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Kosovo's independence a matter of days away: New PM

AFP, Brussels

Kosovo's declaration of independence is a matter of days away, the Serbian province's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said Thursday.

"It is an issue of days," Thaci told reporters in Brussels when asked whether the expected independence proclamation was days or weeks away. However several European diplomats suggested Kosovo's largely ethnic Albanian population would have to wait another month or so before the declaration.

"Kosovo is ready. we will proclaim independence very soon," Thaci declared after meeting with EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana.

While some "procedures" would need to be respected before the proclamation could be made, everything was ready, including a national constitution and symbols, he said.

Thaci said Kosovo was not planning the action unilaterally. Independence would be declared "in coordination with the European Union and the United States," he stressed.

The United States and the European Union, as well as Kosovo, were keen to present a "coordinated declaration of independence" rather than a totally unilateral move on the part of the breakaway Serb province.

The move has the support of the EU's 27 member states, but Belgrade, backed by Russia, is firmly opposed to giving independence to a region it regards as an historic Serbian heartland. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned European nations Tuesday that there was a danger in delaying resolution of the issue of Kosovo's status. Diplomats close to Thaci's talks with EU officials said that, as things stand, they were not expecting a declaration of independence until late February or early March.

"I think they (the Kosovars) are going to have to wait a little bit longer," one said. "There is nevertheless a risk, if the nationalist forces win the (Serbian presidential election) that that will encourage the Kosovars to press for a rapid recognition," he added.

Several diplomats spoke of the possibility of most European leaders officially declaring their intention to recognise an independent Kosovo at an EU summit scheduled for mid-March.

The issue is complicated by Serbia's ongoing presidential election which pits hardline nationalist Tomislav Nikolic against pro-European incumbent Boris Tadic in a decisive second-round run-off on February 3. Nikolic, who favours closer ties with Russia, won 39.99 percent of the vote in this month's first-round vote compared with Tadic's 35.39 percent. Thaci also held talks with EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn who, his spokeswoman Krisztine Nagy said, "is in favour of a coordinated process".

"It is better to resort to diplomatic means than public statements," she said.

Following 18 months of failed negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina, the majority ethnic Albanian province has long vowed to declare independence.

The United Nations has run Kosovo since 1999, when a NATO bombing campaign drove out Belgrade's forces waging a crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians who make up 90 percent of the population.

The European Union has been putting together a police and judiciary mission of around 1,800 personnel which could be deployed to help ease the transition to local rule. Russia's new ambassador to NATO urged Serbia on Thursday to stand up to Western countries that were ready to back independence for Kosovo, saying such a split by the province would open a "Pandora's box".

White House nomination :Hillary, McCain win New York Times endorsements

AFP, New York

A "hugely impressed" New York Times endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic White House nomination in its Friday edition, praising her intellect, experience and capacity to unite America.

The glowing endorsement was a valuable boost for the former first lady and senator from New York, as she fights an intense battle for her party's White House nod with Illinois Senator Barack Obama.

In a rebuke for former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani meanwhile, the paper chose to endorse Senator John McCain on the Republican side, though its backing was less important for him than for Clinton, as many conservatives revile the paper. In a valuable boost for Clinton, who some critics, including backers of Obama, see as polarizing, the Times editorial board said the paper's home state representative in the Senate was "capable of both uniting and leading."

"Hearing her talk about the presidency, her policies and answers for America's big problems, we are hugely impressed by the depth of her knowledge, by the force of her intellect and by the breadth of, yes, her experience," the paper said.

"We saw her going town by town through New York in 2000, including places where Clinton-bashing was a popular sport. She won over skeptical voters and then delivered on her promises and handily won re-election in 2006." The paper praised Clinton for her come-from-behind victory in the New Hampshire primary after her stunning defeat by Obama in the leadoff Iowa caucuses, as well as her win in the Nevada caucuses.

"Her new openness to explaining herself and not just her programs, and her abiding, powerful intellect show she is fully capable" of uniting America, the paper said.

"She is the best choice for the Democratic Party as it tries to regain the White House." News of the paper's endorsement buoyed the Clinton campaign, minutes after the former first lady flew into New York City for two fund-raisers, before heading back to South Carolina, which holds a primary on Saturday.

The Times said that McCain, who is struggling to emerge as front-runner from a fluid field, was the best choice for the Republican nomination.

It said the choice of the former Vietnam war prisoner and Arizona senator was an "easy one."

"Senator John McCain of Arizona is the only Republican who promises to end the George Bush style of governing from and on behalf of a small, angry fringe," the paper said.

"With a record of working across the aisle to develop sound bipartisan legislation, he would offer a choice to a broader range of Americans than the rest of the Republican field

Lofty Himalaya magnify global warming impact

Reuters, Davos

The Himalayas are suffering the effects of global warming more acutely because of their height and melting glaciers could flood local settlements, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) said on Thursday.

"The Himalaya, that's really moving very fast. They're being hit very hard," IUCN Director General Julia Marton-Lefevre told Reuters at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

Thousands of glaciers in the Himalaya mountains are the source of water for nine major Asian rivers whose basins are home to 1.3 billion people, including Pakistan and parts of India and China.

The melting causes lakes to form at the base of glaciers, which may then break their banks and flood down the valleys.

"When the glaciers recede there's a growing danger of glacial dams collapsing," Marton-Lefevre said. "The effect will be very dramatic."

"There's a lot of poor people living at the foot of the Himalaya," she said.

Marton-Lefevre said it could take decades to slow down the process of global warming, but hoped it would be possible.

UN powers agree on more Iran sanctions

AP, United Nations

Major U.N. Security Council powers have agreed on an incremental increase in sanctions on Iran, including a new restriction on exporters doing business with the country, diplomats said Thursday.

