Saddam not hanged 'for revenge'
By Shirley Blair,WNS Baghdad Correspondent
BAGHDAD - Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's execution on Saturday was not an act of revenge, Iraqi officials say. "This whole execution is about justice," Hiwa Osman, an adviser for the Iraqi president said. Mr Osman's remarks come after new video filmed on a mobile phone showed a man taunting Saddam Hussein on the gallows. Correspondents say the manner of the execution may exacerbate divisions in Iraq between supporters and opponents of the former leader.
The country experienced yet another day of violence on Sunday with a car bomb killing one and injuring at least six in Baghdad's northern Hurriyah neighbourhood, AFP reports. Police said they had found 12 bodies dumped in the capital on Sunday, according to the Associated Press, a relatively low number by recent standards. A further four corpses - two women and two men - were also reported to have been found in the northern city of Mosul, AFP reports. Meanwhile, scores of Saddam supporters have been flocking to the site where the former leader's body was buried on Sunday. The former president, 69, was sentenced to death by an Iraqi court on 5 November over the killings of 148 Shias from the town of Dujail in the 1980s.
Images of Saddam Hussein being taken to the gallows in a Baghdad building his intelligence services once used for executions were broadcast on state TV on Saturday. They showed a respectful, if businesslike, team of hooded volunteers shuffling the formally dressed ex-leader onto the platform and slipping the noose over his neck. But the unofficial video images - posted on the internet and shown on Arab and Western channels - show he exchanged taunts with onlookers from the gallows. One of them shouts the name of Moqtada al-Sadr, a prominent Shia cleric. Saddam Hussein said they were not showing bravery. He is then heard citing verses from the Koran before the trapdoor opened and he died.
Saddam Hussein executed in Iraq
By Nicholas Brown,WNS Iraq Bureau Chief
BAGHDAD - Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been executed by hanging at a secure facility in northern Baghdad for crimes against humanity. Iraqi TV said the execution took place just before 0600 local time (0300GMT). A representative of the prime minister and a Sunni Muslim cleric were present. Two co-defendants, Saddam Hussein's half-brother and a former chief judge, are to be executed at a later date. All three were sentenced to death by an Iraqi court on 5 November after a year-long trial over the 1982 killings of 148 Shias in the town of Dujail. A small group of Iraqis witnessed the execution inside a building at an Iraqi compound known by the Americans as Camp Justice, a secure facility in the northern Baghdad suburb of Khadimeya. They watched as a judge read out the sentence to Saddam Hussein. The former Iraqi leader was carrying a copy of the Koran and asked for it to be given to a friend. The noose was then placed around his neck. When the hangman stepped forward to put the hood over his head, Saddam Hussein made it clear he wanted to die without it. The execution procedure took just a few minutes.
Iraqi National Security Advisor Mouwafak al-Rubaie, who witnessed the execution, said that the former leader went to the gallows quietly: "When we received him, he was handcuffed and holding the Koran on his chest. And he sat and the judge read the detailed sentence, or conviction, of Saddam Hussein. Then, after that, we took him to the gallows and he was saying some few slogans. He was very, very, very, broken." Video footage of the execution is expected to be released as final proof of Saddam Hussein's demise although it is expected to stop short of showing the actual death. News of Saddam Hussein's execution was broadcast on state-run Iraqiya television, as patriotic music and images of national monuments were played out. It initially said Saddam Hussein was hanged first, followed by Barzan and then Bandar.
However, Iraqi national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, later said only Saddam Hussein was hanged. "We wanted him to be executed on a special day," Mr al-Rubaie told Iraqiya, adding that Saddam Hussein "totally surrendered" and did not resist. Saddam Hussein's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and Iraq's former chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bandar are to be executed some time after the Eid festival ends next week, he said. Other Arab TV stations aired live footage of the sunrise over Baghdad's Firdous Square, where US Marines pulled down a statue of Saddam Hussein, after he was deposed in April 2003. There were jubilant scenes in the Baghdad Shia stronghold of Sadr City, with people dancing in the streets and sounding their car horns. But Saddam's own Sunni tribesman were angered by his treatment and may well protest once more.
Iraq on alert as Saddam's hanging nears
By Nicholas Brown,WNS Iraq Bureau Chief
BAGHDAD - Iraq was nervously awaiting the execution of Saddam Hussein on Friday, amid rumours that the hanging is imminent and fears it could trigger yet more violence in the blood-soaked country. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told the families of some of the ousted dictator's victims that Saddam's would be put to death without delay, but did not put a precise date on his trip to the gallows. "Our respect for human rights means we must implement the execution of Saddam and his aides. Those who reject Saddam's execution are undermining the dignity of the martyrs of Iraq," he said, acccording to his office. "After the endorsement of the court ruling, no one can prevent the execution sentence against Saddam. There will be neither a revision nor a delay in the implementation of the execution sentence against Saddam and his aides."
However, a senior official in Maliki's office told AFP that it was unlikely that the execution would be carried out during the Eid al-Adha holiday, which begins at the weekend and will last until at least Thursday. Saddam's defence counsel fed speculation about the execution by announcing that he had been asked to send someone to collect Saddam's belongings from the US base where he is being held. "The Americans called me and asked me to pick up the personal effects of the president and Barzan al-Tikriti," lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi told AFP in Amman, referring to Saddam's half brother, who has also been sentenced to death. Dulaimi said that he did not think that the US military had already handed Saddam over to the Iraqi authorities who will carry out the execution, but added that "anything is possible".
And another defence lawyer, Issam Ghazaoui, said: "We have no information, no one has told us if the president will be executed tomorrow or when ... In Iraq anything is possible." US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Garver said Saddam was under Iraqi legal authority, but "for security reasons" would not confirm whether or not he had been physically moved from a US military detention centre. "Legally he was turned over to the Iraqis more than a year ago," he explained. "At the request of the Iraqi government we have maintained him at a US facility for security reasons." The head of Iraq's interior ministry command centre, Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf, said the beleaguered security forces were on high alert ahead of a hanging expected to exacerbate sky-high sectarian tensions. "Certainly, this is a big event, putting into effect the execution of this serial killer," he said. "We will take measures proportionate to this event. We will put all our forces on the streets so that no lives are jeopardised."
US mourns death of former president Gerald Ford
By Jennifer King,WNS US Correspondent
LOS ANGELES - Funeral arrangements were being planned to honour former US president Gerald Ford, the man who led America from its darkest political hour following the Watergate scandal. Ford, who became America's 38th president in 1974 when he replaced the disgraced Richard Nixon, died late Tuesday in California aged 93, sparking an outpouring of tributes in the US and around the world. He was the only US president not elected, and succeeded the only president to resign. Ford, who famously declared that "our long national nightmare is over" after being thrust from the vice presidency into the nation's highest office, vowing to heal the "poisonous wounds" caused by Watergate, was hailed as a politician of integrity, honour and decency.
