The New Nation - Internet Edition

Kenyan opposition to launch economic boycott

AFP, Nairobi

Kenya's opposition said Friday it would launch an economic boycott of companies linked to embattled President Mwai Kibaki after staging a final day of protests over his disputed re-election.

Riot and paramilitary police maintained their tight grip on Nairobi and western opposition strongholds and prepared to face off with protestors for the third day running.

According to police, 14 people have been killed since the nationwide rallies kicked off on Wednesday, sparking international fears the east African nation -- once a beacon of regional stability -- would further sink into chaos.

But the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) of opposition leader Raila Odinga announced that the protests would end on Friday, arguing that ordinary citizens were paying too heavy a price. "Today is the last day of demonstrations. We have seen a lot of suffering caused by reckless police action against peaceful protestors," ODM spokesman Salim Lone told AFP.

Kenyan police opened fire on crowds, fired tear gas and beat protestors, drawing accusations from the opposition and rights group that blind and excessive force was being used.

The police have banned all rallies and vowed to crack down on anyone attempting to join demonstrations.

"No amount of propaganda will deter the force from executing its legal mandate with a view to providing a secure environment," police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said in a statement. However the opposition movement announced a new tactic to increase pressure on Kibaki, saying it would seek to undermine a government packed with Kibaki's closest allies by targeting their sources of funding.

"We are now moving on to a new phase of the struggle and this will include initiating (an) economic boycott by consumers of large companies owned by hardliners around Mr Kibaki," Lone told AFP.

Among the brands targeted by ODM, Lone mentioned Brookside Dairies -- a large company owned by Local Government Minister Uhuru Kenyatta -- as well as the Citi Hoppa public transport company, Kenya Bus Services and Equity Bank. All the companies are owned by leading members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, which has dominated the country's political and economic life for years.

Suicide bomber kills 11 at Iraqi Shiite mosque

AP, Baghdad

A suicide bomber struck Shiites as worshippers prepared Thursday for their most important holiday, killing at least 11 at a mosque in violent Diyala province - one day after a similar attack by a woman in a nearby village.

Police and eyewitnesses said one of the victims had intercepted the bomber when he saw him making his way through the crowd. "Stranger, stranger," he shouted as he grabbed the bomber, who instantly detonated the blast.

A spike in bombings in recent weeks is chipping away at security gains made over the past six months, when levels of violence dropped nationwide. Many of the attacks have targeted Sunnis who have turned against the main insurgent group, al-Qaida in Iraq.

Authorities fear the Shiite religious events - marking the death of a 7th century Shiite saint - could increasingly fall into the cross-hairs of Sunni extremists.

Iraqi officials stepped up security across much of the country to protect the Shiite processions for the holiday period, culminating in events known as Ashoura. In Baghdad, a 48-hour ban on heavy vehicles went into effect, and Iraqi army troops and police were out in greater numbers on patrols and checkpoints.

The heaviest security was in the holy city of Karbala south of Baghdad, where some 30,000 troops watched over hundreds of thousands of pilgrims performing Ashoura rites.

Israeli air strikes kill 7 Palestinians in Gaza

Reuters, Gaza

Israeli air strikes killed at least seven Palestinians, including a mother and child, in the Gaza Strip on Thursday as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to wage a "war" to stop rocket attacks on the Jewish state.

The escalation in violence prompted Palestinian leaders to warn that renewed peace talks -- spurred by last week's visit by U.S. President George W. Bush -- were at stake.

The latest in a series of air strikes killed two Hamas militants and wounded three others, Hamas said.

A prior Israeli air strike on a car in the Gaza Strip killed at least one Islamic Jihad militant, as well as a mother and child riding in a donkey cart, Palestinian hospital officials said. A third air strike killed a militant leader and his wife.

Militants in the Hamas-controlled territory have fired close to 100 rockets at southern Israel in the past two days following the killing of 18 Palestinians, most of them gunmen, in some of the heaviest fighting in months in the Gaza Strip.

"A war is going on in the south, every day, every night," Olmert said in a speech in Tel Aviv. "We cannot and will not tolerate this unceasing fire at Israeli citizens t so we will continue to operate."

"This war will not stop," the prime minister said, predicting Israeli military pressure would "tip the scales" and force a halt to rocket fire.Olmert, saying Israel sought to avoid harming Palestinian civilians, gave no indication he might order a large-scale ground operation in the Gaza Strip, an assault Israeli officials have cautioned could cause heavy casualties on both sides.

China urges Iran, Europe to resume nuclear talks

AFP, Beijing

China has urged Iran to resume negotiations with the international community in a fresh attempt to end their long-running standoff over its nuclear programme, state press reported Friday. Beijing's call came with Washington's second top diplomat and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator both in China to lobby for support ahead of a key meeting next week on possible sanctions against the Islamic regime.

