The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Islamabad

Suspending basic rights and firing independent-minded judges may buy President Gen. Pervez Musharraf more time in power, but his assumption of emergency powers could ultimately destabilize Pakistan further and embolden Islamic militants.

Western allies will also find it increasingly awkward to support a military leader who twice seized power by force and has become hated by many at home.

"Pakistan may well have been pushed into a blind alley and its capacity to come out unscathed is seriously in doubt," said a commentary in Sunday's Dawn daily written by noted human rights lawyer I. A. Rehman, 77, who was detained by police later in the day. Musharraf was due to give up his military post this month and usher in a long-promised era of democracy. But, fearful that a defiant Supreme Court would spoil his plans to rule five more years as a civilian, he has resorted to dictatorial measures.

With authorities blocking independent TV networks, it was left to Pakistan's press to deliver a blistering indictment of Saturday's declaration of emergency, which many equated with martial law because it left the army chief effectively unchecked.

Musharraf fired the Supreme Court's top judge and authorities quickly rounded up hundreds of the general's political rivals, lawyers, and even raided the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, where Rehman was picked up with more than 30 others.

Dubbing it "Gen. Musharraf's second coup," Dawn juxtaposed pictures of the U.S.-allied leader in his fatigues when he ousted an elected government in 1999 with images of him declaring the emergency on TV in civilian clothes on Saturday, just a little grayer around the temples.

Musharraf justified the move on the grounds that Islamic militancy had become a grave threat to Pakistan. Indeed, jihadists have seize control of swaths of northwestern Pakistan and launched dozens of deadly suicide attacks, mostly against security forces. Hundreds have died in the violence this year.

But much of the page-long emergency declaration focuses on the activism of the Supreme Court. It was accused of working at "cross purposes" with the executive and undermining its efforts to fight extremism, pushing for the release of dozens of Pakistani terror suspects held secretly by intelligence agencies.

Tellingly, Musharraf chose to act as the court was about to decide whether to validate his Oct. 6 election victory - a win that opponents decried as unconstitutional. A close aide to Musharraf told The Associated Press that they had expected the judges to rule against him. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Commentator Shafqat Mahmood said the perception that the emergency had been declared to prolong his personal power would further sully the profile of the military leader, whose popularity has sunk since his botched attempt to fire the independent-minded chief justice in March - a mission finally accomplished Saturday.

"For the last six months, Musharraf has been a very hated figure in the country. Now he has pariah status. It is so obvious to the people that there is no principle involved here," Mahmood said. Joseph Biden, chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged the Bush administration "to move from a Musharraf policy to a Pakistan policy."

"President Bush should personally make clear to Gen. Musharraf the risks to U.S.-Pakistani relations if he does not restore the constitution, permit free and fair elections and take off his uniform as promised," Biden, D-Del., said in a statement.

AFP, Moscow

A fire at a nursing home in Russia has killed at least 23 people, an emergency official said Monday.

The blaze broke out Sunday in the Tula region south of Moscow, Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov said.

Fire inspectors had asked courts to order the nursing home closed because of fire safety violations, including the lack of an alarm system, Beltsov said.

The toll from Sunday's fire at the retirement home in the village of Velye Nikolskoye, 30 kilometres (20 miles) outside Tula, rose steadily as bodies continued to be discovered in the charred ruins.

RIA Novosti news agency quoted a law enforcement source saying that an electrical short circuit started the blaze.

Flames spread quickly through the 1950s-era building, which had wooden beams and no fire alarm, Interfax reported.

More than 100 firefighters and 22 vehicles were sent to the scene, where 293 people, including 17 nurses, were evacuated, Interfax quoted the Emergency Situations Ministry as saying.

Police announced a criminal investigation into violation of fire safety procedures, news agencies reported.

Beltsov told Interfax that more people could have been saved if the fire services had been called earlier.

"The reason for mass death of people in the old people's home in Tula region was the delayed raising of the alarm," he said.

The deadly blaze was only the latest of a series in Russia, where accidents often end tragically due to poor safety procedures and infrastructure.

In December last year, a fire in a Moscow drug rehabilitation clinic killed 45 women. Many of the victims were trapped by metal bars on the windows that staff could not open and an emergency exit was boarded up.

In March, a fire at a nursing home in southern Russia killed 63 people. The blaze was blamed on violations of fire safety regulations and the lack of a nearby fire station.

Ten people were killed in June in a suspected arson attack on a retirement home in the Omsk region in Siberia.

AFP, Baghdad

Two carloads of gunmen ambushed a top aide to Iraq's Finance Ministry on Sunday in Baghdad, killing him and his driver, police said. The two were among 15 people killed or found dead in Iraq.