The Republican politician is best-remembered for pardoning Nixon -- an act that many believe cost him the 1976 presidential election against Jimmy Carter -- and oversaw America's withdrawal from Vietnam. President George W. Bush praised Ford's "strong and steady" leadership from 1974 to 1977 during a "period of great division and turmoil" when trust in the government had collapsed following the Watergate cover-ups. "For a nation that needed healing ... Gerald Ford came along when we needed him most," Bush said in a statement Wednesday. Bush's father, former president George Bush, described Ford as "an amazing man." "I think people will learn (from Ford) what decency and honour are all about in the White House," he said. "It never went to his head that he was president ... this is his legacy. He came in and he healed, and the rest is history. An amazing man."
Ford's wife of 58 years, Betty, issued a brief statement about her husband, who became the longest living US president last month. "My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age," the former first lady said. "His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country." The former president's family said Ford died peacefully at 6:45 pm (0345 GMT Wednesday) at his home in Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs in southern California. No cause of death was given. Funeral services are to be held in the US capital Washington and Grand Rapids, Michigan -- a district he represented for years in the US Congress -- with precise details to be announced at a briefing later Wednesday. Flags on official buildings across the United States were ordered flown at half-mast and military guns boomed out single-shell salutes in tribute.
Two killed and at least 42 injured as quakes rock Taiwan
By Xue Ling,WNS Taiwan Correspondent
TAIPEI - Taiwan on Wednesday assessed the damage after a strong earthquake measuring 7.1 rocked the country, killing two people and wounding at least 42. Hundreds of rescuers were dispatched to the worst-hit Pingtung area in southern Taiwan where at least three houses were reported to have collapsed and other buildings also suffered damage. The tremor triggered a series of aftershocks with the latest being reported at 10:30 am (0230 GMT) Wednesday with a magnitude of 5.9, the central weather bureau said.
One victim was a mother who died apparently trying to protect her twin sons. Fang Shu-chuan, 36, was shielding the seven-year-old twins with her body when the three-storey furniture shop where they lived collapsed. One of the boys was seriously hurt and the other suffered minor injuries. Fang's 34-year-old brother also died in the disaster. At least other 42 people suffered injures in the quake and aftershocks. People in Pingtung rushed into the streets in panic during the tremors which triggered power blackouts in over 3,000 households.
The central weather bureau said Tuesday's quake was the most powerful in a century in the Pingtung region. High-rise buildings all over Taiwan rattled and telephone services in southern parts of the island were disrupted. An elementary school in the mountain region was closed due to falling rocks. Road and rail traffic was also affected by the blackouts. The Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation, currently on trial, halted one south-bound "bullet train" to Kaohsiung but its services in northern Taiwan were unaffected, a company spokesman said. Internet connections across the Asia-Pacific region were affected due to damage caused by the earthquake to undersea data cables. The US Geological Survey said the quake struck 10 kilometres (six miles) under the sea, 57 miles from Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The Taiwan central weather bureau reported one strong quake and a series of smaller ones. It said the stronger tremor struck at 8:26 pm (1226 GMT), with its epicentre 23 kilometres southwest of Hengchun in Pingtung county in the southernmost tip of Taiwan. It originated 22 kilometres under the sea.
The second and third quakes hit Pingtung about eight minutes and 14 minutes later, with magnitudes of 6.4 and 5.2 respectively. A fourth occurred in the same area at 23:41 pm with a magnitude of 5.5. Another hit almost two hours later at 01:35 am, the US Geological Survey reported, with a 5.4 magnitude, about 95 kilometres from Kaohsiung and just six kilometres under the water. The Japan Meteorological Agency warned on Tuesday that the earthquake could have triggered a one-meter high tsunami heading towards the Philippines, but no tsunami was reported. Taiwan, which lies near the junction of two tectonic plates, is regularly shaken by earthquakes.
Saddam execution to be carried out within 30 days
By Nicholas Brown,
WNS Iraq Bureau Chief
BAGHDAD - The death sentence on Saddam Hussein and two co-defendants in his trial for crimes against humanity will be carried out within 30 days, appeals court judge Arif Shaheen said on Tuesday. "It cannot exceed 30 days. As from tomorrow the sentence could be carried out at any time," the judge said, after confirming that the sentences had been upheld and that the trial process was complete and without appeal. "The appeals court has issued its verdict. What we have decided today is compulsory," he said, explaining that Saddam's case had now passed to Iraq's executive arm which is legally bound to follow the verdict.
Officials from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government have previously said they will not hesitate to carry out the sentence. Saddam and six co-defendants were convicted on November 5 of crimes relating to the killing of 148 Shiites whose village, Dujail, was subjected to a collective punishment after a failed 1982 attempt on the dictator's life. Shaheen confirmed death sentences on Saddam, his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former revolutionary court judge Awad Ahmed al-Bandar, as well as long jail terms on three more defendants. He also said that Iraqi law stipulated that the sentences by carried out regardless of other legal proceedings ongoing, including Saddam's trial for genocide against the Kurdish population of northern Iraq.
Pope appeals for respect of 'dignity of children' at Christmas Mass
By Pamela Quest,WNS Vatican Correspondent
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI on Monday appealed for the respect of the "dignity of children" during Midnight Mass attended by thousands at St Peter's Basilica and watched by millions more on television. With the birth of Jesus in a stable in Bethlehem, God "teaches us respect for children," the pope said in his homily broadcast live on 73 television stations in 47 countries. "The child of Bethlehem directs our gaze towards all children who suffer and are abused in the world, the born and the unborn," said the spiritual leader of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics. Speaking in Italian, he pointed to "children who are placed as soldiers in a violent world ... children who have to beg ... children who suffer deprivation and hunger ... children who are unloved." He said: "In all of these it is the child of Bethlehem who is crying out to us. ... Let us pray this night that the brightness of God's love may enfold all these children. Let us ask God to help us do our part so that the dignity of children may be respected."
Benedict, celebrating his second Midnight Mass since his election in April 2005, then spoke of Christmas as a "feast of gifts in imitation of God who has given himself to us." He said: "Among the many gifts that we buy and receive, let us not forget the true gift: to give each other something of ourselves." The mass in Latin, the universal language of the Roman Catholic Church, was punctuated by readings in Italian, English, French, German, Spanish and Polish. The traditional prayers of the faithful were done in Portuguese, Arabic and the Philippine language Tagalog. At noon (1100 GMT) on Monday, the pope was to pronounce the traditional Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) message from the balcony of Saint Peter's, to an even greater audience watching 102 television stations in 63 countries.
On Sunday the pope used his pre-Christmas Angelus blessing to underline the "value of every human life" amid controversy over the death of Italian right-to-die campaigner Piergiorgio Welby. "The birth of Christ helps us to be aware of what human life is worth, the value of every human life, from his first moment to his natural decline," the pope said. Welby, who died on Wednesday, had a civil funeral in Rome on Sunday after Italy's Roman Catholic Church refused religious rites for the muscular dystrophy victim. Welby's activism has sparked a debate on euthanasia in overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Italy, where it is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, although patients are legally allowed to refuse care.
