The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Annapolis

Israel and the Palestinians pledged Tuesday to seek a peace deal by the end of 2008 as they seized on a major US-sponsored conference to revive negotiations frozen for seven years.

Flanked by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, US President George W. Bush read out the pledge to top diplomats and others from 50 countries and organizations meeting in Annapolis, Maryland.

"We agree to engage in vigorous, ongoing and continuous negotiations and shall make every effort to conclude an agreement before the end of 2008," the statement said.

In a keynote speech marking what amounts to his biggest push for Middle East peace since he took office in 2001, Bush said the time was ripe for an end to the six-decade conflict, despite rising extremism and violence in the region.

Brushing aside skeptics, Bush told delegates meeting in a building of the US Naval Academy at Annapolis: "I believe that now is precisely the right time to begin these negotiations -- for a number of reasons."

He cited a new willingness among the leaders of both sides as well as global support for fresh negotiations, and warned "we must not cede victory to the extremists."

The US leader acknowleged sealing a deal would not be easy, and in a sign of the difficulties ahead tens of thousands of Palestinian Islamists poured on to the streets in Gaza and the West Bank in protests which left one Palestinian dead.

Israeli settlers in the West Bank were also anxiously watching the outcome of the talks fearing they could spell the end of their dream of a "Greater Israel."

But Abbas said the conference and international climate presented an exceptional opportunity for peace that would "not repeat itself," while Olmert vowed Israel was prepared to make a "painful compromise" to achieve peace.

The joint statement from the Palestinians and Israelis was a victory for Bush, as right up until the last minute the two delegations had been haggling over the text in the presence of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "We express our determination to bring an end to bloodshed, suffering and decades of conflict between our peoples," it said.

And they promised to "usher in a new era of peace, based on freedom, security, justice, dignity, respect and mutual recognition." The first meeting of a top-level steering committee is to be held on December 12, and the two sides agreed "to conclude a peace treaty resolving all outstanding issues."

Major differences remain between the Israelis and Palestinians over core issues like the status of Jerusalem, the borders of a future Palestinian state and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

But Olmert seized the opportunity to call for a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace deal.

AFP, Washington

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton on Tuesday warned President George W. Bush a proposed pact with Iraq on extending the US troop presence was "dangerous."

Clinton wrote to the president to express her "great concern" about a statement of principles between Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki made public on Monday.

The letter came as Democrats, who have spent months demanding troop withdrawals from Iraq, face shifting political sands on the war amid signs of US military progress.

Clinton asked Bush to clarify his statement with Maliki, to confirm that there were no plans to permanently station US forces in Iraq.

"To be clear, attempts to establish permanent bases in Iraq would damage US interests in Iraq and the broader region, and I will continue to strongly oppose such efforts."

Clinton also reminded Bush that the purpose of his troop surge strategy announced earlier this year was to provide space for political reconciliation in Iraq.

"By any meaningful measurement, that political reconciliation has not yet occurred," Clinton wrote.

AFP, Tokyo

Japan's opposition-ruled upper house voted Wednesday to end the country's air mission to Iraq, but the bill was expected to be overridden by the lower chamber of the divided parliament. Adding to the political heat, prosecutors arrested the former top bureaucrat of the defence ministry on bribery allegations in a growing scandal which has touched a minister in Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's two-month-old cabinet.

The opposition has accused Fukuda and his conservative predecessors of blindly following the United States into Iraq and opposes Japan's Kuwait-based air mission which flies goods and supplies into the war-torn country.

The upper house, where the opposition wrested control in July elections, voted 133 to 103 in a party-line vote to terminate the Iraq mission, which has been unpopular with the public.

AFP, Colombo

A disabled Tamil Tiger suicide bomber with explosives hidden in her bra blew herself up outside the office of a Tamil minister Wednesday, killing his secretary, the Sri Lankan military said.

Two men from the minister's security staff were also wounded in the blast, one seriously, Colombo national hospital spokeswoman Pushpa Soysa told AFP.

Officials said they believed that the attack was the work of the Tamil Tigers and aimed at Social Welfare Minister Douglas Devananda, who has survived at least four previous attempts on his life.

"At 8:05 am today (an) LTTE handicapped female suicide cadre exploded herself at the office of minister Douglas Devananda," in the heart of the Sri Lanka capital, the defence ministry said in a statement.

