World News

Rescuers fan out across Gulf Coast after Ike slams Texas

2008-09-14T10:29:00.000+07:00

GALVESTON - The largest search and rescue operation in Texas history kicked into gear on Saturday hours after Ike slammed into the US Gulf Coast as a category two hurricane, packing a devastating ocean surge, knocking out power to millions and flooding coastal areas.

Some deaths as well as massive damage and flooding were reported across a 800-kilometre swathe of the Gulf Coast after more than 2.2 million people fled inland, according to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

The centre of Ike made landfall at 0710 GMT on Galveston Island, where the sea rose up in fury and flooded vast areas of the island, and whipsawed the country's fourth largest city Houston prompting thousands of 911 emergency calls across the hurricane impact zone.

As Ike weakened to a tropical storm midday on Saturday, it continued to ravage eastern Texas with heavy rains and winds of 95 kilometres per hour and was forecast to churn northward into Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri.

"Our principal focus at this moment is search and rescue," Chertoff told a press briefing as he announced that more than 50 National Guard helicopters and two Coast Guard HU-25 Falcon jets had been dispatched to the hurricane zone.

He said there were "some initial reports of a few deaths," and warned that "we may have other losses in the hours to come."

President George W. Bush declared his home state of Texas a disaster area, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts.

Some 179 rescues in Louisiana had already been performed on Saturday, Chertoff said, while local Houston radio reported more than 100 rescues so far in the Houston area alone.

The storm knocked out power to nearly 2.4 million homes in and around Houston, including throughout the entire barrier island of Galveston, and another 220,000 customers in Louisiana, the US Department of Energy reported.

Officials said more than 100,000 residents of low-lying areas - including 20,000 in Galveston alone - decided to ride out the storm despite warnings from the national weather service that a wall of water up to 6.0 metres high could spell "certain death."

Yet early reports from Galveston and Houston suggest the storm surge, while devastating, was not as high as earlier forecast, although damage was expected to be severe.

In Galveston, resident Diane Thiel, 62, took refuge with about 1,000 other people in a hotel, and said Ike appeared more dangerous than hurricanes Carla and Alicia that struck in 1961 and 1983.

"I have never seen a hurricane like this. The amount of destruction is going to be beyond belief," Thiel said.

Texas Governor Rick Perry announced Texas and federal agencies launched the state's largest-ever search and rescue operations just hours after Ike barrelled ashore, laying waste to scores of coastal communities as well as Houston.

But he cautiously expressed optimism that his state was spared the worst.

"Fortunately, the worst-case scenario that was projected in some areas did not occur, particularly in the Houston ship channel," Texas Governor Rick Perry told a press conference.

"But there is plenty of damage out there."

Houston port is one of the world's largest, and computer models had forecast that much of it could have been submerged by the storm surge.

Live television images along large area of the Texas coast, including Galveston and nearby Clear Lake, showed boats tossed about a marina like toys, electricity poles and oak trees snapped or uprooted, siding shorn off buildings and homes, and floodwaters covering entire neighbourhoods.

Strong winds and rain raked Houston, home to a major US port and key refineries. The windows of several skyscrapers were blown out in the city, where Mayor Bill White urged people to stay off the streets and called on residents to use bottled water as a power outage lowered pressure at a key pumping station.

Bush, who was keeping close tabs on conditions in his home state of Texas as well as hard-hit Louisiana, announced a suspension of restrictions on some imported gasoline in response to Ike, which disrupted operations at Gulf Coast oil refineries and prompted gas price-gouging in several US states as high as 50 percent above normal rates.

Oil and gas production in the Gulf was largely shut off, though the US Department of Energy said Ike appeared likely to spare most rigs and platforms there.

At least 13 refineries were shuttered, representing a combined capacity of 3.7 million barrels of crude oil per day, a fifth of US refinery capacity.

88 killed in airplane crash in Russia's Urals

2008-09-14T10:28:00.001+07:00

MOSCOW - A Boeing-737 jet crashed near Russia's city of Perm in the central Ural mountains killing all 83 passengers and five crew on board, Russian news agencies reported Sunday quoting emergency ministry officials.

"According to the latest information, the airplane fell into a ravine near the city limits. There were 82 passengers plus a baby and five crew on board, and by preliminary information, they are all dead," investigator Vladimir Markin told the RIA Novosti news agency.

"The Trans-Siberian Railway was damaged due to the accident," Markin said.

"The airplane caught fire and exploded, and in circumstances like that there is no hope that anyone could have survived," Interfax quoted emergency ministry officials as saying.

"The airplane took off from Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport at 0112 Sunday (2112 Saturday GMT), but as it was landing, at the height of 1,800 meters we lost contact with it," the ministry's spokeswoman Irina Andrianova said earlier as quoted by Interfax.

A total of seven children, including a baby, were on board, the spokesman for Russia's leading Aeroflot airline company, which owned the jet, said.

No foreign nationals were on board the airplane, Aeroflot added.Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu reported the accident to Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev, the Kremlin press service said.

A rescue team was reported flying out of Moscow to assist local rescuers, and an investigative group headed by Transport Minister Igor Levitin is due to fly out to the site shortly.

The cause of the accident was not immediately clear.

Last year, the 33 Russian aviation accidents that left 318 dead -- a sixfold increase over 2005 -- raised serious concerns about Russia's civil aviation, with experts pointing at major faults in the professional training of crews as well as Russia's aging fleet of passenger jets.

An air safety commission announced in January that the average age of the country's international airliners was 18, and its regional jets 30 years.

Human error to blame for California train crash

2008-09-14T10:27:00.000+07:00

LOS ANGELES - An engineer's mistake caused a deadly head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train near Los Angeles, killing at least 24 people with toll expected to rise, officials said Saturday.

The crash happened late Friday when a Metrolink passenger train with 222 people aboard apparently failed to stop at a signal near Chatsworth, 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles, and smashed into a freight train.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger described the wreck as "one of the worst train accidents in modern history in California," and officials said more people were still trapped beneath the twisted metal of a double-decker train car.

"We are deeply sorry and we are totally at a loss," said a Metrolink spokeswoman, Denise Tyrell.

"At this moment we must acknowledge that it was a Metrolink engineer that made the error that caused yesterday's accident."

A Los Angeles sheriff's spokesman told CNN that the rescue operation officially ended late Saturday, with the focus now on the recovery effort.

"They worked thoroughly and meticulously to check every single person and every single corner they could possibly find. It was long and it was focused. Now, it has ended and officially being turned over to the National Transportation Safety Board," Steve Whitmore said.

The federal officials take control of the investigation once rescue efforts conclude.

At least 135 people were injured in the crash between the Ventura County Line passenger train 111 and a Union Pacific freight train Friday.

Each train was believed to be travelling at the time of the head-on collision at about 37 miles (60 kilometers) per hour.

The impact collapsed the first passenger car into its locomotive.

At least seven cars from the freight train derailed, although most remained standing in accordion fashion across the tracks.

The interior of the train was "bloody, a mess. Just a disaster. It was horrible," passenger Austin Walbridge told a local television news reporter.

The Metrolink train's usual routine is reportedly to wait until the Union Pacific freight train clears the track.

"There are more bodies in the wreckage, but this point there is no way to tell how many," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told reporters.

Captain Ed Winters of the coroner's office said more bodies were visible in the wreckage of a double-decker passenger car.

"We have several (bodies) that are visible (in the lower car) at this time but I don't want to cause some hurt for families that don't know and are still waiting," for notification, Winters said.

The extent of the devastation and the high number of critically injured passengers taxed the area's emergency response capabilities, Los Angeles City Fire captain Steve Ruda said.

"We treated 135 patients yesterday, about 40 of those were critical patients, which is a very high number," Ruda said earlier.

Critical patients were flown to area trauma centers. "We utilized every trauma center in the county," he said.

The crash was the deadliest since the Metrolink crash of January 2005, when 11 people died and dozens were injured when a Metrolink train slammed into a Jeep Cherokee parked on train track, derailed and hit a freight train.

Death toll rises to 23 in train crash near LA

2008-09-14T10:26:00.000+07:00

LOS ANGELES - The death toll from a head-on collision of a passenger train and a freight train near Los Angeles stood at 23 and could rise, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Saturday.

"The latest count is 23 people died in this accident and 135 have been injured," many critically, the governor told reporters.

Schwarzenegger said that the crash, which he called "one of the worst train accidents in modern history in California," appeared to have been caused by human error.

The Ventura County Line passenger train with 222 passengers aboard smashed into a Union Pacific freight train on Friday, near the town of Chatsworth, some 50 kilometres northwest of Los Angeles.

"Metrolink has talked about there was some human failure there because we never know exactly, whether it was mechanical failure or computer failure or something is wrong with the tracks. They say it was human failure," Schwarzenegger said.

The extent of the devastation and the high number of critically injured passengers taxed the area's emergency response capabilities, Los Angeles City Fire captain Steve Ruda said.

"We treated 135 patients yesterday, about 40 of those were critical patients, which is a very high number," Ruda said earlier.

Critical patients were flown to area trauma centres. "We utilised every trauma centre in the county," he said.

"They're continuing to work in an extrication effort, although we believe the likelihood of anybody being alive in the wreckage at this point is very remote," Ruda added.

Each train was believed to be travelling at the time of the head-on collision at about 60 kilometres per hour. The impact collapsed the first passenger car into its locomotive.

"There's no way to describe this train accident other than a tragedy," Schwarzenegger said earlier, adding that the state will provide emergency response assistance.

Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrell said heavy equipment had been brought in to raise the locomotive that derailed and fell onto its side.

At least seven cars from the freight train derailed, although most remained standing in accordion fashion across the tracks.

The interior of the train was "bloody, a mess. Just a disaster. It was horrible," passenger Austin Walbridge told a local television news reporter.

The Metrolink train's usual routine is reportedly to wait until the Union Pacific freight train clears the track.

The crash was the deadliest since the Metrolink crash of January 2005, when 11 people died and dozens were injured when a Metrolink train slammed into a Jeep Cherokee parked on train track, derailed and hit a freight train.

Russian troops start withdrawal from Georgia

2008-09-14T10:23:00.002+07:00

POTI, Georgia - Russian troops on Saturday left two camps near Georgia's port of Poti, starting a withdrawal pledged by Moscow in a European Union-brokered accord on ending the conflict in the ex-Soviet state.

A convoy of trucks and armoured transport vehicles left the observation post of Nabada at 7:45am (0345 GMT), taking troops from a camp that had been set up near a Black Sea beach to control maritime traffic from the strategic port.

Fifteen minutes later, Russian forces left another post at the entrance to Poti, continuing a pullback from some of the deepest positions in Georgia where they dug in after routing Georgia's small US-trained army last month.

"We shall leave soon. To Abkhazia and Russia," a Russian soldier told AFP ahead of the withdrawal, adding that the convoy was being coordinated with Russian posts near Senaki, a nearby town with a major Georgian air base.

Abkhazia is one of two rebel regions of Georgia at the heart of last month's conflict, which is estimated to have killed hundreds of people on both sides and left tens of thousands more displaced in temporary camps.

The conflict also led to a deep chill in Russian-western relations, stoking fears of a renewed Cold War.

The pullback from the posts near Poti and Senaki was promised in a September 8 agreement between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy, the current EU chief.

Medvedev agreed to pull Russian forces out from the posts by Monday as part of a wider withdrawal to be completed by mid-October, and he also agreed to the deployment of at least 200 EU observers in Georgia by October 1.

But Russia later insisted it would keep 7,600 troops in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the other breakaway region, prompting anger in Georgia and charges from the United States that Moscow was in breach of the ceasefire.

On Friday, Medvedev defended Russia's stance by likening a Georgian military assault on South Ossetia that sparked the conflict to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

"Almost immediately after these events it occurred to me that for Russia, August 8, 2008 was almost like September 11, 2001 in the United States," Medvedev told Western foreign policy experts in Moscow.

Russia responded to the August 8 attack by pouring troops and armour into its southern neighbour, saying it had to defend the thousands of South Ossetians who had been granted Russian citizenship.

In Tbilisi on Friday, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili faced his most significant political challenge since the conflict as a former ally openly questioned his leadership and said she would set up her own party.

Nino Burjanadze, a former speaker of parliament, called for an independent investigation to ask "tough questions" about Saakashvili's handling of the events leading up to Georgia's conflict with Russia.

"There is a time for tough questions. Of course what happened was a Russian provocation, but we need to know whether it was possible to not yield to this provocation," Burjanadze said at a news conference.

Georgia and the West have sharply criticised Russia's decision last month to recognise Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states, a move Tbilisi described as part of a plan to effectively annex the two regions.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday ruled out any discussion of Moscow's recognition of independence for South Ossetia and Abkhazia - or on their status - at international talks set for October 15 in Geneva.

He also announced he planned to visit Abkhazia on Sunday and South Ossetia on Monday.

Hurricane Ike pounds Texas coast as thousands refuse to leave

2008-09-14T10:23:00.001+07:00

GALVESTON, Texas - A gigantic hurricane roared onto the Texas Gulf coast early Saturday, driving a huge ocean surge over coastal areas where tens of thousands of people remained holed up in defiance of evacuation orders.

Ike, a powerful category two hurricane with winds raging at 175 kilometres per hour, was headed for a direct hit on Houston, the fourth largest US city and a major oil hub 70 kilometres inland from Galveston.

More than a million people fled inland in the hours before the Texas-size storm was due to make landfall between 0700 and 0800 GMT Saturday.

But officials said more than 100,000 residents of low-lying neighbourhoods decided to ride out the storm despite warnings from the national weather service that a wall of water up to 7.5 metres high could mean "certain death" to those who stayed behind.

Gargantuan waves smashed over a five meter seawall built to protect this island city as the centre of Ike was about 35 kilometres southeast of Galveston , moving at about 20 kilometres an hour, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center reported.

Ike was pushing ashore waves measuring as high as a two-story house, swamping Galveston while blistering winds raked Houston, home to a major US port and key refineries.

As Ike bore down on Texas, companies abandoned 13 refineries representing a combined capacity of 3.7 million barrels of crude oil per day - a fifth of US refinery capacity.

In Galveston, the power went out across the island just before 0100 GMT Saturday, plunging the storm-stricken city into darkness.

Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas ordered a dusk-to-dawn curfew starting Friday and ending Monday morning. Chocolate-colored seawater flooded the streets as the storm surge intensified throughout the day, spoiling the city's potable water system.

Two blazes broke out in the afternoon. Flames shot out of an unattended Galveston home near the oceanfront, while thick smoke from a ship repair warehouse darkened the sky over the city.

Firefighters, restricted by the high water, had to let the structures burn.

All neighbourhoods and possibly entire coastal communities along Galveston Bay, which reaches 40 kilometres inland from its namesake barrier island to the heart of Houston, "will be inundated during the period of peak storm tide," the National Hurricane Center said.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff described Ike's arrival as "potentially catastrophic."

"This is a monster storm in terms of the flooding potential," added Chertoff. The storm surge "is going to inundate large parts of the Texas coast."

Texas Governor Rick Perry described Ike on CNN as "a monster of a storm."

Referring to the holdouts that refused to flee the coastal area, he said on Fox News: "Individuals who think they are tougher, stronger than Mother Nature - God be with them."

Perry said some 1.2 million people had evacuated coastal Texas ahead of the storm.

Houston, whose metropolitan area population tops five million people, is just a few miles from the bay, and destruction there and along the coast in the hurricane zone is expected to be massive.

Jack Colley, from the Texas Department of Emergency Management, said officials estimated the storm's economic impact would be "somewhere in between the US$80-billion and US$100-billion range."

Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison also warned of the storm's economic consequences.

"The economic impact is going to be huge. People are much more concerned about this one than I have seen in a long, long time," she said on Fox News.

Oil and gas production in the Gulf was largely shut off, though the US Department of Energy said Ike appeared likely to spare most rigs and platforms there.

President George W. Bush, a former Texas governor, said he was "deeply concerned" about the threat the storm posed to the region.

Galveston has faced calamity before. The deadliest hurricane in US history, the "Great Storm" of 1900, killed at least 8,000 people when it smashed into Galveston and Houston.

Ike has left more than 100 dead across the Caribbean and sparked hurricane and tropical storm warnings from Louisiana to Mexico.

Separately, US Coast Guard rescuers called off an attempt to rescue 22 sailors stranded aboard a Cyprus-flagged freighter that lost power in the Gulf of Mexico as it tried to steam out of Ike's way, but added they would seek to remain in radio contact with the crew.

Morales slaps state of emergency on Bolivian region

2008-09-14T10:22:00.001+07:00

LA PAZ - Bolivia's President Evo Morales on Friday ordered emergency measures in one of five states where unrest against his rule has flared into violence, as the crisis engulfing his nation pulled in other Latin American countries and even the United States.

Morales issued the decree that put soldiers and police in charge of the northeastern state of Pando after youths in the territory ransacked government offices Friday, and following the deaths there of eight pro-government demonstrators on Thursday.

Defense Minister Walker San Miguel announced the order, saying bars would close early, the carrying of firearms or explosives was prohibited, and demonstrations were outlawed without police permission.

He added that several Peruvians were suspected to be among those who opened fire on some of the eight victims from Thursday.

Bolivian television reported that troops had taken control of the airport of Cojiba, in Pando.

The decree heightened tensions in Bolivia, which has been wracked by four days of violent clashes between pro- and anti-government militants.

A challenge by rebel governors in five of Bolivia's nine states - Pando, Beni, Tarija, Chuquisaca and Santa Cruz - to Morales's bid to impose a socialist constitution and to redefine land ownership in the country is fuelling the confrontations.

The country has effectively become polarised between the western Andean half where the indigenous majority - from which Morales himself hails - mostly live, and the more prosperous eastern lowlands, where an elite of European and mixed descent is pushing for autonomy and greater control over lucrative gas fields there.

The stakes have risen even higher by Morales's decision to expel the US ambassador, a move which triggered "solidarity" moves by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who did the same to the US envoy in his country, and Honduran President Manuel Zelaya who refused to accept the credentials of the new US ambassador.

Chavez had also threatened to intervene militarily in Bolivia if his ally Morales was toppled or killed. That triggered indignant protests in parts of Bolivia on Friday where the Venezuelan flag was burned, and a rejection of Venezuelan interference by the Bolivian armed forces.

The United States retaliated by ordering Bolivia's and Venezuela's ambassadors out of the country.

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the decisions by Morales and Chavez "reflects the weakness and desperation of these leaders as they face internal challenges."

Morales's claim that the US ambassador was encouraging division in Bolivia by supporting opposition groups, and Chavez's allegation the US envoy in his country was implicated in an alleged coup plot against him by Venezuelan military officers, were "false, and the leaders of those countries know it," McCormack said.

Chavez's hosting of two Russian TU-160 strategic bombers in his country this week - something the Venezuelan leader called a "warning" to the United States - was especially unsettling to Washington, given the increasingly US-Russian antagonism triggered by Russia's recent military actions in the former Soviet state of Georgia.

McCormack declined to draw any link between the bombers' deployment and the presence of US warships off Georgian waters neighbouring Russia.

Officials urge residents to flee as hurricane roars to Texas

2008-09-14T10:20:00.000+07:00

GALVESTON, Texas - Officials begged thousands of diehard residents of the Texas coast to flee "certain death" as Hurricane Ike on Friday raged towards Houston, the fourth largest US city and a major oil hub.

Huge waves were smashing over the sea wall in Galveston as the center of the storm at 2100 GMT was some 220 kilometers (135 miles) offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Ike was packing winds of near 165 kilometers (105 miles) per hour, with higher gusts.

Texas Governor Rick Perry described Ike as "a monster of a storm," and urged the holdouts still in the coastal area -- including some 14,500 believed to be on the barrier island of Galveston -- to leave.

"Get out of harm's way and live another day," Perry said on Fox News. "Individuals who think they are tougher, stronger than Mother Nature -- God be with them."

Perry compared the massive storm surge Ike will generate -- high enough to engulf a two-story home -- to a tsunami. "A tsunami is what you're looking at," he said.

"This is a monster storm in terms of the flooding potential," added Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, also interviewed on CNN. The storm surge "is going to inundate large parts of the Texas coast," he said.

Perry said some 1.2 million people had already evacuated coastal Texas ahead of the storm.

Houston, the fourth largest US city with a metropolitan area population topping five million people, is just a few miles from the bay and is also forecast to be hammered hard.

Ike was expected to plow onto land late Friday or early Saturday, with a direct hit on Galveston and Houston, the Miami-based National Hurricane centre said.

"Ike is a Category Two hurricane on the (five-scale) Saffir-Simpson scale, but could reach the coast as a Category Three major hurricane," the centre warned.

The storm "remains a very large hurricane," with hurricane-force winds extending up to 195 kilometres (120 miles) from the centre, and strong tropical force storm winds extending up to 445 kilometres (275 miles) from the centre.

Hundreds of thousands fled low-lying areas on Galveston island and the coastal Houston metropolitan area, after the Hurricane Centre issued apocalyptic warnings of "certain death" if residents stayed behind.

"It's not just a regular rain and wind hurricane," warned Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, interviewed on Fox.

"The economic impact is going to be huge. People are much more concerned about this one than I have seen in a long long time."

Despite the dire warnings, some 14,500 of Galveston island's 58,000 residents have not evacuated, Mary Jo Naschke, who works in Galveston City's mayor's office, told AFP.

"All neighborhoods and possibly entire coastal communities will be inundated during the period of peak storm tide," the centre said, referring to land along Galveston Bay, which reaches 25 miles (40 kilometres) inland from its namesake barrier island to the heart of Houston.

"Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single family, one- or two-story homes will face certain death."

Chocolate-coloured seawater began to flood the streets of Galveston Friday as the storm surge intensified.

"If you're in one of these surge zones, you need to be leaving right now," Frank Michel of the Houston mayor's office said. For those refusing to leave, he urged people living on higher ground to board up their windows and stock up on supplies, as Ike's strong winds could cause power cuts lasting several days.

Around 5.6 million people live in the Houston metropolitan region, which stretches down to the Texas coast.

Oil and gas production in the Gulf was largely shut off, though the US Department of Energy said Ike appeared likely to spare most rigs and platforms there.

President George W. Bush, a former Texas governor, said he was "deeply concerned" about the threat the storm posed to the region.

The deadliest hurricane in US history, the "Great Storm" of 1900, killed at least 8,000 people when it smashed into Galveston and Houston.

Ike has left more than 100 dead across the Caribbean and sparked hurricane and tropical storm warnings from Louisiana to Mexico.

In New Orleans, devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Army Corps of Engineers closed the gates at 17th Street canal as the surge from Ike pushed water past the critical five-feet (1.60 meters) mark.

The water will be pumped into a nearby lake to keep the canal water at a safe level.

Meanwhile US Coast Guard rescuers headed into the Gulf of Mexico to try to reach 22 people stranded aboard a Cyprus-flagged freighter that lost power as it tried to steam out of Ike's way.

Venezuela expels US ambassador, threatens to halt oil trade

2008-09-13T09:47:00.000+07:00

CARACAS - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expelled the US envoy to Caracas late Thursday and threatened to halt crude exports to the United States on a day he highlighted the recent arrival of two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers.

Chavez on Thursday ordered US ambassador Patrick Duddy to leave the country within 72 hours, in a move he described as an act of solidarity with Venezuela's ally Bolivia, which also expelled its US envoy.

"Starting at this moment the Yankee ambassador in Caracas has 72 hours to leave Venezuela," Chavez said at a public event in the port city of Puerto Cabello, 120 kilometres west of Caracas.

He said it was "in solidarity" with the leftist government of President Evo Morales in Bolivia, which on Wednesday ordered the US ambassador to La Paz to leave. Washington late Thursday expelled Bolivia's ambassador to the United States.

Chavez then threatened to halt the supply of oil to the United States, its main client, if Washington attacks his government.

"If there is any aggression towards Venezuela" from Washington, "there would be no oil for the people of the United States," said Chavez, who used coarse expletives to disparage the US government.

Chavez also announced Thursday that his government had uncovered a coup plot hatched by active and retired military officers, which he said had tacit US approval.

A military prosecutor said two officers -- retired general Wilfredo Barroso and retired major Elimides Labarca Soto - will be tried for incitement to rebellion, a charge punishable by five to 10 years in prison.

At least eight other officers were detained in connection with the plot and were being interrogated, the prosecutor said.

Venezuelan public television aired a recorded conversation allegedly between three high-ranking retired military officers discussing plans to storm the presidential palace in Caracas, target Chavez, and blow up the presidential airplane.

"We have already detained several people," Chavez said.

"Look, pitiyanquis, don't even think of launching a coup or some madness such as this. I warn you, I am not the Hugo Chavez of 2002," he said, referring to a failed coup attempt against him in April of that year, when he was briefly ousted for two days before mass protests saw him freed and return to power.

Chavez, a former paratroop officer, headed a failed coup attempt himself in 1992. He was elected president in 1999.

"I have no doubt at all that the United States is behind plans to bomb this palace," Chavez said, warning that "difficult times" lied ahead for Venezuela.

The anti-US leader frequently alleges assassination and coup plots against him, usually pointing the finger at the United States.

Chavez said those behind the latest plot were part of the country's "desperate political opposition" and "the American empire" led by US President George W. Bush.

Earlier in the day Chavez said the presence of two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers in Venezuela is a "warning" to the US "empire," as he announced another coup plot against him had been foiled and suspects arrested.

"It's a warning. Russia is with us... we are strategic allies," said Chavez. "It is a message to the empire. Venezuela is no longer poor and alone."

Chavez had announced Wednesday that two Russian bombers were in Venezuela for "training flights" and that he would be piloting one of the aircraft himself.

"I hope that stings, 'pitiyanquis'," he said, using a derogatory term for Venezuelan opponents who have perceived US sympathies.

"What's more, I'm going to take the controls of one of these monsters," boasted the president, a former paratrooper and left-wing politician who has avowed antagonism towards the United States.

The United States said it would monitor the deployment of the two Russian bombers, which it described as "Cold War era assets," to Venezuela.

The moves came amid soaring tensions between Russia and the United States, including over the presence of US naval vessels sent close to Russian shores to deliver aid to Georgia.

Russia said Monday it was dispatching a nuclear cruiser and other warships and planes to the Caribbean for the joint exercises with Venezuela - the first such manoeuvres in the US vicinity since the Cold War.

White House rivals bury hatchet at Ground Zero

2008-09-13T09:46:00.002+07:00

NEW YORK - White House rivals John McCain and Barack Obama made a dramatic show of unity on Thursday with a visit to Ground Zero on the emotional seventh anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Suspending their increasingly bitter presidential contest, McCain and Obama shook hands, then dropped roses in the memorial pool at the still unreconstructed site of the former World Trade Centre in Manhattan.

The two candidates met with firemen, police and others involved in the terrifying aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks in which Al-Qaeda-hijacked airliners hit and demolished the Twin Towers.

Later they were to extend their declared truce by participating in a civic forum in New York.

The day opened with a simple, but moving annual ceremony in which the names of almost 3,000 victims from the 9/11 attacks are read out at Ground Zero.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the crashing of hijacked airliners into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania marked the day the United States "broke."

Choking on tears, victims' relatives read out names while a string quartet, classical guitar and flute played mournfully in the background.

At nightfall two shafts of blue light were to shoot upward from Ground Zero, recalling the lost skyscrapers.

The patriotic upwelling brought rare unity just as splits deepen in the country ahead of the November 4 election.

Yet politics were never far below the surface.

Democrat Obama said 9/11 was when "Americans across our great country came together to stand with the families of the victims."

He added: "Let us renew that spirit of service and that sense of common purpose."

But Obama then pointedly referred to Republican President George W. Bush's failure to make good on a promise soon after 9/11 to apprehend Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

"Let us remember that the terrorists responsible for 9/11 are still at large, and must be brought to justice," said Obama, who McCain has attacked as having insufficient foreign policy and national security experience.

Obama also took the opportunity to garner the support of popular former president Bill Clinton at his Harlem offices.

Indicating that he had finally overcome bitterness at Obama's defeat of his wife Hillary for the Democratic nomination, Clinton responded warmly, saying: "I predict that Senator Obama will win and win handily."

McCain, meanwhile, visited the crash site of United Flight 93 in Pennsylvania and praised passengers who assaulted their hijackers, crashing the aircraft before it could hit any target.

There is speculation that the Al-Qaeda terrorists had been hoping to fly into the Capitol, seat of the US Congress in Washington.

The tribute clearly was meant to underline the Republican candidate's own history of service as a Vietnam war pilot and prisoner of war, one of his strongest selling points with voters.

"I have witnessed great courage and sacrifice for America's sake," McCain said, "but none greater than the sacrifice of those good people who grasped the gravity of the moment, understood the threat, and decided to fight back at the cost of their lives."

He declared himself "in awe" of the mid-skies uprising.

At Ground Zero, survivors, who wore white ribbons pinned to their chests, often broke off to add brief tributes as they read the names of dead relatives.

One fought to control himself as he condemned the "cowardly men" who killed his loved one.

A woman managed a smile as she called to her deceased husband Chuck, saying: "Until we meet again may God hold you in the palm of his hands."

There were also emotional scenes at the Pentagon, where thousands joined Bush and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates to dedicate the first September 11 memorial.

A Marine Corps bugler played taps from the roof where firefighters had unfurled a US flag while the building burned after the attack.

Bureaucratic wrangling has continuously delayed plans to build a replacement for the World Trade Centre, a failure that symbolises popular frustration with the inability to catch Osama bin Laden and extricate troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The first steel beams for a planned Freedom Tower at the site went in only this week.

But while Obama has steadily attacked the Republicans' handling of security issues, pocketbook concerns, especially the state of the housing market, are the top election issue.

New York University politics professor Steven Brams expected only the briefest lull in the race.

Fresh violence in Bolivia stokes civil war fears

2008-09-13T09:46:00.001+07:00

LA PAZ - Deadly clashes in Bolivia Thursday stoked fears of further widespread unrest and possibly even civil war, amid a furore over the expulsion of the US ambassador to the country.

At least eight people were killed and a dozen people wounded in violent clashes between pro- and anti-government protesters in the north-eastern town of Cobija, officials said.

It was the third day of street violence in parts of the country.

The United States, meanwhile, responded with fury to President Evo Morales's ordering the departure of the US ambassador by ordering Bolivia's envoy to Washington to also leave.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez immediately announced he was sending the US ambassador to his country packing in a show of solidarity with Morales.

The conflagration in Bolivia was a worsening of a months-long political standoff between Morales, who has been pushing through socialist reforms since becoming president in 2006, and conservative governors in the east opposed to his reforms.

Morales, the first indigenous president of majority-indigenous Bolivia, has sought to distribute resources more equally in the poorest country in South America.

The conflict has racial overtones as relatively prosperous regions of the eastern lowlands, where more people are of European descent and mixed-race, are keen to hold on to local resources they see as being pulled away by the impoverished indigenous highlands.

Morales's spokesman, Ivan Canelas, said Wednesday the conditions opened the way to "a sort of civil war."

In Santa Cruz and Tarija, two hotspots for violence this week, with government offices ransacked, the situation was relatively calm, although precarious.

Wednesday, the central market area in Tarija saw right-wing youth groups linked to opposition governors defying Morales clashing with indigenous groups. Around 100 people were hurt.

In Santa Cruz, police overnight dispersed similar fights over control of the city's coach (bus) terminal.

In southeast Bolivia, a gas pipeline was blown up Wednesday in what the head of the state energy company YPSL, Santos Ramirez, called a "terrorist attack" by anti-government protesters.

Authorities at the private Franco-Brazilian Transierra company said supply to Brazil had been seriously affected.

On a visit to Brasilia, Bolivia's Finance Minister Luis Alberto Arce said Bolivia was facing a "civilian coup attempt" referring to the protests targeting gas exports. Natural gas is Bolivia's main saleable natural resource.

The Brazilian presidential advisor on international affairs, Marco Aurelio Garcia, responded by saying Brazil "will not tolerate" any moves to oust Morales.

Brazil "will not recognise any government taking the place, or trying to take the place, of the legitimate, constitutional government of Bolivia," he said.

Morales's domestic troubles were shadowed by the diplomatic row between Bolivia and the United States, with whom Morales has long had an antagonistic relationship.