Sombre mood in Bethlehem ahead of Christmas
By Andrea Doucet,WNS Israel Bureau Chief
BETHLEHEM - Despite sunny skies and crisp weather, the looks were sober and the mood grim in Bethlehem as the faithful - very few foreign tourists among them - flocked to the birthplace of Jesus Christ for the annual Christmas celebrations. Several thousand people milled in Manger Square in front of the Church of the Nativity ahead of the traditional midnight mass that this year takes place against the backdrop of a dire economic crisis gripping the Palestinian territories. "It's a very sad Christmas," Bethlehem Mayor Viktor Batarseh said on Sunday, pointing to the Western freeze on aid to the Palestinian government that has ground the economy to a halt. The freeze, imposed after the Islamist Hamas formed a government in March, has plunged the Palestinian territories into their worst-ever economic crisis. "The economic situation is dire," Batarseh said. "How can you enjoy Christmas in these conditions, when people can't even feed their children?"
With Hamas steadfastly refusing to bend to Western conditions for unfreezing the badly needed funds - renouncing violence, recognising Israel and agreeing to abide by past peace deals - the situation shows no sign of improving any time soon. "Pilgrimage and tourism are the first sources of income for this city. Because of the political situation, their numbers have dropped," Batarseh said. "With the local tourists and pilgrims, this year we don't expect more than 10,000 visitors. They were 20,000 last year. And before the intifadas, we used to reach 50,000 over this period." It was difficult to find visitors from abroad in the crowd in Manger Square on Sunday afternoon, with most foreigners present appearing to be ex-pats living in the region.
The towering concrete wall of the Israeli security barrier, which snakes along the occupied West Bank and around Bethlehem, has also contributed to the sombre mood. "The Israeli wall of separation is harming us, like the confiscation of agricultural land to build it," Batarseh said. "People are no longer allowed to work in Jerusalem." Adnan Sobeh, 36, the owner of a tourist shop along Manger Square, said business this year is bad. "Last year it was already bad, but this year it's even worse. The small groups that come from Israel get out of the buses, rush inside the Church of the Nativity and leave. No shopping," he said. "The wall scares them: they see it, they think they are entering Fallujah," Sobeh said, referring to the city in war-torn Iraq. "The situation in the entire Middle East is bad: Iraq, the fighting between the Palestinians, the war in Lebanon this summer. They see the entire region as a war zone." "But in fact Bethlehem is so peaceful and quiet," he said.
Sudan 'to accept UN Darfur force'
By Dennis Louis,WNS Africa Bureau Chief
JOHANNESBURG - Outgoing UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has said he believes Sudan is set to approve the deployment of a joint UN-African Union force in Darfur. Until now, President Omar al-Bashir has consistently opposed any involvement of the UN in the western region. However, Sudanese officials say the government has now accepted the idea of a "hybrid" force of peacekeepers, including UN personnel. Fighting in Darfur has killed some 200,000 people since early 2003. More than two million have been displaced.
The conflict began when a rebellion by local groups triggered a counter-offensive by the army and government-backed Arab militias. Last week, the US warned Sudan it would face unspecified sanctions if it did not agree to an international peacekeeping force for Darfur by January. Mr Annan made his comments after what he described as encouraging reports from his envoy, who had spoken to Mr Bashir. The reports "encourage me to think we may tomorrow (Saturday) receive a green light from President Bashir", he said. The outgoing UN chief added he also expected Mr Bashir to agree to a ceasefire and moves to restart talks with Darfur political groups. But he added that he took nothing for granted after "so many disappointments".
Insurgents offer U.S. 30-day truce to get out of Iraq
By Shirley Blair,WNS Baghdad Correspondent
BAGHDAD - The leader of an umbrella organization for Iraqi insurgent groups is offering the United States a one-month truce to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq and turn over its military bases "to the mujahedeen of the Islamic state."In an audiotape posted on Islamic Web sites Friday, a speaker identified as Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Mujahideen Shura Council, said that if U.S. forces begin withdrawing from Iraq immediately and leave their heavy weaponry behind, "we will allow your withdrawal to complete without anyone targeting you with any explosive or anything else."
"We say to Bush not to waste this historic opportunity that will guarantee you a safe withdrawal," al-Baghdadi said on the audiotape. The United States was given two weeks to respond to the offer. The Mujahideen Shura Council is an umbrella group formed in late 2005 that includes several terrorist and insurgent groups, including al Qaeda in Iraq. On the audiotape, al-Baghdadi also called on officers from the former Iraqi army to join an "army of the Islamic state," promising them a house and a salary as long as they pass a "test of faith" intended to demonstrate the extent of their "hatred" for Saddam Hussein and his regime.
The U.S. military Friday reported five U.S. troop deaths, while Iraqi authorities reported the discovery of a dozen bodies and the kidnapping of a Sunni imam in Baghdad. One soldier was killed and another wounded when attackers targeted a coalition patrol west of the capital, the U.S. military said. Three Marines and a sailor assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 died Thursday from wounds suffered during combat in Anbar province, the military also said. The deaths bring the December U.S. military death toll to 73 and the overall total during the war to 2,955; seven U.S. contractors also have been killed.
Hard Iraq choices loom, says Bush
By Joan Warrack,WNS US Bureau Chief
WASHINGTON - US President George W Bush has said the conflict in Iraq will require "difficult choices and additional sacrifices" in the coming year. Mr Bush called for an increase in the size of the US military, but he said he had not yet decided whether to boost troop numbers in Iraq. He spoke as new US Defence Secretary Robert Gates began his first visit to Iraq, two days after taking office. Mr Bush is expected to announce a new strategy for Iraq next month.
In Iraq, the US military handed over security of Najaf province, south of the capital Baghdad, to government forces on Wednesday. Najaf is the third province to come under Iraqi security control. The commander of US forces in the Middle East, Gen John Abizaid, meanwhile is to retire early next year after more than three years in the job, a spokesman for US Central Command said. His departure will clear the way for Mr Gates to choose his own commander in the strategic region, correspondents say.
The president said 2006 had been a "difficult year" for the US military and the Iraqi people, and said the US "will ask more of our Iraqi partners" in 2007. He admitted that insurgents had thwarted US efforts to stabilise the country, but he said the "safety and security of citizens requires that we do not let up". Mr Bush said the US was "looking at all options", including increasing troop numbers in Iraq. But he said in order to do so, "there must be a specific mission that can be accomplished with more troops". Asked why he was now saying the US was not winning in Iraq just weeks after saying "Absolutely, we're winning", Mr Bush said his earlier comment had referred to his belief that the US would eventually triumph.
Mr Bush voiced confidence in his new defence secretary, saying Mr Gates will be "an important voice in the Iraq strategy review". Mr Gates is meeting military commanders and Iraqi politicians for advice to help Mr Bush formulate his new policy. The president's remarks come days after a Pentagon report said attacks on US and Iraqi troops and civilians had reached their highest level since June 2004, when an Iraqi interim government was created.
Bush considering troop increase in Iraq
By Florence Kerry,WNS White House Correspondent
WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush may temporarily increase the number of US troops in Iraq and is not feuding with top military commanders over such a plan, the White House said Tuesday. "It's something that's being explored," spokesman Tony Snow said amid media reports that the president might add tens of thousands of US soldiers to help quell what the Pentagon now warns is the worst violence on record.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Bush himself made no specific mention of such a proposal except to say that "all options are viable," but announced that he would seek to expand the overall size of the US military. "I'm inclined to believe that we do need to increase our troops, the army, the Marines," he said, adding that he had directed Defence Secretary Robert Gates to consult military commanders on the issue and report back. Bush declined to put a number on the increase, and disputed former US secretary of state Colin Powell's assertion over the weekend that "the active army is about broken" due to strains from Iraq and Afghanistan. "I haven't heard the work 'broken,' but I've the word 'stressed,'" said the president, who told the Post that more ground forces were required to fight the global war on terrorism spared by the September 11, 2001 terrorist strikes. "It is a accurate reflection that this ideological war we're in is going to last for a while, and that we're going to need a military that's capable of being able to sustain our efforts and to help us achieve peace," he said. "We need to reset our military. There's no question the military has been used a lot," said Bush.
