian president, said Jan-Friedrich Kallmorgen, trans-Atlantic and security expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations, a Berlin-based think tank.
On Tuesday after the successful test, Ivanov said the new missiles were immune to any missile defense system.
"These complexes are capable of overcoming all existing and future missile defense systems," Ivanov was quoted by the Russian Interfax agency. "That is why, from the point of view of defense and security, Russians can look into the future calmly."
Experts say the aggressive rhetoric by Moscow is not much more than a politically motivated muscle-flexing.
"It has been absolutely clear that the 10 planned rockets of the U.S. ballistic missile defense system in Eastern Europe would not impede Russia's capacity to launch inter-continental missiles, whether they are old or new," Kallmorgen told United Press International in a telephone interview Wednesday.
"Putin for weeks has turned up the heat in his rhetoric against the West," Kallmorgen added. "He knows that the Europeans are not united on Russia."
Relations between the European Union and Russia have strongly deteriorated in recent months; Putin at a recent EU-Russia summit in Samara clashed with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who holds the rotating EU presidency, because Merkel criticized Moscow for democracy and human rights shortcomings.
Diplomatic rows with Poland, Estonia and Lithuania have only exacerbated EU-Russian ties, also because Poland -- where the U.S. missiles will be stationed -- and the Czech Republic -- where the radar system will be built -- are two former Warsaw Pact countries that have turned to the United States as their man strategic and security ally.
It's not that the West didn't make any mistakes dealing with Russia:
"Washington did not act smart to begin with," he said. "The issue was debated at the NATO-Russian council, but the Americans could have engaged in confidential talks with Moscow before going public with their plans."
On the other hand, Kallmorgen said, the United States after Russia's protests and Europe's criticism repeatedly made clear and strong offers to be integrated in the system, offers that were all denied. In the past weeks U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates have made trips to Moscow to lobby for the system -- without any success.
It is now in the hands of Europe to strike a balanced note when it comes to dealing with Russia, observers say. Given the strategic importance of Russia as the main energy provider to the EU, it is clear that Moscow won't be bullied into one-sided concessions. However, observers say the West needs a firm united stance when addressing Moscow on human rights and other issues; otherwise it might be the West being bullied.
Putin has long bashed Washington for its plans to place 10 bunker-protected rockets in Eastern Europe, arguing it was a threat against Russian territory and provokes a new arms race. At a joint news conference in Moscow Tuesday with Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, Putin fired another round at the United States.
"We consider it harmful and dangerous to transform Europe into a powder keg and fill it with new forms of weapons," he said. "It creates new unnecessary risks for the entire system of international and European relations."
Yet on the same day, Russia tested its own new weapons system, a strategic RS-24 MIRV intercontinental missile launched from the northeastern Arkhangelsk region. The multiple-warhead missile hit its target on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Pacific more than 3,700 miles away, Moscow said.
Russia may now also more explicitly portray itself as a global military power to heave Foreign Minister Sergei Ivanov into the top spot in the race for Putin's successor as Russian president, said Jan-Friedrich Kallmorgen, trans-Atlantic and security expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations, a Berlin-based think tank.
On Tuesday after the successful test, Ivanov said the new missiles were immune to any missile defense system.
"These complexes are capable of overcoming all existing and future missile defense systems," Ivanov was quoted by the Russian Interfax agency. "That is why, from the point of view of defense and security, Russians can look into the future calmly."
Experts say the aggressive rhetoric by Moscow is not much more than a politically motivated muscle-flexing.
"It has been absolutely clear that the 10 planned rockets of the U.S. ballistic missile defense system in Eastern Europe would not impede Russia's capacity to launch inter-continental missiles, whether they are old or new," Kallmorgen told United Press International in a telephone interview Wednesday.
"Putin for weeks has turned up the heat in his rhetoric against the West," Kallmorgen added. "He knows that the Europeans are not united on Russia."