The US State Department angrily dismissed Morales accusation that US ambassador Philip Goldberg was encouraging a break-up of Bolivia through support of opposition groups.

"President Morales's action is a grave error that has seriously damaged the bilateral relationship," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters, reading a statement.

The row was playing out against a wider challenge to US influence in Latin America that is, in part, linked to Russia's ties to leftwing nations in the region.

Wednesday, Chavez confirmed that two Russian strategic bombers had landed in his country. On Thursday he described them as "a warning" to the United States.

The United States also has been miffed by Nicaragua's recent decision to recognise two rebel Georgian provinces.

A visit by the US secretary of commerce to that Central American country was cancelled because "circumstances have changed," US ambassador to Nicaragua Robert Callahan said Tuesday.

Fierce fire in Channel tunnel, six hurt

2008-09-13T09:45:00.001+07:00

CALAIS, France - Firefighters struggled Friday to put out a blaze on a freight shuttle in the Channel Tunnel that injured six people and forced the closure of the undersea link, officials said.

Rescuers evacuated dozens of truck drivers from the tunnel after an explosion and fire on the shuttle Thursday.

Six people suffered smoke inhalation after the blaze took hold on a truck being transported from Britain to France, officials said. Earlier reports of a further eight people slightly injured were incorrect, they added.

"The fire is under control but it is still burning. Working conditions are very difficult due to the heat" which had reached 1,000 degrees Celsius, a spokesman for the local prefecture said at 5:30 am (0330 GMT).

Two hours later two wagons were still on fire, nearly 15 hours after the blaze broke out.

"Two shuttle wagons are still on fire which is hard to put out," the spokesman said.

"Firefighters made some progress but they're working in difficult conditions because of the flames and the heat which is still around 1,000 degrees. It slows them down."

About 40 French and 20 British firefighters are involved in the operation.

Eurotunnel, which operates the tunnel, and Eurostar, which runs high-speed passenger rail services, said the tunnel suffered serious damage and would not reopen on Friday.

It took about three hours to bring 32 people - mostly truckers who moved from the burning train into a parallel service tunnel - to safety.

Thousands of people were stranded in London, Paris and Brussels, and huge traffic tailbacks built up on either side of the Channel after the tunnel was closed.

Eurostar said on its website that it "does not expect to operate a service" Friday, with a question mark placed over Saturday and Sunday schedules too.

It is the third major fire in the tunnel since it was opened in May 1994.

The train was about five kilometres from the Calais exit on the French side of the 50.5-kilometre tunnel when it caught fire, according to Francois Malhanche, director of the regional prefect's office.

"The fire appears to be accidental. It started in a truck brake system that overheated and spread to a tyre and then to two other trucks," Malhanche said.

One of the other trucks on the shuttle was carrying phenol acid, but this did not catch fire, officials said.

Helicopters and ambulances were waiting at the French entrance to take the injured to hospital.

French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie went immediately to the site in northern France.

"Two of the drivers said they heard an explosion and this was followed by flames," she told reporters. "They tried to get out and could do so because of the structure of the tunnel which allows a rapid evacuation."

"It is probable that the damage is major, as the firemen told me that the heat from the fire probably reached 1,000 degrees Celsius," she added.

The multi-billion-dollar tunnel carries Eurostar high-speed trains between London, Paris and Brussels, as well as freight and passenger shuttles between Folkestone in England and Calais.

There are two tunnels for passenger trains and shuttles and a service tunnel for maintenance and safety operations.

In the first serious incident on November 18, 1996, a fire broke out on a late-night shuttle train carrying trucks. Eight people were injured and the service was disrupted for several months.

On August 21, 2006, the tunnel was closed for several hours after a truck engine caught fire, sending smoke through the tunnel.

Long traffic tailbacks rapidly formed on the British end after the latest closure.

Kent Fire and Rescue service, on the British side, said it sent seven fire engines to help French counterparts at the scene. A spokeswoman called it a "serious incident."

Kent police implemented "Operation Stack," which allows trucks to park along the main M20 motorway running down to the tunnel terminal from London.

The SNCF French state rail firm said four high-speed express trains had to return to Paris or London because of the tunnel closure.

Thousands of passengers were left stranded at the Gare du Nord rail station in Paris and the new St Pancras station in London.

There was a rush for any remaining plane seats between London and Paris and for available hotel rooms.

Zimbabwe rivals clinch long-awaited power-sharing deal

2008-09-13T09:44:00.000+07:00

HARARE - Zimbabwe's political rivals reached a power-sharing deal on Thursday in a bid to end a bitter crisis after marathon negotiations that centred on how much power President Robert Mugabe would cede.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has long served as mediator in the talks, announced the agreement in Harare, where he had been since earlier in the week to try to overcome a deadlock in the negotiations.

"An agreement has been reached on all items on the agenda... all of them endorsed the document tonight, signed it," Mbeki told reporters.

Details of the deal were not released and Mbeki said the agreement would only be made public after a formal signing ceremony scheduled for next Monday.

The South African president said the rivals will also on Monday "file a report concerning the constitutional composition of the inclusive government that has been agreed."

The parties "will spend the next days constituting this inclusive government."

Mugabe and his long-time rival Morgan Tsvangirai had tussled in the negotiations over how to share power, with the opposition leader warning he would prefer no deal at all over a bad agreement.

Tsvangirai said recently he would not accept any accord that did not grant him sufficient power.

Control of Zimbabwe's security forces was believed to have been one of the major stumbling blocks.

The 84-year-old Mugabe, a liberation hero in the war that led to Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, and who has ruled since that time, has drawn strong support from the country's security chiefs.

Tsvangirai was the first to signal a deal as he emerged from a meeting with Mugabe.

"We've got a deal," the leader of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party told journalists after the tortuous negotiations.

Mugabe won a controversial June presidential run-off unopposed after Tsvangirai withdrew despite finishing ahead of the president in the March first round, citing state-sponsored violence against his supporters.

The announcement of the deal was a dramatic turn from Mugabe's pessimism earlier in the day, when he reported a logjam and accused Tsvangirai once again of being a Western stooge.

"They want to govern... we say never," he told Zimbabwe television news after a meeting with tribal chiefs in the second city of Bulawayo.

"It is humiliating to be negotiating with a party sponsored by countries pushing for regime change," Mugabe added, reiterating claims that Tsvangirai is a puppet of the West, especially of former colonial ruler Britain and the United States.

While the political crisis has dragged on, Zimbabwe's economy has continued its freefall with the world's highest inflation rate - 11.2 million percent in June, according to official figures.

Twelve hours of negotiations chaired by Mbeki on Wednesday brought the sides closer to a power-sharing deal, with Mugabe at that point saying a deal would "hopefully" be signed Thursday.

Tsvangirai had said earlier that "very little is left" to be agreed, but gave no details of the sticking points.

South Africa's Business Day daily reported that Mugabe was refusing to sign a deal which would clip his powers.

The paper quoted sources as saying the veteran leader was refusing to sign a proposal that would entail him equally sharing executive powers with Tsvangirai.

The daily said some of the issues to be thrashed out Thursday included how many ministers each party will have and how long a transitional government would rule.

Meanwhile, former UN chief Kofi Annan slammed the African Union for not endorsing the opposition victory in March elections.

He told a conference in Berlin he was "disappointed in the African Union. The African Union should have endorsed the results and said to Mugabe: you are not a legally-elected president."

Once hailed as Africa's breadbasket, Zimbabwe's economy has virtually collapsed over the past decade with inflation out of control and chronic shortages of foreign currency and food including the staples cornmeal, sugar and cooking oil.

Thousands flee Houston as hurricane Ike nears US coast

2008-09-13T09:42:00.000+07:00

HOUSTON, Texas - Hundreds of thousands of people have fled Houston, Texas, the fourth largest US city, as officials warned that those who stay behind in some coastal areas "face certain death" from Hurricane Ike's wrath.

"All neighbourhoods and possibly entire coastal communities will be inundated during the period of peak storm tide," the NHC said of land along Galveston Bay late Thursday ahead of the storm's expected landfall late Friday or early Saturday.

"Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single family one- or two-story homes will face certain death," it said, as it forecast a storm surge as high as 6.5 metres.

Galveston Bay stretches 40 kilometres inland towards Houston, whose suburbs reach the bay's coast.

Texas governor Rick Perry also issued an urgent and ominous warning.

"My message to Texans in the projected impact area is this - finish your preparations because Ike is dangerous and he's on his way," Perry said.

Authorities in Harris County, the jurisdiction encompassing Houston, said evacuations of the city's most flood-prone areas - home to about a quarter million residents - began at 1700 GMT.

Forecasters said Ike, which left more than 100 dead across the Caribbean, likely would barrel ashore packing winds in excess of 190 kilometres per hour.

An updated track showed the storm making virtually a direct hit on the port city of Galveston and then Houston, a city of 2.2 million people, and with a metropolitan area topping 5.6 million.

Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst told CNN Thursday that a mass mobilisation was well underway.

"We have been moving supplies and moving buses now for four days," he said. "We have moved C-130s (transport planes) and ambulances. We have 1,350 buses we have moved into the area."

Officials said the evacuations began with the elderly, infirm and other residents with special needs. Houston officials planned to re-route highway traffic and said fuelling stations would be placed on major roads to facilitate the exodus.

The NHC made its dire warning about Galveston Bay after it had become clear that some residents in Galveston resisted the order to clear out, despite warnings that the entire island on which the city is located could be inundated.

"Unless it's really bad, we don't want to go anywhere," said resident Leslie LeGrande.

Alicia Cahill, a public information officer for Galveston, expressed worry that some people were staying on the island.

"There's more people here than I would have thought," she said.

Historical data listed by the NHC justifies Cahill's concern. The Center lists the "Great Storm" of 1900, which slammed Galveston, as the deadliest hurricane in US history, killing at least 8,000 people.

South of Galveston in Freeport, evacuations had cleared out most of the coastal town, with fewer than 20 per cent of residents remaining Thursday, although some still planned to ride out Ike's wrath, a local TV station reported.

At 0300 GMT Friday the National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm had maximum sustained winds of around 160 kilometres per hour, making it a Category Two storm on the five-level Simpson-Saffir scale.

The center said Ike was located about 545 kilometres southeast of Galveston and was moving west-northwest at 19 kilometres per hour.

"Ike is forecast to become a major hurricane prior to reaching the coastline," the Center said, adding that "weather will deteriorate along the coastline long before the centre reaches the coast."

Tropical storm-force winds were already being felt late Thursday east of Texas in Louisiana, a state keeping a wary eye on Ike just two weeks after the city of New Orleans and the Louisiana coast was hammered by Hurricane Gustav.

Oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico was largely shut off, though the US Department of Energy said Ike appeared likely to spare most rigs and platforms there.

"Current projections show it missing most of the gulf's oil and gas installations and hitting the Texas coastline sometime late tomorrow (Friday)," the department said in a statement.

"Some 95.9 per cent of the Gulf of Mexico's 1.3 million barrels per day of oil production and 73.1 per cent of its 7.4 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas production has been turned off," it said.

The bulk of US oil refineries are in the gulf, and Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell had evacuated personnel from its offshore installations as of Wednesday.

Russian planes in Venezuela a warning to US

2008-09-13T09:39:00.001+07:00

CARACAS - The presence of two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers in Venezuela is a "warning" to the US "empire," President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday, as Washington said it was monitoring the deployment.

"It's a warning. Russia is with us ... we are strategic allies. It is a message to the empire. Venezuela is no longer poor and alone," Chavez said during a public event on Thursday.

The Venezuelan president had announced on Wednesday that two Russian bombers were in Venezuela for "training flights" and that he would be piloting one of the aircraft himself.

"I hope that stings, 'pitiyanquis'," he said, using a derogatory term for Venezuelan opponents who have perceived US sympathies.

"What's more, I'm going to take the controls of one of these monsters," boasted the president, a former paratrooper and left-wing politician who has avowed antagonism towards the United States.

The United States said it would monitor the deployment of the two Russian bombers, which it described as "Cold War era assets," to Venezuela.

"It is something that we will watch very closely, as we have with the movements of other military assets for the stated purpose of this joint exercise," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington on Thursday.

"These are Cold War era assets and I will leave it to the Russians to describe their capabilities and how they might be equipped," he added.

The moves came amid soaring tensions between Russia and the United States, including over the presence of US naval vessels sent close to Russian shores to deliver aid to Georgia.

Chavez also said plans for joint Russian-Venezuelan naval exercises in the region in November were currently being worked out, and said his closeness to the Kremlin would result in a cooperation that would "strengthen the country."

His announcement confirmed an Interfax report in Russia citing the Russian defence ministry saying the bombers would be in Venezuela for training flights over "neutral waters."

Russia said on Monday it was dispatching a nuclear cruiser and other warships and planes to the Caribbean for the joint exercises with Venezuela - the first such manoeuvres in the US vicinity since the Cold War.

A spokesman for the Russian navy said Monday that the November manoeuvres would take place under an agreement sealed when the leaders of the two countries met in Moscow in July.

Among the Russian ships to take part in the exercises would be the heavy nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser Peter the Great, a vessel with massive firepower whose cruise missiles can deliver nuclear or conventional warheads.

Foreign ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said on Monday that the exercises were "not in any way connected to the current situation in the Caucasus," and were "not aimed at any third country."

Analysts said the Russian navy presence in Venezuela was more symbolic than military, though it did nothing assuage fears that Cold War-type tensions were building.

Thomas Gomart of the Paris-based French Institute of International Relations noted that, up to now, Russia had contented itself with selling arms, notably fighter-bombers, to Caracas.

But the announcement of the Caribbean manoeuvres seemed to be both an overt challenge to US power and a gesture of support to Chavez's radical policies, he said.

The Tupolev Tu-160 bombers are huge supersonic combat aircraft similar to the US B1 bombers, capable of flying long missions with a heavy payload and of carrying nuclear or conventional bombs and/or cruise and guided missiles.

According to a specialist military website, Globalsecurity.org, there are 14 of the bombers in the Russian air force, after a 2003 crash destroyed one of them.

2008-09-09T12:48:00.009+07:00

US Campaign Sharpens As McCain Takes Poll Lead

KANSAS CITY, Missouri - The US presidential election moved into high gear Monday as two new opinion polls showed Republican John McCain taking the lead over Democratic rival Barack Obama.

McCain, a decorated war hero who based much of his early campaign on the strength of his experience, wrestled last week for Obama's mantle of change with the help of his surprise vice presidential pick Sarah Palin.

A USA Today/Gallup survey showed McCain ahead of Obama 50 per cent to 46 per cent among registered voters , a turnaround from a previous poll taken by the newspaper just before last week's Republican National Convention.

That poll had McCain trailing Obama by seven percentage points.

A new Gallup daily tracking poll found McCain had moved into a 48 to 45 per cent lead ahead of the November 4 election -- his best performance since May.

Experts attributed the McCain rebound to his party's convention and the surprise naming of Alaska governor Palin.

"He's in a far better position than his people imagined he would be in at this point," political scientist Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia was quoted by USA Today as saying.

McCain and Palin vowed to use their history of fighting corruption to shake up Washington at a series of campaign stops after the Republican National Convention.

"In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers, and then there are those like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change," Palin told cheering crowds in Wisconsin.

"We're going to win this election and let me offer a little advance warning to the old big spending, do-nothing me-first country second Washington crowd: change is coming. Change is coming," McCain said the next day in Colorado.

Obama ridiculed McCain's promise of change and hammered the Arizona senator on the limping US economy, saying the Republican represented no change from Bush.

"John McCain, who is a good man and has a compelling biography, has embraced and adopted the George Bush economic platform," Obama said on ABC television.

The Illinois senator argued that voters would realize that the election was a choice between a new direction and discredited Republican policies.

"If they like what they've had over the last eight years, then they'll go with McCain. And if they don't like it, hopefully they'll go with me," he said.

Obama's running mate Senator Joseph Biden called McCain's commitment to change "malarkey."

"Tell me one single thing they're going to do on the economy, foreign policy, taxes, that is going to be change," Biden said on NBC.

The Democrats have had a hard time targeting Palin, who is popular among conservatives and has garnered public sympathy in the wake of the media's response to news that her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant and planned to keep the baby.

Senator Hillary Clinton, who narrowly lost the Democratic primary and was incredibly popular among white women, has refused to criticize Palin even though the McCain campaign has actively targeted her disgruntled supporters.

Clinton, who has kept a low profile since she dramatically ceded to Obama at the Democratic National Convention in August, is expected to attack McCain at three events in Florida Monday.

McCain has been sharp in his criticism of Obama, warning Sunday that his rival did not have good "judgment" or a record of challenging his own party's dogma.

"He never took on his party on a single major issue, I have taken them on a lot," McCain said on CBS.

"I think I can make a strong case that whatever the issue, he doesn't have the judgment."

Neither headliners held rallies Sunday although McCain and Palin introduced themselves to voters at a Mexican restaurant in New Mexico and a barbecue joint in Missouri and Biden spoke at a Montana high school.

The Republican candidates had a rally planned in Missouri and a fundraising dinner in Obama's hometown of Chicago on Monday. Obama had two rallies planned in Michigan on Monday and another in Virginia on Tuesday. Biden was due to be in Wisconsin and Iowa on Monday.

2008-09-09T12:48:00.008+07:00

Human Rights Watch Warns Of Backlash To Rising Afghan Deaths

KABUL - Civilian deaths from international air strikes in Afghanistan nearly tripled between 2006 and 2007 with new deadly strikes fuelling a public backlash, Human Rights Watch said Monday.

Insurgents were also guilty of causing civilian deaths by using ordinary people as "human shields" against troops, including by deploying into villages, the New York-based rights group said in a report.

But the international forces, and the US military in particular, needed to "end the mistakes that are killing so many civilians," Asia director Brad Adams warned in a statement accompanying the report.

"Mistakes by the US and NATO have dramatically decreased public support for the Afghan government and the presence of international forces providing security to Afghans," he said.

"Civilian deaths from air strikes act as a recruiting tool for the Taliban and risk fatally undermining the international effort to provide basic security to the people of Afghanistan."

The report comes less than a fortnight after Afghan government and UN investigation teams said US-led coalition air strikes killed more than 90 villagers, most of them children, on August 22 in the western village of Azizabad.

The coalition rejects the figure saying only five to seven died along with 30-35 Taliban.

If the toll of 90 is confirmed, it would be one of the deadliest such incidents since the United States led troops into Afghanistan seven years ago to remove the Taliban from government and round up extremist militants.

Human Rights Watch said that in 2006 at least 699 Afghan civilians were killed in militant attacks, including suicide bombings, and at least 230 in international military action, around half in air strikes.

In 2007, at least 950 died in attacks by insurgent forces, including the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, and at least 321 in air strikes.

"Thus, civilian deaths from US and NATO air strikes nearly tripled from 2006 to 2007," it said.

In the first seven months of this year 2008, at least 367 civilians had been killed in insurgent attacks and at least 119 in air strikes, it said, adding its data was based on conservative estimates.

The air strikes that accounted for almost all the civilian dead were unplanned and called in to help troops under attack, Human Rights Watch said.

"Rapid response air strikes have meant higher civilian casualties, while every bomb dropped in populated areas amplifies the chance of a mistake," Adams said.

Besides civilian casualties, strikes also caused people to flee their homes and villages in fear of future bombardments, resulting in another problem of displacement, Human Rights Watch said.

The watchdog accused US officials in particular of a "poor response" when civilian deaths did occur, saying the US military often immediately denied responsibility or placed all blame on the Taliban.

Its investigations had been "unilateral, ponderous, and lacking in transparency" and undercut relations with local populations and the Afghan government, the group said.

Compensation payouts to survivors or relatives of victims had not been timely or adequate, it said, calling for the international forces to improve their method of assessing damages.

"While Taliban shielding is a factor in some civilian deaths, the US shouldn't use this as an excuse when it could have taken better precautions. It is, after all, its bombs that are doing the killing," Adams said.

2008-09-09T12:48:00.007+07:00

Death Toll From Egypt Rockslide Rises To 47

CAIRO - At least 47 people were killed in a massive rockslide which flattened homes in a Cairo shantytown, a security official said on Monday, with yet more bodies pulled from the rubble two days after the tragedy.

Many more bodies are feared entombed in the debris after giant boulders crushed dozens of homes in the shantytown of Manshiyet Nasser on Saturday, burying whole families.

"Casualties have now reached 47 dead and 57 injured," the official told AFP, asking not to be named.

Egypt's mufti Sheikh Ali Gomaa - the leader of the nation's Sunni Muslim faithful - said all who died were "martyrs," the independent Al-Masri Al-Youm newspaper reported.

Television reports suggested that as many as 500 people could be missing as rescuers continued in a desperate race to find survivors of the tragedy, which struck as most people were sleeping, it being the first week of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Rescue efforts are proceeding slowly as authorities break the giant rocks into pieces small enough to be hauled out of the area.

The army and emergency services are also trying to create narrow passageways between the massive rocks to allow them access to the remains below, wary of setting off new rockslides.

Most of the brick-built dwellings in the district have two floors and were put up without adhering to planning regulations and without construction permits.

The army tried to get residents to move into an improvised camp made up of 60 tents in a nearby public park, although some survivors refused to go, insisting instead on being given proper new homes.

Survivor Abdallah Salem, 60, whose home was unscathed by the landslide, said he feared further rocks tumbling down.

"We're afraid to sleep in our homes for fear that our fate might be the same as that of our neighbours," Salem told the independent Al-Badil newspaper.

The arid Moqattam hill is broken up by chalky rock slopes, and a number of unofficial housing areas are huddled at its base, along the length of a main road into the city.

Several rockslides have occurred in the area previously, the most deadly of which killed 70 people in the adjacent Zabaleen area in 1993.

"The government knew that people could die and, in spite of that, it didn't take any action," resident Waheed Rabie told the state-owned Egyptian Gazette newspaper.

Residents on Sunday threw rocks at security forces, denouncing what they said was a slow official reaction to the catastrophe.

Egypt has a poor track record of building safety often blamed on the flouting of construction regulations, particularly involving adding extra floors without permission.

In December, 35 people died when a 12-storey apartment block in the northern city of Alexandria collapsed as restoration work was under way on the first floor.

2008-09-09T12:48:00.006+07:00

Kuwaiti PM to Make First Iraq Visit Since Gulf War

KUWAIT CITY - Kuwait's premier has accepted an invitation to visit Iraq, in what would be a first since the forces of dictator Saddam Hussein invaded the Gulf emirate 18 years ago.

Iraqi Finance Minister Bayan Jabr Solagh delivered the invitation to Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah on Sunday during a visit to discuss debt and war reparations, according to an official statement on Monday.

"The premier accepted the invitation and its date will be determined soon through diplomatic channels," said the statement, quoted by the state-run KUNA news agency.

It said the emirate was awaiting the return to Baghdad of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani who is convalescing in the United States following heart surgery last month.

Sheikh Mohammad said that during the visit, Kuwait's newly appointed ambassador, former army chief Ali al-Momen, would present his credentials - becoming the first ambassador to Baghdad since the 1990 invasion.

The two neighbours have yet to settle a number of issues related to debt and war compensation estimated at tens of billions of dollars.

Kuwait has claimed damages from Iraq for the invasion and the seven-month occupation by Saddam's forces, which were expelled in 1991 by a US-led coalition.

Iraq is required to pay five per cent of its oil revenue into a fund created by the UN Security Council to pay compensation for war damage linked to the Kuwait occupation.

Iraq in April called on Gulf states to waive compensation and debt. The United Arab Emirates last month waived US$7 billion that Baghdad owed and other states have promised to do the same.

Figures released at the time showed the UN compensation fund has received claims worth US$354 billion, but had approved payments of just over US$52 billion, including around US$45 billion for Kuwait.

The fund had paid out more than US$21 billion, including around US$11 billion for Kuwait.

Saddam was toppled after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and executed for crimes against humanity in December 2006.

2008-09-09T12:48:00.005+07:00

Mbeki Arrives In Harare For Power-Sharing Talks

HARARE - South African President Thabo Mbeki arrived in the Zimbabwean capital Harare on Monday in the latest bid to revive stalled power-sharing talks between the country's political rivals.

Mbeki, who was met on arrival by President Robert Mugabe, is expected to be in Harare for "at least two days," according to a South African diplomat.

He was to hold talks with Mugabe, opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and the leader of a small MDC offshoot, Arthur Mutambara, in an effort to end a deadlock which has delayed the formation of a new government in the impoverished country.

Talks deadlocked last month when the MDC, the biggest party in parliament following elections in March, balked at a proposal which would see President Robert Mugabe retain control of the country's security ministries.

Mbeki was appointed by the Southern African Development Community in July to mediate in the dispute.

It was unclear Monday whether Mbeki would meet the party leaders together or separately.

While the opposition was upbeat about the Mbeki visit, the ruling ZANU-PF and government officials declined to comment.

"We welcome President Mbeki's visit. We expect him as mediator to play the simple but important role of deflating the current impasse in the negotiations," said MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa.

"He should persuade ZANU-PF to abandon their meaningless hardline stance. The bottom line is people of Zimbabwe are suffering and they need a 'pain-stop' to come out of these talks," he said.

Mutambara's splinter group also said it was hopeful.

"If this meeting with Mbeki takes place, it will be a good opportunity for the leaders of this country to chart a new path for a new Zimbabwe. We are excited and hopeful," spokesman Edwin Mushoriwa told AFP.

"Zimbabwean people are anxious to see an end to this crisis which has dragged on for too long. We cannot continue to keep the people in suspense," he said.

Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, the chief negotiator for ZANU-PF, would make no comment about the resumption of talks.

Mbeki's trip comes after Mugabe threatened last week to form a cabinet if Tsvangirai delayed signing a document to pave the way for a power-sharing deal.

Tsvangirai called on Sunday for fresh elections, supervised by international observers, if there was no breakthrough in the talks.

But he insisted he would only sign a deal that gives him "sufficient" power.

"We would rather have no deal than a bad deal," he said.

Speaking earlier at the same rally, Tsvangirai's deputy Tendai Biti said the talks had stalled over powers invested in the president by the current constitution.

"The president created in this constitution is a monarch, an imperial president," said Biti, the MDC's secretary-general.

"That's the sticking point," he said. "It's the issue of the powers of the president as enshrined in this constitution that is making these talks not to move forward."

The talks began after both sides signed a memorandum of understanding on July 21 in Harare.

Mugabe won a June 27 presidential run-off poll after the first-round winner Tsvangirai withdrew from the vote in protest at widespread election violence.

2008-09-09T12:48:00.004+07:00

Three Found Guilty Over Transatlantic Jet Bombing

LONDON - Three members of an Islamist cell accused of plotting to blow up transatlantic aircraft with liquid explosives in 2006 were found guilty by a court in London on Monday.

Abdulla Ahmed Ali, described as the leader of the eight-man group, was convicted at Woolwich Crown Court of conspiring to murder hundreds of people, as were two others, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain.

The trial considered charges that the men planned to smuggle the explosives in soft drink bottles on board aircraft flying from London's main Heathrow airport to North America.

The home-made devices would then have been set off in flight, causing carnage in the skies, prosecutors alleged during the three-and-a-half-month trial.

The men's arrest in August 2006 prompted new restrictions on carrying liquids on board aircraft from Britain, which had been on high alert since July 2005 suicide bombings which killed 52 people in London.

The travel security restrictions have since been eased.

During the trial, three of the defendants pleaded guilty to plotting explosions. Seven admitted conspiracy to commit public nuisance by distributing Al-Qaeda videos threatening suicide bomb attacks in Britain.

On Monday the jury failed to reach verdicts on four defendants: Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Waheed Khan, Waheed Zaman and Umar Islam. An eighth man, Mohammed Gulzar, was found not guilty on all counts.

The trial started in April, and the 12-person jury retired to consider their verdicts at the end of July. Sentencing will be handed down at a later date.

Prosecutors alleged that the men plotted suicide attacks on at least seven flights from Britain to North America in a simultaneous attack of "truly global impact".

All eight defendants faced two charges of conspiracy to murder, with one charge specifying that the attacks would involve detonating improvised bombs on board commercial airliners between January 1 and August 11, 2006.

The men targeted seven flights from London's Heathrow airport - to New York, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto and Montreal, the jury had heard.

They aimed to use hydrogen peroxide liquid explosives injected into plastic soft drinks bottles to cause "a civilian death toll from an act of terrorism on an almost unprecedented scale", prosecutor Peter Wright told the trial.

They were "not long off" putting their plan into action and had talked of up to 18 different suicide bombers targeting seven or even more flights, operated by United Airlines, American Airlines and Air Canada, he said.

Summing up the case in July, a prosecutor said the eight accused wanted to achieve "immortality" and be "lionised" by other Islamic extremists for a deadly attack which would "shock the world".

2008-09-09T12:48:00.003+07:00

Russia Commits To Georgia Pull-Back

BARVIKHA, Russia - President Dmitry Medvedev pledged Monday to withdraw all Russian troops from Georgia apart from Abkhazia and South Ossetia whose independence he maintained was "irrevocable".

Medvedev said he had made the commitment after receiving assurances from a visiting European Union delegation led by French President Nicolas Sarkozy that Georgia would not resort to force again in its rebel regions.

Under the deal brokered by Sarkozy, Medvedev agreed to the deployment of at least 200 European Union observers in Georgia by October 1 to monitor the pull-out.

"Russia received a guarantee from the European Union and from France as representative of the European Union on non-use of force by the Georgian side," Medvedev said.

There will be a "complete withdrawal of Russian peacekeeping forces" from zones adjacent to South Ossetia and Abkhazia 10 days after the deployment of the EU observers, he added.

Sarkozy, the current EU president, said negotiations on a new EU-Russia partnership agreement -- put on hold over the crisis -- could resume "as early as October" if Moscow fulfilled the agreed measures.

Later in Tbilisi after talks with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, he said there would also be "consequences" for Russia if it did not comply but insisted that great strides had been made since the conflict.

"Frankly, there is no comparison with the situation in the first half of the month of August. I remind you that when we took this issue up the whole world was convinced that Russian military forces were moving on the capital of Georgia. Today, we are negotiating their withdrawal," he said.

Saakashvili insisted that any solution to the conflict must respect his country's territorial integrity and announced a summit in Tbilisi on the crisis in October. He did not elaborate on who would be invited to the summit.

"We must continue to implement the European solution to reach a definitive solution respecting Georgia's territorial integrity and the principle of justice for our country and for our region," he said.

Washington stuck to a firm line, however, with US President George W Bush taking a long-awaited decision to freeze a landmark civilian nuclear agreement with Russia in protest at Moscow's military moves in Georgia.

"The president intends to notify Congress that he has today rescinded his prior determination regarding the US-Russia agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation," a statement said.

An official at the Russian foreign ministry reacted with ambivalence to the move, saying simply that such as step was "regrettable" and "out of keeping with bilateral relations."

The new Russian timetable for a pull-out followed EU assurances that Georgia will live up to its ceasefire commitments with Sarkozy handing Medvedev a letter from Saakashvili promising not to use force again.

The Russian leader was unequivocal about the status of the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia which Saakashvili says must remain part of Georgia but which Moscow has recognised as independent states.

"We made a choice for ourselves," Medvedev said. "This choice is final and irrevocable," he added while announcing that international talks would be held on the two regions on October 15 in Geneva.

Russia's foreign ministry said it planned to exchange documents Tuesday with Abkhazia and South Ossetia to set up diplomatic relations.

Russian tanks and troops surged into Georgia on August 8 to rebuff a Georgian offensive to retake South Ossetia.

Moscow argued that the action was to protect thousands of people to whom it had granted Russian citizenship since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Hundreds of people on both sides are estimated to have been killed in the conflict, which wrought extensive destruction on the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali. Tens of thousands fled their homes.

The conflict sent relations between Russia and the West to their lowest point since the Cold War.

Georgia, whose army was routed by the Russians after its ill-fated assault to regain control of South Ossetia, says Russia has almost 1,500 soldiers still in Georgia proper which it regards as an occupying force.

In another development Monday, Georgia accused Russia before the UN's International Court of Justice in The Hague of conducting a long-running campaign of "ethnic cleansing" in Georgian territory.

Russia has not responded publicly to the Georgian application, but alleges that Georgia committed "genocide" with its assault on Tskhinvali.