Snow denied a news account that the US Joint Chiefs of Staff unanimously disagree with a reported White House plan to send between 15,000 and 30,000 more US troops to Iraq for as many as eight months. "I think people are trying to create a fight between the president and the joint chiefs where one does not exist," said Snow. "He has asked military commanders to consider a range of options and they are doing so."
Violence flares in Gaza as Abbas stands firm on election
By Geraldine Chrs,
WNS Isreal Correspondent
GAZA CITY - Violence flared in Gaza despite a fragile truce between rival Palestinian factions, as President Mahmud Abbas, locked in a dangerous standoff with the ruling Hamas movement, vowed to press ahead with his controversial plans for early elections. A member of Abbas's Fatah party was killed after gunmen fired on a welfare agency in northern Gaza in an attack that wounded five others, medics said. Until the attack, a shaky late-night ceasefire appeared to be holding between the two rival groups battling for power in the volatile Palestinian territories, although sporadic gunfire rang out in the Gaza Strip. Five Fatah members and four Hamas loyalists were kidnapped during the day in the north of the coastal strip, according to officials and witnesses.
Abbas won support for his election plan from visiting Prime Minister Tony Blair, who appealed to the international community to back the moderate Palestinian president and called for an initiative to put the Middle East peace process back on track. Abbas described the situation in the territories as a "grave internal crisis" after an explosion of deadly violence at the weekend following his high-stakes political challenge to Hamas. "I have called for early presidential and parliamentary elections so that the people can decide on the base of an acceptable program to preserve their national interests... and put an end to the siege and crisis," he said. But he said the door was still open to forming a national unity government after Hamas vowed to boycott any elections, describing Abbas's move as a coup and tantamount to a call for civil war. Abbas, who has been at loggerheads with Hamas since it trounced his Fatah party in January elections, also appealed for an end to the street violence. "It's not a question of who will win and who will lose. Any bullet shot anywhere is a loss for the Palestinian people and is not in our interest."
Blair, standing alongside Abbas at a Ramallah news conference, called for an initiative to support the Palestinians and move toward a two-state solution for the Middle East conflict. "I hope therefore that we will be in a position over these coming weeks to put together an initiative that allows us both to give that support, in particular for reconstruction and development, and to alleviate the suffering and plight of the Palestinian people," Blair said. "But also crucially that gives us a political framework within which we can move forward on that two-state solution." A senior Palestinian official told AFP that the initiative announced by Blair would be worked out in coordination with the United States and would be unveiled by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her expected visit to the region early next year. The Palestinian territories have been plunged into their deepest ever financial crisis because of a Western aid freeze imposed after Hamas came to power in March.
Ceasefire in Gaza after inter- Palestinian violence escalates
By Andrea Doucet,
WNS Israel Bureau ChiefGAZA CITY - Armed Palestinian groups including Hamas and Fatah agreed on a ceasefire to end spiralling unrest that claimed at least three lives, the head of a high-level committee that includes all the groups told AFP. Despite the accord, exchanges of late-night automatic gunfire continued in the Rimal area of Gaza City near Shifa hospital, an AFP journalist reported. "There is an agreement between all armed Palestinian groups for a ceasefire and to end the violence," Ibrahim Abu Najja said earlier after a day of unrest in Gaza in which at least three Palestinians were killed. The accord was confirmed by Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan, who told AFP that the ceasefire pact stipulates that "armed men must stop circulating on the streets". The news came after British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who had spent the day in Iraq, arrived in Israel for talks aimed at breathing new life into the moribund Middle East peace process. Tit-for-tat violence between rival Palestinian factions gripped Gaza on Sunday, leaving a teenage student, a colonel in the security services and a member of the presidential guard dead, a day after president Mahmud Abbas' high-stakes call for early elections. Abbas' move set off fears that the bitter power struggle between Hamas - the Islamist movement that took power in March after a shock election win - and the president's own Fatah faction could ignite a civil war. Explosions and automatic gunshots rocked central Gaza City for hours as Hamas and Fatah gunmen traded fire around the presidential compound. A 19-year-old woman was killed and six other people were wounded. In the evening, a Fatah spokesman said a colonel in the Palestinian national security service was kidnapped and killed by Hamas militants. Adnan Rhami, 40, was abducted with two bodyguards in the Jabaliya camp, after which the masked kidnappers shot him and dumped his body, said the spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity.
US welcomes Palestinian poll call
By George Dave,WNS World Affairs Correspondent
WASHINGTON - The US administration has hailed a call by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas for fresh elections, expressing hope it could help end violence in the region. But the Islamic group Hamas, which won the latest Palestinian elections, rejected the move as a "coup attempt". Mr Abbas's call sparked more clashes between Hamas and his Fatah movement. Overnight, a man was killed when gunmen attacked a Gaza training camp used by the presidential guard and on Sunday a Hamas minister's car came under fire. Gunmen attacked a convoy carrying the Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas member, security sources said, although there were no immediate reports of injuries. Several gunmen were injured in exchanges of fires between the two rival groups across the Gaza Strip on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Palestinian election officials say they need at least three months to prepare for new presidential and parliamentary polls, the Assoicated Press reports. They were speaking after meeting Mr Abbas to discuss his call for early elections. "We explained to him the phases of holding elections, and how much time it would take for holding such elections, which is at least three months, including challenges," the head of the Central Election Commission, Hanna Nasser, said. In a major policy speech in Ramallah on Saturday, Mr Abbas blamed Hamas for the crisis, saying the Palestinian people were suffering from an economic siege that had halved incomes. The group's refusal to recognise Israel and renounce violence has triggered the suspension of Western aid to the Palestinians. Escalating tensions in recent days between Hamas and Fatah have raised fears of civil war. The US administration welcomed the call for fresh elections. "While the elections are an internal matter, we hope this helps bring the violence to an end," White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said.
Many Palestinians say the president has no right to dissolve the government, which was elected in January and is due to remain in office until 2010. Correspondents say it is not clear when or how new elections would be held. The Hamas government reacted angrily to Mr Abbas's speech, calling it "a coup against Palestinian legitimacy and the will of the Palestinian people". Ahmed Yousef, an adviser to Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, said the call for elections was a recipe for violence. "I think this will lead to bloodshed because this is something against the constitution." Several Palestinian factions based in the Syrian capital, Damascus, also rejected the call for early elections. The past week has been marked by attacks, counter-attacks and mutual accusations. Hamas blamed Fatah for a shooting that targeted PM Ismail Haniya on Thursday, but Mr Abbas, in his speech, denied there had been any conspiracy to kill Mr Haniya.
