The New Nation - Internet Edition

US loses 3 more soldiers in Iraq violence

AP, Baghdad

Small arms fire killed three U.S. soldiers conducting operations Wednesday in Salahuddin province north of the capital, the military said.

Two other soldiers were wounded and evacuated to a coalition hospital.

Meanwhile, the United Nations envoy to Baghdad said on Wednesday he would present a positive picture of progress in Iraq in a report to the Security Council despite earlier having serious misgivings about reconciliation efforts.

U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura said the passing of a key law allowing former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party to return to government jobs had changed what had been a pessimistic view of progress in a crucial year for Iraq.

"At the beginning of the year we were worried t we were genuinely concerned by the lack of progress on national dialogue," de Mistura told Reuters by telephone.

"Today that has substantially changed. It has changed our mind from being worried or from being pessimistic," he said.

That view was echoed on Tuesday by visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who said it was a time of hope because of a "spirit of cooperation" between Iraq's ethnic and religious groups.

The law on reintegrating former Baathists passed on Saturday. It was the first in a series of bills Washington has pressed the Shi'ite Islamist-led government to pass to draw minority Sunni Arabs who held sway under Saddam back into the political process.De Mistura had said in an interview with France's Le Figaro newspaper, published earlier on Wednesday but conducted almost a week before the bill was passed, that Iraq's sectarian groups lacked any true spirit of reconciliation.

He said in that interview that Iraq was running out of time and had six months to overcome distrust between the Shi'ite-dominated cabinet and Sunni Arabs and make political progress or risk a swift return to violence.

7 troops among 57 killed as Islamic militants overrun Pak fort

AFP, Wana

Islamist insurgents have withdrawn from a Pakistani military fort they captured near the Afghan border, but 15 soldiers are still missing after the rebel attack, the army said Thursday.

Several hundred militants armed with rocket launchers and Kalashnikov rifles stormed the remote fort at Sararogha town in the South Waziristan tribal district early Wednesday in a major setback for Pakistani forces.

The battle for the fort left seven troops and up to 50 rebels dead, with 20 more soldiers initially reported as missing.

"Miscreants have withdrawn from Sararogha Fort. Five more Frontier Corps troops have reached a nearby village," said a brief military statement, adding that further details would be issued later. There was no independent confirmation that the militants had abandoned the British colonial-era fort in the rugged tribal zone, a hideout for Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants. Troops also traded fire with militants at another fort in Ladah in South Waziristan after the rebels fired rockets and small-arms, the army said.

Attacks on security forces are rising in the volatile tribal region, and Pakistan is reeling from a series of suicide attacks that killed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and hundreds more, chipping away at President Pervez Musharraf's prestige before Feb. 18 parliamentary elections.

"The militants are now challenging the army openly. They have become very bold and are consolidating their positions," Talat Masood, a retired general who is now a political analyst, said after Tuesday night's attack on Sararogha Fort.

Militants also fired small arms and rockets at a military base in Ladha, another town in South Waziristan, late Wednesday, drawing retaliatory fire from troops, the military said. No casualties were reported.

WHO warns of seriousness of Indian bird flu outbreak

AFP, Kolkata

The World Health Organisation Thursday warned that an outbreak of bird flu in eastern India was far more serious than two previous outbreaks.

"More serious risk factors are associated with this current outbreak than previously encountered, including that the affected areas are more widespread and because of proximity to extended border areas," the organisation said. Health officials are engaged in culling 400,000 birds in several districts of India's heavily populated eastern West Bengal state bordering Bangladesh, which is also struggling with the virus. The slaughter started a day after India's agriculture ministry confirmed that the death of 35,000 birds in West Bengal was due to the deadly H5N1 strain.

Israeli strike kills three Gaza civilians

AFP, Gaza City

An Israeli air strike killed three members of the same family, including a teenager, in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday in what the army called an error, one day after the deadliest day of violence in the territory for more than a year.

The victims -- a 13-year-old boy, his father and uncle -- were killed when a missile hit their car in Gaza City, medics said.

The military said it had killed civilians "in error" while targeting militants.

"The Israeli army has recognised that during an operation against terrorists in the Gaza Strip a vehicle that was close to the target was hit in error," a spokeswoman said. "An investigation has been opened."

Israeli-Palestinian fighting has escalated since the two sides revived peace talks in November, overshadowing US President George W. Bush's prediction of a deal by the time he leaves office in January 2009.

Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal told reporters in Damascus on Wednesday that the Gaza "massacre" confirmed the futility of negotiating with Israel. "This shedding of Palestinian blood will shorten the existence of Israel and will destroy it," Meshaal said. "No peace with the killers and no security for the criminals."

Meshaal charged that the eight-day Middle East tour by the US president that ended on Wednesday "gave cover to this massacre," and he called on Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to halt the "absurd" peace talks.

Call for shift in US policy towards Pakistan

AFP, Washington

The US Congress on Wednesday passed its first 2008 legislation by condemning the murder of Pakistan's ex-premier Benazir Bhutto amid a call for a shift in US policy towards Islamabad.

"What is clear is that before Pakistan devolves any further in chaos and violence, US policy has to change," Democratic lawmaker Gary Ackerman said after his resolution, which "condemns in the strongest terms" Bhutto's assassination," was approved by a vote of 413 to 0 in the house of Representatives.

It was the first piece of legislation to be taken up and passed by Congress this year.

Ackerman said that the reliance by President George W. Bush's administration on "war on terror" ally Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to restore democracy while fighting against extremism had not worked. "There has been neither success against terrorism nor a return to democracy," he said, as he chaired a separate House hearing on US-Pakistan relations.

The United States, he said, needs a new approach to Pakistan that puts as much emphasis on building stable, free and moderate institutions as it has on fighting terrorists.

Ackerman, a senior member of the influential House committee on foreign affairs, cited a recent survey by the United States Institute for Peace and World Public Opinion which showed that Pakistanis overwhelmingly view having elected leadership as important.

"The Bush Administration needs to build on the Pakistani view of the importance of democracy and needs to start by insisting that the elections on February 18 are free and fair," Ackerman said.

Gates slams NATO force in Afghanistan

AFP, Washington

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates unleashed a storm on Wednesday by criticizing NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, saying they were ill-prepared to fight an insurgency.

"I'm worried we have some military forces that don't know how to do counter-insurgency operations," Gates told the Los Angeles Times. "Most of the European forces, NATO forces, are not trained in counter-insurgency."

Troops mainly from Britain, Canada and the Netherlands are deployed in southern Afghanistan bearing the brunt of a fierce resurgence by the Taliban Islamic militia, which left around 6,000 people dead, including some 220 international soldiers.

Gates' rare public criticism triggered surprise in NATO and among US allies, and came a day after the United States decided to send 3,200 extra troops to Afghanistan.

"I have the greatest respect for what the allies are doing in the west, the north, the east and the south," NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

"And perhaps more specifically for what is being done in the south. All the countries in the south -- where the going gets tough -- are doing excellent work," he said. Australia and Denmark also have forces in the region.

Violence claims 38 lives in Sri Lanka

AP, Colombo

Sri Lanka's cease-fire deal ended Wednesday in a spasm of violence, as suspected Tamil Tiger rebels bombed a civilian bus, gunned down the fleeing passengers and attacked farmers as they retreated into the bush, killing 31 people.

The attack stoked fears that the official end of the six-year-old truce - largely ignored in recent years - would lead to even worse violence.

Separate ground clashes killed seven insurgents Wednesday, and on Thursday, air force jets bombed and destroyed a Tamil Tiger hideout near Kilinochchi, the rebels' de facto capital, the military said.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa said although the attack on the bus was timed to coincide with the government's official withdrawal from the cease-fire, it simply mirrored other attacks by the separatist group in recent months.

Mahathir denies judicial corruption

AP, Kuala Lumpur

Former longtime leader Mahathir Mohamad denied at a public inquiry Thursday that outsiders manipulated top judicial appointments during his reign - in a scandal that has cast doubts about the independence of Malaysia's judiciary.

Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's longest serving prime minister from 1981 to 2003, was testifying before a government inquiry into a secretly recorded video clip that showed a man believed to be a prominent lawyer, V.K. Lingam, boasting that he could get key judicial appointments made with Mahathir's help.

Lawyers and opposition groups have said that the clip was evidence of deep flaws in Malaysia's secretive process of appointing judges. The clip was made in December 2001 but leaked in September 2007 by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who has refused to say how he obtained it.

US urged to prevent election rigging in Pakistan

Reuters, Washington

US policymakers must keep pressure on President Pervez Musharraf to hold fair elections in Pakistan next month or risk deeper chaos in the nuclear-armed country, an important ally in Washington's anti-terror campaign, experts told Congress on Wednesday.