2008-09-09T12:48:00.002+07:00

Bush Feezes Nuclear Pact With Russia Over Georgia Tension

WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush on Monday froze a much vaunted US-Russian civilian nuclear pact in protest at Moscow's military moves in Georgia.

The first casualty in recently touted cooperation among the former Cold War foes, the US-Russian deal to establish joint ventures and share peaceful nuclear technology has been pulled from consideration for now.

In formally notifying the Congress of his decision, Bush wrote that the Russian government had taken actions that are "incompatible with peaceful relations with its sovereign and democratic neighbour Georgia."

Russian troops poured into Georgia last month to repel an attack by the Georgian army aimed at retaking South Ossetia. They have remained deep inside Georgian territory in what Moscow calls "security zones."

Both Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was the first to announce the decision, said the pact could be resubmitted to Congress if circumstances change, but gave no specicics.

"We make this decision with regret," Rice said in a statement read by her spokesman Sean McCormack. "Unfortunately, given the current environment, the time is not right for this agreement."

On a visit to Moscow in March, Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates hailed what they called growing areas of cooperation with Russia, including in the nuclear area, despite tension over US actions in former Soviet territory.

Now, Russian moves in Georgia are seen by analysts as a response to the US drive to bring the pro-US government in Tbilisi into NATO and to build a US missile shield in the Czech Republic and Poland, former Soviet satellites.

Russia reacted with ambivalence to the decision by US President George W. Bush to postpone a US-Russia civilian nuclear pact, Interfax reported on Monday citing a foreign affairs ministry official.

"Such a step is regrettable" and is "out of keeping with bilateral relations," the official, said by the news agency to have requested anonymity, was quoted as saying.

However, "Russia does not need civilian nuclear cooperation with the United States more than (Washington)," the source added.

During a press briefing in Washington, McCormack said the US embassy in Moscow notified the Russian government of the impending decision last week.

McCormack said Bush decided to freeze the nuclear deal because of "deep concerns over Russian behaviour," though he did not deny its actions in Georgia played a role.

The agreement aimed to allow US and Russian companies to form joint ventures in the nuclear sector and gives the go-ahead for exchanges of nuclear technology between the two countries, according to officials on both sides.

Under the deal, Russia would also be able to reprocess spent nuclear fuel originating in the United States, which accounts for most of the world market, in a move that has raised fears of Russia being turned into a nuclear dump.

When the deal was signed in May, McCormack said the deal would prove a boost to the US nuclear industry and would strengthen US-Russian efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear technology to shadowy militant groups.

The State Department is playing down the possible impact on non-proliferation efforts from the deal's postponement.

"The US non-proliferation goals contained in the proposed agreement remain valid: to provide a sound basis for US-Russian civilian nuclear cooperation; create commercial opportunities; and enhance cooperation with Russia on important global non-proliferation issues," Rice's statement said.

2008-09-09T12:48:00.001+07:00

McCain Offers Voters a "Team Of Mavericks"

CHICAGO - Republican presidential hopeful John McCain accused rival Barack Obama of being a free-spending Democrat on Monday and told voters they should send a "team of mavericks" to the White House.

Riding a boost in the polls which give him a newfound edge over Obama, McCain told voters that he, and not his Democratic rivals, were the real agents of change who would shake up a free-spending Washington.

"We're going to work for you and we're going to drain the swamp in Washington, DC," McCain told a rally in Lee's Summit, Missouri.

"We'll take them on and we'll defeat 'em because America knows it's time for change and it's time for the right change."

Senator McCain praised running mate Sarah Palin's history of fighting corruption in her own party and "pork-barrel" spending while governor of Alaska, and touted his own reputation of bucking the party line.

As they fight to the November 4 election, McCain is wrestling for Obama's mantle of change amid a troubled economy and deep electoral dissatisfaction with the government.

The tactic appears to be working. McCain pulled ahead of Obama in two polls released Monday and closed the gap to a tie in another, all just in the wake of the Republican party's nominating convention, which closed Thursday.

The USA Today/Gallup survey showed McCain ahead by 50 to 46 percent among registered voters, a turnaround from one week ago when, just after the Democratic National Convention, Obama had a seven-point lead.

One factor in the shift was McCain's surprise choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate.

Twenty-nine percent of respondents said the choice of Palin had made them more likely to vote for McCain, while 21 percent said they were now less likely to back the Republicans.

Polls by CNN and Rasmussen had McCain essentially tied with Obama, after McCain trailed by as much as nine points last week.

"He's in a far better position than his people imagined he would be in at this point," political scientist Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia told USA Today

In a campaign increasingly focused on wasteful spending of tax money, McCain accused Senator Obama of massive use of "earmarks" - additions to federal legislation which direct spending to a politician's pet projects, often called "pork-barrel" spending.

"Senator Obama asked for nearly a billion dollars in pork barrel earmark spending - 932 million dollars, almost a million dollars for every day he was in the United States Senate," McCain told the Missouri rally.

"I will veto every pork barrel earmark spending bill that comes across my desk. We will stop it, my friends, because it breeds corruption and we can no longer stand for that," said McCain.

On the campaign trail in Flint, Michigan Monday, Obama questioned the "maverick" credentials of the McCain-Palin team, pointing out that as a mayor and then governor in Alaska Palin aggressively sought earmarks from Congress.

"And when John McCain with a straight face says 'I'm going to change things,' at the same time as he says he's agreed with (President) George Bush 90 percent of the time, you know it's pretty hard to believe."

Obama said that Palin, as Alaska's governor, had supported a hugely expensive bridge project funded by a congressional earmark before it sparked an outcry as an example of wasteful "pork-barrel" spending.

"You can't just make stuff up, you can't just reinvent yourself," he said.

"The American people aren't stupid. What they're looking for is someone who's been consistently calling for change" on Iraq, tax cuts, making college costs affordable, on healthcare and ethics reform.

"That's change you can believe in, that's why I'm running for president," Obama said to loud applause.

2008-09-09T12:48:00.000+07:00

Sarkozy In Georgia Peace Mission

MOSCOW - French President Nicolas Sarkozy will ramp up the international pressure on Russia to withdraw more troops from Georgia as he visits Moscow and Tbilisi on Monday to shore up a fragile peace deal.

France holds the rotating presidency of the European Union and it was Sarkozy who brokered the August 12 accord that officially brought an end to Russia and Georgia's five-day war over South Ossetia.

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev has come under fire for not honouring the terms of the truce, in particular from the United States, which is not as reliant as some European nations on Russian oil and gas supplies.

Moscow argues that its remaining presence in Georgia - thought to be a few thousand troops - is in line with an agreement that foresaw "additional security measures" by Russia in the conflict zone.

Georgia, whose army was routed by the Russians in a five-day conflict after launching an ill-fated campaign to regain control of the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia, views the leftover troops as an occupying force.

Sarkozy will meet Medvedev at his residence near Moscow at 1000 GMT, accompanied by European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

The three will later travel to Tbilisi for afternoon talks with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili with whom Russia has refused direct talks since the conflict.

French officials say they will press for: the deployment of an EU observer mission in Georgia; a timetable for Russia's withdrawal; and international talks on the future of South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia.

An emergency EU summit on September 1 gave an order for EU negotiators to seek full application of the ceasefire accord and EU foreign ministers meeting in France last week confirmed plans for an EU observer mission to Georgia.

Russia says it will only pull its troops out of areas surrounding the rebel regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia once international controls, including observers and police, are in place to prevent another Georgian attack.

It also wants Georgia to sign a non-aggression pact and insists that Georgian troops have not yet returned to their own bases, one of the six terms of the ceasefire agreement.

Western countries have said Russia is breach of the accord, urging Moscow to pull out immediately, and have strongly condemned Medvedev's move on August 26 to unilaterally recognise the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

"I am hopeful that the French president's visit to Moscow... will clarify the six-point plan," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday.

"We, as the European Union, want to continue contacts (with Moscow).... At the same time it's not possible that a six-point plan that we have developed together is not respected," she said.

The conflict has plunged relations between Russia and the West to a tense post-Cold War low, with an angry war of words developing between Russia and the United States following US Vice President Dick Cheney's visit to the region.

Cheney has accused Russia of using "brutality" and trying to redraw the map of Georgia. Russia has alleged US involvement in Georgia's attack on South Ossetia and accused Washington of re-arming Georgia since the conflict.

Russian troops surged into Georgia on August 8 with Moscow arguing that they were protecting tens of thousands of residents there who have been granted Russian citizenship since the 1991 collapse of the USSR.

Hundreds of people on both sides are estimated to have been killed in the conflict, which wrought extensive destruction on the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali. Tens of thousands have also been forced to flee their homes.

2008-09-09T09:51:00.007+07:00

Haiti's Storm Toll Climbs To 600; Cuba Evacuates 800,000

HAVANA - Hurricane Ike slammed into Cuba on Sunday, the second major storm to hit the island in a little over a week, making landfall in the eastern province of Holguin as a major Category Three hurricane, weather officials said.

Just hours before, hundreds of thousands of panicked Cubans fled the fury of the advancing storm, the latest of several major storms to sow misery and destruction through the flood-stricken Caribbean in recent weeks.

The head of the island's meteorological service, Jose Rubiera, told television here that the outer wall of the eye of the hurricane made landfall at the eastern Cuban town of Punta Lucrecia.

Lashing the Atlantic with torrential rain and howling winds, Ike has already killed dozens in Haiti, deepening the impoverished country's humanitarian disaster.

Packing 120-mile (195-kilometer) per hour winds, Ike is the second powerful storm in just eight days to strike Cuba, following the devastation of Hurricane Gustav.

"In all of Cuba's history, we have never had two hurricanes this close together," lamented Rubeira.

More than 800,000 Cubans were evacuated ahead of the Ike's arrival, including more than 9,000 foreign visitors who were moved out of the tourist mecca of Varadero, some 120 kilometres (75 miles) east of Havana.

Officials in Haiti continued aid operations in the flood-stricken town of Gonaives, devastated by flooding from Tropical Storm Hanna.

Forty-seven people perished in the Haitian village of Cabaret, near Port-au-Prince, in flooding caused by Ike, officials said on Sunday.

"Many homes were destroyed in Cabaret, and we have seen some bodies of children in the water," a journalist for UN radio who spent the night on the roof of his house told AFP.

Ike, late Saturday, ploughed across the low-lying Turks and Caicos as a powerful Category Four storm, causing some injuries and extensive damage on the British territory and tourist haven, before weakening somewhat to a Category Three.

The hurricane also raked the southeastern Bahamian island of Great Inagua, toppling trees, blowing off roofs, causing an island-wide power failure and forcing many of its one thousand residents to seek refuge in shelters.

But the greatest concern was Haiti, where a humanitarian crisis deepened after four storms in three weeks left at least 600 people dead and hundreds of thousands in desperate need of food, clean water and shelter.

Hundreds of bodies were found in flood-prone Gonaives, a town of 350,000 in northwestern Haiti, after a five-meter (16-foot) wall of water and mud engulfed much of the town.

UN peacekeepers on Saturday evacuated several thousand residents from Gonaives, a local official said, but thousands more are still awaiting relief.

Some 650,000 Haitians have been affected by the flooding, including 300,000 children, and the task of delivering crucial aid has been complicated by dismal transport conditions, according to UNICEF. Officials said 200,000 people have been without food and clean water, many for four days.

"What has happened here is unimaginable," member of parliament Pierre-Gerome Valcine told AFP from Cabaret, 35 kilometres (22 miles) north of the capital Port-Au-Prince.

Massive flooding over the past week in the poorest country in the Americas has triggered a humanitarian crisis that was worsening by the day – and prompted prayers from Pope Benedict XVI.

"I want to remember the dear population of Haiti, greatly distressed in recent days by passing hurricanes," Benedict told pilgrims on the Italian island of Sardinia.

Continuing stormy weather hampered relief efforts Sunday, when heavy rains led to the collapse of a key bridge which severed the only viable land route to Gonaives.

The bridge gave way overnight at the town of Mirebalais in central Haiti, forcing three trucks loaded with emergency supplies and bound for Saint-Marc, where thousands of desperate flood refugees from Gonaives were crowding into shelters, to turn back, according to a World Food Programme official.

Many bridges in other areas of Haiti have also collapsed, homes have been washed away and crops ravaged.

Ike was expected to eventually careen past Florida into the Gulf of Mexico and sweep toward Louisiana and the storm-battered city of New Orleans as early as Tuesday.

2008-09-09T09:51:00.006+07:00

Cuba Braces For Hurricane Ike

HAVANA - Barely a week after Hurricane Gustav devastated western Cuba, the island was battening down the hatches again on Sunday for another killer storm, with more than half a million people evacuating Cuba's northeast coast, officials said.

Hurricane Ike, labelled an "extremely dangerous" storm already responsible for at least 20 deaths in heavily flooded Haiti, was on course to barrel into Cuba's northeastern flank on Sunday night, and authorities were leaving little to chance.

In Camaguey province 225,000 residents evacuated, 150,000 were mobilised in Santiago de Cuba and 108,000 in Holguin, while 120,000 people - including 13,000 tourists - took shelter in the western province of Matanzas, near the capital Havana.

Another 16,000 people evacuated their homes in Guantanamo province, site of a major US Naval base, authorities said, as Ike's outer rain bands began to lash the eastern coast.

The communist government's internationally recognised storm-preparedness was in full effect Sunday as medical equipment, food and potable water were mobilised, fuel and power generators prepared and homes secured across the country.

Vice President Jose Ramon Machado, meeting with authorities in Holguin, urged people to "carry out the evacuation in an orderly and speedy fashion," and to take steps to "avoid the loss of life."

Ike is raging into the Caribbean from the Atlantic as a Category Four storm on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, with sustained winds of 215 kilometres per hour.

Ike "is a danger for all of Cuba's national territory," warned forecaster Jose Rubiera. Cuba's population tops 11 million.

At 1800 GMT Sunday the centre of the storm was 155 kilometres east of Guantanamo, Cuba, the US National Hurricane Centre reported.

"Eastern and central Cuba could see six to 12 inches (15 to 30 centimetres) of rain with isolated maximum amounts of up to 20 inches (50 centimetres) possible," the centre said.

The hurricane also threatens Havana, whose population of 2.2 million has been put on alert. Residents were stocking up on food, fuel and other supplies.

In Cuba, a fragile and aging housing stock is highly vulnerable to hurricanes. Havana in particular has many colonial-era buildings, crowded with families and prone to cave-ins.

A week ago Gustav crashed across western Cuba leaving widespread destruction of homes, businesses and schools. There were no known casualties but some 140,000 homes were seriously damaged or destroyed, authorities said.

2008-09-09T09:51:00.005+07:00

Obama, McCain Duel As Race Heads Into Home Stretch

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama and John McCain feuded and laid claim to being the authentic candidate of change and reform on Sunday as their White House showdown roared into a frenetic eight-week final stretch.

The McCain campaign meanwhile denied that his vice presidential pick Sarah Palin was "scared" to answer questions, following her failure to give a major interview or hold a press conference since her shock selection.

Both presidential candidates are portraying themselves as drivers of change because most American votes are angry at the direction their country is headed and President George W. Bush is highly unpopular.

Republican Senator McCain, striking out from his tarnished party, warned that Democratic foe Obama did not have the "judgement" or record of reform or challenging his own party's dogma to be president.

"He never took on his party on a single major issue, I have taken them on a lot," McCain said on CBS "Face the Nation" as the candidates launched a flurry of interviews in the heated run-up to the November 4 election.

"I think I can make a strong case that whatever the issue, he doesn't have the judgement."

"I have to make a strong case that I can bring about change," McCain said.

Obama hammered McCain back on the limping US economy in an interview recorded before the US government took over troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying the Republican represented no change from Bush.

"John McCain, who is a good man and has a compelling biography, has embraced and adopted the George Bush economic platform," Obama said.

The Illinois senator argued that voters would realise that the election was a choice between a new direction and discredited Republican policies.

"If they like what they've had over the last eight years, then they'll go with McCain. And if they don't like it, hopefully they'll go with me," he said on ABC's "This Week."

Obama's running mate Senator Joseph Biden meanwhile said that the idea that McCain was a change agent was "malarkey."

"Tell me one single thing they're going to do on the economy, foreign policy, taxes, that is going to be change," Biden said on NBC.

Both campaigns also sparred over Palin's failure to so far give a press conference or major interview since exploding onto the scene just over a week ago.

The Alaska governor was the only figure on either presidential ticket not to appear on a Sunday morning political television talk show.

"She will agree to an interview when she thinks it's time and she is comfortable doing it," said McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis on Fox News Sunday.

"She is not scared to answer questions. We run our campaign, not the news media. We'll do things on our timetable."

Journalists are clamouring to interview first-term governor Palin amid claims by her political opponents that she is not ready or experienced enough to serve a "heartbeat" away from the presidency.

Obama said McCain's choice of Palin, who is beloved by conservatives, handcuffed the Republican presidential candidate to the legacy of unpopular President Bush.

"He chose somebody who may be even more aligned with George Bush, or (Vice President) Dick Cheney or politics we've seen over the last eight years than John McCain himself is," said Obama.

Biden said Palin, a 44-year-old mother of five, would be a "formidable" opponent, but that time was running out for her to flesh out her record.

"Eventually, she's going to have to sit in front of you like I'm doing," Biden said on NBC.

"Eventually she's going to have to answer questions and not be sequestered. Eventually she's going to have to answer on the record."

Davis said that the media had not been fair to Palin during a political storm over her selection, and that the campaign had no intention of exposing her to "piranhas" in the news media.

With the full impact of last week's Republican jamboree not yet felt, a Gallup tracking poll has Obama up by just two percentage points. Rasmussen poll group on Sunday had the race tied at 46 percent, confirming McCain squelched his rival's post-convention surge.

2008-09-09T09:51:00.004+07:00

Georgia And Russia Continue their Fight In UN Court

THE HAGUE - The UN's highest court starts hearings on Monday in a bid by Georgia to end alleged rights abuses by Russia in the two countries' showdown over the rebel regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The International Court of Justice in The Hague will hear three days of argument in a Georgian application for interim protection against "ethnic cleansing" it accuses Russia of committing on Georgian territory.

Georgia says Russia has assumed control over South Ossetia, Abkhazia and adjacent areas within Georgian territory. It claims that ethnic Georgians in these areas have been subjected to physical violence causing civilian deaths, terror, and a mass exodus of inhabitants.

"The manifest objective of this discriminatory campaign is the mass-expulsion of the ethnic Georgian population from South Ossetia, Abkhazia and other neighbouring areas of Georgia," states the application.

"It reflects a Russian policy, commencing in the 1990s, to consolidate the authority of ethnic separatists under Russia's direction and control over Georgia's territory through ethnic cleansing and denial of the right of return."

It asks the court to order Russia to stop discriminatory acts and to allow refugees to return.

Russian troops entered Georgia last month to push back Georgian forces attempting to regain control of South Ossetia, the Moscow-backed region that broke away from Tbilisi in the early 1990s.

Russia later halted a five-day offensive, but has failed to withdraw all its troops from Georgian territory. It has since recognised South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another Georgian rebel region, as independent states.

Georgia instituted proceedings against Russia before the ICJ on August 12, accusing it of breaches of the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

As it can take months for the court to decide whether or not to entertain the case, Georgia brought another application two days later asking for interim protection measures.

It is this matter that will be argued from Monday, with a decision expected within weeks. Russia has not indicated on what grounds it intends to contest the application.

The ICJ has no powers to enforce its judgments, which have on occasion been simply ignored by state parties.

The court hearings take place as French President Nicolas Sarkozy heads for Moscow on Monday. He hopes to persuade the Russian leadership to accept a European Union observer mission in the Georgian conflict zone and a date for international talks.

2008-09-09T09:51:00.003+07:00

Palin To Give First Interview

KANSAS CITY, Missouri - Republican vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin will give her first substantive interview to ABC News later this week in Alaska, a campaign official said Sunday.

"There are going to be no ground rules," Mark Salter, senior advisor to presidential candidate John McCain, told reporters on the campaign plane.

Palin will give ABC's Charlie Gibson multiple interviews over the course of two days, Salter said.

While the details are still be sorted out, the interviews will likely be taped on Thursday and Friday, but it was not clear when the interview would be broadcast.

Palin has not held a press conference or given a substantive interview since McCain announced the surprise pick on August 29.

Journalists are clamoring to interview the first-term Alaska governor amid claims by her political opponents that she is not ready or experienced enough to serve a "heartbeat" away from the presidency.

She has come under fire for refusing to expose herself to the questions of the press, but McCain campaign manager Rick Davis defended her decision to wait.

"She is not scared to answer questions," Davis said on Fox News Sunday. "We run our campaign, not the news media. We'll do things on our timetable."

Davis said that the media had not been fair to Palin during a political storm over her selection and the revelation that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, and that the campaign had no intention of exposing her to "piranhas" in the news media.

Democratic vice presidential pick Joe Biden said Palin, a 44-year-old mother of five, would be a "formidable" opponent, but that time was running out for her to flesh out her record.

"Eventually, she's going to have to sit in front of you like I'm doing," Biden said on NBC.

"Eventually she's going to have to answer questions and not be sequestered. Eventually she's going to have to answer on the record."

Biden spokesman David Wade took a poke at Palin Sunday after reporters handed the candidate a cardboard cutout of McCain, ABC news reported.

"You realize you could've made history if you'd found a cardboard cut-out of Governor Palin," Wade told reporters.

"That's the closest she would've been to taking tough questions from the national media since she was selected."

"Then again, I guess the Republicans are continuing their recent history of keeping their vice-presidential picks in secure, undisclosed locations," he quipped, in reference to Vice President Dick Cheney's use of an "undisclosed location" after the September 11 attacks.

"Yet another way that McCain-Palin is more of the same."

2008-09-09T09:51:00.002+07:00

Israel Police Recommend Graft Charges Against PM Olmert

JERUSALEM - Israeli police on Sunday recommended indicting beleaguered Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on corruption charges in two different cases, but the premier's lawyers dismissed the move as irrelevant.

The decision is unlikely to affect the political future of the 62-year-old premier who has denied any wrongdoing but announced in July he would step down following a public uproar over the array of suspicions against him.

Police said in a statement they had gathered enough evidence to indict Olmert on charges of taking bribes and breaching public trust over suspicions he had unlawfully accepted cash-stuffed envelopes from a US businessman.

Police also recommended that Olmert be indicted over suspicions he had billed the same overseas trips several times over, allegedly using the ill-gotten gains to pay for private trips for himself and his family.

The two allegations cover the 13 years before he took office, when he served as mayor of Jerusalem and as trade and industry minister.

The police advice will be submitted to state prosecutors who will review the evidence and make their own recommendation.

While police and state prosecutors can recommend a prosecution, the formal decision to indict a prime minister lies with Attorney General Menahem Mazuz, who is expected to make a decision within the coming weeks.

Olmert's attorneys said in response that the police recommendation has no meaning.

"The only person authorised by the law to decide whether to indict a prime minister is the attorney general. He has the authority and he bears the responsibility over the issue," his lawyers said in a statement.

"The police recommendations are meaningless. It would have been appropriate for the police to completely avoid expressing its views on issues that are not under its jurisdiction and its authority."

Olmert has been dogged by multiple corruption investigations for months and on July 30 announced he would step down after his centrist Kadima party selects a new leader in an election among party members on September 17.

The succession for the ruling party's leadership is being battled out by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Trasport Minister Shaul Mofaz.

The winner will have to win a vote of confidence in parliament for a new governing coalition, otherwise the country will go to early parliamentary elections from which the right-wing opposition Likud is expected to emerge the largest party.

Olmert also weathered a chorus of calls for his resignation after a commission of inquiry found him responsible for severe failings during the 2006 war in Lebanon against the Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

He has been questioned several times in recent months over suspicions he accepted more than 150,000 dollars in envelopes from US financier Morris Talansky to finance election campaigns and a lavish lifestyle.

Police said they would need to put further questions to Olmert before deciding whether to recommend a third indictment over suspicions of cronyism in political appointments he made as minister in 2005 for assisting a private company represented by a lawyer who was also his close associate.

The embattled premier has faced a total of six police investigations in recent years but police have decided to close two of them.

2008-09-09T09:51:00.001+07:00

Canadian PM Calls Snap Elections

OTTAWA - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper Sunday announced parliamentary elections, after warning for weeks that elections were inevitable to break a deadlock with opposition parties on several key issues.

The third general election in just over four years is expected to take place October 14, after Canada's governor-general announced the dissolution of the parliament.

"Between now and October 14th, Canadians will choose a government to look out for their interest in a time of global economic trouble," Harper said.

"They will choose between clear direction or uncertainty, between common sense or risky experiments, between steadiness or recklessness."

Harper, who has headed the Conservative minority government since January 2006, making it the longest minority government in the country's history, has insisted in recent weeks that new elections will be necessary to deal with the spectre of possible recession, as the manufacturing sectors in the most populous provinces, Ontario and Quebec, suffer a direct hit from the global economic slowdown.

Harper used the announcement Sunday to lash out at his opponents, saying their criticism of his government "masks unclear and risky agendas."

"This government will continue to lead Canada by keeping taxes down and keeping the budget in surplus and limiting spending to clear and affordable objectives. The opposition insists on large-scale spending and a new tax," he said.

Surveys ahead of Sunday's announcement showed that Harper, elected to head a minority government on January 23, 2006, has a strong possibility of being returned to power.

His Conservative Party has 127 deputies out of 308 total seats in the House of Commons. They need another 28 seats to gain an absolute majority.

Earlier this week, Gilles Duceppe of the independent Bloc Quebecois warned that the Conservatives were indeed close to a majority that would allow them to govern outright.

"Mr Harper wants a majority government and he is not kidding. A majority is within reach," Duceppe said as he stressed that his bloc was best-positioned to stop the Conservatives.

But he accused Harper of "violating his own law," referring to a legislation introduced by the prime minister and adopted by parliament which requires a fixed date for elections.

Stephane Dion, the leader of the main opposition Liberal Party, also offered a cynical take on Harper's call for snap elections: "He does not want Canadians to have the time to notice that he is ill-prepared to cope with the economic situation."

In the runup to Sunday's announcement, Conservatives homed in on their primary target among Liberal programmes: a carbon tax aimed at reducing greenhouse gases which is claimed to be "fiscally neutral" but which conservatives have slammed as an ill-conceived plan that could put the entire Canadian economy at risk.

A poll conducted in early September had Dion placing third in the premier stakes with 20 percent, far behind Harper, who was judged the most fit for the job according to 50 per cent of respondents.

2008-09-09T09:51:00.000+07:00

Hurricane Ike Kills 47 in Haitian Village .

PORT-AU-PRINCE - The death toll from Hurricane Ike has risen from 20 to 47 in the Haitian village of Cabaret, Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis said on Sunday, as the impoverished island suffered from the ravages of a succession of devastating storms.

Two swollen rivers flooded the town, destroying and damaging many homes, a legislator from the village said.

The toll adds to the 500 deaths already recorded by the United Nations over the past week as massive storm flooding caused a humanitarian crisis that was worsening by the day.

Damaged infrastructure and continuing rains left aid organisations struggling to bring emergency assistance to hundreds of thousands of storm victims.

Turkey, Armenia vow to end traditional enmity

2008-09-07T12:11:00.000+07:00

YEREVAN - Armenia and Turkey pledged to overcome decades of enmity over the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces after Turkish President Abdullah Gul's path breaking visit to Yerevan for a football match.

Gul, the first Turkish president to visit Armenia, Saturday held talks with counterpart Serzh Sarkisian after which the two agreed there was the "political will" to improve ties frozen for decades over the 1915-1917 massacres by Turkish troops.

The visit was hailed by French and EU President Nicolas Sarkozy as "courageous and historic."

"I believe that my visit was fruitful and that it promises hope for the future," Gul said after returning to Ankara, adding that he had a constructive and sincere" meeting with Sarkisian.

He said he had won Yerevan's support for a new regional grouping in the Caucasus following last month's conflict between Georgia and Russia.

"I was happy to see that we were unanimous with the Armenian side on the need for mutual dialogue to remove barriers to improving bilateral ties.

"I underlined that there is no problem that dialogue cannot solve..."

But in a sign of the uphill task ahead, Gul's arrival at Yerevan's Hrazdan stadium was greeted by loud boos and hisses by Armenian fans.

Amid tight security, Gul took his seat behind a special bullet-proof area. The far stronger Turkish side ended up winning the match 2-0.

Sarkisian declared there was a "political will to decide the questions between our countries, so that these problems are not passed on to the next generation."

He also said he had been asked by Gul to attend a return football fixture in Turkey on October 14, but did not say whether or not he had accepted.

The two countries - which have no diplomatic relations - have waged a diplomatic battle over Yerevan's efforts to have the 1915-1917 massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians recognised as genocide.

Several hundred angry protestors lined the route of Gul's motorcade, holding aloft the Armenian flag and nationalist emblems.

At the start of the match about 80 young protesters gathered at a monument to victims of the killings in central Yerevan, laying flowers and lighting torches.

"We want to draw (Gul's) attention to this monument, so he knows it is not standing empty and that people have gathered here to show that the young generation remembers everything," said organiser Airapet Babaian.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their people were killed between 1915 and 1917 in orchestrated massacres during World War I as the Ottoman Empire fell apart - a claim supported by several other countries.

Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues that 300,000-500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with invading Russian troops.

Turkey's footballers were supported by only about 200 forlorn followers in a seating area that could have held 10 times more and was ringed by Armenian police.

Some fans were prepared to embrace the conciliatory message the Turkish and Armenian leaders were trying to put across.

"I'm not interested in football at all," said Ahmet Turkana, a Turkish activist from a pro-democracy group called Young Civilians over for the game, saying the game evoked nationalist passions.

"But today it's different. Football is here to unite, not to divide."

Sevak Sahakian, a Yerevan hotel worker, said: "Everyone knows about it and people are happy because they hope better ties with Turkey will improve daily life. But people aren't enthusiastic because they don't trust the Turks."

Turkey has refused to establish diplomatic ties with Armenia since the former Soviet republic gained independence in 1991.

Urgent inquiry as more personal data missing in Britain

2008-09-07T12:08:00.000+07:00

LONDON - An urgent inquiry was underway in Britain on Sunday after a disc containing the personal details of 5,000 justice staff went missing in yet another embarrassing data loss blunder.

Those affected are employees of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), who may include many prison officers.

"We believe nearly all of this data related to financial information - for example, invoices from Prison Service suppliers," said a Ministry of Justice spokeswoman.

"However, we believe there is also a limited amount of personal information on around 5,000 NOMS employees including their names, dates of birth, National Insurance numbers and employee numbers."

According to a letter obtained by the News of the World newspaper, which it published on Sunday, private contractor EDS told the Prison Service in July that the hard drive had gone astray. The missing disc was last seen in July 2007.

"I am extremely concerned about this missing data," Justice Secretary Jack Straw said in a statement, adding that he was only informed about it on Saturday.

He said he had "ordered an urgent inquiry into the circumstances and the implications of the data loss and the level of risk involved.

"I have also asked for a report as to why I was not informed as soon as my department became aware of this issue. My officials are also in touch with EDS as part of these processes. We take these matters extremely seriously."

The news is the latest in a series of revelations in the past year of government data security blunders, with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) last month admitting that more than 700 laptops had been lost or stolen since 2004.

Last November, the government admitted it had lost confidential records for 25 million Britons who receive child benefit payments, and in January, the MoD revealed that a laptop with details of some 600,000 people interested in joining the armed forces had been stolen from a naval officer.

And the interior ministry admitted Thursday that personal details relating to every criminal in England and Wales had been lost.

PA Consulting informed the Home Office earlier last week that a computer memory stick which also contained information about thousands of prolific criminals was lost by the contractor.

The memory stick contained data on all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales, as well as information from the Police National Computer of around 30,000 people with six or more convictions.

Cheney blasts Russian "brutality", Moscow demands respect

2008-09-07T12:06:00.000+07:00

CERNOBBIO, Italy - US Vice President Dick Cheney accused Russia of using "brutality" and seeking Soviet-style dominance through the Georgia conflict but Russia's leader insisted that the war has changed the world map.