Relations between the European Union and Russia have strongly deteriorated in recent months; Putin at a recent EU-Russia summit in Samara clashed with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who holds the rotating EU presidency, because Merkel criticized Moscow for democracy and human rights shortcomings.
Diplomatic rows with Poland, Estonia and Lithuania have only exacerbated EU-Russian ties, also because Poland -- where the U.S. missiles will be stationed -- and the Czech Republic -- where the radar system will be built -- are two former Warsaw Pact countries that have turned to the United States as their man strategic and security ally.
It's not that the West didn't make any mistakes dealing with Russia:
"Washington did not act smart to begin with," he said. "The issue was debated at the NATO-Russian council, but the Americans could have engaged in confidential talks with Moscow before going public with their plans."
On the other hand, Kallmorgen said, the United States after Russia's protests and Europe's criticism repeatedly made clear and strong offers to be integrated in the system, offers that were all denied. In the past weeks U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates have made trips to Moscow to lobby for the system -- without any success.
It is now in the hands of Europe to strike a balanced note when it comes to dealing with Russia, observers say. Given the strategic importance of Russia as the main energy provider to the EU, it is clear that Moscow won't be bullied into one-sided concessions. However, observers say the West needs a firm united stance when addressing Moscow on human rights and other issues; otherwise it might be the West being bullied.
Hill visits Beijing to discuss DPRK issue
US chief representative to the Six-Party Talks Christopher Hill met with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei yesterday to discuss ways to transfer Democratic People's Republic of Korea's frozen funds and restart the negotiation to resolve the nuclear issue.
The time has come to resolve the issue of DPRK's frozen accounts at Banco Delta Asia (BDA) in Macao, the US assistant secretary of state was quoted as telling reporters during his one-day visit to Beijing. The bank is "having legal difficulty" in transferring the money.
Hill said he and Wu agreed that Pyongyang appears ready to honor a February agreement of shutting down its nuclear plants in exchange of energy aid.
But the failure of the funds' transfer has greatly hampered the landmark deal because the DPRK has refused to take any substantive steps to fulfill its 60-day commitment until it gets the $25 million, he said.
Hill didn't give specific details of his meeting with Chinese officials but expressed his confidence in the Six-Party Talks.
"It certainly is not dead," he said. "We (do) have a pretty serious bump in the road here, we plan to get over it It really is a technical matter, which cannot just be solved through political means."
The funds in BDA were frozen after the US Treasury designated the bank a "primary money laundering concern" in September 2005.
Washington agreed to release the funds in a bid to push the nuclear negotiations forward, but it prevented the bank from carrying out any direct or indirect transactions with the US financial system.
It is proving difficult for Pyongyang to transfer the money because other foreign banks are reluctant to handle it for fear of similar sanctions.
Officials of relevant parties have been working hard to solve the issue but no major breakthrough has yet been achieved.
Wu and Hill also discussed China-US relations and the issue of climate change and the situation in Darfur.
The time has come to resolve the issue of DPRK's frozen accounts at Banco Delta Asia (BDA) in Macao, the US assistant secretary of state was quoted as telling reporters during his one-day visit to Beijing. The bank is "having legal difficulty" in transferring the money.
Hill said he and Wu agreed that Pyongyang appears ready to honor a February agreement of shutting down its nuclear plants in exchange of energy aid.
But the failure of the funds' transfer has greatly hampered the landmark deal because the DPRK has refused to take any substantive steps to fulfill its 60-day commitment until it gets the $25 million, he said.
Hill didn't give specific details of his meeting with Chinese officials but expressed his confidence in the Six-Party Talks.
"It certainly is not dead," he said. "We (do) have a pretty serious bump in the road here, we plan to get over it It really is a technical matter, which cannot just be solved through political means."
The funds in BDA were frozen after the US Treasury designated the bank a "primary money laundering concern" in September 2005.
Washington agreed to release the funds in a bid to push the nuclear negotiations forward, but it prevented the bank from carrying out any direct or indirect transactions with the US financial system.
It is proving difficult for Pyongyang to transfer the money because other foreign banks are reluctant to handle it for fear of similar sanctions.