A House of Representatives panel heard from leading South Asia experts that prospects for free and fair elections in Pakistan on Feb. 18 were doubtful under restrictions imposed late last year by Musharraf.

"Maximally free and fair elections are required for near-term stability," RAND Corporation analyst Christine Fair told the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia.

PPP sends appeal to UN to probe Benazir's assassination

AFP, Karachi

Former slain Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party on Wednesday sent an appeal to the United Nations requesting it investigate her murder, a party official said. Bhutto was assassinated in a gun and suicide bomb attack at an election rally in Rawalpindi on December 27 but conflicting government accounts of how exactly she died have angered her supporters. "We have sent today an appeal to the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon signed by our co-chairman Asif Zardari to form a UN-led commission to probe the assassination of Benazir Bhutto," Farooq Naek, Bhutto's lawyer, said. "We have appealed to the UN secretary general and the Security Council to form a commission just like it was formed to probe Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri's murder," he said. Naek said that in the appeal Bhutto's widower Zardari had expressed his no-confidence in the ability of the Pakistani agencies investigating the murder.

Japan's ruling party facing worst ever crisis: Fukuda

AFP, Tokyo

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda warned Thursday that his ruling Liberal Democratic Party is facing the "biggest crisis" since it was established in 1955. The LDP, which had held a majority in both parliamentary houses almost continually for the past half-century, lost control of the upper house for the first time last summer. "The party frankly admits it is facing the biggest crisis since its establishment," Fukuda said in his speech given at the party's convention. The LDP still holds a majority in the more powerful lower house. But Fukuda, who replaced the embattled Shinzo Abe in September, has struggled to pass legislation due to the lack of cooperation from the opposition, which is pushing for a fresh general election. Last week Fukuda took drastic action to restart a controversial naval mission supporting the US-led "war on terror," using the lower house's power to override an upper house rejection for the first time since the LDP was founded.

Bush ends Mideast trip upbeat despite sceptics

AFP, Sharm El Sheikh

US President George W. Bush was upbeat as he ended his Middle East tour Wednesday, saying he was optimistic an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal can be reached despite failing to win full Arab backing for his efforts. He also left the region after eight days without wholehearted support from key Arab allies in the oil-rich Gulf for his campaign to isolate Iran, which he has repeatedly branded a "threat to world peace." "When I say I am coming back to stay engaged I mean it, and when I say I am optimistic we can get a deal done I mean what I am saying," he told reporters in the Red Sea resort Sharm el-Sheikh after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the last and briefest leg of his tour. Bush, who is anxious to end his presidency with a foreign policy triumph, predicted in Jerusalem at the start of his trip that a peace treaty would be signed by the time he leaves office in January 2009.

Suharto 'not good', still on ventilator

AFP, Jakarta

The condition of critically ill former Indonesian president Suharto "is not good" and he remains on a ventilator, but doctors are battling to reduce his infection, they said Thursday. Suharto, who ruled the world's fourth most populous nation ruthlessly for three decades, was first admitted to hospital on January 4 and suffered multiple organ failure a week later, when he was hooked up to a ventilator.

His condition has since been fluctuating on an almost daily basis. "(His condition) remains unstable. Last night it was good, now it is not good," the head of Suharto's medical team Mardjo Soebiandono told reporters. The doctor said the 86-year-old ex-leader still needed the assistance of a ventilator to breathe and showed signs of systemic infection. "A systemic infection means (the infection) is comprehensive, but we are still labouring to reduce this infection and from the available indicators, there seems to be some success," Soebiandono said. An earlier press release from the medical team said Suharto's heart and lung function had shown no signs of improvement.

Godrejs host Salman Rushdie, anger Muslims

Reuters, Mumbai

A powerful Islamic group is asking Muslims to boycott products of a top Indian business group if its owner does not apologise for hosting author Salman Rushdie on a brief holiday this week. Rushdie stayed at the plush bungalow of the Godrej family while visiting India's biggest city where he was born and spent many of his early years. A personal friend of the Godrejs, who have a variety of businesses from home appliances and IT to food products and pesticides, Rushdie's visit was well publicised in the Indian media. But the guest of Godrejs has angered the All-India Ulema Council -- a national grouping of Muslim organisations -- which says the family had not cared for the sentiments of Muslims whom Rushdie had offended with his writings. "We really hope Mr. Godrej realises the hurt he has caused us and says sorry for it," Maulana Mehmood Daryabadi, a council official, said. "Otherwise, we are asking Muslims all over to boycott his company's products."