Egypt seeks to ease Gaza tensions
By Andrea Doucet,WNS Israel Bureau Chief
GAZA CITY - Egyptian officials seeking to broker a deal between Palestinian groups have met Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip. The move follows days of rising tensions between Hamas, the largest faction, and the Fatah group headed by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Mr Abbas is expected to use a speech to the Palestinian parliament on Saturday to threaten early elections - an option already condemned by Hamas. Hamas has blamed Fatah for a shooting that targeted PM Ismail Haniya. Mr Haniya's car was attacked by gunmen while crossing into Gaza from Egypt on Thursday. One bodyguard died in the incident. A Hamas spokesman blamed a senior Fatah official, former security chief Mohammad Dahlan, for the attack.
The shoot-out at the Rafah border crossing led to more clashes on Friday, both in the West Bank and in Gaza City. Some 32 people were injured when Palestinian police loyal to Fatah fought Hamas supporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.There have been several bouts of street fighting since Hamas won a sweeping victory in parliamentary elections last January. Egyptian mediation has helped calm the situation several times. Several efforts to form a national unity government have broken down. Hamas said it would boycott Mr Abbas' speech to the Palestinian legislature on Saturday in protest at "dangerous and bloody" recent events. Senior Fatah official Saeb Erekat told the Associated Press that Hamas' decision was a "dangerous escalation". US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Reuters news agency she would seek tens of millions of dollars in extra funding to boost Mr Abbas' security forces.
Despite the tensions, Mr Haniya called for calm and unity among Palestinians at a rally marking the 19th anniversary of the founding of Hamas. Masked gunmen took to the streets as tens of thousands of supporters at a Gaza City stadium heard Mr Haniya vow to pursue those who attacked his convoy and bring them to justice. He said Hamas knew who was responsible, but gave no names. Earlier, an official Hamas spokesman said the attack was organised by Dahlan, a key Fatah figure in Gaza and fierce critic of Hamas. Mr Dahlan rejected the Hamas accusations, saying the governing party was trying to "mask its failures". A Fatah spokesman said the attack was a "grave threat" to Palestinian unity. The crisis in the Palestinian Authority has grown since Hamas won elections in January. Western donors have withheld aid payments in protest at Hamas' refusal to renounce violence or recognise Israel.
Hamas accuses rival of PM attack
By Geraldine Chris,WNS Israel Correspondent
GAZA CITY - The Palestinian Hamas group has accused a key figure in the rival Fatah faction of trying to assassinate Prime Minister Ismail Haniya as he returned to Gaza. Hamas accused Mohammad Dahlan of orchestrating the attack as Mr Haniya crossed Gaza's border with Egypt. Clashes have now broken out between Hamas and Fatah supporters in Gaza City and the West Bank town of Ramallah. A bodyguard died and Mr Haniya's son was among five hurt in the gun battle late on Thursday at the Rafah border. Mr Dahlan has rejected Hamas's accusations of involvement, saying that Hamas, the governing party, was trying to "mask its failures". Correspondents say the attack on Mr Haniya - and Hamas's open accusation of such a prominent opponent - have dramatically raised the stakes in the tense political struggle in the Palestinian territories.
Shooting erupted in Gaza City on Friday between masked Hamas gunmen and Palestinian police allied to Fatah. An exchange of gunfire between the factions was also reported in Ramallah. Hamas had deployed armed militants to key points in a show of force following the fire fight. Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan had earlier said the attack at Rafah was "an assassination attempt carried out by traitors led by Mohammad Dahlan". Mr Dahlan is a former minister of internal security and a fierce critic of Hamas. In the 1990s he led a crackdown on militants who refused to acknowledge the new Palestinian Authority (PA). Fatah spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khoussa rejected Hamas's claims.
"Fatah has condemned the incident and is demanding the formation of an official investigation committee," he said. "These accusations are posing a grave threat to Palestinian unity." PA President Mahmoud Abbas, the head of Fatah, said he regretted the attack, but Hamas said he had to share some responsibility. Mr Haniya, after his return to Gaza City, said: "We know who opened fire." Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh said his first response was to regret that the gunmen had missed Mr Haniya. He told Israeli radio: "Emotionally, it was indeed my feeling. But upon coldly reconsidering it, I do not believe that that would have solved the problem."
China-US economic summit begins
By Liu Hao Hui,WNS China Business Bureau Chief
Two days of high-level economic talks between the US and China have opened in Beijing, with criticism on both sides. Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi said in her opening remarks that the US was failing to fully understand China. US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson accused China of holding down the value of its currency to boost exports, and urged "tangible results" in the talks. Last year the US had a record trade deficit with China, of more than $200bn (£101bn). Mr Paulson acknowledged "scepticism" in the US that the talks would produce substantive progress. "Therefore, it is incumbent upon us, not only to have frank and energetic discussions, but also to produce tangible results on the most important issues facing our two nations," he said. But Ms Wu hit back, accusing the US of a lack of understanding.
The summit, which is being billed as a "strategic economic dialogue", follows a range of commercial deals signed between the US and China. Key topics include currencies, access to markets and information piracy. This week marks five years since China joined the World Trade Organization, but the US feels that China still has much to do to open its markets as required. The delegation in Beijing includes the Federal Reserve's head Ben Bernanke and US Trade Representative Susan Schwab. The visit comes days after the US issued a report assessing China's record in implementing requirements demanded by the WTO. "China has taken many important steps to implement its WTO obligations, but on the fifth anniversary of its WTO membership, China's overall record is decidedly mixed," said Susan Schwab following the report. Ms Schwab also said some industries faced "frustrating barriers" when doing business in China, and highlighted concerns that China's market liberalisation had been slowing down in the past year.
But analysts also say China has transformed into a far more sophisticated nation in the past five years - and that Mr Paulson and his mission will face a country that is more assertive in trade matters. The trip comes amid mounting pressure for China to reform its currency, and a day after data showed that China has replaced Mexico as the second largest trading partner with the US. The US - the world's largest economy - posted figures showing its deficit with China had risen by 6.1% in October compared with the previous month. Critics blame the growing deficit with China largely on China's currency, the yuan, being artificially weak. This makes Chinese exports to the US cheap in comparison with US goods.
Bush defends Iraq strategy delay
By Peter Matthew,WNS US Senior Correspondent
WASHINGTON - US President George W Bush has said he will not be rushed into deciding how to change his Iraq policy. He said he was receiving advice, but would reject implementing "ideas that would lead to defeat" - such as "leaving before the job is done". A high-level review published last week said combat troops could be withdrawn from Iraq by early 2008. Mr Bush had been due to announce a new strategy next week, but his speech will not now be made until January.
Speaking in Washington after talks with senior Pentagon officials, Mr Bush told reporters he would not give up on the goal of trying to make Iraq a stable democracy. He admitted that the level of violence in the country, invaded by a US-led coalition in 2003, had been "horrific". Flanked by Vice-President Dick Cheney and outgoing Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Mr Bush said US and Iraqi forces had killed or captured about 5,900 insurgents over the past three months. But he added that "our enemy is far from being defeated". Turning to the Iraq strategy review, Mr Bush said one reason for the delay was that he wanted to give the incoming Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, an opportunity to provide input. He said: "I will not be rushed into making a difficult decision, a necessary decision." He added: "I've heard some ideas that would lead to defeat. And I reject those ideas, ideas such as leaving before the job is done; ideas such as not helping this government take the necessary and hard steps to be able to do its job. "If we lose our nerve, if we're not steadfast in our determination to help the Iraqi government succeed, we will be handing Iraq over to an enemy that would do us harm."