Officials of relevant parties have been working hard to solve the issue but no major breakthrough has yet been achieved.
Wu and Hill also discussed China-US relations and the issue of climate change and the situation in Darfur.
20 Suspects Charged in Lebanon Fighting
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- A military judge filed terrorism charges Wednesday against 20 suspected members of an Islamic militant group fighting Lebanese troops at a Palestinian refugee camp, court officials said.
In Berlin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested the U.S. was destabilizing the situation in Lebanon by shipping weapons to the army for its fight against the militants _ drawing a pointed rebuke from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The Lebanese military has been fighting Fatah Islam militants at the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon since May 20. The camp is ringed by hundreds of soldiers backed by artillery and tanks in place to storm the camp. Fatah Islam has claimed to have more than 500 fighters with automatic weapons, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades inside the camp.
The Lebanese government has vowed to crush the militants.
Fighting between the army and militants resumed shortly after sunset Wednesday at the camp on the outskirts of the port city of Tripoli. Army artillery blasted militant positions inside the camp to silence the source of fire. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Several Fatah Islam suspects have been arrested in army raids on apartments in Tripoli in the past two weeks.
It was not clear where the 20 militants were arrested.
The 20 included 18 Lebanese, a nonnative Lebanese and a Syrian. All were charged with committing terrorist acts that resulted in the deaths of soldiers and civilians, the officials said. The charges against them also include forming a gang with the aim of committing crimes against the people and undermining state authority. All 20 are in custody and if convicted, they could face the death penalty.
Sporadic gunfire exchanges have continued daily since a truce halted three days of heavy fighting. But renewed fighting that began before sundown Tuesday was the worst outbreak in violence in a week. Lebanese army artillery pounded positions on the northern edge of the camp and near the Mediterranean coastline, apparently to prevent militants from fleeing.
Since the fighting began, 31 soldiers, 20 civilians and about 60 militants have been killed. Thousands of Palestinians have fled the camp but thousands more are still inside, along with hundreds of fighters.
The standoff has raised concerns of more violence across Lebanon, which has 12 Palestinian refugee camps and various armed groups.
The U.S. has airlifted planeloads of military supplies to Beirut to support the Lebanese troops in their battle with the militants.
Lavrov, speaking at a news conference of the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators in Berlin, was asked about the shipments and responded with a remark about "the necessity of avoiding weapons supplies that could destabilize the situation."
Rice, sitting just to his right at the German Foreign Ministry, responded quickly that the U.S. was attempting to help rebuild the Lebanese army so it can defend the country against armed groups.
"The rebuilding of the Lebanese army is envisioned in any number of international agreements ... and that is what we are doing," Rice said. "We are supporting the Lebanese army, which is an all-Lebanese institution. It's not a matter of interfering in Lebanese affairs, it's an effort to help Lebanon to defend its own sovereignty."
U.S. arms are a sensitive issue in a nation deeply divided between supporters of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's government and an opposition backed by America's Mideast foes, Iran and Syria. The opposition led by the Shiite Islamic militant group Hezbollah accuses Saniora of being too close to Washington.
In Berlin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested the U.S. was destabilizing the situation in Lebanon by shipping weapons to the army for its fight against the militants _ drawing a pointed rebuke from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The Lebanese military has been fighting Fatah Islam militants at the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon since May 20. The camp is ringed by hundreds of soldiers backed by artillery and tanks in place to storm the camp. Fatah Islam has claimed to have more than 500 fighters with automatic weapons, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades inside the camp.
The Lebanese government has vowed to crush the militants.
Fighting between the army and militants resumed shortly after sunset Wednesday at the camp on the outskirts of the port city of Tripoli. Army artillery blasted militant positions inside the camp to silence the source of fire. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Several Fatah Islam suspects have been arrested in army raids on apartments in Tripoli in the past two weeks.
It was not clear where the 20 militants were arrested.