Devananda, a vocal opponent of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), once fought alongside the guerrillas before turning to politics in the 1980s.

The minister, leader of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) -- a key ally in President Mahinda RajapaksaÂ's ruling coalition -- escaped unhurt, a party spokesman said.

AFP, Asadabad

US-led coalition war planes trying to target insurgents killed 14 Afghan road workers in an air strike in northwestern Afghanistan, a provincial governor said Wednesday.

Another official said up to 25 of the men were killed in the bombing late Tuesday in an area of the rugged Nuristan province about 180 kilometres (112 miles) northeast of Kabul.

"We had reports that rebels were there," Nuristan governor Tamimi Nuristani told AFP.

"There was an airstrike by coalition forces but later we found out that 12 people, all local road workers, were killed. The road workers were in a tent which was hit by one bomb. All died," he said.

AFP, Annapolis

Saudi Arabia backed Tuesday's launch here of a new Middle East peace drive, but shunned Israel's call for the Arab world to normalize ties with it even before a deal with the Palestinians. "We have come to support the launching of serious and continuing talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis that will address all the core and final status issues," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said in a statement to the peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland. "These talks must be followed by the launching of the Syrian and Lebanese tracks at the earliest," he added, citing other regional issues of concern to Arab states. Saudi Arabia, a principal patron of the Palestinians and an influential voice in the Muslim world, demanded Israel take concrete step towards ending the occupation of the Palestinian territories and making peace.

Reuters, Tokyo

A Chinese warship arrived in Tokyo on Wednesday on the first such port call since World War Two, the latest sign of warming ties between the Asian neighbors and former foes. The two countries had agreed to reciprocal warship visits in 2000, but China cancelled a planned port call in 2002 after then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Yasukuni Shrine, seen in China as a symbol of Japan's past militarism. The missile destroyer Shenzhen, named after the booming southern Chinese city, docked at Harumi pier, near Tokyo's upscale Ginza shopping district, greeted by hundreds of Chinese residents in Japan waving small Chinese and Japanese flags. Japan tightened security with checkpoints dotting roads leading to the pier, although two trucks with right-wing protesters could be seen in the distance. "We looked forward to your visit which would open up a new page in the history of Japan-China military exchange," Japan's chief of naval operations, Eiji Yoshikawa, said in a speech.

AFP, Narita

The chief US negotiator with North Korea said Wednesday he hoped to verify that the communist state was disabling its nuclear reactor on schedule when he pays a rare visit next week.

Christopher Hill, arriving in Japan at the start of his tour of Asia, also said that another round of six-nation talks on North Korea was possible next week to move ahead on a disarmament deal. Hill is due to visit North Korea starting Monday to meet with officials and visit the Yongbyon reactor, which was the source of plutonium used in the North Korea's first-ever atomic test in October 2006. "I've been talking about Yongbyon for months and years, so I'd like to see the place myself," Hill, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asia, told reporters at Narita airport near Tokyo. "I know the disabling is going according to schedule, but I would like to have the opportunity to see it myself," he said. North Korea agreed in a six-nation deal in February to end its nuclear drive in exchange for badly needed fuel and security guarantees.

AFP, Manila

Waves caused by Typhoon Mitag capsized two small passenger ferries in the Philippines overnight, killing at least three people and raising the overall death toll to 22, rescuers said Wednesday. The ferries were crossing Taal Lake south of the capital Manila when strong winds brought about by the typhoon triggered huge waves, rescuers said. Three people were confirmed drowned, while about 30 others were rescued. Six others remain missing. The Office of Civil Defense said 19 others were killed by landslides, flashfloods and other storm-related accidents in seven northern provinces that bore the brunt of the storm. Meanwhile giant waves simultaneously swamped 19 villages in Jolo island, Zamboanga city and Misamis Oriental in the southern Philippines and in the northern provinces of La Union and Pangasinan, it said. Nearly 200 houses made of light materials were washed away while more than 2,000 people were evacuated in Zamboanga, it said.

AFP, Moscow

The countdown to Russia's presidential elections next year began officially on Wednesday with the publication of the date for the vote in the government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta. The elections, the fourth since the fall of the Soviet Union, are set for March 2, following parliamentary elections on Sunday in which President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party is expected to win a landslide victory.

Prospective candidates can apply starting Wednesday until December 23. Media campaigning will be permitted from February 2 until February 29, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said earlier.