The review by the Iraq Study Group (ISG) said the current US strategy of "staying the course" was no longer viable. It offered no hard timetable for a pullout of US forces, despite suggesting the 2008 withdrawal of combat troops. The bipartisan report's 79 recommendations included holding direct talks with Iran and Syria. Asked by a reporter about whether the ISG report contained some of bad advice he had mentioned, Mr Bush said his opinion of the review hadn't changed. He said: "I thought it was interesting that Republicans and Democrats could work in concert to help achieve an objective." The panel was headed by former Republican Secretary of State James Baker III, and former Congressman Lee Hamilton, a Democrat.
Chile braces for clashes as Pinochet gets military, not state funeral
By Timothy George,WNS America Bureau Chief
WASHINGTON - Chile is bracing for clashes between supporters and opponents of the late former dictator Augusto Pinochet as his ex-comrades prepared to bid him farewell in a military ceremony. Untried for the 3,000 people killed or missing during his 1973-1990 dictatorship, Pinochet remains a polarising figure even in death. President Michelle Bachelet, who was tortured along with her mother and father during the military regime, denied the late dictator a state funeral and refused to decree three days of mourning, as is customary. Pinochet died on Sunday, one week after a heart attack and two weeks after his 91st birthday. News of his death led to rioting that left 43 police officers injured and 99 people arrested.
The army has not said if Pinochet's funeral on Tuesday will be a private or public affair, but they said they expect a crush of sympathisers outside the Military School in Santiago, where his open casket has been on public display at the school chapel. Thousands of mourners streamed by the casket all day on Monday and into the night, often standing in line for hours to get inside. "He was the best president Chile ever had," said an old woman under a parasol who came to see late leader Tuesday. In the casket Pinochet was dressed in an army uniform with the insignias of a Captain General of the Chilean army - a rank that only he and Bernardo O'Higgins, the man who led Chile to independence from Spain in 1818, have been granted.
The ceremony is set to start at 11 a.m. (1400 GMT) at the Military School, led by the head of the Chilean army, General Oscar Izurieta. The government will be represented by Defence Minister Vivianne Blanlot. After the ceremony Pinochet's remains are scheduled to be flown by helicopter to a cemetery for cremation, and his ashes handed over to his wife and five children. Thousands of friends and relatives of those killed or missing during the Pinochet years marched in silence in different locations Monday to make sure the dictatorship's macabre legacy was remembered.
Three boys, driver killed amid mounting Palestinian tensions
By Geraldine Chris,WNS Israel Correspondent
GAZA CITY - Three young children of a senior Fatah official and their driver have been killed in a drive-by shooting in Gaza, amid mounting tensions between the party of moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and the ruling Islamist Hamas movement. The three Baalusha brothers - Salam, six, Osama, seven, and Ahmed, eight - were killed along with their driver, Mahmud al-Habil, 25, when unidentified gunmen opened fire on their car from two vehicles near a school in the Rimal district of Gaza City, medics and security officials said on Monday. The boys' father, Baha Baalusha, a colonel in the Fatah-dominated Palestinian intelligence services and a former investigator there, was at home during the attack, they said. A Palestinian security source said Baalusha - widely despised by Hamas - was the target of the attack, adding that "this is the most odious crime among those committed in favour of the current security anarchy." Baalusha escaped an assassination attempt several months ago.
Four other children who were on their way to school in the area were wounded, one seriously, in the attack that left the Baalusha car riddled with dozens of bullets, medics said. The boys' bodyguard was also wounded. Blood-splattered schoolbags, books and a sandwich bag lay on the backseat of the car after the attack that the Palestinian president slammed as "an atrocious crime committed by scum who killed the children of our people". "I have demanded of the interior minister to arrest the assailants as quickly as possible," he told reporters in Ramallah. A Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhum, also condemned the killings carried out by "the enemies of the Palestinian people."
Monday's killing came a day after unidentified gunmen opened fire on the convoy of the Hamas interior minister, Said Siam, in Gaza City. No one was wounded in that attack and four men were later arrested in connection with the shooting. The incidents come against rising tensions between Fatah and Hamas after Abbas announced on Saturday that he intended to call early parliamentary and presidential elections to resolve a spiralling political crisis between the two rival groups.
Israeli PM calls for 'drastic measures' on Iran's nuclear programme
By Andrew Keith,WNS Germany Bureau Chief
BERLIN - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called on the international community to take "much more drastic measures" regarding Iran's nuclear activities, while Israel would keep all options open towards Tehran, including military force. Olmert made the comments in an interview in German weekly Der Spiegel, to be published Monday, in which he was asked about a "hesistant" international response to Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad. "I am waiting for much more drastic actions to be taken," he said, according to an advance copy of the interview.
With visits to Berlin and Rome planned next week, the Israeli leader said he wanted "to speak about effective measures which can be accepted by the international community." In order "to stop the Iranian danger," Olmert said "nothing is excluded", including a military attack. As for possible direct talks between the United States and Iran, he said: "Anything done to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons is a step in the right direction."
Israel and the US accuse Iran of using its civil nuclear programme as a cover for secretly developing weapons, which Tehran denies. For his part, Ahmadinejad has had strong words about the Jewish state, saying his goal is to "wipe" Israel off the map. Iran has refused demands by the UN Security Council to suspend its programme of enriching uranium which can be used to fuel nuclear energy but also to develop atomic weapons.
Bush targets Iraq policy change by Christmas
By Joan Warrack,WNS US Bureau Chief
WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush will work on a new approach to Iraq in meetings with top advisors next week, and could announce the strategy before Christmas, the White House said. Pressure is building on Bush after he distanced himself from several key recommendations put forward by a top bipartisan commission this week, which called for a complete overhaul of US policy to avert Iraq's slide into chaos. He will frame his decision in talks with his secretaries of state and defence, military commanders and US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, as well as outside experts. The White House says Bush carefully studied the Iraq Study Group report, and is awaiting results of several key internal reviews of Iraq policy.
"He's going to take all that information ... and boil that down," for the "new way forward that he wants to have in Iraq, because he knows that that's necessary," said White House deputy spokeswoman Dana Perino. The goal is for Bush "to be able to give a speech before Christmas (December 25), but it's not set in stone," Perino said. The Iraq Study Group report, which warns that the situation in Iraq is "grave and deteriorating," called for most US combat troops to be withdrawn by early 2008, talks with Iran and Syria, and for a new Middle East peace effort. Bush, who admitted on Thursday that "we need a new approach" in Iraq, also discussed the situation there with top congressional leaders Friday. "We talked about the need for a new way forward in Iraq, and we talked about the need to work together on this important subject," Bush said. But incoming Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, was more combative, saying: "the time for change is now and it is apparent to the American people ... hopefully the president has got the message."