The 20 included 18 Lebanese, a nonnative Lebanese and a Syrian. All were charged with committing terrorist acts that resulted in the deaths of soldiers and civilians, the officials said. The charges against them also include forming a gang with the aim of committing crimes against the people and undermining state authority. All 20 are in custody and if convicted, they could face the death penalty.
Sporadic gunfire exchanges have continued daily since a truce halted three days of heavy fighting. But renewed fighting that began before sundown Tuesday was the worst outbreak in violence in a week. Lebanese army artillery pounded positions on the northern edge of the camp and near the Mediterranean coastline, apparently to prevent militants from fleeing.
Since the fighting began, 31 soldiers, 20 civilians and about 60 militants have been killed. Thousands of Palestinians have fled the camp but thousands more are still inside, along with hundreds of fighters.
The standoff has raised concerns of more violence across Lebanon, which has 12 Palestinian refugee camps and various armed groups.
The U.S. has airlifted planeloads of military supplies to Beirut to support the Lebanese troops in their battle with the militants.
Lavrov, speaking at a news conference of the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators in Berlin, was asked about the shipments and responded with a remark about "the necessity of avoiding weapons supplies that could destabilize the situation."
Rice, sitting just to his right at the German Foreign Ministry, responded quickly that the U.S. was attempting to help rebuild the Lebanese army so it can defend the country against armed groups.
"The rebuilding of the Lebanese army is envisioned in any number of international agreements ... and that is what we are doing," Rice said. "We are supporting the Lebanese army, which is an all-Lebanese institution. It's not a matter of interfering in Lebanese affairs, it's an effort to help Lebanon to defend its own sovereignty."
U.S. arms are a sensitive issue in a nation deeply divided between supporters of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's government and an opposition backed by America's Mideast foes, Iran and Syria. The opposition led by the Shiite Islamic militant group Hezbollah accuses Saniora of being too close to Washington.
Downer attempts to soothe Balibo row
TONY EASTLEY: In a bid to defuse the growing diplomatic row with Jakarta, the Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer rang his Indonesian counterpart, Hassan Wirajuda.
Mr Downer is speaking here with our reporter Peta Donald in Canberra.
ALEXANDER DOWNER: I spoke to him yesterday evening after he had spoken with our Ambassador, Bill Farmer, and what I said to him was that we would find out, as a Federal Government, more of the facts in relation to the incident.
Because what's happened here is that the Governor of Jakarta was invited to Sydney by the New South Wales Government, so as I understand it, he was a guest of the New South Wales Government when, from the Indonesian perspective, the police just, two policemen just walked into his room while he was having a rest on his bed and asked him to, asked him if he would appear before this coronial inquiry.
PETA DONALD: Well, he left Australia as a result and says it was a humiliating experience, and he's demanding an apology.
ALEXANDER DOWNER: That's right, he did regard it as very humiliating. I mean, looking at it from his perspective, of course, he was a guest of the New South Wales Government, so he would have been rather shocked to find, as a guest of the New South Wales Government, the New South Wales Police entering his room and asking him to appear before an inquiry.
But look, what I'm doing is, I'm getting some information from my department to just check up exactly what the facts were, in particular the circumstances of the police entering the hotel and entering his room, so that we have a better idea of what happened.
But as you suggest, the Indonesians are obviously, particularly the Governor, are pretty upset about this.
PETA DONALD: Are you of a mind to apologise?
ALEXANDER DOWNER: Well he wasn't the guest of the Federal Government, he was the guest of the New South Wales Government, so I think at the next stage it might be more appropriate for the New South Wales Government to make contact with their guest.
But look, first of all, from my perspective, I'd need to look at, if you like, their side of the story, make sure we understand exactly what happened in this instance.
PETA DONALD: At the Balibo five inquest in Sydney, the Counsel Assisting the Coroner has recommended that two former Indonesian army officers be prosecuted for war crimes.
Are you concerned that this could escalate into a major diplomatic storm with Indonesia?
ALEXANDER DOWNER: Look, with all of these issues, I just take them as they come. I have no control over a coronial inquiry.
