The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Washington

US President George W. Bush left Tuesday evening to take his drive for Middle East peace to the volatile region where he faces protests and spiking tensions with Iran.

Bush left on Air Force One for his first presidential visit to Israel and the West Bank, aiming to seek a foreign-policy triumph in his last year in office, and to shore up US allies in the face of what Bush calls the Iranian nuclear "threat."

There is widespread skepticism in the Arab world of Bush's chances of achieving any real breakthrough in efforts to reach a peace deal, amid criticism that Washington is too partial to the whims of its key ally, Israel. Threats of violence, particularly a call by US member of Al-Qaeda "Azzam the American" who urged Al-Qaeda followers to greet "the butcher Bush t not with flowers and applause, but with bombs and car bombs," sent Israeli and Palestinian authorities scrambling to set up a massive security operation.

In Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah, snipers were posted on rooftops and entire city blocks sealed off. After talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Bush was to complete his Mideast tour with stops in Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia before ending in Egypt on January 16. After Pentagon reports that Iranian speedboats Sunday swarmed around three US navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz, radioing a threat to blow them up, Bush renewed his verbal assault on Iran. "I am there to reassure and to look people in the eye and say, I believe Iran is a threat; we have a strategy to deal with it; and we want to work with you," Bush told the Arabic television station Al-Arabiya.

"I believe we can solve this diplomatically," he said. "On the other hand t all options must be on the table in order to make sure diplomacy is effective."

Iran's government played down the incident as an "ordinary occurrence" in the strait, a crucial choke point for world energy supplies with about 20-25 percent of the world's crude oil supplies passing through from Gulf states.

However, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Iran "is certainly not the main reason for the trip. The main reason for the trip is to advance these negotiations and make sure that those are on the right track, as well as to talk about the president's commitment to the region."

Amid the heightened tensions, US ally Kuwait expressed anxiety about Bush's stated aim of building on the momentum of a Middle East peace conference held in the US city of Annapolis in November when Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to strive for a comprehensive agreement by the end of 2008.

"Kuwaitis are worried that Bush's visit could be to apply pressure on Kuwait and the region to win their support for a military strike against Iran," health ministry employee Sami al-Mani told AFP.

Both Syria, which has been in Washington's sights over allegations that it was fomenting unrest in Iraq and meddling in Lebanon, and ally Iran were hostile to the US presidential visit.

"Bush has proclaimed his intention to contain t Iran. In reality he wants to modify priorities in the Middle East and erase the consequences of Israeli aggression," said the official Syrian newspaper Tishrin.

And in Iran, foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the visit smacked of "interference" and "propaganda."

Reuters, Islamabad

Plagued by mounting attacks by Islamist militants loyal to al Qaeda, Pakistan now faces a second wave of violence as its minority Shi'ite Muslims prepare for their annual mourning period.

The 40-day Shi'ite mourning period, expected to begin on Thursday, has become a lightning rod for sectarian violence and comes as the country is still reeling from the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in a gun and bomb attack. The Interior Ministry said 35 districts in the country had been declared "sensitive" and all security agencies had been put on high alert to avert sectarian violence during the mourning period, known as Moharram. "We appeal to all citizens to exercise vigilance and extend full cooperation to the security agencies," said ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema. Moharram marks the death anniversary of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, who was killed in a battle with political rival, Yazid, in A.D. 680 in the Iraqi city of Kerbala. The climax of Moharram is the 10th day, known as Ashura, when worshippers flog themselves with steel-tipped flails or slash their bodies with knives to express solidarity with Hussein. Moharram processions have come under attack by Sunni sectarian militants in recent years.

Pakistan saw a surge of religious violence in the 1980s with the emergence of militant groups, most of them Sunni, funded by the United States and Saudi Arabia to fight Soviet forces in Afghanistan and Shi'ite radical groups following the success of the 1979 Islamic revolution in majority Shi'ite Iran.

While ordinary Sunni and Shi'ite Pakistanis live side-by-side, radicals from the two sects have inflicted a bloody toll in tit-for-tat assassinations and bomb attacks since then.

Last year, a suicide bomber blew himself up among policemen escorting a Moharram procession in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing 11 people, most of them policemen.

Reuters, Nairobi

President Mwai Kibaki's appointment of a partial cabinet sparked more violence in Kenya overnight as the African Union began talks on Wednesday to end post-election turmoil that has killed around 500 people.

After a lull in clashes sparked by Kibaki's disputed re-election on December 27, he named 17 ministers late on Tuesday, prompting further protests around east Africa's largest economy.

Kenya's leading newspaper, the Daily Nation, said the appointments -- which included a defeated presidential candidate and several figures hated by the opposition -- may "poison the atmosphere."

"To President Kibaki's supporters, it will be an affirmation of his position," the paper said.

"To everyone else questioning the legitimacy of his presidency t it will be seen as a sign of bad faith ahead of the discussions about to begin."

AU head and Ghanaian President John Kufuor was meeting Kibaki, 76, in the morning, and then planned to speak to his rival, Raila Odinga, 63, who says fraud cost him victory.

The crisis has dented Kenya's reputation for stability in a turbulent corner of Africa, hurt key economic sectors like tourism and tea, and tainted Kibaki's previous reputation as a gentlemanly leader with a penchant for P.G. Wodehouse novels.

International pressure for a negotiated solution is growing.

Washington says the presidential vote count was "obviously flawed" while London calls it "plagued by irregularity."

Possible solutions being touted are a power-sharing arrangement or a fresh election.

Within minutes of the cabinet announcement by Kibaki, who has given TV addresses but not appeared in public since his win, hundreds of rioters built burning barricades and stoned cars in Kisumu, a western stronghold of the opposition.

One man was shot dead and trouble rumbled through the night.

AFP, Beirut

The head of the UN atomic watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei has voiced concern over the possibility that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal could fall into extremist hands, in statements published on Tuesday. "I fear that chaost or an extremist regime could take root in that country which has 30 to 40 warheads," ElBaradei told the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat in an interview. He stressed that he was "worried that nuclear weapons could fall into the hands of an extremist group in Pakistan or in Afghanistan." There has been worldwide concern over the security of Pakistan's estimated 50 nuclear warheads since Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf imposed a state of emergency in the troubled country in November. Musharraf said in December that Pakistan's nuclear weapons were under control.

AFP, Afghanistan

At least 27 people have been killed and hundreds more are stranded or missing after heavy snowfalls hit Afghanistan, an official told AFP. In the worst incident eight members of one family died when their mudbrick house collapsed under the weight of snow in western Herat province overnight, Nooruddin Ahmadi, head of the Afghan Red Crescent in Herat, said Tuesday. Among others killed were six shepherds from a mountainous region in the province and two people in an avalanche nearby, he added. Five perished in another avalanche in neighbouring Farah province. More than 250 policemen have been left stranded by the poor weather and at least 16 civilians are missing. In nearby Ghor province, another rugged and mountainous region, three people were killed when an avalanche smothered their home, Ikramuddin Rezazada, deputy governor of Ghor said.