The president will visit the State Department on Monday then convene top outside experts on Iraq in the Oval Office. On Tuesday, he will have a video-conference with military commanders and Khalilzad. Wednesday will see Bush at the Pentagon, Perino said. Bush has already said that even the commission did not expect him to agree with every recommendation, amid signs that the White House may pick-and-choose ideas which suit it from each review of the conflict.
NASA delays shuttle launch due to weather
By Jennifer King,WNS US Correspondent
CAPE CANAVERAL - The launch of the US space shuttle Discovery was delayed by poor weather for at least 24 hours Thursday, just minutes before the rocket was to blast off on a rare night flight. The seven astronauts were in place for lift-off towards the International Space Station (ISS), but low-lying clouds forced a last-minute postponement of the 9:35 pm (0235 GMT Friday) blastoff. "The launch of Space Shuttle Discovery has been scrubbed due to poor weather conditions at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida," NASA said in a statement.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was expected to announce a new launch time later Thursday. The weather forecast for a Friday launch, however, was discouraging with only a 10 percent chance of favourable conditions. The mission was to be the first night launch since the Endeavour flight of November 23, 2002. The three missions following the Columbia disaster of February 2003 took place during daylight as a safety precaution.
New Fiji PM defends coup action
By Malenie Judy,
WNS Pacific Bureau Chief
SUVA - The newly-installed prime minister of Fiji, appointed by the Pacific Island state's military chief, has defended the country's bloodless coup. Jona Senilagakali conceded the coup had been "illegal" but said it was better than keeping a corrupt government. He said Fiji needed a different kind of democracy and said elections might not take place for up to two years. Mr Senilagakali also warned powerful Pacific neighbours not to meddle in the affairs of the Fijian archipelago.
"It's an illegal takeover to clean up the mess of a much bigger illegal activity of the previous government," Mr Senilagakali said of the coup, speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The 77-year-old military doctor said he was surprised when he was appointed prime minister by the coup's leader, Commodore Frank Bainimarama. He said he had been ordered to accept his new position but believed he had been given "divine authority" to lead the country.
The coup, which took place on Tuesday, was the fourth in the former British colony in 20 years. Mr Senilagakali said Australia and New Zealand, who have already imposed sanctions on Fiji, along with the US and the UK, should steer clear. "I warn the Australian and New Zealand prime ministers to stay out of our business and to respect the sovereignty of the Fiji islands," he said. The coup was followed by swift international condemnation and threats of isolation. The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, has demanded that the government be restored and the US has suspended aid. Fiji has a population of only 900,000 but is a major tourist destination and attracts up to 400,000 visitors a year. It has also witnessed considerable political tension over the past 20 years between ethnic Fijians, who make up about 50% of the population, and ethnic Indians, who make up about 44%.
Iraq Study Group: Pull most troops from combat by '08
By Mark Chris,WNS Washington CorrespondentWASHINGTON - In a highly anticipated report being released Wednesday, the Iraq Study Group will call for a dramatic shift in war policy by urging the Bush administration to set a target of moving most U.S. troops out of their combat roles by early 2008, according to two sources who have seen the executive summary of the report. The bipartisan panel, however, will stop short of a specific timetable for withdrawal."The primary mission of U.S. forces in Iraq should evolve into one of supporting the Iraqi Army," says the report. It adds: "It's clear the Iraqi government will need U.S. assistance for some time to come, especially in carrying out new security responsibilities. Yet the U.S. must not make open-ended commitments to keep large numbers of troops deployed in Iraq." Sources familiar with the report, which will be presented to President Bush at the White House early Wednesday morning, said it also prods the administration to launch a new diplomatic initiative to solve the Israel-Palestinian conflict. The report contends the United States "cannot achieve its goals in the Mideast" unless it embarks on a "renewed and sustained commitment to a comprehensive peace plan on all fronts," according to the sources who have seen the report. As part of this initiative, the panel calls for direct talks between the United States and Iran, as well as Syria, a move the Bush administration has repeatedly resisted. While the president has said his goal is to help form an Iraqi government that can sustain and defend itself, the study group contends that cannot be achieved without serious help from other nations in the Mideast."Every country has an interest in avoiding a chaotic Iraq, including all of Iraq's neighbors," says the report. "Iraq's neighbors and key states in and outside the region should form a support group" to help Iraq achieve long-term security and political reconciliation -- "neither of which it can sustain on its own," the report concludes about the shaky government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Sources said a major theme in the report by the group, co-chaired by former Secretary of State James Baker and former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton, is a blunt assessment that the mission in Iraq will fail unless the Bush administration and the newly elected Democratic Congress come together on a bipartisan basis to deal with the declining support for the war within the United States. "What we recommend demands a tremendous amount of political will and cooperation between the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government," says the report. "Success depends on unity of the American people at a time of political polarization."The report concludes ominously: "Foreign policy is doomed to failure -- as is any action in Iraq -- if not supported by broad, sustained consensus."
Military 'takes control of Fiji'
By Malenie Judy,WNS Pacific Bureau Chief
SUVA - The military commander of Fiji has announced he has taken over control of the country. Cmdr Frank Bainimarama said in a televised address he had assumed executive powers and dismissed Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. Cmdr Bainimarama accused the prime minister of corruption and leading Fiji on a path of doom. Mr Qarase said earlier he had been put under house arrest as troops blockaded his home in the capital, Suva. Cmdr Bainimarama warned that more troops would be seen on the streets of Fiji but said there was no curfew and he urged the population not to be intimidated. He said Fiji had reached a "crossroads" and that the government had been "unable to make decisions to save our people from destruction". "I urge all citizens to remain calm, and maintain the peace that currently prevails," he said. Cmdr Bainimarama said he would next week ask the country's Great Council of Chiefs to restore executive powers to President Ratu Josefa Iloilo. The president would then appoint an interim government and elections would follow at an unspecified date, the military chief said.
Cmdr Bainimarama had repeatedly threatened to unseat Mr Qarase, expressing anger at the way the prime minister had proposed legislation to offer an amnesty to those responsible for a coup in 2000. In his speech Cmdr Bainimarama accused Mr Qarase of failing to address the military's concerns in "true spirit" and said the prime minister had created tension in the army by trying to have him removed.