Diplomatic tensions heightened as French President Nicolas Sarkozy prepared a mission to Moscow on Monday to seek a stronger Kremlin commitment to a ceasefire he negotiated to end the five day Russia-Georgia conflict last month.

EU foreign ministers called for Russia to allow a new observer mission into Georgia and two breakaway regions at the heart of the hostilities.

Cheney said the West should take a stand against Russia as he gave an account of a tour to Georgia and two other ex-Soviet states to a conference in Italy on Saturday.

"Russia has a choice to make, and we in the transatlantic alliance have responsibilities," Cheney said after his visit to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine to pledge US support.

"We know that if one country is allowed to unilaterally redraw the borders of another, it will happen - and it will happen again. We know that if we permit a new line to be drawn across Europe, that line will be drawn."

Cheney said Russia appeared to seek a return to the Soviet era and was defying its responsibilities under the French-brokered ceasefire with Georgia by recognising the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

"This chain of aggressive moves and diplomatic reversals has only intensified the concern that many have about Russia's larger objectives. For brutality against a neighbour is simply the latest in a succession of troublesome and unhelpful actions by the Russian government," he said.

He accused Russia of using its oil and gas "as a tool of force and manipulation," and said its sales of "advanced weapons" to Syria and Iran had endangered Middle East peace prospects.

Earlier, Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev asserted his country's claim for international respect and accused the United States of rearming Georgia under the guise of sending humanitarian aid on US Navy ships.

At a meeting of top officials at the Kremlin, Medvedev assertively declared that "Russia is a state that has to be reckoned with from now on."

"We have lived a moment of truth... The world changed after August 8 this year," he said, referring to the date Russian troops entered Georgia to end its attempt to re-establish control over South Ossetia.

Medvedev again criticised the US missions to Georgia that Washington insists are only carrying relief supplies. The latest US vessel docked Friday at the Georgian port of Poti, near to where Russian troops are patrolling.

"I wonder how they would like it if we sent humanitarian assistance using our navy to countries of the Caribbean that have suffered from the recent hurricanes," Medvedev said.

Russia bombed the Black Sea port last month during the conflict and has kept troops near Poti. Medvedev described the aid deliveries as "political pressure" by the West.

RIA Novosti news agency quoted an unnamed Russian intelligence officer saying there were now seven military ships from Germany, Poland, Spain and United States in the Black Sea.

Western countries have called on Russia to withdraw all troops from Georgia immediately and have condemned Moscow's decision to recognise the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

EU foreign ministers, meeting in Avignon, France, called for an international inquiry into the conflict and the rapid deployment of an EU observer mission to Georgia.

The French president travels to Moscow on Monday to push for the full implementation of the ceasefire accord he negotiated last month.

Sarkozy will be accompanied by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

He will in particular seek Russian acceptance of an EU observer mission in Georgia and the setting of a date for international talks on the future of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner revealed that "a translation problem" had fuelled differences in interpreting the peace plan which was signed in French and then translated into English and Russian.

The difficulties have been over what Russia calls "buffer zones" around South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

A passage in the Russian version spoke of security "for South Ossetia and Abkhazia" - whereas the English version spoke of security "in" the two areas, Kouchner said.

Russia insists the "buffer zones" are needed to stop Georgian forces threatening the breakaway provinces.

White House race a cliffhanger as home stretch looms

2008-09-07T12:05:00.000+07:00

WASHINGTON - The historic, twisting, cliff-hanger White House race is swinging into an eight-week sprint to the finish, with John McCain and Barack Obama locked up in the polls and bare knuckle-rhetoric flying.

Whatever happens, the face of American politics is about to be remade.

Democrat Obama, 47, would be the first black US president, Republican McCain , 72, the oldest-ever inaugurated for a first term and his running mate Sarah Palin, 44, the first woman vice president.

McCain's choice of Palin transformed the mood of the race by sending an electric charge through demoralised Republican conservatives who have proven time and again their power to elect presidents.

"It's a different election," said Buddy Howell, a specialist in presidential rhetoric at Denison University, surveying the shaken up political scene after two raucous party conventions.

With the full impact of last week's Republican jamboree not yet felt, a Gallup tracking poll has Obama up by two points and Rasmussen has him ahead 46 to 45 per cent, confirming McCain squelched his rival's post-convention surge.

If McCain's shock pick of Palin was inspired it remains high risk. The Alaska governor has zero national experience and has yet to venture into any public setting which is not tightly scripted.

Any stumble could deepen voter worries that the self-styled "pitbull" is too inexperienced to understudy an ageing president and cancer survivor.

It is also unclear whether Palin's staunch anti-abortion views and evangelical worldview may scare off independent and undecided voters.

Palin's selection also disarmed McCain's top argument, that Obama, a first-term senator who Republicans view as an empty "celebrity" is too untested to be commander in chief.

So, with voters furious at America's direction and spooked over the economy, the election is coming down to which ticket best represents change.

McCain and Palin seem to have pulled off a neat trick by presenting themselves as reforming mavericks at odds with their unpopular party.

Democrats claim the impression is cosmetic, saying McCain offers simply four more years of the "failed" policies of President George W. Bush.

Obama and vice presidential nominee Joseph Biden, 65, promising "Change You Can Believe In", see the struggling economy as their winning issue.

"If you're OK with the next four years looking just like the last eight, then I am not your candidate," Obama told voters Friday.

"But if you want change - if you want to restore that fundamental promise we've made from generation to generation, then I ask you to give me your vote on November 4."

With the race so close, three presidential debates looming in late September and early October may be the moment when public opinion crystallises.

Gallup surveys show "swing voters" broadly believe Obama is better on the economy and McCain is more trusted on national security and terrorism: so the candidate who can best define the election will likely win.

McCain, a former Vietnam war hero, wants to make the race about character.

"I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's," he said at his convention, framing himself as a statesmen but still a maverick.

If neither candidate breaks out, turnout may be decisive.

Obama has built the most intricate voter mobilisation effort in US history which outfoxed the Clinton machine in the primary race.

"The Obama forces are focused on pushing the ground game hard," said Dan Shea, professor of politics Allegheny College, Pennsylvania.

"The electoral map seems to be shaking out fairly well for Obama."

The Illinois senator hopes to frame a winning sweep by taking midwestern Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania and is targeting once-solidly conservative Virginia and western states like Nevada and Colorado.

McCain needs to cling onto Virginia, peel away at least two of the midwestern trio, with Palin mobilising conservatives, and thwart the Democratic advance out west.

Obama will likely have a financial advantage, as McCain has opted to take US$84 million in capped public financing.

But here again, Palin may help by unleashing a torrent of conservative cash into Republican Party coffers which can be used to support him.

Hanna hits US coast with Hurricane Ike looming

2008-09-07T12:02:00.000+07:00

MIAMI - Tropical Storm Hanna raced across the southeastern United States on Saturday, battering the coast with powerful waves, rain and wind as Florida and Cuba kept a wary eye on a dangerous hurricane.

Hanna, which killed hundreds in Haiti, crashed into the border of North Carolina and South Carolina packing winds of 110 kilometers (70 miles) per hour before weakening as it moved up quickly along the coast.

The storm's winds blew at 85 kph (50 mph) as it churned over Virginia, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said in its 1800 GMT advisory.

The hurricane center warned that Hanna could trigger isolated tornadoes in the states of North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and New York.

The storm was expected to produce four to six inches (10 to 15 centimeters) of rain across the northeast from North Carolina to New York state. "These rainfall amounts could produce flash flooding across these regions," the center said.

Hanna could also produce huge, dangerous waves with a storm surge of one to three feet above normal tide levels, the hurricane center said.

The governors of North Carolina and Virginia declared states of emergency. South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford called for people to evacuate two counties.

Several southern US states have endured a battery of storms in recent weeks, including Tropical Storm Fay late last month and Hurricane Gustav this past week.

Officials expressed concern that people along the coast were not taking Hanna seriously.

"The response is not what we would want it to be," Sam Hodge, emergency manager for Georgetown, South Carolina, told CBS News. "We feel there should be more people evacuating."

As Hanna pounded the US coast, Florida and Cuban officials were closely monitoring the more formidable Hurricane Ike out in the Atlantic.

Haiti's northern coast, which is still recovering from devastating flooding from Hanna, was under a tropical storm warning as Ike approched. But Haiti was not expected to get a direct hit from Ike.

The poorest country in the Americas is already reeling from the destruction inflicted by three storms in as many weeks, including Hanna, which has left more than 500 people dead.

Ike was on course to pass over or near the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Bahamas on Saturday before slamming into northeastern Cuba, another island nation recently battered by this hurricane season's conga line of storms.

Florida Governor Charlie Christ warned that Ike could strike southern Florida by Tuesday.

"Ike has grown rapidly into a dangerous, powerful storm," Christ told a news conference.

"I urge all ... Floridians to use the next few days to prepare. Our ability to prepare now will ensure everyone's safety later," he said. We must be prepared, we must be smart, and we must be vigilant."

Densely populated south Florida, including the cities of Miami and Fort Lauderdale, has not been hit by a major hurricane since Hurricane Andrew in 1992 -- the costliest natural disaster in US history until it was topped by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Cuba, reeling from Hurricane Gustav, which damaged or destroyed 140,000 homes, was also on alert.

"Almost our entire country is in the danger zone," Jose Rubiera, the head of the country's Insmet forecast agency, told Cuban television.

Ike weakened a little before regaining Category Three strength, the mid-level on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, with sustained winds of 185 kilometers (115 miles) per hour, the US hurricane center said.

At 1800 GMT, the hurricane was 215 kilometers (135 miles) east of Grand Turk Island, the center said.

At least 24 dead in Cairo rockslide

2008-09-07T12:00:00.000+07:00

CAIRO - At least 24 people were killed on Saturday when dozens of homes in a northern Cairo shantytown were crushed by a massive rockslide, rescue officials said.

Dozens of people were still believed trapped under the rubble and rescue operations continued into the evening, they said.

Disaster struck at 8:50 am (0650 GMT) when huge boulders estimated by one official as each weighing "hundreds of tonnes" broke off Moqattam hill and struck Isbat Bekhit in the densely populated Manshiyet Nasser neighbourhood.

The section of hill that broke away was estimated at 60 metres (yards) wide and 15 metres long.

According to rescue workers, at 24 people were killed and 36 injured.

But lawmaker Haidar Bardadi said he expected the toll to rise drastically, saying 35 homes had been crushed and between 150 and 200 people were trapped beneath the rubble.

Rescuers used their bare hands to shift debris in a desperate bid to search for victims while Police cordoned off the area and specialist dog handlers were deployed to try to locate survivors.

But rescue teams were forced to wait for five hours for cranes and special heavy lifting machinery to arrive before they could move the rocks.

"It was horrible, like an earthquake," said Sarghali Gharib, who lost eight members of his family in the rockslide -- five sisters, a sister-in-law and her two children.

The reason for the rockfall, which came at a time when many people were still at home resting during the first weekend of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, was not immediately known.

But witnesses said work had been taking place on the hill for several weeks, and that the authorities had been warned about the dangers.

"They (authorities) were doing some work up on the hill. I am sure this is what caused the rockslide," said shoemaker Mohamed Gaber.

Mohamed al-Sayyed, 80, too blamed the authorities. "They had said they would evacuate the entire neighbourhood in order to set up an industrial zone. We were happy about this... but they did no such thing."

Driver Abdel Latin Hossam said "there had already been some landslides, slightly hurting some people."

The interior ministry said in a statement that plans were underway to evacuate Isbat Bekhit in a month's time.

An AFP journalist at the scene said there was panic as residents of the poor neighbourhood searched frantically for missing friends and relatives.

"Two years ago the authorities warned us that it would fall on top of us, and today the drama has arrived," said Jamal Badr, 32, whose brick-built home was buried in the rockfall.

Most of the brick-built dwellings in the district have two floors and were put up without adhering to planning regulations and without construction permits.

The arid Moqattam hill is broken up by chalky rock slopes, and a number of unofficial housing areas are huddled at its base, along the length of a main road into the city.

Members of the Zabbalin community live there, Christian Copts who work mainly in collecting and sorting the rubbish created by a sprawling capital city that is home to about 20 million people.

Egypt has a poor track record of building safety often blamed on the flouting of construction regulations, particularly involving adding extra floors without permission.

In July five people were killed, including seven-year-old twins, when a three-storey building in the Nile Delta collapsed.

Last December 35 people were killed when a 12-storey building in Alexandria came down. Two years earlier, in the same city, the collapse of a six-storey building killed 19 people. Three extra floors had been added illegally.

Tougher legislation against construction firms that ignore the law was introduced in 1996 after a building in Cairo's residential suburb of Heliopolis caved in, killing 64 people.

Rice makes Algeria stop on North Africa tour

2008-09-07T11:58:00.000+07:00

ALGIERS - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice touched down in Algeria's capital for several hours Saturday, continuing a North Africa tour that earlier took in Tunisia and Libya.

Rice was greeted at Algiers airport by her Algerian counterpart Mourad Medelci before heading for talks with President Abedelaziz Bouteflika, focussing on the fight against terror, the future of the disputed Western Sahara and the strengthening of economic ties, Algeria's state radio reported.

She was to leave later Saturday for Morocco, the last leg of her tour.

Rice had been in Tunisia where the United States has key military ties and is also seeking to conclude a free trade accord.

Rice had arrived in Tunis from Tripoli where she was the first US secretary of state to visit for 55 years and held a landmark meeting with Muammar Gaddafi to seal a US-Libya rapprochement.

Rice said Saturday that the United States and Libya had decided "to move forward in a positive way" and deal "as well as we can with issues of the past."

Gaddafi and Rice exchanged gifts -- he gave her a lute instrument and she presented a shield with the department's coat of arms.

But the tensions have not completely disappeared.

Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelrahman Mohammed Shalgam said his country does not need "pressure" or "lectures" on human rights, one of the issues raised by Rice in talks.

Rice declared however: "After many, many years it is a good thing that the US and Libya found a way forward." She praised some "strategic choices" made by Libya.

"This is a good time for a constructive relationship between the US and Libya to emerge," Rice said.

Shalgam said the world has changed and Rice's groundbreaking visit to Libya was proof of the new mood.

"The time of confrontation is over. There may still be differences of opinion but this will not endanger the relationship."

Rice earlier described her brief visit as "historic".

"That is not to say that everything has by any means been settled between the United States and Libya. There is a long way to go," she told reporters travelling with her.

"But I do believe that it has demonstrated that the United States doesn't have permanent enemies. It demonstrates that when countries are prepared to make strategic changes in direction the United States is prepared to respond."

Diplomats said Rice wanted Iran and North Korea to know that they could benefit from rapprochement with the West, highlighting Libya's commitment to abandon nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programmes.

Rice met Gaddafi -- once described by President Ronald Reagan as a "mad dog" -- at his Tripoli residence, Bab al Azizia, which was hit in US bombing raids ordered by Reagan in 1986.

After talks they shared an Iftar meal which breaks the fast during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Rice's visit comes less than a month after the two governments reached an agreement on a plan to compensate US victims of Libyan attacks and Libyan victims of US reprisals.

Both sides acknowledged they have differences and Rice said she had raised with Gaddafi the issue of human rights, including the case of jailed dissident Fathi al-Jahmi, 66.

"It is important to have dialogue, including on issues of human rights," she said at the news conference.

"As this relationship goes forward and deepens it will continue to be important for us to have transparency and to talk about these issues in a respectful way."

Shalgam, however, clearly angry at the question raised at the news conference, said Jahmi was receiving medical treatment at a private clinic.

"We care about our own people," he said. "We do need not anybody to come put pressure on us or give us lectures."

US-Libya ties were suspended in 1981 when Washington put Gaddafi's regime on its list of state sponsors of terrorism. It was forced even further into isolation after the bombing of a US airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.

The White House said Rice's visit marked a "new chapter" and that cooperation could expand in education and culture, commerce, science and technology, and security and human rights.

The last US secretary of state to visit was John Foster Dulles in 1953, who met King Idris -- the ruler ousted in a bloodless military coup led in 1969 by Gaddafi.

Last year, Gaddafi proclaimed his love for "Leezza," telling Al-Jazeera television: "I support my darling black African woman. I admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders."

Gaddafi's December 2003 announcement that he was giving up weapons programmes followed secret talks with the United States and Britain.

Rice moved on to Tunisia, a strong US military ally with whom it is trying to negotiate a free trade deal. She will go from there to Algeria and Morocco.

Ruling party predicts victory in Angola's first post-war vote

2008-09-07T11:56:00.000+07:00

LUANDA - Angola's ruling party on Saturday predicted a large victory in elections which observers called "free and transparent" despite delays that marred the oil-rich country's first peacetime poll.

The leftwing MPLA party, which has been in power for over three decades, said that based on preliminary results it said it had seen, the outcome of the election surpassed its expectations.

"We are going to win big," Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola spokesman Rui Falcao told Portugese news agency Lusa just after the polls officially closed Saturday at 7:00 pm (1800 GMT).

The vote got off to a rocky start Friday with chaotic scenes at polling stations in the capital Luanda that did not get ballot papers and other voting supplies.

The electoral commission decided to extend voting for one day for some polling stations but Angola's main opposition party Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) has called on Angola's Constitutional court to annul the vote.

Despite the initial confusion Angolans turned out in force Friday and Saturday to vote for the first time since the 2002 end of fighting that claimed 500,000 lives.

In the capital Luanda, many voters came back to cast their ballots after some polling stations on Friday did not open at all or were forced to close early because they ran out of ballot papers.

In the poor Samba neighbourhood in Luanda, 30-year-old Arlindo Dangeroux managed to vote Saturday afternoon after being turned away from the polling station Friday.

"It was a very difficult day yesterday, I was in the queue but it was very crowded and then the ballot papers ran out and I didn't vote," he told AFP.

"I'm very happy, it is the first time I have voted, I never had the opportunity before."

Angola's main opposition party UNITA, which already denounced the run-up to the vote as unfair, said Saturday that it plans to contest the results.

"UNITA has already contested this election. We will continue to voice our argument," Kamalata Numa, UNITA secretary general, said on the party's radio station.

"The first step is to raise our issues with the CNE (electoral commission) and later we will also involve the constitutional court on the unconstitutionality of the electoral process," Numa added Saturday.

Despite the opposition challenge to the vote international observers seemed satisfied with the elections.

The observer mission of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional bloc said the vote was "peaceful, free, transparent and credible" and reflected "the will of the people".

The head of the European Union observer mission, who on Friday morning called the voting process a disaster, was more cautious.

"There have been problems and they're trying to change them," EU observation chief Luisa Morgantini said.

"We'll see what will happen," she added.

The EU mission said it would delay its official report on the elections, seen as a popularity test for President Jose Eduardo dos Santos ahead of planned presidential elections next year, until Monday.

According to UNITA the fact that the problems with polling stations affected mainly the poor neighbourhoods of Luanda where 90 per cent of the capitals five to seven million inhabitants live is a deliberate tactic to discourage voting in areas where the MPLA was not expected to get a majority.

Angola has a booming economy that stems from its vast oil and diamond riches but over two-thirds of its people remain mired in poverty, living on less than two dollars a day.

The state media has spoken of a massive turn-out with millions of voters but no official figures have been given yet. About half of Angola's 17 million inhabitants had registered to vote.

Angola attempted to hold an election in 1992 - but UNITA claimed it was fixed, withdrew and new hostilities started.

Separately, the Portuguese journalists union SJ protested with the Angolan government after five Portuguese media were refused visas and could not report on the election in the former Portuguese colony, an SJ statement said.

On Thursday the weekly Expresso and Visao, the daily newspaper Publico as well as the Sic television network and Catholic radio station Renascenca said they had not received a reply to their visa applications.

McCain, Obama battle over economy, experience

2008-09-07T11:50:00.000+07:00

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado - Presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain worked to woo voters in key battleground states Saturday, highlighting their personal histories while stressing the sharp differences in their policies.

McCain introduced his running mate Sarah Palin, popular among staunch conservatives and religious "values" voters, but widely unknown on the national stage before last week.

The Republican running mates are playing up their reputations as reformers, hoping to focus on their willingness to buck the party line in order to faithfully serve their country.

"We're going to go across the small towns of America and we're going to give them hope and we're going to give them confidence, and we will bring about change in Washington, DC," McCain vowed Friday.

"You know, I've been called a maverick. That's somebody who marches to the beat of his own drum. And sometimes it's meant as a compliment, and sometimes it's not," he said.

On Saturday, Palin gave the campaign's weekly radio address for the first time, continuing to outline her compelling personal story as a small town, middle class, working mother of five.

"When I ran for city council of my hometown, and then for mayor, I didn't need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and I knew their families, too," she said. "I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment, and I have no plans to join."

But a new opinion poll showed American voters remained lukewarm about the youthful Alaska governor, doubting her readiness for major league politics after a mere 20 months at the state's helm.

While six in 10 of those surveyed approved of McCain's selection of Palin, only 42 percent believed she had the kind of experience it takes to serve effectively as president if that became necessary, according to the ABC News poll.

In the same poll, Obama's vice presidential pick, US Senator Joseph Biden, passed the experience bar with 66 percent approval, the survey found.

For his part, Obama tried to steer the debate toward the flagging US economy by slamming his Republican rival's focus on personal history as light on substance.

"Since he's not offering much change, that's why you didn't hear much about his plans for the future this week," Obama told a meeting of the influential AARP, a pressure group for older Americans.

"You didn't hear much about their health care plan that would actually tax your benefits for the first time ever ... or how they plan to fix the economy they've ruined or help you live comfortably in your later years," he said.

"I'm running for president because I believe this election is all about the issues. It's not about me, or John McCain, it's about you," he said. "It's about your lives. It's about your future."

US unemployment jumped to a five-year high of 6.1 percent in August as 84,000 jobs were slashed, according to a report released Friday that sparked fresh fears about recession in the world's biggest economy.

The jump in joblessness is likely to bring the economy into focus as the campaign heads into the final months.

"The big jump in the unemployment rate in August spells trouble for the Republicans in November," Augustine Faucher at Economy.com said after the numbers were released on Friday.

"Historically, the larger the increase in the unemployment rate, the larger the share of votes that go to the party that does not hold the presidency."

Cheney rallies NATO to ward off Russian power grab

2008-09-07T11:47:00.001+07:00

CERNOBBIO, Italy - Casting Moscow as a brutal regime that aims to recapture its Soviet-era dominance, US Vice President Dick Cheney on Saturday urged NATO to stand together against threats to democracy.

In the US administration's most hawkish tone since Russia's five-day war with Georgia last month over breakaway territory, Cheney reminded the West of its "responsibilities" and slammed Russia's "chain of aggressive moves."

Cheney's tough talk came hours after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned that Moscow was a "force to be reckoned with," as tensions between Russia and the West soared to heights unseen since the Cold War.

"Russia has a choice to make, and we in the transatlantic alliance have responsibilities," Cheney told a gathering of world political and financial leaders in Italy, after visiting Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine this week to pledge US support.

"Our prevailing need is for unity of purpose," he said.

"We know that if one country is allowed to unilaterally redraw the borders of another, it will happen -- and it will happen again. We know that if we permit a new line to be drawn across Europe, that line will be drawn."

Cheney hailed the demise of the Soviet Union as a historic milestone for freedom and said that although the West had left those days behind, Russia appeared to seek a return to the Soviet era.

"At times it appears that Russian policy is based upon the desire to impose its will on countries it once dominated, instead of any balanced assessment of security interests," Cheney said.

He recalled Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's statement that "he regards the demise of the Soviet Union as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century."

"Opinions differ, so let me state my own: The demise of the Soviet Union was inevitable, and was the greatest forward step for human liberty in the last sixty years," he added.

"The old ways are gone, and the Cold War is over."

He also said Russia was defying its responsibilities under a French-brokered ceasefire and declared Russia was on an "opposite course" from the West.

"Though aware of these responsibilities, Russia has yet to meet them. Indeed, it has taken the opposite course, by recognizing South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states," Cheney said.

Cheney pointed to Russia's military action over the rebel region of South Ossetia, as well as Russian arms sales to Middle East militants, its energy prowess in the region, threats against NATO-member Poland and its defiance of a French-brokered ceasefire accord.

"Recent occurrences in Georgia, beginning with the military invasion by Russia, have been flatly contrary to some of our most deeply held beliefs," Cheney said.

"Russian forces crossed an internationally recognized border, into a sovereign state; fueled and fomented an internal conflict; conducted acts of war without regard for innocent life," he said.

"All this against a nation that has a democratically elected government and an orientation towards the West," Cheney said.

"This chain of aggressive moves and diplomatic reversals has only intensified the concern that many have about Russia's larger objectives. For brutality against a neighbor is simply the latest in a succession of troublesome and unhelpful actions by the Russian government," he said.

"Let us reaffirm that NATO will provide steady leadership to combat all threats to democracy, whether from outside coercion, or terrorism or the spread of deadly technology."

The United States led Western condemnation of Russia's military action in Georgia. This week it announced a one-billion-dollar aid package to help the country rebuild infrastructure and care for displaced people.

Russia has sought to rally ex-Soviet allies to its side and ratcheted up anti-US rhetoric, while maintaining what it calls peacekeepers inside Georgian territory.

Earlier in Moscow, Medvedev renewed accusations that the United States was rearming Georgia under the guise of humanitarian aid and warned: "Russia is a state that has to be reckoned with from now on."

Cheney's trip is part of US diplomatic push to advance NATO membership talks for Georgia and Ukraine, which Russia opposes, and to press for alternate oil and gas pipelines so that the region is less dependent on Russian energy.

Cheney delivered his address after talks with world leaders including Israeli President Shimon Peres and former Spanish president Jose Aznar at the Ambrosetti forum near Lake Como.

On his tour of Baku, Tbilisi and Kiev this week, he pledged Washington's "deep and abiding interest" in those countries' "well being and security."

New York City Waterfalls draws different responses from public

2008-09-07T11:45:00.000+07:00

NEW YORK - In the urban environment of New York City, many people are surprised to see signs of the natural environment. That contrast is what inspired artist Olafur Eliasson to design four massive falls as a work of public art for the city.

Eliasson, whose work is often inspired by elements such as wind, light and water, hopes the waterfalls can create a collective art experience for New York residents and visitors alike.

The four giant waterfalls scattered around the East River in New York City are drawing praise, criticism, but most of all, discussion – which is exactly what the artist had hoped for.

Thanks to organisations like the Public Art Fund – a non-profit organisation promoting exhibitions in public spaces – he was able to execute his vision.

Rochelle Steiner, director of Public Art Fund, said: "We went to great lengths to make sure it was constructed well, and also to make sure that environmental issues were taken into account. We wanted to make sure all the aquatic life is protected."

Towering as high as 36 metres, Eliasson chose to build the US$15 million New York City Waterfalls from scaffolding – a regular part in the Manhattan landscape.

Pumps in the East River suck up 132,000 litres of water a minute, which then flows from the falls right back into the river, so no river water is wasted and there is no harm to the natural environment.

The city hopes the exhibit will bring in more than US$55 million in tourism dollars, and the project is already attracting worldwide attention due to its ambitious scale and concept.

Doug Stoveland, a US tourist from California, said: "When somebody's wiling to give back to society like that, it's great to partake in it, and to see how people mix the natural and historical element of things to get their ideas across."

Some others, however, are less impressed.

"I actually think it ruins the appearance of the Brooklyn Bridge. I can understand what the artist is trying to capture, but I don't think he captured it," one tourist said.

The New York City Waterfalls is visible from many places in Manhattan, but most tourists choose to see them by boat to allow them a closer look, and maybe even a splash.

2008-09-03T15:32:00.010+07:00

Aid plane crashes into mountain in Congo

KINSHASA - A plane carrying humanitarian aid with 17 people on board crashed into a mountain near Bukavu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a United Nations source said Tuesday.

"The plane was found 15 kilometres (eight miles) northwest of Bukavu airport. There were 15 passengers and two crew on board," said the spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Kinshasa, Christophe Illemassene.

The US-based company which contracted the plane, Air Serv, said in a statement there were "no known survivors".

The company provides air transport for the international humanitarian community.

The plane has been found on a steep ridge eight miles (15 kilometres) northwest of Bukavu, it said.

"The aircraft was piloted by two crew members and carried 15 passengers. Ariel survey by helicopter indicates that there are no known survivors," it said.

The plane was reported missing late Monday after it failed to land as scheduled at Bukavu, provincial capital of South Kivu.

The circumstances of the accident are still unknown. The weather was reported to have been particularly bad in the mountainous South Kivu region on Monday, UN sources said.

Financed by international donors, Air Serv normally carries humanitarian aid workers throughout the DRC. It also operates in Chad, Uganda, Mozambique, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Air accidents are relatively frequent in the DRC. On April 15, a DC-9 operated by a Congolese company crashed near Goma, killing at least 47 people and injuring more than 100.

All Congolese carriers are on a European Union blacklist banning them from operating in EU airspace over safety concerns.

2008-09-03T15:32:00.009+07:00

Russia regrets freeze in EU talks

MOSCOW - Russia on Tuesday hit out at EU leaders for freezing strategic talks over the Georgia crisis, but was also relieved that no economic sanctions were ordered.

As Russia and its critics kept up their diplomatic offensives, US Vice President Dick Cheney was to head for Georgia in a show of US support while Russia's foreign minister was to hold talks in Turkey.

EU leaders decided at an emergency summit in Brussels on Monday to freeze talks on a new EU-Russia accord with Britain and Eastern European nations pushing for a hard line against Russia's military offensive in Georgia and its recognition of two separatist regions.

"The intention to freeze talks about a new partnership agreement is a cause for regret, although Moscow over the past two years has got used to artificial obstacles to this document," a foreign ministry statement said.

"As a whole, we believe that our partnership with the European Union should not be hostage to differences of opinion," the statement said, adding that Moscow was "ready for constructive, fair cooperation" with the EU.

Russia had repeatedly warned the EU against imposing economic sanctions in retaliation for Russia's actions in Georgia.

And Russian newspapers claimed a diplomatic "victory" in avoiding an economic backlash. The Tvoi Den tabloid poured scorn on the EU summit with a front-page headline "Europe Can Keep Sucking Our Oil and Gas".

A cartoon mocked Russia's chief European critics, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, his foreign minister, David Miliband, and Polish President Lech Kaczynski.

A headline in the Vremya Novostei newspaper said: "The EU reprimanded Russia only in words." The government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta said the European Union should "lap up" the consequences of Georgian "aggression".

The fact that the EU had not gone ahead with sanctions "looks, at least at this stage, like a clear victory for proponents of dialogue with Moscow," said Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

Russian officials were to give their verdict later on the emergency EU summit to react to Russia's war with Georgia.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was due in Turkey for talks on the Georgia crisis with Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan.

US Vice President Dick Cheney leaves Washington on Tuesday on a four-nation show of support for US allies Georgia and Ukraine after the conflict.

Talks on how to offset reliance on Russian oil and gas are high on the agenda for the visit to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Italy. Cheney will be the highest ranking US official to visit Tbilisi since Russian tanks rolled into its small neighbour.

China meanwhile urged Russia and Georgia to resolve the conflict through dialogue, again refusing to openly choose sides in the dispute.

"We hope the relevant countries properly resolve the issues through dialogue and consultation," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told journalists in Beijing.

Russian forces have remained deep inside Georgian territory since their August 8 offensive to smash a Georgian attack on the separatist province of South Ossetia.

Russia's actions in the conflict have drawn fierce Western condemnation.

At the EU summit, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he would visit Moscow and Tbilisi next Monday with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana for talks in the two capitals.

"The meeting on September 8 is going to be crucial for relations between the EU and Russia," said Sarkozy, who brokered a six-point ceasefire agreement that ended the conflict between Georgia and Russia in August.

The EU voiced support for Georgia and promised help with reconstruction and agreed to send a "fact-finding mission" immediately - with the possibility later of "an increased European Union commitment on the ground".

The EU leaders also committed to organising an international donor conference to drum up aid for Georgia's reconstruction.

2008-09-03T15:32:00.008+07:00

Medvedev says Saakashvili "no longer" Georgia president

MOSCOW - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday he no longer considers his counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili to be Georgia's leader, charging in an interview that Saakashvili is a "political corpse."

"For us, the present Georgian regime has collapsed. President Saakashvili no longer exists in our eyes. He is a political corpse," Medvedev said.