It's a State Coroner. I have no idea what the Deputy Coroner will say or do, and if the Federal Government has any involvement in this at all, well I'll cross that bridge if and when I come to it.
Mr Downer is speaking here with our reporter Peta Donald in Canberra.
ALEXANDER DOWNER: I spoke to him yesterday evening after he had spoken with our Ambassador, Bill Farmer, and what I said to him was that we would find out, as a Federal Government, more of the facts in relation to the incident.
Because what's happened here is that the Governor of Jakarta was invited to Sydney by the New South Wales Government, so as I understand it, he was a guest of the New South Wales Government when, from the Indonesian perspective, the police just, two policemen just walked into his room while he was having a rest on his bed and asked him to, asked him if he would appear before this coronial inquiry.
PETA DONALD: Well, he left Australia as a result and says it was a humiliating experience, and he's demanding an apology.
ALEXANDER DOWNER: That's right, he did regard it as very humiliating. I mean, looking at it from his perspective, of course, he was a guest of the New South Wales Government, so he would have been rather shocked to find, as a guest of the New South Wales Government, the New South Wales Police entering his room and asking him to appear before an inquiry.
But look, what I'm doing is, I'm getting some information from my department to just check up exactly what the facts were, in particular the circumstances of the police entering the hotel and entering his room, so that we have a better idea of what happened.
But as you suggest, the Indonesians are obviously, particularly the Governor, are pretty upset about this.
PETA DONALD: Are you of a mind to apologise?
ALEXANDER DOWNER: Well he wasn't the guest of the Federal Government, he was the guest of the New South Wales Government, so I think at the next stage it might be more appropriate for the New South Wales Government to make contact with their guest.
But look, first of all, from my perspective, I'd need to look at, if you like, their side of the story, make sure we understand exactly what happened in this instance.
PETA DONALD: At the Balibo five inquest in Sydney, the Counsel Assisting the Coroner has recommended that two former Indonesian army officers be prosecuted for war crimes.
Are you concerned that this could escalate into a major diplomatic storm with Indonesia?
ALEXANDER DOWNER: Look, with all of these issues, I just take them as they come. I have no control over a coronial inquiry.
It's a State Coroner. I have no idea what the Deputy Coroner will say or do, and if the Federal Government has any involvement in this at all, well I'll cross that bridge if and when I come to it.
Malaysia rejects bid for Christian convert to remove Islam ID tag
The highest court in Malaysia yesterday rejected a Muslim-born woman's appeal to be recognised as a Christian, ending a six-year legal battle that will heighten concerns over discrimination of the country's religious minorities.
Lina Joy, 42, had fought the decisions of Malaysia's lower courts in an effort to have the word "Islam" removed from her identity card, arguing that the constitution guaranteed her religious freedom.
But the panel of three judges decided, in a majority verdict, that it had no power to intervene in cases of apostasy. These cases fall under the jurisdiction of Malaysia's Sharia courts, which run in tandem with the country's civil courts.
Lina Joy, 42, had fought the decisions of Malaysia's lower courts in an effort to have the word "Islam" removed from her identity card, arguing that the constitution guaranteed her religious freedom.
But the panel of three judges decided, in a majority verdict, that it had no power to intervene in cases of apostasy. These cases fall under the jurisdiction of Malaysia's Sharia courts, which run in tandem with the country's civil courts.
Airline passengers urged to get tested for TB
Montreal health officials on Wednesday urged air travellers on a May 24 Prague-to-Montreal flight that carried a man with tuberculosis to get tested at a local tuberculosis clinic as soon as possible.
"We strongly recommend people come now to be checked," said Dr. Richard Menzies, head of the respiratory division of the Montreal Chest Institute.
Passengers on the Czech Airways flight who were in close proximity to an Atlanta man who is sick with a rare and extremely drug-resistant form of tuberculosis may have been exposed to the dangerous lung disease, experts say.
Those most at risk are the 28 people who were seated within five rows of the TB-infected man on the transatlantic flight.