Bush: 'I'm not happy' about Bolton's resignation
By Lucy Huff,WNS Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON - An unhappy President Bush said Monday he regretfully accepted John Bolton's decision to leave his temporary job as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Senate opposition, led mostly by Democrats, doomed Bolton's confirmation to serve permanently."I'm not happy about it," Bush said during a farewell appearance at the White House attended by Bolton and his wife, Gretchen. "I think he deserved to be confirmed. The reason I think he deserved to be confirmed is that I think he did a fabulous job for the country."Turning to Bolton, Bush said, "We're going to miss you in this administration. You've been a stalwart defender of freedom and peace. You've been strong in your advocacy for human rights and human dignity. You've done everything that can be expected for an ambassador."In March 2005, Bush nominated the outspoken Bolton, then an assistant secretary of state, to be U.N. ambassador. But most Senate Democrats and a handful of Republicans were against giving Bolton the job. They complained he gave the Senate false information when he failed to note on a confirmation questionnaire that a State Department inspector had formally questioned him. The investigation, part of a joint inquiry by the State Department and CIA, centered around intelligence about whether Iraq attempted to obtain uranium from Niger. The State Department acknowledged the error in Bolton's statement. Also, Sen. George Voinovich, an Ohio Republican, took to the floor and read a list of complaints from Bolton's subordinates. They said Bolton had a reputation of bullying his colleagues, taking facts out of context and exaggerating intelligence. Carl Ford, the former chief of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, called Bolton "a quintessential kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy" and a "serial abuser" of subordinates. Because GOP leaders could not push through the nomination, when Congress was in recess in August 2005, Bush used his constitutional power to make recess appointments and put Bolton in the post temporarily, without Senate approval. A recess appointment only lasts until the end of the term of Congress in which it is made, so Bolton's appointment was to end in January unless the Senate acted to confirm him. Bush continued to fight for Bolton's nomination, resubmitting it to the Senate just two days after Democrats won control in last month's midterm elections. The president had hoped that GOP leaders might be able to get it through before the Senate changed hands.However, Senate Democrats were unmoved. The incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democratic Senator Joe Biden of Delaware, said Bolton's confirmation was "going nowhere." Friday, Bolton sent a letter to Bush saying that after "careful consideration, I have concluded that my service in your administration should end when the current recess appointment expires."
Controversial US envoy quits post
By Laura Puma,WNS UN Correspondent
UNITED NATIONS - The US ambassador to the United Nations is to leave his post when his temporary appointment runs out. John Bolton looked unable to win the necessary Senate support for him to continue in the job. Democrats in the chamber, who objected to his combative approach at the UN, were due to reject his nomination. He is the second high-profile member of President George W Bush's team to leave after the Republicans fared badly in last month's mid-term elections. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld left shortly after the 7 November polls.
Mr Bolton took up the UN posting last year during a Congressional holiday after his nomination stalled in the Senate. It was a procedural manoeuvre that avoided the need for him to be confirmed until the end of this year. That procedure cannot be repeated, and the new climate in Congress would make it all but impossible for him to win a two-thirds majority of senators. The incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democratic Senator Joe Biden, had already said he saw "no point in considering Mr Bolton's nomination again". Mr Bolton's critics said a man who once declared there was "no such thing" as the UN was hardly a suitable choice to join the body.
His nomination incensed many former US ambassadors - 102 of whom signed a letter urging senators to reject his nomination. But his admirers said he was a bright, hard-working realist - whose scepticism about the UN's role made him an ideal envoy, particularly when the organisation was in need of deep reform. A White House spokeswoman said that among Mr Bolton's accomplishments, he assembled coalitions addressing North Korea's nuclear activity, Iran's uranium enrichment and reprocessing work and the horrific violence in Darfur.
Beirut protests keep pressure on
By Marks Cannon,WNS Lebanon Correspondent
BEIRUT - Lebanon's political crisis is continuing as demonstrators remain camped in the centre of Beirut in an attempt to bring down the government. Thousands of supporters of Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian allies are on the streets calling for Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government to go. Mr Siniora is refusing to step down to make way for a government that would include more of Hezbollah's allies. Arab countries are stepping up their efforts to help resolve the crisis. The head of the Arab League, Amr Musa, is visiting Beirut to offer to mediate between the government and the opposition, and envoys from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Tunisia are offering their help. Protesters, led mainly by the Shia militant political movement Hezbollah and its Christian allies, have been camping out in Beirut close to the prime minister's office since a huge anti-government rally on Friday. They accuse Mr Siniora of being too pro-Western and anti-Syrian and of failing the Lebanese people.
The current crisis was sparked last month when five Shia ministers and a Christian ally quit the government. Hezbollah had asked for cabinet seats that would give it and its allies power of veto but the majority group in parliament refused. The political tension was increased two weeks later with the assassination of a leading anti-Syrian minister, Pierre Gemayel. Despite the protests, several hundred runners took to the streets of Beirut for Lebanon's annual marathon. The organisers said the route had been changed slightly, and police and soldiers were deployed along the route. International concern has been growing.
On Saturday, the UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier were in the Lebanese capital to express their support for Mr Siniora and his government. Mr Siniora has said he will not be forced from office by mass protests and has vowed to stand firm against what he has called an attempted coup. The US has denounced what it described as "threats of intimidation violence" in Lebanon and accused Syria and Iran of instigating the protests to try to topple the democratically-elected government. The government came to office last year in the first election held after the withdrawal of Syrian troops originally stationed in Lebanon during the civil war. Syria was forced to withdraw its military presence after massive street protests and international pressure, triggered by the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Lebanon cabinet and opposition in siege stand-off
By Marks Cannon,WNS Lebanon Correspondent
BEIRUT - Lebanon's Western-backed cabinet has vowed not to cave in to opposition calls to resign after a massive demonstration led by the pro-Syrian group Hezbollah and as protesters camped outside government offices. Friday's massive show of force in central Beirut tightened the political deadlock in the country which has been in near-paralysis because of a fierce power struggle between the pro- and anti-Syrian camps. Crowds of protesters thronged the streets of the capital on Friday, calling for the ouster of the "corrupt" leadership and temporarily blocking access to Prime Minister Fuad Siniora's government headquarters. "The massive demonstration... has given Lebanon one of the most difficult tests that the country has known in a long while," warned the pro-Syrian Al-Akhbar daily on Saturday. The leftist As Safir daily noted that the protest did not contribute to "open any slight door to resolve the political crisis which remains in deadlock". The Siniora government, which has received strong public backing from Western and Arab states, pledged not to bow to the opposition led by the Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
"The Syrian-Iranian camp, led by Hezbollah, has begun to implement a plot for a coup" in Lebanon with the demonstration and attempts to besiege the Siniora cabinet, the anti-Syrian al-Mustqabal daily said Saturday. It is owned by the family of former premier Rafiq Hariri whose 2005 murder, blamed on Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies, led to massive street protests that forced Damascus to end its military presence in Lebanon. Parliamentary majority leader MP Saad Hariri, the slain premier's son, vowed late Friday that "the Siniora government will not fall because of pressure from the street. However long they continue their protest, it will not fall." Hezbollah-led demonstrators set up tents and several thousand protesters were still camping early Saturday on at least two main public roads leading to Siniora's offices, after the blockade was eased to allow access from side roads. The demonstrators said they will stay until the government gives in, and threatened to escalate their actions in the coming days. Siniora's government has received strong backing from foreign states, including from Jordanian King Abdullah II and Saudi King Abdullah whose ambassador in Beirut held contacts to help ease the blockade.
US State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Washington denounced "threats of intimidation or violence" which "are aimed at toppling Lebanon's legitimate and democratically elected government". Casey also accused Syria and Iran of instigating the show of force "to destabilize Lebanon". "And certainly with things like the assassination of Pierre Gemayel and other kinds of events, it's clear that there is a pattern of intimidation, and efforts at intimidation, of those forces aligned with Lebanon's democratically elected government," he added. The show of strength by the opposition came after last week's mass funeral for murdered anti-Syrian industry minister Pierre Gemayel which brought hundreds of thousands of government supporters on to the streets. Gemayel was the sixth Syria critic to be assassinated in Lebanon over the past two years.
By Shirley Blair,