Medvedev was responding to a question from a journalist from Italian station RAI on Russia's possible participation in a conference on the Caucasus in Rome in the coming weeks where Saakashvili would participate.

Medvedev said in the interview broadcast on Russian television that Moscow was ready to hold talks with the international community "on all sorts of questions, including post-conflict resolution in the region" of the Caucasus.

"But we would like the international community to remember who began the aggression and who is responsible for people's deaths," he said.

Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said last month that Italy intended to host an international conference on the Caucasus in Rome in October.

In an interview published on Monday, Frattini said he would go to Russia and Georgia this week in a bid to ease hostilities between the two neighbours.

Medvedev also said on Tuesday that Moscow did not fear being expelled from the Group of Eight industrialised nations over the Georgian crisis, as has been suggested by some in the West.

The Kremlin leader said the suggestions were being made in relation to the upcoming presidential election in the United States.

US Republican candidate John McCain has fiercely condemned Russia's actions in its conflict with Georgia, and demanded that Moscow be barred from the G8 rich nations club as punishment.

"The calls that are being heard, I explain them exclusively by the American electoral technology as a way of raising popularity based on conflict," Medvedev said in the interview.

He further said NATO "would lose more" than Moscow by breaking relations with Russia.

"We do not see anything dramatic, anything complicated in the suspension of relations (with NATO) if our partners desire it," said Medvedev. "But it seems that they would lose more."

Russia sent tanks and troops into Georgia on August 8, a day after Georgia launched an offensive to regain control of breakaway South Ossetia.

Moscow halted its offensive after five days but refused to withdraw all its troops, saying they are on a peacekeeping mission. Georgia has labelled them an occupation force.

2008-09-03T15:32:00.007+07:00

Israel foils Hezbollah kidnap plots abroad

JERUSALEM - Israeli security forces have foiled at least five attempts by the Lebanese Hezbollah militia to abduct Israeli businessmen in Africa, Asia, and South America, Israeli newspapers reported on Tuesday.

Each time, Hezbollah -- which fought a bloody war against Israel in the summer of 2006 -- tried to use "sleeper cells" embedded in far-flung Shiite Muslim communities, the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot reported.

Yediot and other newspapers cited unnamed Israeli security officials and said further details about the plots remain under official censorship.

Israel has been on high alert since senior Hezbollah commander Imad Mughnieh was assassinated in a car bombing in Damascus in February in an attack welcomed by the Jewish state but for which it denied any responsibility.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah blamed Israel for the attack and has repeatedly vowed to avenge the killing.

Last month, Israel issued a warning to its citizens living and travelling abroad to take extra precautions against possible Hezbollah attacks or abductions.

Israel's counter-terror bureau issued the warning at a peak travelling season for Israelis, calling on tourists and businessmen to take special precaution in hotels, restaurants and recreational spots.

Israelis were also urged to turn down "unexpected and alluring proposals in both business and recreation" and to alter routines and habits.

In July 2006 Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid, sparking a 34-day war in which over 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and over 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed.

The bodies of the two abducted soldiers were returned to Israel as part of a prisoner swap in July.

2008-09-03T15:32:00.006+07:00

Bush says McCain is "ready to lead"

WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush on Tuesday urged Republicans to rally around his chosen successor, John McCain, calling him right on the Iraq war and declaring him "ready to lead" the United States.

Bush declared that McCain "understands the lessons" of the September 11, 2001 attacks, including the need to "stay on the offense" against terrorists, and called him "one senator above all" in his support for the war in Iraq.

"He is ready to lead this nation," Bush said in excerpts of what had been planned as a 15-minute speech in person until Hurricane Gustav battered the US Gulf Coast, three years after the botched response to Hurricane Katrina.

But the campaign of Democrat Barack Obama charged that Bush was merely passing the torch to a candidate who would offer four more years of "disastrous" policies," trying to saddle McCain with the president's legacy.

Nearly eight years after winning the White House, Bush was to speak by satellite for less than eight minutes to his party's national convention in a mutually agreed long-distance show of support for the Arizona senator.

The vastly unpopular president's support is both blessing and burden for McCain -- Bush rates more highly among core Republicans than the senator, but risks alienating independents who will decide the November 4 election.

Obama and his allies have sought to paint McCain as essentially bringing the United States another four years of Bush, whose job approval ratings slump around 30 percent.

Bush, who bested McCain in the bitter battle for the Republican White House nomination in 2000, focused in the excerpts on decorated Vietnam War veteran McCain's life story while playing up his national security credentials.

"John McCain's life is a story of service above self," said the president, an echo of the Republican campaign theme that McCain's service as a Navy pilot, five and a half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, and US Senate career have forged his White House mettle.

Bush also played up the national trauma of the September 11, 2001 terrorist strikes, which led Bush to war in Afghanistan and which he invoked to justify the US-led March 2003 invasion of Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein.

"We live in a dangerous world. And we need a president who understands the lessons of September 11, 2001: That to protect America, we must stay on the offense, stop attacks before they happen, and not wait to be hit again. The man we need is John McCain," said Bush.

The president also stressed McCain's "maverick" image, which has taken a beating over the past year as the senator has reversed his positions on key policies in ways that make him more appealing to the party's core supporters.

"John is an independent man who thinks for himself. He's not afraid to tell you when he disagrees," said Bush.

Bush said McCain's "independence and character helped change history" because of his support for the January 2007 escalation of US troop levels in Iraq, which has helped yield starkly lower levels of sectarian violence.

"Many in Congress said it had no chance of working. Yet one senator above all had faith in our troops and the importance of their mission -- and that was John McCain," he said.

The US president, who took office in January 2001, said he was "optimistic" that McCain and his running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, would beat Democratic rival Barack Obama in the November 4 elections.

"When the debates have ended, and all the ads have run, and it is time to vote, Americans will look closely at the judgment, the experience, and the policies of the candidates -- and they will cast their ballots for the McCain-Palin ticket," said Bush.

The Obama team hit back at Bush with a sardonic statement from campaign manager David Plouffe.

"George Bush enthusiastically passed the torch to the man who's earned it by voting with him 90 percent of the time," said Plouffe.

The statement said McCain would "continue this president's legacy for the next four years, his disastrous economic policies, his foreign policy that hasn't made us safer, and his misguided war in Iraq that's costing us 10 billion dollars a month."

The man George Bush needs may be John McCain, but the change America needs is Barack Obama," said Plouffe.

2008-09-03T15:32:00.005+07:00

Pelosi makes historic Hiroshima visit

HIROSHIMA, Japan - US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi laid flowers Tuesday at a memorial to the Hiroshima atomic bombing, becoming the highest-ranking sitting US official to pay respects at the site.

Pelosi, a Democrat who is the third top US official after the president and vice president, bowed both before and after laying a bunch of carnations and white lilies on a hot sunny day in the southwestern Japanese city.

Pelosi was invited to Hiroshima - which was devastated by a US atomic bomb on August 6, 1945 near the end of World War II - for a meeting of parliament speakers of the Group of Eight major industrial nations.

"The visit to Hiroshima is a powerful reminder of the destructiveness of war, underscoring the urgency for all nations to promote peace and to build a better world," Pelosi wrote in a museum guestbook.

Schoolchildren waved the flags of Japan, the United States and other G8 nations and sang hymns calling for world peace after Pelosi and other parliament speakers offered flowers in honour of those killed in the bombing.

The speakers then headed to the Hiroshima bombing museum, where Akihiro Takahashi, 77, recounted his experience of living through the world's first nuclear attack.

Pelosi appeared emotional at times, nodding and grimacing as Takahashi spoke and showed horrific images of bombing victims who were covered by severe burns or who had lost their limbs and eyeballs.

After Takahashi's speech, Pelosi shook his hand and quietly moved her lips to say, "Thank you."

Takahashi, who once served as the chief of the museum, said he wanted to know what the G8 speakers, particularly Pelosi, thought about his presentation.

"She is the number three person in line to press the nuclear button," he later told reporters.

"For us atomic bombing victims, all nuclear weapons are evil. I really wanted to know how much they understood after seeing the museum and hearing my story," he said.

More than 140,000 people were killed in the attack on Hiroshima, either instantly or in the days and weeks ahead from radiation or horrific burns.

The United States dropped a second nuclear bomb on Nagasaki three days later, killing another 70,000 people. Japan surrendered less than a week later, ending World War II.

No sitting US presidents have visited the Hiroshima memorial, although Jimmy Carter visited after leaving office and Richard Nixon came as a private citizen between his stints as vice president and president.

Hiroshima residents said they hoped that one day a sitting US president would visit.

"I hope they will have the courage to come here. It doesn't matter how late the visit has been since the war," said local resident Hiroaki Takachiho, 76.

Americans "are the leaders of the world. Unless America takes steps to scrap nuclear weapons, nothing will happen," he said as he watched the flower-laying ceremony.

Mainstream opinion in Japan almost unanimously considers the atomic bombings to have been immoral, with many arguing that the United States was trying to show its strength against the Soviet Union in anticipation of the Cold War.

Views are much more divided in the United States, where veteran groups passionately argue that the decision to drop the atomic bombs forced Japan into early surrender and saved many lives.

The Hiroshima visit was arranged by the speaker of Japan's lower house, Yohei Kono, an outspoken defender of the country's post-World War II pacifism.

"I hope this will become a starting point for as many political leaders of the world as possible to come to Hiroshima or Nagasaki to see for themselves what happened here," said Kono, a former foreign minister.

"If they see it, I have no doubt that they would only strengthen their resolve to work towards nuclear disarmament," he said.

2008-09-03T15:32:00.004+07:00

New Orleans levees intact as Gustav tears across Louisiana

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana - Hurricane Gustav pounded the US Gulf Coast with ferocious rain and wind, but the partially rebuilt levees in New Orleans appeared to be holding three years after Katrina swamped the fabled jazz city.

"Looks like we are not totally out of the woods, but we're getting close," New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said at a news conference, warning that a "last potential storm surge" could hit the area west of the Mississippi River.

An estimated 10,000 residents remained in the city after nearly two million people fled coastal areas over the weekend -- an exodus authorities described as the biggest evacuation in US history.

City officials said earlier the levee system was "in good shape and holding," despite still being a work in renewal after floodwaters unleashed by Katrina catastrophically washed away the protective embankments in 2005.

"No levee breaches have been reported. Only approximately six inches (15 centimetres) of flooding seen in the Upper Ninth Ward," a statement by the city government said.

In Plaquemines parish 55 miles (90 kilometres) southeast of New Orleans, authorities scrambled to prevent two levees from bursting as water spilled over the structures.

"We have sandbags coming but are fighting a losing battle," parish president Bill Nungesser told local radio, adding to remaining residents: "Get out, and get out now."

About 21,500 people live in Plaquemines on a Gulf coast peninsula. At least 2,000 residents who live on its west bank decided to ride out the storm, Nungesser said.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal cited unconfirmed reports that three critically ill patients had died while being transported to safer ground. New Orleans officials said there were no storm-related deaths in the city.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the search and rescue effort was beginning with boats, helicopters and military aircraft looking for stranded people.

"We have to be on the lookout for people who might find themselves to be in danger, either because they're trapped or because they're stranded or because they're without food and water," he told CNN.

New Orleans officials warned residents that a dusk-to-dawn curfew remained in force. Nagin reported only one arrest in New Orleans for looting.

Regional utility company Entergy reported that 50 per cent of New Orleans -- just over 100,000 households -- was without electricity as Gustav's howling winds tore down power poles and turned loose objects into unguided missiles.

Fallen tree limbs and downed power lines crisscrossed streets in New Orleans' Upper Ninth Ward -- ground zero of the 2005 disaster. The wind ripped siding, gutters and roof tiles from houses.

A convoy of National Guard soldiers rode through flood water in the poor neighbourhood, determined to ferret out any residents defiantly seeking to outlast the hurricane, and to prevent a repeat of the post-Katrina anarchy.

The Pentagon has authorised deploying up to 50,000 reservists, with just over 14,000 already stationed across the coast.

President George W Bush took a more hands-on role after suffering a political pummelling over the botched federal response to Katrina, which killed some 1,800 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

"The coordination on this storm is a lot better than during Katrina," he said during a visit to Austin, Texas to oversee relief preparations.

But Bush, who had scrapped plans to attend this week's Republican national convention, added: "The storm has yet to pass, it's a serious event."

Katrina hit New Orleans as a stronger hurricane than Gustav, and while initial storm damage was limited, its most devastating effects came in the following days when the city's levees collapsed under the weight of water.

New Orleans's snaking system of levees is still being rebuilt at a cost of 15 billion US dollars, and Gustav will add to the financial strain of rebuilding a region still reeling from that devastation three years ago.

California-based consultancy Eqecat estimated that insured losses would range from six to 10 billion US dollars. About five per cent of oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico will be lost for a year, it added.

The monster storm, which killed more than 80 people in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica, slammed ashore Monday morning as a Category Two hurricane packing winds of 110 miles (175 kilometres) per hour.

About four hours later Gustav was downgraded to Category One as it weakened overland, but wind gusts were still reaching 75 miles (120 kilometres) per hour in the evening, the National Hurricane Centre reported.

The hurricane triggered a truce on the presidential campaign trail as Republican John McCain curtailed the first day of his party's national convention in St Paul, Minnesota.

Both McCain and Democrat Barack Obama appealed to their supporters to volunteer their time and money for relief efforts.

2008-09-03T15:32:00.003+07:00

McCain "proud" of Palin as Republicans launch defence

BRECKSVILLE, Ohio - John McCain insisted on Tuesday he was "very proud" of Sarah Palin, as Republicans rolled out a major defence of their under-fire vice presidential pick, decrying attacks against her as "sexist."

As the Republican National Convention got back to politics after a first day curtailed by Hurricane Gustav, the McCain camp, the Republican Party and the White House backed Palin as she faces a string of personal and legal storms.

"I want to repeat again how excited I am to have Sarah Palin, the great governor of Alaska as my running mate," Republican White House hopeful McCain said during a campaign stop in Ohio.

"America's excited and they're going to be even more excited once they see her tomorrow night. I'm very, very proud of the impression she's made on all of America and I am looking forward to serving with her."

Palin is due to make what will be a high pressure address to the Republican convention on Wednesday night, her first chance to calm a political firestorm over her experience and background.

The Alaska governor announced on Tuesday that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter was pregnant but would have the baby and marry its father.

It also emerged that she had hired a lawyer to defend her into a legislative probe into her alleged abuse of power as Alaska governor.

McCain's top female supporter, trailblazing business executive Carly Fiorina warned that attacks against Palin were taking on a "sexist" tone.

"I am appalled by the Obama campaign's attempts to belittle Governor Sarah Palin's experience," Fiorina said in a statement.

"The facts are that Sarah Palin has made more executive decisions as a mayor and governor than Barack Obama has made in his life," she said referring to the Democratic presidential nominee.

"Because of Hillary Clinton's historic run for the presidency and the treatment she received, American women are more highly tuned than ever to recognise and decry sexism in all its forms.

"They will not tolerate sexist treatment of Governor Palin."

Fiorina's mention of Clinton was no mistake, as the Obama campaign at times struggled to find the right language to attack Clinton, and was accused by some of her supporters of stooping to sexism.

The selection of Palin was seen by some observers as an attempt to appeal to white working class women in swing states who are still disgruntled about Clinton's defeat and have yet to embrace Obama.

However, Palin's record as a staunch foe of abortion is likely to complicate her attempts to woo such voters.

Obama said on Monday in a CNN interview that he had much more experience than Palin, given that he was running a multi-person, multi-million dollar campaign, and she was a first term governor and former small town mayor.

The White House also came to Palin's defence, warning the media not to "exploit" the pregnancy of Palin's teenaged daughter Bristol.

"The president of the United States (George W. Bush) believes that this is a matter that this family has chosen to work through together," and "believes that this is a private family matter," said spokeswoman Dana Perino.

"Whether or not this is an issue in the campaign is actually more up to the media," she added.

Republican leaders on Tuesday decided to resume normal programming at their nominating convention in St Paul, Minnesota, after the opening day was cut short in a show of respect for those in the path of Hurricane Gustav.

Bush, who had been due to appear Monday at the start of the four-day convention, would now address the party faithful on Tuesday by video link, John McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis said.

Other primetime speakers will be former senator and Hollywood actor Fred Thompson and former Democratic senator Joseph Lieberman who broke with his party over Iraq and is a staunch supporter of McCain's hawkish foreign policy.

Two new polls meanwhile showed McCain's Democratic rival Barack Obama in the November 4 presidential elections, had won a significant bounce in the polls following his historic nominating convention in Denver last week.

A USA Today-Gallup poll said Obama had garnered 50 percent, compared to 43 percent for McCain. While a new CBS/New York Times poll put Obama and his vice presidential pick Joseph Biden up 48 percent to 40 percent, ahead of the November 4 election.

2008-09-03T15:32:00.002+07:00

Jet with burst tyre lands safely in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES - An American Airlines jet landed safely on Tuesday after being forced to return to Los Angeles International Airport following a burst tyre on take-off, television images showed.

The Toronto-bound American Airlines flight 1586, a Boeing 737 carrying 136 people, appeared to touch down smoothly just before 1pm local time (2000 GMT) after circling the area to get rid of excess fuel.

Fire trucks greeted the plane shortly after landing but there were no flames or smoke and the plane could be seen taxiing to a gate without incident.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said earlier the plane had returned after discovery of a burst tyre on the left landing gear beneath a wing. Initial media reports indicated the shredded wheel was on the nose gear.

2008-09-03T15:32:00.001+07:00

Worst believed over for storm-socked New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana - New Orleans shrugged off a pounding blow by Hurricane Gustav, with relieved officials saying the city survived the storm's best shot and that it was time to prepare for residents to return.

"It's been a hell of a day," St. Bernard Parish chief sheriff's deputy Jimmy Pohlmann told AFP as National Guard soldiers reinforced a nearby overflowing levee with sand bags at sundown Monday.

"I think the worst has passed. But it always seems when you think you have everything under control something bad happens."

Gustav pounded the US Gulf Coast Monday with ferocious rain and wind, but the partially rebuilt levees in New Orleans appeared to be holding almost three years to the day after Katrina swamped the fabled jazz city.

An estimated 10,000 residents remained in the city after nearly two million people fled coastal areas over the weekend - an exodus authorities described as the biggest evacuation in US history.

Seven deaths were blamed on Gustav, four of them in accidents during evacuations and three critically ill hospital patients who were clinging to life when they were transferred from local medical centers.

Fallen tree limbs and downed power lines crisscrossed streets in New Orleans's Upper Ninth Ward - ground zero of the 2005 disaster. The wind ripped siding, gutters and roof tiles from houses in the mostly deserted city.

A convoy of National Guard soldiers rode through flood water in the poor neighborhood, determined to ferret out residents defiantly seeking to outlast the hurricane, and to prevent a repeat of the post-Katrina anarchy.

The monster storm, which killed more than 80 people in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica, slammed ashore Monday morning as a Category Two hurricane packing winds of 110 miles (175 kilometres) per hour.

Gustav weakened overland and by Monday evening it had been downgraded to a tropical storm, the National Hurricane Center reported, with winds of 60 miles (95 kilometres) per hour.

By 10 pm local time (0300 GMT), the center of the storm was about 30 kilometres southwest of Alexandria, Louisiana and was headed to Texas later Tuesday, the center said.

More than 400 of those who chose not to evacuate were believed to be hunkered down in St. Bernard Parish at its border with Plaquemines parish as soldiers, police, residents and prisoners hastily beefed up the earthen wall with sand bags.

"We make the most of it," National Guard master sergeant Steve Sancho said as he tossed sacks of sand along a chain of soldiers leading to the top of a brimming levee protecting a Plaquemines Parish pumping station.

"We were expecting the worst and we made out the best. Spirits are really high right now."

Plaquemines parish is 55 miles (90 kilometres) southeast of New Orleans.

Gustav hit the rural Terrebonne Parish and the Houma area hardest, southeast of New Orleans, according to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. A docked ferry with no one aboard sank and roofs and storefronts were ripped off.

As night fell officials were watching the mighty Mississippi River, canals and other waterways to make sure a surge of water from the tail end of Gustav did not spawn a devastating wave.

"We might see the worst tide surge on the back of the storm," Jindal said.

The governor warned late Monday that some levees "could easily breach." There were unconfirmed reports of breaches to private levees in remote parts of the Louisiana coast.

New Orleans city officials said Monday the levee system was "in good shape and holding," despite repair work still under way after floodwaters unleashed by Katrina washed away the protective embankments in 2005.

A search and rescue effort was underway in the region with boats, helicopters and military aircraft looking for stranded people, said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

A dusk-to-dawn curfew remained in force in New Orleans, and Mayor Ray Nagin reported only one arrest for looting.

Regional utility company Entergy reported that 50 percent of New Orleans - just over 100,000 households - was without electricity as Gustav's howling winds tore down power poles and turned loose objects into unguided missiles.

The Pentagon authorized deploying up to 50,000 reservists, with just over 14,000 already stationed across the coast.

President George W. Bush took a more hands-on role after suffering a political pummeling over the botched federal response to Katrina, which killed some 1,800 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

"The coordination on this storm is a lot better than during Katrina," he said during a visit to Austin, Texas to oversee relief preparations.

Bush scrapped plans to attend this week's Republican national convention because of Gustav.

Katrina hit New Orleans as a stronger hurricane than Gustav, and while initial storm damage was limited, its most devastating effects came in the following days when the city's levees collapsed under the weight of water. Katrina claimed some 1,800 lives in Louisiana and neighboring states in August 2005.

California-based consultancy Eqecat Inc. estimated that insured losses would range from six to 10 billion dollars. About five percent of oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico will be lost for a year, it added.

2008-09-03T15:32:00.000+07:00

Republican VP pick Palin hires lawyer over Alaska inquiry

JUNEAU, Alaska - Republican vice-presidential pick Sarah Palin has hired a private lawyer to represent her in an investigation that she abused her powers as Alaskan governor, her office confirmed on Monday.

Palin is being investigated by Alaska's legislature over allegations arising from the sacking of the state's public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, who was fired earlier this year.

The probe was triggered after Internet reports that Monegan was removed because he refused to fire a state trooper who was the governor's former brother-in-law that the Palin family regarded as a "loose cannon".

Palin's deputy press secretary Sharon Leighow confirmed Palin had hired Anchorage attorney Thomas Van Flein to represent her and other members of the governor's office involved in the probe.

"I can confirm that she hired the attorney," Leighow told AFP, without providing further details.

AFP has also obtained a copy of a letter sent by Palin's lawyers to Steve Branchflower, the special counsel hired by the Alaskan legislature to investigate the case.

In a letter dated August 29, Van Flein requested that the probe be handled by the state's personnel board as well as witness statements, documents and all other material relevant to the case.

However, Alaskan senator Hollis French, who is overseeing the legislative investigation, rejected both requests in a letter released to media on Monday.

"Governor Palin has repeatedly stated that she has nothing to hide and that she and her administration will cooperate fully with this investigation," French wrote.

French also refused to hand over materials requested by Palin's lawyer.

"It would be highly unusual for an investigator to share information with one of the targets of the investigation," French wrote. "I am unaware of any precedent for such an arrangement."

French added that he expected Palin and other officials to give fixed dates for depositions later this month by September 5.

The investigation – dubbed "Troopergate" – followed Monegan's dismissal in July. Palin has consistently denied that she put pressure on Monegan to fire the trooper involved, describing the allegations as "outrageous" and "false".

However, it emerged on August 13 that there had been more than 20 calls, emails and other communications from Palin's office to employees at Monegan's Department of Public Safety.

2008-09-02T15:28:00.004+07:00

New Orleans under flood threat as Gustav tears into US coast

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana - Ferocious rain and wind gusts unleashed by Hurricane Gustav pushed water cascading over protective works in New Orleans on Monday three years after Katrina swamped the fabled jazz city.

Wave surges washed over a levee wall lining a portion of the city's Ninth Ward - ground zero of the disaster in 2005 - and water had reached as high as road signs around the Industrial Canal in the ward's north.

"We are nowhere near out of danger yet," New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said, with an estimated 10,000 residents still in the city after a mandatory evacuation forced nearly two million people to flee coastal areas over the weekend.

About half of the monster storm had passed over New Orleans after Gustav slammed ashore on Monday morning as a Category Two hurricane packing winds of 175 kilometres per hour.

"We're still seeing storm surge. There's lots of rain, tornado threats, and we won't know the full effect of the storm surge on the west bank until about 2:00 or 3:00 pm (1900 or 2000 GMT)," Nagin said on CNN.

Nagin, who had vowed zero tolerance for the kind of anarchy that swept New Orleans after Katrina, reported that one looter had been arrested.

"You know, thank God we've gotten most of our citizens out, and the ones that have stayed are staying indoors."

Louisiana officials said there were about 750 National Guard troops in New Orleans in case a new rescue operation was needed, with memories still fresh of the destruction wrought by Katrina and the government's botched response.

President George W. Bush, visiting Austin, Texas to oversee relief preparations, said: "The coordination on this storm is a lot better than during Katrina."

Bush, who had scrapped his plans to attend the Republican national convention in St Paul, Minnesota, said "I feel good about this event."

But he also warned: "The storm has yet to pass, it's a serious event."

Bush's administration suffered a grievous political blow after its haphazard response to the Katrina disaster in late August 2005, which killed some 1,800 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless for months.

Katrina hit New Orleans as a stronger hurricane than Gustav and while initial storm damage was limited, its most devastating affects came in the following days when the city's levees collapsed under the weight of flood waters.

Gustav uprooted trees, blew out windows and ripped gutters and other parts off homes, turning objects into missiles.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said there were unconfirmed reports that three critically ill patients had died while being transported to safer ground.

At a press conference in his command centre in Baton Rouge, Jindal said Gustav was heading across Louisiana at a speed of 25 kilometres per hour but storm surges were still threatening New Orleans and coastal communities.

And tornadoes whipped up by Gustav's lashing winds posed an ongoing danger, the governor warned.

Federal Emergency Management Agency director David Paulison said anyone who had stayed in the city had "no excuses."

"If people stayed in New Orleans, it was their choice," Paulison said.

Local FEMA coordinator Jim Hufft, observing the inundation in the Ninth Ward, insisted: "We are ready to roll. There are a lot of lessons we learned from Katrina."

If the bulk of the levees hold and Gustav does not strike a more damaging blow to New Orleans, residents could start returning to the area as early as late Tuesday, Hufft predicted.

"My worry now is the wind," he told AFP. "It has the water piled up against the levee wall, for sure."

New Orleans' levee system is still being rebuilt after Katrina at a cost of 15 billion dollars.

Gustav will add to the costs of rebuilding a region still reeling from that devastation three years ago. California-based consultancy Eqecat Inc. estimated that insured losses would range from six to 10 billion dollars.

About five percent of oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico would be lost for a year, it added, compounding tight supply problems at a time of sky-high fuel prices.

Stalked by memories of the Katrina tragedy, Republican White House hopeful John McCain shelved most of the opening day of the convention.

McCain on Monday stopped by a disaster relief centre in Waterville, Ohio where he met volunteers packing cleaning supplies, toiletries and toys for storm victims.

"This epitomises the millions of American people who are serving on behalf of causes greater than their self-interest. They're putting their country first," he told reporters.

McCain's Democratic rival Barack Obama cut short campaigning to return to Chicago later Monday, and invited his campaign's mammoth base of donors to give money and time towards relief efforts.

2008-09-02T15:28:00.003+07:00

EU leaders suspend Russian talks until troops withdraw

BRUSSELS - EU leaders decided at an emergency summit on Monday to freeze strategic partnership talks with Moscow until Russian troops withdraw from Georgia, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said.

"As long as the withdrawal of troops has not been respected, all meetings on the (EU-Russia) partnership accord are postponed," Barroso told journalists after the extraordinary summit on the Georgian crisis.

"We are postponing all of our meetings on the strategic partnership agreement," echoed President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, which holds the EU's rotating presidency.

The French leader said he would visit Moscow and Tbilisi next Monday with Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in an EU troika for talks on the crisis.

"This crisis means that we have to re-examine our relationship with Russia," Sarkozy said after chairing the summit in Brussels. "The meeting on September 8 is going to be crucial for relations between the EU and Russia."

Sarkozy brokered a six-point ceasefire agreement that ended the five-day war between Russia and Georgia in August.

But Russian forces have remained deep inside Georgian territory since their August 8 attack, well beyond South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which Moscow recognised as independent last week in the face of Western condemnation.

"It is clear that in the light of recent events, we cannot continue as if nothing has happened," Barroso said.

EU-Russia relations are currently governed by a partnership accord that dates from 1997, when Russia was still suffering economically from the break-up of the Soviet Union.

After many delays, the EU and Russia finally launched negotiations in July for the new strategic partnership pact, which aims to update and upgrade the framework for their relations.

Russia's ambassador to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, speaking on the margins of the summit, was sanguine at the decision to put on hold talks which had hardly begun.

"We've had to wait 18 months for the EU to get itself ready," he said. "We don't need these talks or this new agreement any more than the EU does."

The suspension of the talks was a goal much sought by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He left the summit without talking to reporters, but a British official said he was "satisfied with the results".

Poland, which also sought a firm EU line, voiced approval as well.

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, which along with several other member states has been keen not to ruin ties with a resurgent and energy-rich Russia, hailed what she called "a signal of unity from Brussels".

In a joint summit statement, the European leaders said relations with Russia "have reached a crossroads," and they urged Moscow "not to isolate itself from Europe."

Their statement condemned Russia's "disproportionate reaction" in Georgia, and argued that a military solution to the crisis was not acceptable.

They voiced support for Georgia, promised help with reconstruction and agreed to send a "fact-finding mission" immediately -- with the possibility later of "an increased European Union commitment on the ground".

The EU leaders also committed to organising an international donors conference to drum up aid for Georgia's reconstruction following Russia's invasion last month.

The summit was the first chance for the leaders to discuss the crisis since Russia entered Georgia on August 8, one day after Georgia's bid to bring the breakaway South Ossetia region back under central control.

To coincide with the extraordinary EU summit, the first since the Iraq war in 2003, huge crowds of Georgians rallied against Russia's occupation, in what officials said was the biggest protest in the ex-Soviet republic's history.

2008-09-02T15:28:00.002+07:00

Muslims around the world mark beginning of Ramadan

CAIRO - Muslims around the world this week begin the fasting and feasting month of Ramadan amid hopes of violence easing in some of the Islamic world's conflict hotspots but hit hard by rising food prices.

The start of the ninth and holiest month in the Muslim calendar is determined by the sighting of the new moon, which means Muslims in various countries begin Ramadan at dawn either on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday.

Followers are required to abstain from food, drink and sex from dawn to dusk - and ideally violence - during the lunar month while gorging on sunset "iftar" meals rendered difficult for many by the global food crisis.

Pakistan's government marked Ramadan by halting a major military campaign against Taliban rebels on its border with Afghanistan, launched after intense pressure from Western nations.

Taliban militants freed six Pakistani soldiers of the 30 they are holding after they drew lots, with the insurgents pledging not to attack others in a "goodwill gesture" to mark the start of Ramadan.

In Iraq, the start of Ramadan saw the US military hand over security control of Anbar, once the most explosive battlefield in Iraq, to local forces.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Iraqis will celebrate Ramadan as a victory over terrorism amid an overall drop in violence across the country.

In the Philippines, where government troops have been engaged in heavy fighting against Muslim rebels in the south, commanders will make "tactical adjustments" because of Ramadan, an official said.

"We are not pursuing the entire MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) or the Muslim civilian population," armed forces chief of staff General Alexander Yano said on Monday.

Ramadan in Lebanon comes after a break in the country's long-running political - and sporadic military - strife which allowed for a relatively good tourist season over the summer.

Soaring food prices have however left many Lebanese worried about making ends meet, with charities working to provide low-income families with food and other necessities to survive the month.

Gulf governments enjoying windfalls from high crude prices and high-profile companies are keen to be seen to be sharing some of their wealth with the less fortunate, splashing out on free iftars for the poor.

With inflation running in double digits in many Muslim nations, governments have been trying to ensure an adequate supply of staples in order to prevent retailers from taking advantage of Ramadan to raise prices.