He isn't believed to be highly infectious, but hundreds of people may have been exposed. The man is in quarantine in Atlanta.
Tuberculosis spreads through airborne droplets when a person with the infection coughs, talks or sneezes. It's far less contagious than the common cold, measles or influenza, but this TB strain could be lethal, because it fails respond to most antibiotics.
Officials have little experience with this rare type of TB and its transmission patterns.
"If you sat in one row or wandered up and down, were you in the right area? All we're saying is that if people are concerned, they should get checked out," Menzies said.
Since it takes about a month to develop a reaction to the bacterium, health officials suggest passengers get tested immediately.
"We want to avoid someone coming in three to four weeks. If they test positive in a month, we won't know if it's TB from this guy," Menzies said.
Officials have already notified the 12 Quebecers seated in the five rows near the passenger aboard Czech Airways Flight 0104 on May 24, said Blaise Lefebvre, of the Montreal public health department.
The World Health Organization and Health Canada are involved in helping trace the remaining passengers.
Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO' s Stop TB department, warned Wednesday of another SARS-type crisis. The lung disease spread around the world through airline passengers in 2002 and 2003, killing 774 people.
"If TB control programs don't know what they're doing and don't take this seriously, we'll have cases of infected people travelling around the world all the time," Raviglione said.
"In an era of globalization, no one can feel comfortable that this is not my problem.' "
Despite advances in treatment, TB is a global pandemic, fuelled by the spread of HIV/AIDS, poverty, a lack of health services and the emergence of drug-resistant strains of the bacterium that causes the disease.
"We have forgotten about infectious diseases but these are still the No. 1 killer," said Karl Weiss, a microbiologist at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital.
The scary part is that infections are transmissible and anyone can be affected anywhere, anytime, Weiss said.
"The story of travel and infectious diseases is an old one. It's just that the speed has changed," Weiss said.
Marco Polo took 20 years to get to China, he noted; today, it's possible to travel anywhere within 24 hours.
"You can bring back something (a highly contagious and resistant organism) that seems far away but in fact is not that distant."
The issue of globalization and the transmission of diseases calls for good infection control measures, whether boarding planes or entering countries, plus active surveillance worldwide, Weiss said.
"We strongly recommend people come now to be checked," said Dr. Richard Menzies, head of the respiratory division of the Montreal Chest Institute.
Passengers on the Czech Airways flight who were in close proximity to an Atlanta man who is sick with a rare and extremely drug-resistant form of tuberculosis may have been exposed to the dangerous lung disease, experts say.
Those most at risk are the 28 people who were seated within five rows of the TB-infected man on the transatlantic flight.
He isn't believed to be highly infectious, but hundreds of people may have been exposed. The man is in quarantine in Atlanta.
Tuberculosis spreads through airborne droplets when a person with the infection coughs, talks or sneezes. It's far less contagious than the common cold, measles or influenza, but this TB strain could be lethal, because it fails respond to most antibiotics.
Officials have little experience with this rare type of TB and its transmission patterns.
"If you sat in one row or wandered up and down, were you in the right area? All we're saying is that if people are concerned, they should get checked out," Menzies said.
Since it takes about a month to develop a reaction to the bacterium, health officials suggest passengers get tested immediately.
"We want to avoid someone coming in three to four weeks. If they test positive in a month, we won't know if it's TB from this guy," Menzies said.
Officials have already notified the 12 Quebecers seated in the five rows near the passenger aboard Czech Airways Flight 0104 on May 24, said Blaise Lefebvre, of the Montreal public health department.
The World Health Organization and Health Canada are involved in helping trace the remaining passengers.
Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO' s Stop TB department, warned Wednesday of another SARS-type crisis. The lung disease spread around the world through airline passengers in 2002 and 2003, killing 774 people.
"If TB control programs don't know what they're doing and don't take this seriously, we'll have cases of infected people travelling around the world all the time," Raviglione said.
"In an era of globalization, no one can feel comfortable that this is not my problem.' "
Despite advances in treatment, TB is a global pandemic, fuelled by the spread of HIV/AIDS, poverty, a lack of health services and the emergence of drug-resistant strains of the bacterium that causes the disease.