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met with Saeed Jalili, who is regarded as more hardline than his predecessor whom he replaced in October, and who is a close ally of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"The Iranian nuclear issue is now at a crucial moment," Yang told Jalili in a meeting late Thursday, according to remarks posted by the foreign ministry.

"China hopes all concerned parties, including Iran, make joint efforts to resume negotiations as soon as possible in a bid to promote the comprehensive and proper settlement of this issue." Jalili, who arrived here Thursday, is thought to be seeking Beijing's help to ward off another UN Security Council resolution against Tehran.

Yang met with Jalili one day after separate talks with visiting US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who is seeking Chinese support for a new resolution on Iran that would contain binding sanctions.

Pakistan troops kill 8 militants

AFP, Wana

Pakistani military gunship helicopters opened fire on two cars near a contested fort near the Afghan border, killing eight Islamist militants, the army said on Friday.

The incident happened on Thursday near a military outpost at Siplatoi in the troubled tribal region of South Waziristan, in the latest unrest to grip the US-allied nation ahead of elections on February 18.

Local newspapers quoted a Pakistani Taliban spokesman as saying that Siplatoi fort had earlier fallen to the rebels, but the army denies the claim and says it is still controlled by troops. "Gunship helicopters engaged two cars in the vicinity of Siplatoi Fort. Reportedly, eight miscreants were killed," an army statement said.

"Media reports saying that Siplatoi has been taken over by miscreants are incorrect as Frontier Corps troops are still manning the fort."

Troops traded rocket and artillery fire with rebels early Friday for the second night in a row at another fort in the region, near the village of Ladha, but said there were no casualties or damage.

Hundreds of militants overran a third fort in South Waziristan, in the town of Sararogha, in the early hours of Wednesday, leaving seven soldiers dead and 15 missing.

Rebels kill 10 civilians in southern Sri Lanka

Reuters, Colombo

Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels shot dead at least 10 people in southern Sri Lanka, the military said on Friday, two days after 27 people were killed in a bus ambush in a nearby town.

A six-year truce between the state and rebels formally ended on Wednesday, opening the way for a military push for the Tigers' northern stronghold and a bloody escalation in a 25-year civil war, analysts say.

"The clearing troops found total of 10 people shot and killed by the LTTE in Thanamalwila including two police personnel," said military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara. Thanamalwila is near the town of Buttala where the bus ambush took place.

Air force fighter jets bombed a Tamil Tiger rebel arm storage complex in the Tiger stronghold of Mullaittivu district on Friday the military said, but no further details were given.

The Tigers were not immediately available for comment on the attacks and air raid.

The military said most of the 27 people killed in Wednesday's bus ambush were shot by rebels as the passengers tried to flee, rather than in the bomb blast that struck the vehicle, and Tiger fighters shot dead six farmers while returning after the attack.

Israel "would not dare attack Iran": Ahmadinejad

Reuters, Dubai

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday that Israel "would not dare attack Iran," after Israel said it tested a missile and warned against Tehran's nuclear program. "The Zionist regime t would not dare attack Iran," Ahmadinejad told Al Jazeera television in remarks translated into Arabic, referring to Israel. "The Iranian response would make them regret it, and they know this." "It knows that any attack on Iranian territories would prompt a fierce response," he added. Israel tested a missile on Thursday and urged the West to work harder to prevent "the appearance of a nuclear Iran." Israel Radio said the missile tested was capable of carrying an "unconventional payload" -- an apparent reference to the nuclear warheads Israel is assumed to possess, though it has never publicly confirmed their existence.

BA plane crash-lands at London's Heathrow airport, 19 hurt

Reuters, London

A British Airways plane crash-landed at London's Heathrow airport on Thursday, slightly injuring 19 passengers and triggering an inquiry into why the Boeing 777 flying in from Beijing landed short of the runway. Fire engines smothered the aircraft in foam after the landing at the world's busiest international airport extensively damaged its wings and ripped off its undercarriage. Aviation commentators said the fact that the plane only just cleared the perimeter fence, hit the ground well short of the runway and then slid to a halt pointed to a massive loss of power in the final stages of landing. The wheels of the plane, which had a routine maintenance check in December, were still in the field where it crashed, several hundred meters (yards) from the runway.

"I win the lottery today," Fernando Prado, one of the passengers, said after being safely evacuated by emergency chute from the wreckage. BA declined to comment on reports of a loss of power. But it praised the pilot and crew for the way they handled the crisis.

Police protection could have saved Diana: Ex chief officer

AFP, London

The car crash which killed princess Diana would not have happened if she had not ditched her police protection team several years previously, Britain's former top policeman told her inquest Thursday. Lord Paul Condon, the head of London's Metropolitan Police when she died in August 1997, said he begged Diana to keep a team of officers with her, telling her in 1993 that he was "really concerned" about her security. "Let me be absolutely frank," he told the High Court in London on his first day of evidence. "If as my wish, she would have had police protection in Paris, then I'm absolutely convinced those three lives would not have been tragically lost.