Many governments have warned they would close food outlets found raising their prices.

In Jordan, authorities reduced prices of fuel by around six percent to help cashed-strapped citizens cope with soaring prices, which more than doubled since last year.

In the impoverished Gaza Strip, Muslims braced for another holiday under a crippling blockade, with Israel having sealed off the territory from all but basic goods since the Islamist Hamas seized power in June 2007.

"Ramadan this year is like any other month, because you don't see any of the things that make it special," says Mohammed Abu Sultan, a father of four shopping for decorative lanterns.

Iranians, still waiting for the new moon to be spotted, are likely to start Ramadan on Tuesday, with office hours cut down from eight to five.

Iranian police have issued a stern warning to crack down on people violating a ban on eating and drinking in public as well as eateries offering food before iftar except for designated places on the roads for travellers.

For many Muslims, Ramadan also means spending time with friends and family watching lavish television productions filmed especially for the festive season.

However, the Egyptian Gazette quoted one man as being "shocked that state-run and privately owned studios wasted 500 million Egyptian pounds (93 million dollars) on producing TV soap operas to be show in Ramadan."

"They did not spend a small fraction of this huge amount of money on helping the poor enjoy a decent meal during this holy month," he said.

Cairo shopper Siham says that Ramadan isn't what it used to be.

"Everything has become too expensive," she said. "I used to buy things without really counting because Ramadan is a feast, but now I have to carefully calculate everything I spend."

Turkish Muslims meanwhile resolved a debate about whether they could resort to appetite suppressing diet patches to get through the daily fast after theologists reassured them they have nothing to worry about.

The patches, cannot be considered as corrupting the fast because their effect amounts to "showering or applying a pomade on the skin" rather than eating, theology professor Kerim Yavuz said.

2008-09-02T15:28:00.001+07:00

Canada will hold snap polls soon, says opposition leader

OTTAWA - Canadian Liberal opposition leader Stephane Dion said on Monday after meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper that the government will call snap elections soon.

"I am convinced that he wants to have an election," Dion said after the meeting at the prime minister's residence.

Asked by reporters if an election would take place in the coming days, Dion said: "Yes, yes there will be an election. We all know it."

A Harper spokesman said the prime minister will make a decision in the next two or three days.

Harper, who has headed a minority government since 2006, has insisted in the past several weeks that elections were inevitable to break a deadlock with the opposition on several issues.

In a bid to find common ground, Harper met since Friday with the leaders of the three opposition parties, including Dion, who leads the biggest faction.

2008-09-02T15:28:00.000+07:00

Republicans rocked as Palin says teen daughter pregnant

ST PAUL, Minnesota - Republican vice presidential pick Sarah Palin revealed on Monday her unmarried teenaged daughter is pregnant, in the latest bombshell to rock the party's Hurricane Gustav-curtailed convention.

Palin said her daughter Bristol, 17, would have the baby and marry its father, as the convention held a shortened first day, shorn of political rhetoric out of respect for those sheltering from Gustav's wrath.

The curtailed convention will cost presumptive nominee John McCain some of his precious opportunity to take his unfiltered case to US voters, a week after his Democratic rival Barack Obama's spectacular jamboree in Denver.

A new CBS/New York Times poll on Monday suggested that McCain needed a boost, putting Obama and his vice presidential pick Joseph Biden up 48 percent to 40 percent, ahead of the November 4 election.

McCain's surprise choice of Palin as his running mate last week electrified the Republican Party's social conservative base, in particular evangelical Christians who had been reluctant to back McCain.

And early signs suggested that powerbase was still intact for Palin, a 44-year-old abortion foe, despite the revelations about her daughter.

"Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned," she said in a statement with her husband Todd.

"We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support," they said.

"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realise very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family.

Palin, who Democrats have savaged as too inexperienced in foreign policy to serve a "heartbeat" away from the presidency, was in the convention city of St Paul on Monday with no public engagements scheduled.

McCain earlier flew into Philadelphia, as he monitored the fallout from Hurricane Gustav, which was hammering the Louisiana coast and prompted the Republican candidate to severely curtail the convention's opening day.

Palin's announcement about her daughter appeared to be a bid to hit back at unsourced rumours on liberal blogs that Palin's daughter was the mother of the Alaska governor's fifth child, Trig.

A McCain campaign official said on condition of anonymity that the Arizona senator knew about the condition of Palin's daughter, who is reportedly five months into the pregnancy, when he asked her to be his vice presidential nominee last week.

As thousands of protestors rallied outside to demand an end to the Iraq war, the convention delegates met in a shortened session overshadowed by Gustav and memories of Hurricane Katrina.

First Lady Laura Bush and McCain's wife Cindy gave speeches to kick-start a emergency fund-raising drive as the political jamboree turned into a Gustav relief rally.

The party scurried to change its convention plans amid fears of being seen to stage a political celebration while a monster storm pummels the Louisiana coast.

Democratic nominee Barack Obama meanwhile appealed to his two million donors for financial aid for Hurricane Gustav victims Monday, as he made plans to return to Chicago to assess the aftermath of the storm.

Obama also got a federal briefing about the hurricane's destructive charge ashore near New Orleans, after McCain ordered a halt to all political activity at his party's nominating convention.

"Today, the thoughts and prayers of all Americans are with those in the path of Hurricane Gustav - and many of you are asking what you can do to help," Obama said in an email to his supporters.

Obama was later returning home to Chicago to monitor the storm.

McCain aides have yet to decide if the four-day convention can resume its normal programme on Tuesday.

They also signalled McCain would likely deliver his acceptance speech, due on Thursday, at the convention, and not as had been previously suggested from the hurricane disaster zone.

2008-09-02T15:22:00.000+07:00

US keeps eye on two new storms after Gustav

MIAMI - The United States kept a close eye Monday on another hurricane and a new tropical storm that emerged in the Atlantic, threatening the country after Hurricane Gustav slammed the US Gulf Coast.

US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said preparations were already underway as Hanna lashed the Turks and Caicos Islands, with a forecast that it would head toward US East Coast.

Tropical Storm Ike, meanwhile, formed further east in the Atlantic.

"It's a little early to tell where Ike is going to go, but we clearly have to be getting ready for Hanna and we're working with the states in the potential target area to make sure they're getting ready to do what they have to do," Chertoff told CNN.

Hanna was a Category One storm -- the weakest on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale -- blowing winds of 130 kilometres (80 miles) per hour, according to the National Hurricane Centre.

The hurricane was nearly stationary just northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, the centre said in its latest advisory.

Hanna was expected to produce four to eight inches of rain over the central and southeastern Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, with isolated maximums of 12 inches, it said.

Up to eight inches of rain could also fall over the mountainous terrain of eastern Cuba and Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where the downpour could trigger mudslides and flash floods.

At least 77 people died in Haiti after the impoverished country was struck by Gustav, which blasted Louisiana with powerful winds and rain as a Category Two hurricane on Monday.

Ike, the ninth tropical storm of the 2008 hurricane season, was further out to sea, 2,250 kilometres (1,400 miles) east of the Leeward Islands, packing winds of near 85 kilometres (50 miles) per hour, the hurricane centre said.

The storm could become a hurricane on Tuesday or Wednesday, it said.

Hurricane Gustav downgraded to Category 3 storm

2008-09-01T12:46:00.000+07:00

MIAMI - Hurricane Gustav was downgraded early Sunday to a Category 3 storm after it crossed Cuba and moved into the Gulf of Mexico, the US government's National Hurricane Centre announced.

"Maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 125 miles (205 kilometres) per hour with higher gusts," the centre said in its latest advisory. "Gustav is a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale."

But the centre warned Gustav could regain Category 4 strength by the end of the day on Sunday.

The hurricane hit western Cuba on Saturday, tearing off roofs, flattening buildings and plunging communities into darkness.

Earlier, it left at least 81 people dead in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica.

Russia seeks to avoid EU wrath over Georgia

2008-09-01T12:19:00.000+07:00

MOSCOW - Russia moved to ease tensions with the West ahead of an EU emergency summit on the Georgia conflict as Britain pushed on Sunday for a "root and branch" review of the bloc's relations with Moscow.

President Dmitry Medvedev urged European governments to send more observers to Georgia to monitor a ceasefire between Russian and Georgian forces, opening the door to cooperation with the European Union to resolve the conflict.

But British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned that Russia's military surge into Georgia and recognition of two Georgian rebel regions left EU leaders with little choice but to change the course of relations with Moscow.

"In the light of Russian actions, the EU should review – root and branch – our relationship with Russia," he wrote in a commentary published on Sunday in London's Observer newspaper.

The prime minister said he had warned Medvedev in a telephone call on Saturday "to expect a determined European response" to the situation in Georgia at the summit in Brussels on Monday.

Georgia is calling for sanctions on Russian leaders after breaking off diplomatic relations with Moscow in protest at the decision to recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.

While the French EU presidency has said sanctions are not an option, leaders are still debating a response that could include measures to reduce Europe's dependency on Russian oil and gas.

"No nation can be allowed to exert an energy stranglehold over Europe," Brown said.

The EU must "more rapidly build relationships with other producers of oil and gas", such as sourcing more energy from the Caspian Sea to reduce over-reliance on Russia, he argued.

Medvedev reiterated Saturday that Russia was "in full compliance with the six principles" of the French-brokered ceasefire deal, despite calls from the West for further withdrawals.

A Kremlin statement called for "the dispatch of additional OSCE observers to the security zone and setting up an impartial monitoring of the acts of the Georgian government".

The 56-nation Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe decided this month to send up to 100 observers to Georgia and some 20 observers are currently on the ground.

Bolstering OSCE monitoring in the security zone near South Ossetia and Abkhazia could help persuade Russia to leave positions it is still holding in western Georgia.

It would address Moscow's claims – repeated in the Kremlin statement on Saturday –that Georgia is rearming and could stage another attack under the orders of "revanchist" President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Russian troops remain in fixed positions in western Georgia, serving in what Moscow describes as a peacekeeping mission. Tbilisi has labelled them an occupation force.

Russia and Germany separately agreed on the need to calm the situation, the foreign ministry said following a phone conversation between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has urged EU leaders to show "common sense" and ignore calls for sanctions, while acknowledging Russia was nervous about what's in store.

"If I were to say that we don't care, that we were indifferent, I would be lying," Putin said in an interview to Germany's ARD television.

The powerful former Kremlin leader offered assurances, saying Russians troops "of course will leave these positions where we are now... We will not remain there forever" and declaring that Russia recognises Ukraine's borders.

Russia is facing an avalanche of criticism from the West over its actions in Georgia and has responded with some vitriol of its own, aimed mostly at the United States, which strongly supports pro-Western Georgia.

US Vice President Dick Cheney is due to visit Tbilisi on Tuesday in the latest show of support for the former Soviet republic.

Russian troops entered Georgia on August 8 to push back a Georgian offensive to retake South Ossetia, which broke away from Tbilisi in the 1990s with Moscow's backing.

Georgian Reintegration Minister Temur Yakobashvili called on EU leaders to punish Russian leaders with targeted sanctions.

"There is no point in isolating Russia. But we expect certain sanctions, which won't be against the people, but against the political elite," he told AFP in Tbilisi.

The minister did not specify what the sanctions could involve, although such measures often include travel bans or the freezing of overseas bank accounts.

Georgia on Saturday also imposed visa restrictions on Russian citizens, with a foreign ministry spokeswoman saying it was a tit-for-tat measure. The new visa regime will take effect on September 8.

After blasting Cuba, Hurricane Gustav aims at US

2008-09-01T12:14:00.002+07:00

PINAL DEL RIO, Cuba - Hurricane Gustav took aim at the United States early Sunday as it swept into the Gulf of Mexico from western Cuba, where it tore off roofs, flattened buildings and plunged communities into darkness.

Having left at least 81 people dead in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica, Gustav smashed first across Cuba's Isle of Youth, with more than 200,000 residents, and then tore across mainland Cuba southwest of Havana, which has a population of more than two million people.

Forecasters said Gustav could hit top category five force as it moved toward the US Gulf Coast for a direct hit Monday or Tuesday.

"Gustav is forecast to remain a major hurricane through landfall along the northern Gulf coast," the US National Hurricane Centre said.

New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin ordered the city emptied on Sunday in the face of what he called "the storm of the century".

Republican White House hopeful John McCain and his running-mate Sarah Palin decided to suspend their normal election campaign and visit Mississippi to inspect preparations for the arrival of Gustav.

Roads out of New Orleans were jammed with residents fleeing a potentially disastrous strike on the city just three years after Katrina left some 1,800 dead along the coast.

Major oil producers BP, ConocoPhillips and Shell on Thursday evacuated workers from their facilities in the Gulf where nearly a quarter of US crude oil installations are located.

Cuban national television reported that the scene in Isle of Youth was one of devastation after the monster storm earlier ground its way across the low-lying island of fishing villages, factories and citrus farms.

"The situation is very difficult," acknowledges Ana Delgado, president of the Municipal Defense Council on the Isle of Youth. "The damage is widespread."

Homes were under water, warehouses toppled, and roads washed away on the Isla of Youth, state television said, and though there were some injuries there were no immediate reports of deaths. More than 250,000 were evacuated from western parts of the country in advance of the storm.

Gustav then slammed into mainland western Cuba near the town of Carraguao, 100 kilometers (62 miles) southwest of Havana, and crossed into the Gulf of Mexico, the Cuban weather service said.

Used to fairly frequent smaller tropical storms, Havana residents ran around town Saturday gathering candles and food, boiling water and taping up windows.

Yet some were alarmed even with the steady flow of updates on state television.

"Really, I just did not expect this – it has been a long time since we have been hit by such a powerful hurricane, and this Gustav looks like it will be quite strong," said retired actress Gliseria Farinas.

A key concern for Havana is crowded and charming colonial era Old Havana. UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 1982, and its fragile, centuries-old buildings are prone to cave-ins after heavy rains. Most of Cuba's housing stock is old and fragile.

Cuban authorities acknowledge that in Havana alone there are 1,000 buildings in what they call "critical condition." They include about 8,000 homes where some 26,000 people live, many of them in Old Havana.

Early Saturday, a Caymans official reported heavy damage from Gustav on Cayman Brac, the large eastern island of the Caymans group, with power and water supplies down. Hundreds of people fled into shelters on Grand and Little Cayman islands as some areas were affected by flooding.

At 0600 GMT Sunday, Gustav's eye was located about 485 miles (780 kilometres) southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, packing sustained winds of about 135 miles (220 kilometres) an hour, the US National Hurricane Centre said. It was moving northwest at 15 miles (24 kilometres) an hour.

Earlier Gustav left a path of destruction through the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica, killing at least 81 people.

In Haiti, it left 66 dead plus 10 missing. In the neighbouring Dominican Republic, the death toll stood at eight.

And in Jamaica the toll was seven, with many thousands displaced.

McCain, Palin to test hurricane preparations

2008-09-01T12:14:00.001+07:00

ST LOUIS, Missouri - Republican White House hopeful John McCain and running-mate Sarah Palin will Sunday ditch their pre-convention plans and visit people in Mississippi bracing for deadly Hurricane Gustav.

The visit comes as the fearsome category four storm's approach overshadowed the buildup to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota on Monday, and stirred memories of the botched response to Hurricane Katrina exactly three years ago.

"Yes it's confirmed we are going to Mississippi in the morning" on Sunday, campaign spokeswoman Kimmie Lipscomb told AFP, after McCain flew into midwestern Missouri for an overnight stop.

Both McCain and Democratic nominee Barack Obama were carefully laying the groundwork to respond to Gustav's certain political fallout, as the storm loomed as test of their leadership skills.

McCain asked supporters at a rally in Washington, Pennsylvania on Saturday to keep their thoughts and prayers for the people on the Gulf Coast, where the fearsome storm is expected to make landfall on Monday.

"They need to know ... that they're in our thoughts and prayers as this impending hurricane approaches.

"We pray to God that it will spare them and a minimum of loss that might result from this natural disaster."

Earlier, in an interview to be broadcast on Fox News Sunday, McCain suggested he might go as far as suspending the convention, if the storm turned into a huge human tragedy on the par with Katrina.

"It wouldn't be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a national disaster.

"So we're monitoring it from day-to-day and I'm saying a few prayers, " he said.

Republican officials in St. Paul said there were no current plans to alter the convention program.

But party leaders are highly sensitive to the political implications of the storm. The Republican brand has yet to recover from President George W. Bush's botched response to Katrina, which obliterated parts of New Orleans and left a total of 1,800 people dead.

Obama, campaigning on Saturday with his running mate Joseph Biden in Ohio, said that his campaign was "deeply concerned" about the approaching storm.

"I've instructed my Senate staff to monitor the situation closely.

"You know, obviously we're going to be each day seeing what happens and we're praying for New Orleans but we want to make sure that people are making all the necessary precautions."

White House spokesman Carton Carroll said Bush had not so far changed his plans to address the convention on Monday.

"It is true that we are monitoring the situation, of course, and there is a chance we can change the schedule, but at this time we have not made any changes," he said.

The Republican convention will crown McCain as its official presidential candidate in the November 4 elections, to take on Obama who made history last week when he was nominated at the party's Denver convention as the first black presidential candidate for a major party.

McCain was campaigning with his 44-year-old running mate Palin for a second day, after sending shockwaves through the political world by naming her as his number two on Friday.

The choice was a landmark move : Palin is only the second woman ever, and the first for the Republicans, to run for the White House on a major party ticket.

"It's with great pride and gratitude that I tell you, I have found the right partner to help me stand up to those who have corrupted Washington," McCain said.

Australia warns of high risk of terror attacks

2008-09-01T12:12:00.000+07:00

SYDNEY - Australia on Sunday warned of a "high risk" of terror attacks on domestic and international flights in and to the United States, urging citizens to be vigilant while in the country.

"We advise you to exercise caution and monitor developments that might affect your safety in the United States because of the risk of terrorism," the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a travel advisory.

The department urged travellers to monitor the media for information about possible new security threats.

"The United States Department of Homeland Security's Advisory System Threat Level is at Orange for all domestic and international flights, indicating a 'high' risk of terrorist attack," it said.

"It is at Yellow or 'elevated' for all other sectors, indicating a significant risk of terrorist attack."

The advisory also included warnings about extreme weather conditions as Hurricane Gustav bears down.

"There is severe weather, including hurricane conditions, affecting the southeast coastline of the United States," the advisory said.

"Australians in affected regions should adhere to all advice and evacuation requests enforced by local authorities."

New Orleans began mandatory evacuations as Gustav, hailed as "the mother of all storms", was set to hit the US Gulf Coast on Monday packing winds of 150 miles (242 kilometres) per hour.

Democrats name Obama first black major US party nominee

2008-08-28T12:10:00.000+07:00

DENVER, Colorado - Democrat Barack Obama Wednesday made history as Democrats formally nominated him by acclamation as the first black presidential nominee of a major political party.

Obama's defeated rival Hillary Clinton dramatically halted a roll-call vote at the Democratic National Convention and proposed the Illinois senator be nominated by acclamation in a gesture of unity after a bruising primary race.

"I move Senator Obama of Illinois be selected by this convention by acclamation as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States," Clinton said from the convention floor, surrounded by her New York delegation.

Several Clinton supporters wiped tears from their eyes, as she made the announcement, and some African-American supporters of Obama also appeared to be crying, witnessing a moment many of them thought they would never see.

Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the US House of Representatives made the formal announcement of the historic nomination.

"It is with great pride that I announce Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee for president of the United States by acclamation," House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the convention.

"I have been asked to inform you that Senator Obama accepts the nomination," she said, adding he will deliver his acceptance address Thursday.

Clinton's move was the latest step in a carefully choreographed show of unity and reconciliation following their primary dust-up after she had earlier released her delegates to support Obama.

"I am here today to release you," Clinton said, drawing cries of "No" in a meeting of her delegates in downtown Denver, a day after she ordered her millions of primary voters to unite behind the party White House hopeful.

"You want to vote according to what is in your heart. I am not going to tell you what to do. You have come from different places and made a long journey," she said, adding she had already pledged her vote to Obama.

The state-by-state roll-call vote, based on the delegate hauls apportioned during the marathon coast-to-coast Democratic primary contest got underway Wednesday with Alabama casting 48 votes for Obama, and five for Clinton.

The run-down is a time-honoured feature of the convention, which in days gone by was often fraught with tension and horse-trading, but is now merely a ceremonial affair.

Intense negotiations between the Clinton and Obama camps took place to ensure that the former first lady won her due, and had her 18 million primary votes honored, while stressing an image of unity.

Clinton's primary voters are vital to Obama, as his White House race with Republican John McCain has tightened to a dead heat.

Later, former president Bill Clinton will grab the spotlight, under pressure to cast aside months of hard feelings to back Obama.Obama's vice presidential nominee Joseph Biden meanwhile is set to deliver his keynote speech, likely to hammer the convention's Wednesday theme of national security, and to highlight his tragedy-scarred life story.

Act two of the Clinton melodrama at the convention comes a day after Hillary Clinton stirred a rapturous reception and ordered her army of supporters to back the party ticket.

Bill Clinton has been waging an ill-tempered feud with the Obama campaign for months, and has yet to offer a robust endorsement of the new party standard bearer.

Clinton, who accused the Obama camp of playing the "race card" on him, seems to have taken his wife's loss hard, and appears to believe his legacy as the only Democrat to win two terms since World War II is getting insufficient respect.

"President Clinton will lay out the choices that we face on foreign policy," said Obama foreign policy advisor Susan Rice.

"He will talk about how Barack Obama has what it takes to be a strong commander-in-chief."

Reports quoting unnamed Clinton aides have said the former president will not attend Obama's acceptance speech, due to be delivered before more than 70,000 supporters in an open-air football stadium here on Thursday night.

Obama in surprise convention appearance with Biden

2008-08-28T12:09:00.002+07:00

DENVER, Colorado - Newly crowned White House nominee Barack Obama took to the stage Wednesday in a surprise appearance at the Democratic convention here with his running mate Joseph Biden.

Obama, who was not due to address delegates until Thursday, received tumultuous cheers as he embraced Biden and Biden's wife Jill following an impassioned speech by his vice presidential nominee.

Obama declared his pride in having the whole Biden family "with me on this journey to take America back."

Russia slams West, looks to China for support

2008-08-28T12:09:00.001+07:00

DUSHANBE - Russia on Wednesday lashed out against Western criticism of its actions in Georgia as President Dmitry Medvedev discussed the situation in the Caucasus with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao.

"The Russian president informed his Chinese colleague about the situation in South Ossetia and Abkhazia," Kremlin spokeswoman Natalya Timakova said after the talks, referring to two Georgian rebel regions at the centre of the crisis.

Chinese officials declined to comment after the meeting.

The meeting in Tajikistan came on Medvedev's first foreign trip since fighting broke out earlier this month between Russian and Georgian forces over two regions that Medvedev recognised as independent on Tuesday.

US President George W. Bush called on Medvedev to reverse his decision, saying that it would exacerbate tensions in a volatile region. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned that it could lead to war.

On Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang was quoted by the official Xinhua news agency as saying that China was "concerned" about Medvedev's move but otherwise refrained from criticism.

He added that China hoped for "dialogue and consultation" on the issue.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meanwhile rejected Western criticism on the sidelines of Medvedev's visit to the Tajik capital Dushanbe in scathing comments against British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and NATO. Lavrov said Miliband's criticism of Russia during a trip to Ukraine on Wednesday was "inappropriate" and "hypocritical."

He then drew a parallel between Russian military action in Georgia and Britain's war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands.

"It's strange that our actions to defend our citizens right on our borders should be criticised by Britain, considering its actions in the Falkland Islands, which are the other side of the world," Lavrov told reporters.

Miliband warned Russia not to start a new Cold War and said the West should use "hard-headed engagement" with Moscow.

Lavrov said Russia would cooperate with the West in international organisations "only to the extent to which its Western colleagues are interested."

The stand-off threatens to have far wider repercussions for already fraught relations between Russia and the West. Russia has frozen military ties with the NATO alliance and has accused the United States of rearming Georgia.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia are internationally recognised as part of Georgia and no country has followed Russia's lead to declare them independent countries.

The regions broke away from Georgian control after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Medvedev met with China's Hu ahead of a Thursday meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a regional security grouping dominated by China and Russia that includes four ex-Soviet Central Asian countries.

The Russian and Chinese leaders talked about boosting the SCO, which was set up in 2001 as a counterweight to NATO influence in the strategic Central Asian region.

"The two sides talked about Central Asia and the need to strengthen the SCO in order to bolster security in the region," Kremlin spokeswoman Timakova said.

They also discussed trade and economic and energy ties, she said.

During his trip to Dushanbe, Medvedev was also due to hold bilateral talks with the leaders of Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Central Asian leaders have kept a low-profile during Russia's confrontation with Georgia.

The region has its own separatist issues and siding with Russia could harm vital economic and security ties with the West.

Medvedev on Friday was also due to visit a Russian military base in Dushanbe. Moscow has troops based in three military installations in this mountainous former Soviet republic, which borders Afghanistan and China.

13 dead as Gustav lashes Haiti, Dominican Republic

2008-08-28T12:08:00.001+07:00

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Tropical Storm Gustav stalled over Haiti on Wednesday, lashing the impoverished country with heavy rain after striking it with hurricane force and killing 13 people.

The US National Hurricane Centre warned that Gustav could regain hurricane strength on Thursday as it passes between Jamaica and the southeastern coast of Cuba, and oil prices rose on fears that the storm could strike installations in the Gulf of Mexico.

The US southern coastal state of Louisiana's governor Bobby Jindal activated a storm crisis team and vowed to lead advance preparation efforts, after the city of New Orleans was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

"As long as there is a chance that we'll be in this storm, I'll be here in Louisiana," said Jindal, warning he may miss next week's Republican National Convention to nominate John McCain as the party's candidate for the White House.

"I'm going to make sure I'm here personally to lead the preparation efforts and if necessary, any recovery efforts necessary after the fact," he told CNN.

The storm was blowing winds of 95 kilometres per hour as it stalled over Haiti about 150 kilometres west of Port-au-Prince, the centre said in its latest report.

Gustav made landfall in Haiti on Tuesday as a Category One hurricane - the lowest on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale.

At least five people died and seven were injured in southeast Haiti as roofs flew off houses and electricity pylons were ripped away by violent winds, authorities said late Tuesday.

In the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, eight people were killed in a mudslide caused by the storm.

All the victims were members of the same family, and had just returned to their home after evacuating two weeks ago, believing it safe after Tropical Storm Fay earlier this month, officials said.

Fay pummelled the Caribbean and left at least 47 people dead or missing, most of them in Haiti. The storm killed 11 more people in Florida.

Gustav was expected to drop six to 12 inches of rain over the Dominican Republic and Haiti, the NHC said, warning that the rains were likely to "produce life threatening flash floods and mud slides."

World oil prices rallied as Gustav remained a threat to US energy installations in the Gulf of Mexico despite being downgraded from hurricane status, analysts said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in October, gained 91 cents to 117.18 dollars per barrel in electronic deals.

London's Brent North Sea crude for October won 68 cents to 115.31.

"Oil markets are keeping a nervous eye on ... Gustav, with forecasts showing it may move into the Gulf of Mexico," said David Moore, a Sydney-based commodity analyst with Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Looking ahead to the possibility of a hurricane striking the Gulf of Mexico this weekend, Shell said in a statement that it had begun "evacuating personnel not essential to producing and drilling operations in the Gulf."

Around 300 people were to be brought ashore Wednesday, with no impact on production, it said.

Sudanese plane hijackers surrender in Libya

2008-08-28T12:07:00.000+07:00

TRIPOLI - Two hijackers of a Sudanese plane surrendered to Libyan authorities at a remote desert airport on Wednesday after freeing all passengers on board, almost 24 hours after the drama began.

"They have now surrendered," a Libya official said from the airport in Kufra, an oasis in southeastern Libya.

The two attackers, who claimed to be from Sudan's conflict-ridden region of Darfur, hijacked the plane on Tuesday shortly after take-off from Darfur's main city of Nyala on a flight to the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

But they gave themselves up, several hours after releasing all 87 passengers from the Sun Air Boeing 737 which was forced to land on Tuesday evening after it ran short of fuel.

Libyan state television showed visibly tired but relieved passengers surrounded by Libyan soldiers following their liberation.

"The night was terrifying and difficult. I thank the Libyan authorities for their efforts which allowed us to be freed," a Sudanese passenger told the station.

Another passenger said the hijackers were armed with small calibre pistols.

The passengers had reportedly been given water but no food and some fainted when the air conditioning failed in the searing desert heat.

The hijackers, who had refused to talk directly with Libyan officials, said they belong to the Sudanese Liberation Army, whose exiled leader Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur lives in Paris, according to airport director Khaled Saseya.

An official at the World War II-era military airport had said earlier that the hijackers were continuing to hold the crew and were demanding a flight plan to Paris and fuel.

"All of the passengers have left the plane," a Libyan official had said earlier. "The two hijackers and the seven crew are still inside. We are continuing to negotiate with them."

Libya's civil aviation director Mohammed Shlibaq said that two Egyptian members of the UN-led Darfur peacekeeping force, two Ethiopians and a Ugandan were among the passengers, the official JANA news agency reported.

JANA also reported that several Sudanese officials were among the passengers released by the hijackers, including the tribal affairs adviser at the Provisional Authority in Darfur Yaqub al-Malik Mohamed Yaqub.

No Darfur movement has claimed public responsibility, but the director of Kufra airport said the hijackers belong to a faction of the Sudanese Liberation Army, whose exiled leader Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur lives in Paris.

The pilot said "the hijackers claim to have coordinated with him (Nur) to join him in Paris," Kufra airport director Khaled Saseya told JANA, adding that they had demanded a flight plan to Paris and fuel.

Nur, whose group was one of two Darfur movements that first rose up against the Arab-dominated government in 2003, denied any involvement while SLA commander Ibrahim al-Hillo suggested the hijackers could be Nur sympathisers.

"We don't have any relation with that hijacking. Civilians, they're angry, they'll behave like that. They may agree with Abdul Wahid but in our structure we have no decision like this to hijack a civilian airplane," Hillo told AFP.

The SLA has fractured into multiple groups headed by different field commanders over the more than five years of war in Sudan's western Darfur region.

The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million fled their homes since war in Darfur erupted in February 2003. Sudan says 10,000 have been killed.

Ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Khartoum regime and state-backed Arab militias, fighting for resources and power.

All eyes on Bill Clinton at Democratic convention

2008-08-28T12:06:00.002+07:00

DENVER, Colorado - All eyes at the Democratic convention will be on Bill Clinton on Wednesday, as the former president and one-time darling of the party seeks to put aside months of hard feelings to back Barack Obama.

Delegates will also create a piece of history, by going through a formal roll-call to enshrine the Illinois senator, 47, as the party's White House candidate, making him the first ever black presidential nominee.

Obama's vice presidential nominee Joseph Biden, meanwhile, is set to deliver his keynote speech, likely to hammer the convention's Wednesday theme of national security, and to highlight his tragedy-scarred life story.

Act two of the Clinton melodrama at the convention will come a day after Obama's former primary rival Hillary Clinton stirred a rapturous reception and ordered her army of millions of supporters to back the party ticket.

Bill Clinton has been waging a ill-tempered feud with the Obama campaign for months, and has yet to offer a full-throated endorsement of the new party standard bearer.

Clinton, who accused the Obama camp of playing the "race card" on him, seems to have taken his wife's loss hard, and appears to believe his legacy as the only Democrat to win two terms since World War II is getting insufficient respect.

Reports quoting unnamed Clinton aides have said that the former president will not attend Obama's acceptance speech, due to be delivered before more than 70,000 supporters in an open-air football stadium on Thursday night.

The former first lady's speech was an emotional final act to a presidential campaign, which took audacious aim at history, but fell just short.

"Whether you voted for me, or voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose," said Clinton, who got a euphoric welcome for her prime-time speech on Tuesday at the Democratic National Convention.

"We are on the same team, and none of us can sit on the sidelines," she said, vowing to work to elect the man who thwarted her presidential dreams, and who will make his own history by becoming the first black presidential nominee.

Clinton also laid into the Republicans, and their candidate John McCain.

"No way, no how, no McCain," she said.