"We have forgotten about infectious diseases but these are still the No. 1 killer," said Karl Weiss, a microbiologist at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital.
The scary part is that infections are transmissible and anyone can be affected anywhere, anytime, Weiss said.
"The story of travel and infectious diseases is an old one. It's just that the speed has changed," Weiss said.
Marco Polo took 20 years to get to China, he noted; today, it's possible to travel anywhere within 24 hours.
"You can bring back something (a highly contagious and resistant organism) that seems far away but in fact is not that distant."
The issue of globalization and the transmission of diseases calls for good infection control measures, whether boarding planes or entering countries, plus active surveillance worldwide, Weiss said.
Iran steps up pressure on academics over 'spying'
Iran's powerful intelligence ministry has stepped up its war of nerves with the west by telling the country's academics they will be suspected of spying if they maintain contact with foreign institutions or travel abroad to international conferences.
The blunt warning has been issued by the ministry's counter-espionage director in an atmosphere of rising suspicion and paranoia as Iran claims to have cracked a CIA-backed spy ring and has charged three US citizens with spying.
The blunt warning has been issued by the ministry's counter-espionage director in an atmosphere of rising suspicion and paranoia as Iran claims to have cracked a CIA-backed spy ring and has charged three US citizens with spying.
Chávez takes on CNN after closing TV station
President Hugo Chávez broadened his assault on Venezuela's independent press last night, accusing CNN and another television channel of trying to unsettle the Government while police dispersed thousands of protesters with blockades, water cannons and tear gas.
On a day of already heightened tension surrounding the closure of Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), Venezuela's most prominent independent broadcaster, officials turned their sights on Globovisión, a local television network and CNN, the US cable news network, accusing them of plotting against the Government.
The Information Minister, William Lara, showed a press conference what he said was CNN footage of Mr Chávez juxtaposed with images of Osama bin Laden, saying: “CNN broadcast a lie which linked President Chavez to violence and murder". He also accused CNN of dishonesty for using footage of a Mexican demonstration in a story about the current Venezuelan disturbances.
As for Globovisión, Mr Lara said that the Government was suing the channel for "the offence of incitement to assassination" because it aired footage of the attempted murder, in 1981, of the late Pope John Paul II in Rome. Mr Lara said the images, which were played with a slogan "Have faith, this doesn’t end here" constituted an incitement to murder Mr Chávez.
Alberto Federico Ravell, a director of Globovisión, called the allegations "ridiculous" while Tony Maddox, a vice president of CNN International, said that the network had already given a detailed apology for the mistake in using footage from Mexico and "denies categorically being engaged in a campaign to discredit or attack Venezuela".
As for the image of Mr Chávez next to bin Laden, Mr Maddox said that “unrelated news stories can be juxtaposed in a given segment of television news in the same way that a newspaper page or a website can have news items with no relation to each other placed side by side".
The accusations came on a day in which opposition activists, journalists and students from every university in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, joined protests against the closure of RCTV, the country's oldest television station, whose licence was not renewed by the Government and allowed to expire at midnight on Sunday.
Simultaneous demonstrations in Valencia, 150km (93 miles) west of Caracas, led to clashes with local police, where nine people were injured.
In the capital, police fired tear gas bombs and rubber bullets from a raised section of road to disrupt the protesters, who gathered at around 3.30pm yesterday in the Chacaíto district.
Many knelt in front of riot police to show that the peaceful intention of the demonstration before breaking up. They later regrouped in Caracas’s Plaza Brion, where they were led by Miguel Angel Rodriguez, a talk show host from RCTV, who told the crowd: "What they want is to silence us, but we are not afraid. They will not silence us."
The protest culminated with a visit to the headquarters of Globovisión, where Mr Ravell went out to meet the crowd, which was described by Leopoldo Lopez, the neighbourhood mayor and an opposition figure, as the first mass student demonstration against Mr Chávez in his eight years of power.