The Finance Ministry had no immediate comment about the attack on Qutaiba Badir al-Din Mohammed, a Sunni adviser to Iraq's finance minister.

Violence claimed the lives of 10 Iraqis in Diyala, the troubled province northeast of Baghdad. Police said the victims included an Iraqi soldier, a policeman and an 8-year-old child, all killed separately.

The soldier died when gunmen attacked his patrol in Khalis, a mostly Shiite town 50 miles north of the capital, police said. Three other soldiers were wounded in the attack, they said.

The child died after seven mortar rounds landed on a residential area in the same town at sunrise, police said. A woman was also wounded by the barrage. And the policeman was killed in a drive-by shooting in nearby Muqdadiyah, 60 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

Meanwhile, police said clashes broke out in Buhriz, a suburb of Diyala's provincial capital, Baqouba. Policemen backed by members of the 1920s Revolution Brigades, a Sunni former insurgent group, battled gunmen and seized weapons and ammunition, they said. Four people were killed, including a 1920s member, police said.

Later, a civilian was killed by a roadside bomb north of Baqouba, and a severed head was found dumped at a farm nearby, police said.

Another body was found floating in a drainage ditch in the Tahrir area, in a southern part of the city, they said.

Reuters, Beijing

China and the United States agreed on Monday to open a military hotline as U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates held talks in Beijing aimed at strengthening ties overshadowed by years of mistrust.

Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan said the two countries had directed technical experts to press ahead with consultations, but neither gave a timeline for when the link might be opened.

Both Gates and Cao stressed a desire to build a closer relationship between their militaries, but mutual wariness remains.

Gates said last week he did not currently see China as a threat to the United States. But Beijing is engaged in a rapid military buildup and Washington says it has yet to adequately explain the reasons behind it.

"The United States has a relationship with China that is candid, constructive and cooperative," Gates said On Monday.

PTI, Karachi

The former Premier, Benazir Bhutto, on Sunday termed the "undemocratic" measure imposed on Pakistan not "emergency but martial law." She attacked Pervez Musharraf, saying he was worried about the outcome of the Supreme Court judgment on the challenge to his re-election as President in uniform. "General Musharraf has given supporters and sympathisers in the regime of the militants a new lease of life. He has extended their tenure," she told reporters at her Bilawal house.

The emergency was not imposed with the stability of the country in mind, Ms. Bhutto said. "Emergency rule is no solution; we need to move forward. I am confident the nation will resist this undemocratic step."

"The militants need the dictatorship," she said, adding, "They feed off each other." Another report adds: Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto accused President Pervez Musharraf of staging a ``second coup'' in Pakistan by imposing emergency rule and said judges, lawyers and opposition parties will protest the move today.

AFP, Jerusalem

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he may be able to make peace with the Palestinians by the end of 2008 as the United States vowed to defend Israel's security during the difficult process.

"If we act decisively together, we and the Palestinians, there is a chance for us to reach real achievements, maybe even before the end of President (George W.) Bush's term," he said at the Saban Forum think-tank in Jerusalem.

"There is no intention to drag out the negotiations without end. There is no reason to again hit the foot-dragging that characterised our talks in the past," the premier said.

Israel and the Palestinians have been engaged in intensive talks in an effort to draft a joint statement outlining a solution to the decades-old conflict ahead of a meeting in Annapolis, Maryland expected later this year.

The two sides plan to launch intensive bilateral talks on a permanent agreement following the international meeting, aimed at reviving a peace process that has been dormant for seven years.

AFP, Kathmandu

The fate of Nepal's King Gyanendra looked bleaker Sunday after the country's parliament passed a proposal instructing the government to begin legal preparations to declare the country a republic.

"Parliament has passed a proposal to turn the country into a democratic republic and has asked the government to make the necessary arrangements," house speaker Subash Nemwang told AFP after the proposal tabled by the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) was passed by a majority voice vote.

The proposal was a compromise reached after Nepal's former rebel Maoists demanded that the monarchy be immediately scrapped and the voting system for cancelled polls be changed.

Sunday's proposal approval came after a special parliament session called by the Maoists to address their demands.

Reuters, Suva

Fiji police have arrested 16 people over an assassination plot against the South Pacific island nation's coup leader and prime minister.

Three of those arrested were charged on Monday with treason, inciting mutiny and conspiracy to murder, police said. The three, whose names were withheld, are expected in court on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama assured the public and tourists that Fiji's police would maintain safety in the island nation hit by four coups and an army mutiny since 1987.

"There are obviously disgruntled groups out there who are feeling the full impact of the interim government's 'Clean Up Campaign'," Bainimarama said in a statement on Monday.

"Such people have the potential to go to extremes in undermining the work which the interim government has been mandated to undertaket," he said.