Republicans however noted that the New York senator, however, did not say that Obama was ready to serve as commander-in-chief and sought a political, rather than personal connection with the new party champion.

The roll-call vote of the states in the hall is a time-honoured feature of the convention, which in days gone by was often fraught with tension but is now merely a ceremonial affair.

Intense negotiations between the Clinton and Obama camps took place to ensure that the former first lady gets her due, and has her 18 million primary votes honoured, while stressing an image of unity.

But Republicans made a fresh attempt on Wednesday to pick at the scars of the divisive primary campaign, arguing that Clinton's endorsement of Obama was hardly comprehensive.

"She never really answered the key question, is he prepared to be President which is the issue she put out there rather dramatically during the primaries," said former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani on Fox News.

Clinton's primary voters are vital to Obama, as his White House race with McCain has tightened to a dead heat.

In an effort to forge party unity, Clinton was expected to release her delegates on Wednesday, freeing them to vote for Obama in Wednesday's roll call vote.

After her speech, Clinton sent an email to supporters urging them to help Obama win the election.

"Standing on that stage tonight in front of 20,000 Democrats unified behind Senator Obama, I saw a bright future for America," she wrote.

"I saw millions of people across the country working as one to elect the next Democratic president."

Moses Ross, a delegate from Portland, Oregon, said he would support Obama because "Hillary Clinton has asked me to."

"I'm sad that we're not standing here talking about her running for president, but we have to abide by her wishes."

Hillary Clinton throws her weight behind Obama at Denver convention

2008-08-28T12:06:00.001+07:00

DENVER - Senator Hillary Clinton has thrown her weight behind Senator Barack Obama's quest for the US presidency, at the Democratic Party's convention in Denver.

In a widely-anticipated speech to delegates late Tuesday, she said it is time for Democrats to "unite as a single party with a single purpose".

Senator Clinton has been under enormous pressure to unite the Democratic Party behind Mr Obama's candidacy.

The woman who tried - but failed - in the primaries to win the party's nomination for the presidency was deeply emotional about having to address delegates after her recent defeat.

She thanked her supporters for standing by her throughout the bruising primary process that pitted her against Mr Obama. Bowing to the political needs of the moment, she urged them now to stand behind the man hoping to become America's first African-American president.

She said: "My friends, it is time to take back the country we love. And whether you voted for me, or you voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose."

Her speech was a far cry from the attacks she unleashed on Mr Obama when they were both on the campaign trail. Then she argued he was too inexperienced, too green and too untested to be trusted with the presidency.

Underscoring what she used to say about Mr Obama, the McCain campaign is now even using one of her old advertisements in a new television advertisement launched from the Republicans' war room in Denver. The advertisement states : "Hillary was right. Vote John McCain".

But the Democratic Party's leadership believes that Americans will be inspired by the key message of this convention, that the country is craving the type of change that Mr Obama can deliver, and that the party is uniting around him.

Nancy Pelosi, speaker, US House of Representatives, said: "We've got to be thinking of what's going on in the homes of the American people and across America, because we don't have the luxury of leaving here not organised, focused, disciplined, unified, and inspired by this beautiful western convention that we have."

Delegates left the convention hall with Senator Clinton's speech echoing in their ears. Her own political future is now uncertain, but the Democrats hope she has helped to ensure Mr Obama's victory.

On Wednesday night, former president Bill Clinton will address the convention.

Former first lady Clinton tells Democrats to unite

2008-08-28T12:05:00.000+07:00

DENVER, Colorado - Hillary Clinton Tuesday ordered her grieving supporters to unite behind Democratic nominee Barack Obama, in an emotional final act to a White House quest which fell just short of history.

"Whether you voted for me, or voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose," said Clinton, who got a euphoric welcome for her prime-time speech at the Democratic National Convention.

"We are on the same team, and none of us can sit on the sidelines," she said, vowing to work to elect the man who thwarted her presidential dreams, and who will make his own history by becoming the first black presidential nominee.

The former first lady milked a deafening ovation as the crowd, blanketed with signs bearing a stylised version of her "Hillary" signature, feted her almost as though she had won the exhausting primary fight.

She told the thousands in the arena, and millions of her army of women, and blue-collar voters watching on television, that despite their fierce primary duel, "Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our president."

Wistfully, Clinton looked back on the thousands of miles, and thousands of speeches and meetings that made up her presidential campaign, which finally ended when Obama clinched the nomination in June.

"You taught me so much, you made me laugh and... you even made me cry. You allowed me to become part of your lives, and you became part of mine."

Senator Obama watched Clinton's speech from Montana, and hailed her oration as an "outstanding" appeal for Democratic unity.

"That was excellent, that was a strong speech. She made the case for why we're going to be unified in November and why we're going to win this election."

Clinton also lashed Republican White House hopeful John McCain as a "twin" of unpopular President George W. Bush, saying he stood for "more war, less diplomacy" "more economic stagnation, less healthcare."

The former first lady, introduced by daughter Chelsea, said she had not spent the past "35 years in the trenches" to suffer more "failed leadership" from Republicans.

"No way, no how, no McCain," she said.
The New York senator however, did not say that Obama was ready to serve as commander-in-chief and sought a political rather than personal connection with the new party champion.

She also traced her place in history, noting her mother was born before women could vote, yet saw her granddaughter vote for a woman as president.

"This is the story of America, of women and men who defy the odds and never give up."

Clinton's speech was closely scrutinised for her willingness to heal the wounds of a primary campaign which split the Democratic Party in two, and offered hopes to Republicans in a tough year for the demoralised party.

But she gave her blessing to Obama in the first lines of her speech, providing valuable television pictures of an arena of cheering Democrats united, after a compelling nominating battle.

The speech was the first of a one-two punch from the Clintons - former president Bill Clinton will address the convention on Wednesday - after fighting a barely disguised feud with the Obama campaign.

Hillary Clinton's 18 million primary voters are vital to Obama, as his White House race with McCain has tightened to a dead heat, and the rivals are slugging out a desperate battle for swing states like Ohio.

So the New York senator, watched from the crowd by her husband launched into a forensic critic of the candidacy of her "friend" McCain.

"He has served our country with honour and courage," Clinton said of the former Vietnam war prisoner.

"But we don't need four more years ... of the last eight years," she said, and tried to saddle the Republican candidate with the unpopular legacy of President George W. Bush ahead of the rival party's convention in Minneapolis.

"It makes sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities. Because these days, they are awfully hard to tell apart."

The McCain campaign hit back immediately.

"Senator Clinton ran her presidential campaign making clear that Barack Obama is not prepared to lead as commander in chief," spokesman Tucker Bounds said.

"Nowhere tonight, did she alter that assessment, nowhere did she say that Barack Obama is ready to lead.

"Millions of Hillary Clinton supporters and millions of Americans remain concerned about whether Barack Obama is ready to be president."

More than 1,000 Clinton supporters marched through Denver to vent their anger at the former first lady's treatment prior to the Convention.

No evidence of plot to kill Obama, says justice official

2008-08-28T12:04:00.000+07:00

DENVER, Colorado - US authorities said Tuesday they had found no evidence of a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama following the arrest of three men and seizure of a weapons cache.

US Attorney Troy Eid told a press conference that following an exhaustive investigation, officials were satisfied that the arrested men were all drug abusers who did not pose a credible threat to Obama.

"Let me be clear: we've conducted an intensive investigation, chased down numerous leads and carefully reviewed the evidence to date," Eid said.

"It is a very serious federal crime to threaten a presidential candidate. In this case, however, there is insufficient evidence at this time to indicate a true threat, plot or conspiracy against Senator Obama."

The three men were arrested after a traffic stop uncovered wigs, two hunting rifles, body armour and drug-making equipment on Sunday, the eve of the Democratic Party's four-day-long national convention here which is to end by officially naming Obama the party's presidential nominee.

Eid said there was no evidence any of the arrested men had ties to racist or white supremacist organisations but they had made racist comments about Obama, telling a drug user prior to arrest that no "nigger" should be president.

However, Eid said it was important to make a distinction between the "racist rantings" of habitual drug users and a credible attempt on Obama's life.

"Reported threats, hateful and bigoted though they were, involved a group of meth heads, methamphetamine abusers, all of whom were impaired at the time and they cannot independently (be) corroborated," Eid said.

"The evidence involving alleged threats does not warrant federal charges. But the investigation is ongoing and we are keeping an open mind."

"What matters at this moment, from a legal point of view the law recognises a difference between a true threat - one that can be carried out... and the racist rantings of drug users."

Eid said most of the racist remarks were allegedly made by convicted felon Shawn Robert Adolf, in conversation with another drug user.

Adolf is charged with illegal possession of a firearm and illegal possession of body armour as well as possession of methamphetamine.

Another man, Nathan Johnson, who attempted to escape from police by jumping from the sixth floor of a hotel, is charged with illegal possession of a firearm and possession of a small quantity of methamphetamine.

In a television interview earlier Tuesday, Johnson said his friends had intended to shoot Obama from a "high vantage point" on Thursday night at the 75,000-seat Invesco stadium.

"He don't belong in political office. Blacks don't belong in political office. He ought to be shot," Johnson said as he explained the motivations of his friends.

The probe was launched Sunday after a police officer spotted the third man, Tharin Gartrell, driving a truck erratically in a suburb of Denver. Gartrell has been charged with drug possession, authorities said Tuesday.

The incident was the latest sombre reminder of security risks faced by presidential hopefuls, and anxieties felt by many supporters for Obama, who was given Secret Service protection earlier in the presidential campaign than any other candidate.

The incident is also being probed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service and the joint terrorism task force.

Campaign communications director Robert Gibbs said no change was being made to Obama's schedule in light of the arrests.

The Illinois senator is due in Denver on Wednesday, ahead of his acceptance address the next day.

A tight security blanket has been draped across Denver to protect tens of thousands of supporters and protestors who descended on the city for the Democratic Party's political extravaganza.

An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 police and security personnel from 55 agencies, including the FBI and US military, are being deployed.

Darfur rebels hijack plane, seek to fly to France

2008-08-28T12:03:00.000+07:00

TRIPOLI - The hijackers of a Sudanese plane with more than 100 passengers on board are apparently from a hardline Darfur rebel group and want to join the leader in Paris, Libyan officials said Wednesday.

The Sun Air Boeing 737 was hijacked shortly after took off from Nyala, the largest city in Darfur, on Tuesday afternoon bound for the capital Khartoum, and was granted permission to land by Libyan authorities at Kufra military airport in the southeast of the country after it ran short on fuel.

The hijackers, who have refused to talk directly with Libyan officials, have said they belong to the Sudanese Liberation Army of Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur, who lives in Paris, said the director of the airport, Khaled Saseya.

"The plane's pilot has indicated that the hijackers, who number 10 or maybe more... have said they belong to the Sudanese Liberation Army of Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur," he told the Libyan official news agency Jana.

The pilot said "the hijackers claim to have coordinated with him (Nur) to join him in Paris," he added.

Saseya said the hijackers have demanded a flight plan to Paris and fuel, but continue to refuse to talk to Libyan officials directly.

"The hijackers refuse to free any passengers or even open the doors which have remained closed since the plane landed," he said.

With the hijacking stretching past 12 hours, several passengers have fainted after the plane's air conditioning system failed, the pilot told airport officials early on Wednesday.

Sun Air executive manager Mortada Hassan has said there were 95 passengers and seven crew on board the plane. Two airline staff earlier told AFP that 87 passengers were on the flight.

Senior commanders from different Darfur rebel factions, which have been fighting against the Khartoum regime for five years, said they had no information on the hijacking when contacted by AFP on Tuesday.

But Ibrahim al-Hillo, a commander in Nur's Sudan Liberation Army, said the hijacking was the natural consequence of government repression of those displaced by the fighting in Darfur.

"This is the result of what the government is doing in the camps of displaced people in Nyala," he told AFP by telephone.

On Monday, Sudanese security forces pushed into one of the biggest and most volatile camps for displaced people in the country's western region of Darfur, at Kalma, just outside the hijacked plane's point of departure, Nyala.

UN-led peacekeepers said 33 people were buried on Tuesday following armed clashes between police and camp residents.

"I'm not sure if it's connected (to Kalma) but it's related to that. The government kills and the international community does not intervene. What can the Darfurian people do?" added Hillo.

Three high-ranking members of a former Darfur rebel movement that signed a peace treaty with the government in 2006 were on the hijacked flight, said an official in the Minni Minawi faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement.

Sudan has a history of hijacking incidents, having both received and been the country of origin of hijacked planes.

Darfur tensions have heightened in Sudan since the International Criminal Court prosecutor last month requested an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Beshir for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

The United Nations says that up to 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million fled their homes since the conflict erupted in February 2003. Sudan says 10,000 have been killed.

The war began when ethnic minority rebels rose up against the Arab-dominated regime and state-backed Arab militias, fighting for resources and power.

In January last year, a gunman was arrested after hijacking a Sudanese passenger jet and diverting it to Chad, apparently seeking asylum in Britain.

Lebanon and Syria to demarcate border, normalise ties

2008-08-15T18:08:00.000+07:00

DAMASCUS - Syria and Lebanon agreed on Thursday to take formal steps to demarcate their borders as part of a string of decisions to normalise their relations for the first time after decades of tension.

The announcement came as President Michel Sleiman wrapped up a landmark two-day visit to Damascus – the first by a Lebanese president since Syria ended almost 30 years of military domination over Lebanon in April 2005.

The two countries also pledged to examine the fate of hundreds of people missing since the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war – amid claims by human rights groups that around 650 people who vanished during the war are being held in Syria.

Sleiman and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad also agreed to control their borders and curb "trafficking", it was announced at a news conference by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and Lebanese counterpart Fawzi Salukh.

But a joint statement read at the conference made no mention of weapons which Lebanon's anti-Syrian ruling majority says flow across the border and are intended for the Syria- and Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.

Relations between Lebanon and Syria have been tense since Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri was killed in a massive Beirut bomb attack in February 2005. Damascus has denied any responsibility despite claims by Lebanese anti-Syrian groups.

Assad and Sleiman agreed "on setting up diplomatic relations between the two countries at the level of ambassadors," the statement said, reiterating an announcement made at the start of Sleiman's visit on Wednesday.

Salukh said the two countries will take steps next week to implement the decisions.

Syria and Lebanon have not had diplomatic ties since independence from French colonial power – Lebanon in 1943 and Syria in 1946 – but Assad and Sleiman agreed to establish relations during talks last month in Paris.

The United States has cautiously welcomed the establishment of diplomatic ties between Syria and Lebanon.

"One of the steps that has long been required is the establishment of a proper embassy for Syria in Lebanon and vice versa," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday.

"Now, if the Syrians will go ahead and demarcate the border between Lebanon and Syria, and respect (Lebanon's) sovereignty in other ways, then this will have proved to be a very good step," she added.

Lebanon and Syria said they agreed "to reactivate the work of the joint committee to demarcate the Lebanese-Syrian borders within a mechanism and a set of priorities" and would take "administrative and technical steps."

The borders are poorly delimited in certain places, particularly the Shebaa Farms, a mountainous sliver of land rich in water resources located at the junction of southeast Lebanon, southwest Syria and northern Israel.

The 25-square-kilometre (10 square mile) tract of farming land was seized by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and is now claimed by Beirut, with the backing of Damascus.

Israel says they are part of Syria.

But Muallem insisted that Israel must end its occupation of the Shebaa Farms before the border can be marked.

"It is not possible to mark the borders in Shebaa Farms as long as there is still Israeli occupation. The occupation must end," Muallem said.

Syria and Lebanon also agreed "to activate and step up the work of the joint committee on people missing from both countries" since the Lebanese civil war, pledging to take steps capable of "reaching results as soon as possible."

In addition, they decided to review bilateral agreements between the two countries and take steps to bolster two-way trade.

Canada cancels exercise with Russia over Georgia conflict

2008-08-15T18:07:00.001+07:00

OTTAWA - Canada is cancelling a joint military exercise with Russia because of its actions in Georgia, Defense Minister Peter MacKay said Thursday, after the United States also withdrew from the event.

"In light of the current situation in Georgia, and after consultation with our American allies, we agreed that it would be inappropriate to go ahead with Exercise Vigilant Eagle, a planned combined NORAD-Russia military exercise that was scheduled to begin August 20, 2008," MacKay said in a statement.

NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, groups the United States and Canada, and monitors air and space threats in the region.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said earlier that Washington had cancelled two joint exercises with Russia over its military action in Georgia, including the Vigilant Eagle NORAD event which was to begin on August 20.

"We will assess participation in future such exercises as the situation evolves," the Canadian defense minister said.

He said his government was "calling for Russia to fully respect the terms of the cease-fire and respect Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity."

Nigeria cedes Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon

2008-08-15T18:06:00.000+07:00

CALABAR, Nigeria - Nigeria on Thursday handed over the Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon to end a 15-year dispute over a territory believed to be rich in oil and gas.

The legal paperwork, in line with a ruling of an international tribunal, was signed by Nigeria's Justice Minister Michael Aondoakaa and by his Cameroonian counterpart Maurice Kanto.

"(Cameroonian) President Paul Biya ... looks forward to new, reliable and mutually beneficial relationship between Cameroon and Nigeria," Kanto said just before the handover, which took place in the Nigerian border town of Calabar.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, in a message read out at the ceremony said: "It is a day of triumph for the rule of law, which lies at the very core of the values of the UN".

The UN Secretary General's Special Representative for West Africa, Said Djinnit, said the handover "should serve as a model in the many places in Africa where borders are under dispute".

"As painful as it is, we have a responsibility to keep our commitment to the international community to advance international peace and cooperation ... and advance the cause of African brotherhood and good neighbourliness," Nigeria's Aondoakaa declared.

The transfer, staggered over two years, has been dogged by political disagreements, a last-minute lawsuit and occasional gun battles.

Police seek motive in shooting of Arkansas Democratic leader

2008-08-15T18:04:00.000+07:00

WASHINGTON - Police on Thursday sought to uncover what led a gunman to burst into the headquarters of the Arkansas Democratic Party and kill the chairman, a top ally of Bill and Hillary Clinton, US media said.

Bill Gwatney, 48, was shot multiple times in the upper body and died shortly afterward at the hospital, police said.

His assailant, 50-year-old Tim Johnson, was fatally shot after a police chase into a neighboring county.

He had no criminal record and had reportedly been fired earlier that morning from his job at a Target store, but it was unclear if or how he knew Gwatney, according to local news reports.

Police were called to a Target store in Conway, about 25 miles north of Little Rock, early Wednesday after co-workers complained about an agitated employee who had been fired for writing graffiti on a wall, the Arkansas News said.

The employee, Johnson, was "very agitated and shaking, and they feared for their safety," said Conway police spokeswoman Sharen Carter, who added that Johnson had departed by the time police arrived.

Several hours later, just before noon, Johnson walked in the state Democratic Party headquarters and asked for Gwatney.

A volunteer who was in the office at the time said Johnson had indicated he was "interested in volunteering, but that was obviously a lie."

Once Gwatney came out to meet him, "they introduced themselves, and at that time he (Johnson) pulled out a handgun and shot Chairman Gwatney several times. He then turned and left the business," said police lieutenant Terry Hastings.

The killing left fellow Democratic leaders in shock less than two weeks before the party's national convention in the midst of a fierce battle for the White House.

"We are deeply saddened by the news that Bill Gwatney has passed away," former president Clinton and his wife Hillary said in a joint statement. The couple lived for years in the Arkansas capital of Little Rock while Bill Clinton was governor and called Gwatney a close friend.

The Clintons said they were "stunned and shaken by today's shooting," describing Gwatney as their "cherished friend and confidante."

Gwatney was one of the party's nearly 800 so-called superdelegates, who are allowed to vote as they wish at the Democratic convention. During the nomination campaign Gwatney supported Clinton, who handily defeated Obama in the Arkansas primary.

Lieutenant Hastings said the motive for the shooting was unclear.

"That's something that we'll be looking into," he said, adding that the suspect was not a former Gwatney employee. Gwatney reportedly owned several car dealerships in the state.

The violent attack is the second in several months targeting the Democratic Party. In November, a man claiming to be armed with a bomb took over US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton's campaign office in the state of New Hampshire and held five people hostage for more than five hours before surrendering.

Spate of Iraq bomb attacks kills 27

2008-08-15T18:03:00.000+07:00

BAGHDAD - At least 19 Shiite pilgrims heading to the holy city of Karbala for a religious festival were among 27 people killed on Thursday as a spate of bomb blasts rocked Iraq, security officials said.

As many as 18 were killed in a double attack by two women suicide bombers who blew themselves up among a crowd of pilgrims heading to the city, police Lieutenant Kazem al-Khafaji in Babil province said.

The women detonated their explosives-packed vests 50 yards apart and at a five-minute interval in Iskandiriyah 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of the capital, Khafaji added.

The twin suicide attack left at least 75 more wounded, most of them young men, in the most lethal attack to hit the war-torn nation since last Friday when 21 people were killed in a market in Tal Afar by a car bomb.

Haider Kadhum, 20, a pilgrim from Baghdad who was being treated for wounds to his feet and back at Hilla hospital, said he had been drinking water among a group of pilgrims when he felt the blast.

"In front of us was a large group of pilgrims and suddenly we felt strong hot waves of fire with the bang of the explosion and people's bodies were ripped apart," he told AFP.

Earlier on Thursday another Shiite pilgrim was killed and seven others were wounded by a roadside bomb in Baghdad's commercial district of Karrada as they set off for Karbala, around 110 kilometres (68 miles) south of Baghdad, for Sunday's festival.

Another explosion killed a policeman and wounded five of his colleagues near a checkpoint in the Zafraniya district of southern Baghdad set up to search pilgrims heading south.

Although the incidence of bombings has dropped to four-year lows, the latest wave of violence highlighted the difficulty Iraqi forces face in maintaining an uncertain peace, especially during large public gatherings.

Bloodshed routinely marks Shiite pilgrimages, the last of which was on July 28, when three female suicide bombers killed 25 Shiites near a shrine in Baghdad.

Captain Charles Calio, a US military spokesman in Baghdad, said that Thursday's suicide strikes bore the "hallmark of Al-Qaeda," the mainly Sunni Arab insurgent group that has increasingly turned to women to carry out its attacks in Iraq.

This weekend tens of thousands of Shiites are expected to flock to Karbala to venerate Imam Mahdi, an eighth century imam who vanished as a boy and whom Shiites believe will return to bring justice to the world.

The Shiite community was once led by a series of infallible imams who were direct descendants of the Prophet Mohammed and his son-in-law Ali. When the Mahdi went into hiding, leadership of the community passed to the clergy.

In other violence on Thursday, a car bomb targeting a police patrol near the restive city of Baquba, about 60 kilometres (35 miles) north of Baghdad, killed two policemen and wounded six, security officials said.

The defence ministry said that on Tuesday the Iraqi army discovered dozens of houses that had been booby-trapped with explosives by Al-Qaeda jihadists in the same area – about 10 kilometres (six miles) southeast of Baquba.

Also near Baquba, a bomb hidden in a field killed a 10-year-old girl, a security official said.

Meanwhile, 370 kilometres north (230 miles) of Baghdad, in the Al-Qaeda bastion of Mosul, three Iraqi soldiers were killed, one by a roadside bomb and two by sniper fire, police sources said.

A suicide bomber also killed one policeman 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Mosul in the ancient city of Nimrud.

US, Libya sign compensation deal

2008-08-15T18:02:00.000+07:00

TRIPOLI - Libya and the United States on Thursday signed a compensation deal for American victims of Libyan attacks and US reprisals, paving the way for full normalisation of ties between the two countries.

The agreement was signed by visiting US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs David Welch and Libyan deputy foreign minister Ahmad Fituri at the conclusion of a series of high level meetings.

Fituri told reporters that inking the deal was "the crowning of a long process of exhausting negotiations" and added that "there was a desire on both sides to find a conclusion to this issue".

The deal will see compensation paid for US victims of Libyan attacks in the 1980s and of the US reprisals that followed, Fituri said.

Welch, too, was upbeat.

"This is a very important agreement. This turns a new page in our relationship," he said after the signing ceremony.

"This agreement signed today is designed to resolve the last major historical issue that has stood in the way of a more normal relationship between our two countries," Welch said.

"Under this agreement each country's citizens can receive fair compensation for past incidents. When fulfilled, the agreement will permit Libya and the US to develop their relations."

In 2006, the United States announced a full normalisation of ties, dropping Libya from a State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism and raising diplomatic relations to the level of ambassadors.

However, the appointment of a US ambassador to Tripoli as well as approval of funds for a new embassy have been held up in the Senate.

Welch arrived in Tripoli on Wednesday to hold final discussions on the agreement that will see a fund set up to compensate US victims of Libyan-sponsored attacks.

Both US houses of Congress have passed a bill that grants Libya immunity from lawsuits once compensation has been paid through the fund.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after the bill was passed on August 1 that she looked forward to further improvements in ties with the north African state.

The state news agency JANA, meanwhile, said on Thursday that US President George W. Bush had sent a message to Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in which he expressed his "satisfaction" at the improvement in relations between Washington and Tripoli.

Welch gave the message to Gaddafi on Wednesday, the report said.

Bush's message also stressed "the important role Libya is playing internationally and expressed his hope that cooperation between the two countries would continue," JANA said.

Libyan newspaper Oya said last month that Tripoli and Washington had resumed talks in Abu Dhabi on fully compensating the relatives of US victims of Libyan attacks as well as Libyan victims of US air raids.

Washington wants Tripoli to fully compensate families of the victims of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland that killed 270 people, and a Berlin disco bombing that killed two Americans.

Libya, meanwhile, stressed the need for a mechanism to compensate victims of US reprisals.

Libya was subjected to several US airstrikes on Tripoli and the town of Benghazi on April 16, 1986, in which 41 people were killed, including an adopted daughter of Gaddafi.

US-Libyan relations were restored in early 2004 after more than two decades after Gaddafi announced that Tripoli was abandoning efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

Rice has also said after the compensation fund bill was passed that she wants to visit Tripoli, but has not yet done so.

Five killed in Iraq bomb attacks

2008-08-15T18:01:00.002+07:00

BAGHDAD - A rash of bomb attacks in Iraq, two targeting pilgrims headed to the holy city of Karbala for a Shiite religious festival, killed five people and wounded 18 on Thursday, security officials said.

In one of the attacks, a Shiite pilgrim was killed and seven others wounded by a roadside bomb in Baghdad's commercial district of Karrada as they set off towards Karbala, 110 kilometres (70 miles) south of Baghdad, the officials said.

Another explosion killed a policeman and injured five of his colleagues near a checkpoint in the Zafraniya district of southern Baghdad set up to search pilgrims heading south.

Tens of thousands of Shiites are expected to flock to Karbala to venerate Imam Mahdi, an eighth century imam who vanished as a boy and whom Shiites believe will return to bring justice to the world.

The Shiite community was once led by a series of infallible imams that were direct descendants of the Prophet Mohammed and his son-in-law Ali. When the Mahdi went into hiding, leadership of the community passed to the clergy.

In other violence, a car bomb targeting a police patrol near the restive city of Baquba, about 60 kilometres (35 miles) north of Baghdad, killed two policemen and injured six, security officials said.

The defence ministry said that on Tuesday the Iraqi army discovered dozens of houses which had been booby-trapped with explosives by Al-Qaeda jihadists in the same area – about 10 kilometres southeast of Baquba.

Also near Baquba, a bomb hidden in a field killed a 10-year-old girl, a security official said.

On July 29, some 50,000 Iraqi soldiers and police launched a major push against Al-Qaeda and other insurgents in Diyala, which commanders describe as Iraq's most dangerous province.

The Iraqi military imposed a curfew on Baquba, capital of Diyala, on Tuesday after a suicide bomber struck, injuring the governor of the province.

Zimbabwe opposition leader blocked from travelling to summit

2008-08-15T18:01:00.001+07:00

OHANNESBURG - Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was blocked on Thursday from attending a key regional summit, but said he was "hopeful" talks to resolve the country's political crisis would resume.

"I'm hopeful that the talks will resume," Tsvangirai told AFP by phone after Zimbabwean authorities seized his passport at Harare airport, preventing him flying to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) meet in South Africa.

"The whole thing was going to be determined at this SADC summit," he said.

Passports belonging to other members of his party's leadership were also seized.

"We were all scheduled to go and meet with the troika, the SADC organ on politics and defence. We're not going anymore," Tsvangirai said.

Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change party had earlier issued a statement saying he had been detained along with two other top members of his party at the airport

The MDC leader disputed the reference to a detention, saying that the incident amounted to his passport being seized. He said no reason had been given to him.

"It was the South Africans who invited us and paid for the tickets," Tsvangirai said of the summit, clarifying that he meant the South African government.

His claim could not immediately be confirmed by the Pretoria government.

He declined to discuss details of the power-sharing talks aimed at ending Zimbabwe's political crisis, currently stalled after Tsvangirai said he needed more time to consider a deal agreed by the other main participants, President Robert Mugabe and the leader of a smaller opposition faction, Arthur Mutambara.

The two would have a majority in parliament if they combined forces. The ruling party lost its majority for the first time since independence in recent elections.

The talks' mediator, South African president Thabo Mbeki, conceded after three days of negotiations adjourned on Tuesday that "there is disagreement on one element over which Morgan Tsvangirai had asked for time to reflect."

"We have adjourned to give Morgan Tsvangirai more time to consider these matters," he said.

The talks follow Mugabe's re-election in a June presidential run-off widely condemned as a sham.

Tsvangirai boycotted the run-off despite finishing ahead of Mugabe in the March first round, saying dozens of his supporters had been killed and thousands injured.

Zimbabwe's government mouthpiece the Herald reported on Thursday that Tsvangirai had balked at signing the deal, but was now coming under heavy pressure to do so.

The paper, quoting sources close to the talks, said "Tsvangirai ...would be accommodated in the new government when he was ready to sign."

Mbeki is expected to brief his peers at the 14-nation SADC summit in Johannesburg this weekend.

Trade unions are planning protests against Mugabe's participation in the summit in the absence of a negotiated settlement to the crisis, and Zimbabwe's neighbour Botswana has threatened to boycott the summit if the 84-year-old attends.

Georgian relief operation hampered as aid workers ambushed

2008-08-15T17:58:00.000+07:00

BRUSSELS - A truce between Russia and Georgia has failed to open up the conflict zone to much-needed emergency supplies, aid agencies and EU officials said on Thursday, as UN staff were held up by armed gunmen.

The United Nations workers were ambushed in the Georgian city of Gori before having their vehicles stolen, an official said, adding that the area was not yet considered safe enough for aid workers to operate in.

Robert Watkins, UN resident coordinator for Georgia, told AFP two UN-marked cars were taken by "paramilitary" gunmen after security officials doing a safety assessment there were stopped at gunpoint.

Latest estimates by the Georgian and Russian governments put the number of displaced people in the region at nearly 115,000.

"The authorities in principle are ready to give us access but we are being told that there are ongoing security concerns," said Geneva-based spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross Anna Nelson.

"We are ready to go in. We do not expect access today as it is already nightfall there. But we are ready to go in from the north and the south," she added.

The European Commission said it was concerned at the inability of aid workers to get help to tens of thousands of hungry and needy people.

Commission spokesman John Clancy told reporters in Brussels the truce had had little impact on the level access.

"The cessation of hostilities announced by Moscow has not yet reflected particularly into any improvement in terms of access for humanitarian aid workers," Clancy said, adding that emergency medical aid was "urgently needed."

"We hope that the situation changes in the coming hours," he said.

A UN human rights expert said he too was alarmed at the lack of humanitarian access to the wounded and displaced in the week-old dispute over the Russian-backed breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Many people caught up in the conflict were "still exposed to continuing dangers, facing difficulties in accessing shelter, medical care and food," said Walter Kaelin, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's representative for the rights of internally displaced persons.

He said he was "also alarmed about reports that humanitarian access is still blocked and by allegations of widespread looting of property left behind by the displaced."

Aid was required particularly in the camps hastily set up for displaced people within Georgia, mostly in and around the capital Tbilisi, Clancy added.

As well as access to hotspots for humanitarian workers, another problem was getting the aid to the area, with ports being particularly hazardous.