The Venezuelan President, presently using emergency powers to usher in the next phase of his socialist revolution, has justified the silencing of RCTV, which had been on the air since 1963, and its replacement with TVes, a new state channel, as a move to hand more broadcasting over to the people.
But he has provoked a vigorous reaction from the rest of the Venezuela's independent media sector, which fears for its freedom of expression, and from foreign governments and NGOs, which have condemned Mr Chávez for refusing to allow other independent broadcasters to compete for RCTV's licence.
Robert Menard, the secretary-general of Reporters With Borders, the free press group, has called the closure of RCTV Mr Chávez's “first serious international political error", while Germany, the EU president, has declared its concern at the developments. The Organisation of American States (OEA) has given warning that the current climate could lead to more self-censorship and a loss of editorial independence throughout Venezuela.
On a day of already heightened tension surrounding the closure of Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), Venezuela's most prominent independent broadcaster, officials turned their sights on Globovisión, a local television network and CNN, the US cable news network, accusing them of plotting against the Government.
The Information Minister, William Lara, showed a press conference what he said was CNN footage of Mr Chávez juxtaposed with images of Osama bin Laden, saying: “CNN broadcast a lie which linked President Chavez to violence and murder". He also accused CNN of dishonesty for using footage of a Mexican demonstration in a story about the current Venezuelan disturbances.
As for Globovisión, Mr Lara said that the Government was suing the channel for "the offence of incitement to assassination" because it aired footage of the attempted murder, in 1981, of the late Pope John Paul II in Rome. Mr Lara said the images, which were played with a slogan "Have faith, this doesn’t end here" constituted an incitement to murder Mr Chávez.
Alberto Federico Ravell, a director of Globovisión, called the allegations "ridiculous" while Tony Maddox, a vice president of CNN International, said that the network had already given a detailed apology for the mistake in using footage from Mexico and "denies categorically being engaged in a campaign to discredit or attack Venezuela".
As for the image of Mr Chávez next to bin Laden, Mr Maddox said that “unrelated news stories can be juxtaposed in a given segment of television news in the same way that a newspaper page or a website can have news items with no relation to each other placed side by side".
The accusations came on a day in which opposition activists, journalists and students from every university in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, joined protests against the closure of RCTV, the country's oldest television station, whose licence was not renewed by the Government and allowed to expire at midnight on Sunday.
Simultaneous demonstrations in Valencia, 150km (93 miles) west of Caracas, led to clashes with local police, where nine people were injured.
In the capital, police fired tear gas bombs and rubber bullets from a raised section of road to disrupt the protesters, who gathered at around 3.30pm yesterday in the Chacaíto district.
Many knelt in front of riot police to show that the peaceful intention of the demonstration before breaking up. They later regrouped in Caracas’s Plaza Brion, where they were led by Miguel Angel Rodriguez, a talk show host from RCTV, who told the crowd: "What they want is to silence us, but we are not afraid. They will not silence us."
The protest culminated with a visit to the headquarters of Globovisión, where Mr Ravell went out to meet the crowd, which was described by Leopoldo Lopez, the neighbourhood mayor and an opposition figure, as the first mass student demonstration against Mr Chávez in his eight years of power.
The Venezuelan President, presently using emergency powers to usher in the next phase of his socialist revolution, has justified the silencing of RCTV, which had been on the air since 1963, and its replacement with TVes, a new state channel, as a move to hand more broadcasting over to the people.
But he has provoked a vigorous reaction from the rest of the Venezuela's independent media sector, which fears for its freedom of expression, and from foreign governments and NGOs, which have condemned Mr Chávez for refusing to allow other independent broadcasters to compete for RCTV's licence.
Robert Menard, the secretary-general of Reporters With Borders, the free press group, has called the closure of RCTV Mr Chávez's “first serious international political error", while Germany, the EU president, has declared its concern at the developments. The Organisation of American States (OEA) has given warning that the current climate could lead to more self-censorship and a loss of editorial independence throughout Venezuela.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)