Marie Anne Isjer-beguin, chair of the European parliament's Georgia delegation, appealed in Tbilisi jointly for the creation of a humanitarian corridor.

Georgian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Giorgi Gorgiladze, speaking in Geneva at a disarmament conference, blamed Russian armed forces for not granting aid workers access to territory they controlled.

Meanwhile, UNHCR flew its second humanitarian flight to the Georgian capital carrying tents, jerry cans, blankets and telecommunications equipment.

Turkey also stepped up humanitarian assistance sending a further 10 trucks of relief supplies.

The United States State Department said a second C-17 US military cargo plane carrying humanitarian aid had arrived in Tbilisi on Thursday.

Italy was due to send two planeloads of relief materials "as rapidly as possible, probably during the weekend".

Rice, Sarkozy urge Russia and Georgia to sign ceasefire

2008-08-15T17:57:00.001+07:00

BORMES LES MIMOSAS, France - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on Thursday for Moscow and Tbilisi to rapidly sign a six-point ceasefire to end their conflict.

The US top diplomat flew into France for talks with Sarkozy, who brokered a fragile ceasefire to end five days of fighting, before heading on Friday for crisis talks with Georgia's leaders in Tbilisi.

Both Sarkozy and Rice pledged their support for Georgia's territorial integrity, calling for a swift end to the conflict, following their meeting at Bregancon Fort, an official presidential residence on the Riviera.

"It is time for this crisis to be over," Rice told reporters. "Georgia, whose territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty we fully respect, must be able to go back to normal life."

"We need to stop the shock of war. It takes time but we are making progress," agreed the French president.

The United States and Georgia have accused Russia of continuing attacks despite the ceasefire agreement, which both Georgia and Russia approved, but which neither has yet signed.

Both Rice and Sarkozy urged them to quickly formalise the truce "to consolidate the cessation of hostilities and accelerate the withdrawal of Russian forces to their positions prior to August 7," the French presidency said in a statement after their talks.

"The head of state and Mrs Rice both deemed that the six-point agreement protocol approved by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on August 12 must be signed without delay by the parties."

The French leader told reporters Rice would carry documents to Tbilisi for signature by Saakashvili.

"If tomorrow, President Saakashvili signs the document that we negotiated with Mr Medvedev, then the withdrawal of Russian troops will be able to start. That is what is at stake," Sarkozy said.

Sarkozy, who negotiated the truce on behalf of the European Union, said there was "a great similarity of views" between France and the United States.

Both shared "a will to obtain peace, a withdrawal of Russian military forces from Georgia and the respect for the sovereignty, independence and integrity of Georgia," the French leader said.

France is shortly to submit a draft UN Security Council resolution on the Caucasus conflict, incorporating the ceasefire plan, with the French foreign ministry calling Thursday for the council to rapidly adopt the text.

Rice's trip to Georgia for talks with President Mikheil Saakashvili is aimed at showing US solidarity with the former Soviet republic as it seeks support from its new Western allies.

Her visit comes a day after US President George W. Bush toughened his stance on the conflict, chiding Moscow for attacking Georgia and warning it had put post-Cold War relations with the West "at risk".

Russian troops and armour rolled into South Ossetia on Friday in response to a Georgian bid to regain control of the renegade region which broke from Tbilisi in the early 1990s.

The two countries engaged in five days of bitter fighting until the ceasefire was agreed on Tuesday, but new clashes in the Gori region northwest of Tbilisi have underlined the fragility of the agreement.

Russian forces remained in the strategic town of Gori, which lies outside South Ossetia, where explosions were heard on Thursday.

Georgian officials accused Russian forces of destroying installations before their departure, although Russia insists it is sticking to the peace plan.

The French foreign ministry said on Thursday it was verifying the reports of explosions.

Recalling that Medvedev had promised to stop the hostilities in Georgia, Rice appealed directly to the Russian president: "We would hope he would be true to his word and that these operations would halt."

Russians begin pulling back from flashpoint Georgian city

2008-08-15T17:52:00.002+07:00

TBILISI, Georgia - Russian forces started withdrawing on Thursday from the flashpoint Georgian city of Gori, officials said, adding a new twist to the campaign for a permanent peace between the neighbours.

The pullout came as the United States through its full support behind the Georgian government saying that US military aircraft would take humanitarian aid and that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would visit Tbilisi this week.

"The Russians have started to withdraw, the Georgian police and special forces are taking control," Georgian Interior Ministry Spokesman Shota Utiashvili told AFP.

A senior Russian military official said the handover would take two days.

The Russian and Georgian leaders agreed a ceasefire late Tuesday under which there was to be a withdrawal of their forces to positions before Georgia launched its offensive on the breakaway province of South Ossetia a week ago.

But on Wednesday Russian armoured vehicles patrolled Gori, a key town linking the east and the west of the country. A convoy of tanks and trucks was also seen on the main road from Gori to Tbilisi.

Hundreds of South Ossetian rebels with some Russian army personnel looted and burned houses in villages near Gori.

Tensions remained high between Russia and the West, with Moscow warning Washington it would have to choose between its partnership with Russia or supporting Georgia.

The United States is the major western ally of Georgia which wants to join NATO.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the United States it has to choose between a "relatively virtual" relationship with Georgia and a "partnership (with Russia) on questions that require collective action."

But US President George W. Bush dispatched Rice to Tbilisi and not Moscow.

"The United States of America stands with the democratically elected government of Georgia, insists that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia be respected," Bush said.

He ordered US aircraft and naval forces to deliver humanitarian and medical supplies to Georgia.

"To begin to repair the damage to its relations with the United States, Europe, and other nations, and to begin restoring its place in the world, Russia must keep its word and act to end this crisis," Bush demanded.

Rice was to hold talks in France with President Nicolas Sarkozy on the peace deal he brokered, before travelling to Tbilisi for talks with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Russian troops and armour rolled into South Ossetia on Friday in response to a Georgian bid to regain control of the renegade province which broke from Tbilisi in the early 1990s. Russian troops then pushed on into other parts of Georgia while aircraft bombed targets.

Medvedev halted the offensive on Tuesday saying that Georgia had been "punished" and Sarkozy later negotiated a ceasefire with Medvedev and Saakashvili.

Despite the deal, bitterness remains. Russia said that while it would talk with the European Union about the truce agreement, it refuses to deal directly with the Georgian president.

"We still have diplomatic relations with Georgia, we have millions of Georgian nationals who are Russian citizens and living happily in Russia," Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov told BBC television.

"But we won't directly talk to Saakashvili, we won't do that. We offered him peace but not friendship."

Russia has accused Georgia of violating the truce by failing to pursue an "active withdrawal" from South Ossetia, where Moscow says 2,000 civilians were killed in the fighting.

The United Nations estimates some 100,000 people have been forced from their homes.

The Georgian health minister put the death toll in Georgia at 175 people, mainly civilians. Russia said 74 of its troops had been killed.

Russian investigators said they had opened a probe into whether Georgian forces committed genocide in their attack last week on South Ossetia, RIA Novosti news agency reported.

The first UN and US planes carrying humanitarian aid landed in Tbilisi on Wednesday with tents, blankets and emergency supplies, officials said.

The US Defence Department meanwhile denied comments by Saakashvili that the United States would take over control of Georgia's seaports and airports as part of the humanitarian efforts.

"We do not need nor do we intend to take over any air or seaports in order to deliver humanitarian assistance to those caught in this conflict," said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell.

Obama grants unity vote on Clinton's White House bid

2008-08-15T17:51:00.001+07:00

WASHINGTON - Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, bidding to heal wounds still festering from their bitter scrap for the White House nomination, agreed on Thursday to put her name up for a convention vote.

The symbolic vote will allow the former first lady's supporters to have their say at the August 25-28 convention in Denver, and then the party can move on to take the fight to Republican John McCain, the erstwhile rivals said.

But it could also bring lingering tensions bubbling back to the fore, with pro-Clinton groups angered at her primary loss already planning to rally in Denver ahead of the nominating ballot on August 27.

"I am convinced that honouring Senator Clinton's historic campaign in this way will help us celebrate this defining moment in our history and bring the party together in a strong, united fashion," Obama said in a joint statement.

Clinton said: "With every voice heard and the party strongly united, we will elect Senator Obama president of the United States and put our nation on the path to peace and prosperity once again."

The decision means that delegates in Denver will hold a "roll-call" vote to formally enter Clinton's achievement – she won nearly 18 million primary votes – into the record.

The race ran all the way into June, and Clinton ultimately came up short as party grandees known as "superdelegates" rallied to Obama.

"After the state-by-state roll is tallied, Mrs Clinton is expected to turn over her cache of delegates to Senator Barack Obama," the New York Times reported.

"So how will Mrs Clinton, who is a superdelegate herself, vote? Associates say she will throw her lot behind Mr Obama and ask her supporters to follow suit," it said.

In a YouTube video from a California fundraiser last month, Clinton told her supporters that a roll-call vote would provide "catharsis" for the Democratic Party after its months-long nominating fight.

Clinton, herself, is due to address the convention in prime-time on Tuesday, August 26. Her husband, former president Bill Clinton, will speak on the next night, Wednesday, when the ballot takes place.

After the ballot, Obama's vice presidential nominee is scheduled to address the delegates.

Hillary Clinton's billing the night before would appear to preclude her from being the VP pick – and many of her more diehard supporters say the only way they will countenance voting for Obama is with her on the ticket.

But prominent Democrats who sided with the New York senator, the once "inevitable" nominee because of her and Bill Clinton's long standing as Democratic royalty, are now pledging fealty to Obama.

"There are many, many fine choices Senator Obama can make (for VP)," Ohio Governor Ted Strickland told reporters at an automotive conference in Michigan.

"My first choice would be Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, obviously, but I have no reason to believe that will happen and I have no idea who the final choice will be," he said.

According to widespread reports, both camps have been debating for weeks the former first lady's demand for a public acknowledgement at the convention of her prolonged battle for the Democratic nomination.

But the joint statement said the initiative came from the Illinois senator.

"Senator Obama's campaign encouraged Senator Clinton's name to be placed in nomination as a show of unity and in recognition of the historic race she ran and the fact that she was the first woman to compete in all of our nation's primary contests," it said.

"Senator Obama and Senator Clinton are looking forward to a convention unified behind Barack Obama as the party's nominee and to victory this fall for America."

Iranian president in Turkey for nuclear talks

2008-08-15T17:49:00.000+07:00

ISTANBUL - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began talks here on Thursday on closer ties with Turkey and Tehran's controversial nuclear programme on his first ever bilateral visit to a NATO-member country.

Heavy security measures were in place for Ahmadinejad's arrival to Istanbul, Turkey's biggest city, with snipers placed on rooftops around the Ataturk airport and police closing off the road leading into the city.

Shortly after his arrival, the Iranian president went into a closed-door meeting with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul after which the two leaders were expected to hold a news conference.

He will meet Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and address a businessmen's meeting on Friday before leaving.

Ahmadinejad's two-day visit comes amid mounting tension over the Islamic Republic's nuclear drive which the West suspects is a cover for a secret nuclear weapons programme.

Iran is refusing to halt its uranium enrichment activities even though it is facing a fresh round of sanctions after failing to give a clear response to an incentives package offered by six world powers.

It has however agreed to continue talks with the European Union aimed at resolving the dispute.

Turkey, which has significantly improved relations with Iran in recent years, believes it can help resolve the stand-off through its close ties with both its eastern neighbour and Western powers.

Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said last month that Ankara was taking on a role "of consolidating and facilitating" the talks rather than formal mediation.

In a joint television interview with Turkey's NTV and CNN-Turk news channels on Wednesday, Ahmadinejad sounded an upbeat note on the talks with the six powers – Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.

"We think that the question of nuclear power is going in the right direction," he said. "The negotiations are good negotiations and that is going to continue."

Tehran also appreciated Ankara's "efforts to reduce the tensions and establish a constructive dialogue," he added.

Turkey, which itself is seeking to build its first nuclear power plant, says Iran has the right to possess nuclear power for peaceful purposes, but opposes nuclear weapons in the region.

Ahmadinejad's visit, however, has drawn the ire of Turkey's ally Israel which has warned Ankara against "giving legitimacy" to a leader who has called for the destruction of the Jewish state and questioned the Holocaust.

In Wednesday's interview, Ahmadinejad launched his usual attack on Israel, describing it an illegitimate state based on a lie.

"It is an illegitimate regime... The Zionist regime is based on a lie," he charged. "They (Israelis) do not belong to this region. They should go."

Non-Arab and secular Turkey has been Israel's main regional ally since 1996, when the two signed a military cooperation accord, much to the anger of Arab countries and Iran.

It is currently acting as mediator in indirect talks between Israel and its arch-foe Syria.

Turkey and Iran used to have stormy ties, clouded by Turkish accusations that Tehran was seeking to undermine Ankara's secular regime and turning a blind eye to separatist Kurdish rebels active in the region.

But the two countries have boosted security cooperation in the past decade and in 2001 Turkey began buying Iranian gas via a pipeline between the two countries, overriding US discontent.

Poland, US close in on missile deal

2008-08-15T17:48:00.000+07:00

WARSAW - Warsaw and Washington looked set to close a deal Thursday on basing a US missile shield in Poland, despite Moscow's vehement opposition to the plan which has been given a new edge by Russia's conflict with Georgia.

A source close to the negotiations said Washington had "given very serious consideration" to Warsaw's demands -- Poland wants the United States to provide major security guarantees in return for hosting a base -- and that the "stars are aligning."

After meeting with US negotiator John Rood Wednesday evening, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said their "positions have got closer."

Earlier rounds were often low-key, but the talks have been thrown back into the spotlight by fighting between Russia and Georgia, which like Poland is an ex-communist country turned US ally.

"Today we're facing a new international situation. The situation doesn't change our arguments but in my view reinforces them," Sikorski said.

On Tuesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the talks seemed "on the right track."

"Our arguments about the need for a permanent presence of US troops and missiles on Polish soil have been taken seriously by the American side," he said.

"The events in the Caucasus show clearly that such security guarantees are indispensable," he added.

"As soon as we are sure that Poland's security has been reinforced to the degree we want, we're not going to wait for hours to sign a deal," he pledged.

Washington aims to base 10 interceptor missiles in Poland plus a radar facility in the neighbouring Czech Republic by 2011-2013 to complete a system already in place in the United States, Greenland and Britain.

Washington insists the shield is meant to ward off attacks by "rogue states," notably Iran, and is not directed against Russia.

The shield, however, has become a major source of tension with Moscow, which dubs it a security threat aimed at undermining Russia's nuclear deterrent, and has vowed a firm response if the Czechs and Poles go ahead.

"These installations... only worsen the situation. We will be forced to respond to this adequately. The EU and US have been warned," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said last month.

The Czech Republic and Poland were Soviet satellites until 1989, joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004.

A US-Polish deal would be highly symbolic, showing a resurgent Russia that flexing its muscle in the Caucasus has not given it a new say on its Cold War-era turf further north.

While Prague signed a radar deal in July, Washington's talks with Warsaw have been grinding on for 15 months.

Amid concerns about the potential risks -- not specifically from Russia --
of hosting the silos, Warsaw has long pressed the US side to provide a THAAD or Patriot air-defence system.

Defence Minister Bogdan Klich said that Washington may deploy a permanent Patriot missile base in Poland, operated by US soldiers.

"One battery is just the start. Once it's based permanently in Poland, that would enable the launch of a modernisation programme which by 2018 would provide a complete anti-missile defence system," Klich told the daily Rzeczpospolita.

"We're also counting on the fact that getting Patriots would allow us discounts on other batteries and open the road to a more modern air defence system, like the THAAD," he said.

Sikorski said Poland also wants a "kind of reinforcement of Article Five" of the treaty binding NATO's 26 nations, which says an attack against one is an attack against the entire alliance.

Gunmen assault prayer service, kill 17 in N. Mexico attacks

2008-08-15T17:47:00.000+07:00

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - An armed gang killed nine people during mass in a drug rehabilitation centre in this northern Mexican border town, and eight others died in separate attacks in the area overnight, police said on Thursday.

The gunmen "entered (the building) shooting at people who were praying" late Wednesday, police said, adding that 10 more people were wounded.

After the shooting, the assassins left the scene and calmly passed a group of security forces, who did nothing to detain them, said a statement from the municipal office of public security, quoting witnesses.

In an escalation of drug-related violence in Mexico's northern border regions, two people were also killed in a nearby rehabilitation centre last weekend.

Meanwhile, five men were kidnapped and later executed in Chihuahua town, capital of Chihuahua state, and three others were violently killed in separate attacks in Ciudad Juarez.

Federal authorities have deployed more than 36,000 soldiers across the country, including 2,500 in Ciudad Juarez, in an effort to combat drug trafficking and related violence, but some 2,000 people have been killed so far this year.

Authorities attribute some 780 assassinations in Ciudad Juarez this year to turf wars between drug cartels.

World's tallest woman dies at 53

2008-08-15T17:45:00.000+07:00

WASHINGTON - An American believed to be the world's tallest woman has died, nursing home staff told AFP on Thursday.

Sandy Allen, 53, who grew to be more than seven feet, seven inches tall died on Wednesday at a nursing home in Shelbyville, Indiana.

A spokeswoman for the Heritage House Convalescent Centre in Shelbyville said Allen "had been in failing health in recent years and died of natural causes".

She had been listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's tallest woman. By the time she was 10, Allen already stood six foot three. By 16, she was over seven feet tall, the Indianapolis Star daily said.

It's believed that a tumour on her pituitary gland caused her abnormal growth. It was removed when Allen was in her 20s, but she continued to be affected by a variety of health issues related to her height, including poor circulation and weak leg muscles that kept her confined to a wheelchair in her later years.

While her height brought her and the town of Shelbyville fame, it also led to personal despair, especially in her late teens when she spoke about her height being an impediment to relationships.

The newspaper quoted a letter Allen is said to have written to Guinness in 1974 in which she said: "I would like to get to know someone that is approximately my height. It is needless to say my social life is practically nil and perhaps the publicity from your book may brighten my life."

Bush throws support behind Georgia

2008-08-14T18:06:00.001+07:00

WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush on Wednesday demanded Russian troops leave Georgia as he dispatched Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the country in a strong show of support for his pro-West ally.

"The United States of America stands with the democratically elected government of Georgia, insists that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia be respected," Bush said in a brief White House statement.

Standing with Rice and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates at his side in the White House Rose Garden, he scolded Moscow for its attacks on Georgia and warned it had put Russia's post-Cold War embrace by the West "at risk."

"To begin to repair the damage to its relations with the United States, Europe, and other nations, and to begin restoring its place in the world, Russia must keep its word and act to end this crisis," he demanded.

Rice was to leave immediately Wednesday for France, which has led European efforts to broker a ceasefire, before travelling on to Georgia.

"On this trip, she will continue our efforts to rally the free world in the defence of a free Georgia," said the US president, who spent the morning in the White House "situation room" - his high-tech national security nerve centre.

As an international aid operation swung into place, a American C-17 military aircraft landed in Tbilisi bearing medical supplies, shelter, bedding and cots, and Bush promised more would be on the way.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, said it will be reviewing the needs of the Georgian military, battered in more than four days of all-out fighting with Russian forces over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

But the comments by Bush, who postponed his vacation plans for a day or so to track the crisis, drew an angry response from Moscow.

"The Georgian leadership is a special project for the United States," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, quoted by Interfax news agency.

"At some time it will be necessary to choose between supporting this virtual project and real partnership on questions which actually require collective action."

The White House denied that US-Russia relations were on "adversarial" footing in the wake of the recent events, but spokeswoman Dana Perino admitted ties were "complex and complicated."

Bush said he had spoken to French President Nicolas Sarkozy and to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili amid a peace push by Paris, which holds the rotating European Union presidency.

Bush also said he had had reports of Russian actions "inconsistent" with Moscow's statements that it had halted military operations and agreed to a provisional ceasefire.

"We expect Russia to meet its commitment to cease all military activities in Georgia, and we expect all Russian forces that entered Georgia in recent days to withdraw from that country," he warned.

But the Pentagon denied comments by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili that the United States would take over control of Georgia's seaports and airports.

"We do not need nor do we intend to take over any air or seaports in order to deliver humanitarian assistance to those caught in this conflict," said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell.

"It is simply not a requirement of this mission and it is not something we are seeking to do," he said.

Saakashvili earlier had sharply criticised the initial US response to the crisis, saying initial statements from top US officials on Moscow's push in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia were "too soft."

Washington has called an extraordinary meeting of NATO alliance foreign ministers next week and scrapped joint military exercises with Russia, in its first concrete response to the armed conflict in Georgia.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the August 15-23 FRUKUS naval exercise in the Sea of Japan involving ships from France, Britain, Russia and the United States "has been cancelled."

"It just wasn't appropriate in the current situation."

France to submit new UN draft on Georgia-Russia peace

2008-08-14T18:05:00.001+07:00

UNITED NATIONS - France will soon introduce a new draft resolution on the Caucasus conflict in the UN Security Council to incorporate the peace plan agreed by Russia and Georgia, Belgium's UN Ambassador said Wednesday.

Jan Grauls, who chairs the 15-member Council this month, told reporters the French delegation was holding bilateral talks with other council members to amend the draft it circulated Monday and which called for an immediate truce and respect for Georgia's territorial integrity.

He said the text needed to be amended to incorporate the peace deal brokered French President Nicolas Sarkozy on behalf of the European Union to end hostilities between Russia and Georgia.

The French sponsors "will come up with a new draft on the basis of the Sarkozy plan ... very soon," Grauls said.

"This is a very positive development because it indicates that the military logic which prevails until last weekend has now given way to a political logic, a diplomatic logic."

He also welcomed what he called a "good and strong statement" by UN chief Ban Ki-moon in which the latter restated his backing for Georgia's territorial integrity.

Ban also said the United Nations stood ready "to facilitate international discussions as well as to contribute to possible peacekeeping or other arrangements for Abkhazia and South Ossetia."

The Sarkozy plan includes a commitment not to resort to force, to end hostilities definitively and to provide free access for humanitarian aid.

Georgian military forces are also to withdraw to their usual bases while Russian military forces are to pull back to the lines held prior to the outbreak of hostilities.

Pending an international mechanism, Russian peacekeeping forces will implement additional security measures.

Finally, international talks are to open on the security and stability arrangements in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the two Moscow-backed Georgian breakaway enclaves.

Wednesday Sarkozy said his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev had pledged to honour the six-point peace deal.

Russian troops and armor rolled into Georgia's South Ossetia region Friday in response to a Georgian bid to regain control of the renegade region which broke from Tbilisi in the early 1990s.

Syria and Lebanon agree to start diplomatic ties

2008-08-14T18:04:00.000+07:00

DAMASCUS - Syria and Lebanon have agreed to start diplomatic ties and exchange ambassadors for the first time since independence about 60 years ago, a Syrian presidential adviser said on Wednesday.

The decision was taken during a meeting in Damascus between President Bashar al-Assad and his visiting Lebanese counterpart Michel Sleiman, presidential counsellor for politics Bussaina Shaaban said in a statement.

"The two presidents decided to establish diplomatic relations at the level of ambassadors, in line with the treaty of the United Nations and international law," the statement said.

Presidents Assad and Sleiman "instructed their foreign ministries to take the necessary measures in this regard to conform with the laws of the two countries," the statement added.

Syria and Lebanon have not had diplomatic ties since independence from French colonial power about 60 years ago but Assad and Sleiman agreed to establish relations during talks last month in Paris.

Wednesday's confirmation of the decision marks the first fruits of a landmark trip to Damascus by Sleiman, the first Lebanese president to visit Damascus since Syria withdrew its troops from Lebanon in April 2005 ending almost three decades of military domination of its "sister" nation.

The Syrian pullout came two months after the assassination in a massive Beirut bomb blast of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, for which Damascus has denied any responsibility despite accusations by Lebanese anti-Syrian groups.

Hours before Sleiman flew in, a bomb exploded in the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli, killing at least 14 people, nine of them soldiers, and wounding 40 others.

Sleiman, a former army chief elected by parliament in May, was given a red-carpet welcome by Assad at the People's Palace overlooking Damascus on his arrival.

"(Assad) has instructed all concerned Syrian officials that he wants this visit to be successful and fruitful," Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said in comments published in Lebanon's As-Safir newspaper.

"The visit is a starting point... for future relations. We hope it will yield good relations in the interests" of the Lebanese and Syrian people.

Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a stalwart of the Syrian-backed opposition in Beirut, said however the Tripoli bombing was timed "to prevent the improvement of Lebanese-Syrian relations."

Syria's foreign ministry condemned the attack as a "criminal act" and expressed support for Lebanon "in the face of all those who are manipulating its security and stability."

Sleiman's visit aims to redefine ties between Beirut and Damascus which have been on the decline since the Hariri murder.

The agenda features prickly issues such as a border demarcation, a review of longstanding accords, Lebanese detainees in Syria and the presence of radical pro-Syrian Palestinian groups in Lebanon, as well as the opening of embassies.

Sleiman was elected in May as part of an agreement struck in Doha between the pro- and anti-Syrian camps in Lebanon after an 18-month political crisis which degenerated into deadly factional violence.

The deal led to the formation of a national unity government, a development which would have been impossible without Syrian consent.

Sleiman's visit comes a day after Beirut's Western-backed government won a vote of confidence in parliament, after stormy debates on the thorny issue of weapons held by the Syria- and Iran-backed Hezbollah Shiite militant group.

The vote allows the 30-member cabinet formed a month ago by Prime Minister Fuad Siniora to finally start work.

"Syria wants a stable, united and Arab Lebanon which does not serve as a trampoline for hostile activities," Elias Murad, editor-in-chief of the ruling Baath party newspaper, told AFP.

Syria's official Tishrin newspaper hailed the summit and said it expected "past mistakes to be overcome... by establishing diplomatic relations" which it said must be based on "respect, friendship and coordination."

Officials in Damascus insist Syria has not interfered in Lebanon since its troop withdrawal and has worked to reunify ranks in Beirut, pointing to the Doha power-sharing accord.

But Beirut's An-Nahar, reflecting the suspicions of Lebanon's anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, has voiced doubts over how Damascus will "manage the relations."

Arkansas Democratic leader dies after shooting

2008-08-14T18:03:00.002+07:00

WASHINGTON - The chairman of the Democratic Party of Arkansas was killed on Wednesday by a gunman who barged into the party's state headquarters and opened fire, police and Democratic leaders said.

Bill Gwatney "was shot multiple times" in the upper body and died of his wounds a few hours later, Little Rock police department Lieutenant Terry Hastings said in a briefing aired by FOX News.

The killing of Gwatney, reportedly 48, left fellow Democratic leaders in shock less than two weeks before the party's national convention in the midst of a fierce White House battle.

"We are deeply saddened by the news that Bill Gwatney has passed away," former president Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary said in a joint statement. The couple lived for years in the Arkansas capital of Little Rock while Bill Clinton was governor and were close friends of Gwatney.

Police said the suspected shooter was also fatally wounded, after police exchanged gunfire with him following a high-speed chase into another county.

Gwatney was shot at least three times shortly before noon (1700 GMT) by a man who walked into the party headquarters near the state capitol building and asked to see the chairman, according to local media.

Police were reportedly alerted to the attack by a 911 emergency call from Gwatney's secretary who had dashed into a nearby florist shop. A witness there heard her tell police: "Help, our chairman's been shot," the Arkansas Times reported.

The shooting left the party's politicians and leaders deeply shaken less than two weeks before Democrats gather in Denver to officially anoint Barack Obama as their candidate for president in November's general election.

"This senseless tragedy comes as a shock to all of us," Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said in a statement issued before Gwatney was pronounced dead.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to Chairman Gwatney and his family," Dean added.

In an earlier statement, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton - Obama's main rival in the heated battle for the Democratic nomination - said they were "stunned and shaken by today's shooting" of Gwatney, whom they described as their "cherished friend and confidante."

Obama reacted swiftly to the shooting as well, saying he was "shocked and saddened" by the tragedy.

Gwatney was one of the party's nearly 800 so-called superdelegates, who are allowed to vote as they wish at the convention. During the nomination campaign Gwatney supported Clinton, who handily defeated Obama in the Arkansas primary.

Lieutenant Hastings said the motive for the shooting was unclear.

"That's something that we'll be looking into. Right now we don't have an answer for you on that," he said, adding that the suspect was not a former Gwatney employee.

Hastings said the suspect fled the scene in a pickup truck and was chased into Grant County some 40 kilometres south of Little Rock, where he was fatally shot.

The violent attack is the second in several months targeting the Democratic Party. In November a man claiming to be armed with a bomb took over US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton's campaign office in the state of New Hampshire and held five people hostage for more than five hours before surrendering.

Attack on Lebanese army kills 14

2008-08-14T18:03:00.001+07:00

TRIPOLI, Lebanon - A bomb blast targeting the Lebanese army killed nine soldiers and five civilians in the northern city of Tripoli on Wednesday in the deadliest attack in the troubled country in three years.

The bombing, which left a child among the dead, came just hours before President Michel Sleiman began a landmark visit to Syria and the day after Lebanon's new national unity cabinet won parliamentary approval.

At least 40 people were also wounded in the blast that ripped through a shopping street in the heart of the Mediterranean port city during morning rush hour, a security official said.

A child shoeshiner was among the 14 dead, the official said, adding that nine of those killed and many of the wounded were soldiers.

"My son! My son!," screamed one mother striking her chest at a Tripoli hospital after learning that her 22-year-old soldier son was dead.

It was the deadliest attack since ex-premier Rafiq Hariri and 22 other people were killed in a Beirut car bomb attack in February 2005.

It was also the worst bloodshed involving the army since a 15-week battle last year with the Al-Qaeda inspired Fatah al-Islam militia in a Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli that left 400 people dead, including 168 soldiers.

The army said the bomb was planted in a bag at a military gathering point in the Masarif Street commercial district and exploded near a public bus carrying soldiers from the northern region of Akkar.

"The terrorist explosion directly targets the army and peaceful co-existence in the country," an army statement said.

The attack came a day after a national unity government formed by Prime Minister Fuad Siniora following 18 months of deadly tensions with the Hezbollah-led opposition, finally won a vote of confidence in parliament.

The crisis had pushed the country to the brink of a new civil war and was only ended by an Arab-brokered power-sharing agreement in May.

Sleiman, who was army chief until his election as president by MPs in May, branded the attack a "terrorist crime," a sentiment echoed by Syria.

"The army and security forces will not be terrorised by attacks and crimes that target it and civil society, and the history of the army attests to that," Sleiman said.

The security official said the bomb was packed with 20 kilogrammes of explosives, and the force of the blast blew the remains of some of the dead on to the roofs of nearby buildings.

Oussama Safa, head of the Lebanese Centre for Policy Studies, said the attack could have been one of a series he saw as retribution for the army's crushing of Fatah al-Islam last year.

Desperate families gathered at hospitals for news about their loved ones but were blocked by security from entering. One hospital official said identification was delayed because some bodies were mutilated beyond recognition.

Tripoli has been rocked by deadly violence in recent months.

In June and July, 23 people were killed in battles between Sunni Muslim supporters of Siniora and their Damascus-backed rivals from the Alawite community.

The fighting focused on the Sunni stronghold of Bab al-Tebbaneh and the mainly Alawite Jabal Mohsen district which are both a short distance from Masarif Street.

There has been tension between the two communities ever since Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. Alawites are an offshoot of Shiite Islam and straddle the border into Syria whose President Bashar al-Assad is a follower of the faith.

The explosion came hours before Sleiman arrived in Damascus for a landmark summit with Assad where the two later announced diplomatic relations would be established for the first time.

"Syria staunchly denounces the criminal act perpetrated this morning in Tripoli that killed many innocent civilians," the Syrian foreign ministry said.

Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri said the timing of the bombing reflects efforts "to prevent the improvement of Lebanese-Syrian relations."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned the "cowardly" attack and reaffirmed "unfailing support for Lebanon" in the fight against terrorism.

Arab League chief Amr Mussa said it was "aimed at complicating the security and political situation in Lebanon and hampering the launch of the new government."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also condemned the attack saying it should not "hinder the positive steps" taken in returning Lebanon to normality, while Saudi Arabia's SPA state news agency quoted an unnamed official as slamming the blast as an "abhorrent terrorist crime."