A draft resolution also calls for more monitoring of Iran's military and financial institutions, broader travel bans on Iranian nuclear scientists and other key officials, and freezing the assets of people and banks linked to weapons proliferation, Security Council diplomats told The Associated Press. Diplomats from the five nations with veto power on the council - the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France - spent a third day negotiating a final agreement on principles that would form the basis for a third round of U.N. sanctions on Iran. They were joined by Germany, which has long been involved in efforts to resolve the Iran nuclear dispute.

The general terms were hammered out in Berlin earlier this week, chiefly through negotiations between U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Those elements have been closely held, though they have begun circulating among the rest of the 15-member council.

Russia and China, which have strong business ties with Iran, resisted earlier British and French draft principles pushing for harsher sanctions if Iran keeps refusing to stop enriching uranium - a process that can provide fuel for a nuclear reactor or fissile material for a bomb.

Iran says its nuclear program seeks only to generate electricity.

The Bush administration continues to press the case that Iran tests ballistic missiles, enriches uranium toward building an atomic bomb, hides information and remains in violation of two previous U.N. Security Council resolutions.

On Wednesday, Russia said the new resolution would not impose harsh sanctions against Iran.

But Nicholas Burns, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, rejected that claim Thursday, saying the resolution was "meant to be punitive."

He said the draft increases travel restrictions on Iranian nuclear scientists, bans trade in items that can be used for nuclear purposes and freezes more Iranian assets.

Because it lacks significant trade with Iran, the United States must rely on influencing other major nations to apply economic pressure on the country.

Security Council diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because negotiations were sensitive, said the new resolution would impose new credit restrictions on exporters. Such measures could complicate matters for nations such as Germany and Italy that are major trading and investment partners with Iran and have billions of dollars of export credits at risk. The proposed resolution would make it more difficult to obtain those credits.

Diplomats say a third round of sanctions is unlikely to be approved until next month after the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog based in Vienna, receives more answers from Iran. Iran agreed to answer all remaining questions about its nuclear activities after IAEA director Mohammed Elbaradei visited Tehran in January.

UN rights body slams Israel for Gaza siege

AFP, Geneva

The UN Human Rights Council criticised Israel on Thursday for its blockade of Gaza, in a resolution that EU member states on the council abstained from voting on, citing a lack of balance.

By a vote of 30 to one, the council adopted the resolution that had been tabled by Pakistan and Syria on behalf of the Islamic and Arab blocs. Canada cast the lone opposing vote, while a total of 15 other states abstained.

The resolution called for "urgent international action to put an immediate end to the grave violations committed by the occupying power, Israel, in the occupied Palestinian territory".

It marked the fourth time that the council, established in 2006 to replace the Human Rights Commission as the United Nations' main forum for human rights, had lambasted Israel in a special session. The Palestinian ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Mohammad Abu-Koash, said the vote was significant but urged greater international pressure upon Israel.

Israel kills four more Palestinians in Gaza

Reuters, Gaza

Israeli air strikes killed four Palestinian militants on Friday in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, as Egyptian forces began closing the severed border, curbing the stream of Gazans breaching the Israeli blockade.

Egyptian forces began placing barbed wire near the collapsed steel wall early on Friday and began blocking Palestinians from entering Egyptian soil, causing some scuffles between the Gazans and the Egyptians, witnesses said. The witnesses said stones were thrown at the Egyptian forces, who responded with beating some Palestinians with clubs and firing several shots in the air. Violence also flared in the occupied West Bank where two Palestinians and an Israeli border policeman were shot dead on Thursday.

Israel's deputy defence minister said the Jewish state wanted to cut its links with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip after militants blasted open the territory's border fence with Egypt.

18 killed in China train accident

AP, Beijing

A train ran into group of railway workers in eastern Shandong province, killing 18 and injuring nine others, officials said Friday.

The accident happened Wednesday night when the workers were replacing railway tracks near Anqiu city, the State Administration of Work Safety said in a notice on its Web site. The official Xinhua News Agency said the work was scheduled to start at 10 p.m. and that trains had been told to slow their speed to 28 mph from 9 p.m. But the workers entered the work area at 8:40 p.m. and were hit by the train traveling at more than 75 mph, it said.

Sri Lanka army kills 30 rebels in fighting

Reutersn, Colombo

Sri Lankan warplanes bombed a Tamil Tiger base in the far north on Friday, a day after ground troops killed 30 rebels in clashes across the region, the military said.

Seven soldiers were killed in the battles on Thursday, the latest in an intensification of the 25-year civil war following the official scrapping of a truce with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam last week. "We have taken a target today morning using fighter aircrafts and the target was a LTTE transport base located in Selvanagar in Kilinochchi," said air force spokesman Wing Commander Andrew Wijesuriya.

Pilots confirmed the raid was successful, he said. Kilinochchi is the de facto capital of the LTTE fighting for an independent homeland for minority Tamils in the north and east of the island.

Annan pushes for further Kenyan dialogue

AFP, Nairobi

Former UN chief Kofi Annan was set to push Friday for further talks between feuding Kenyan leaders to end a political crisis, one day after organising their first face-to-face meeting.

Flanked by Annan, President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga on Thursday stood together for the first time since the disputed December 27 polls and called for peace while hinting at a start to dialogue.

India, France on 'verge' of nuclear agreement: Sarkozy

AFP, New Delhi

India and France are "on the verge" of an agreement to engage in civil nuclear energy cooperation, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in an e-mail interview with the Hindustan Times. "We are on the verge of finding an agreement which will enable the development of civilian nuclear cooperation with India," Sarkozy was quoted as saying. "The is one of the stakes of my visit in India: to bring to fruition this evolution that I deem essential for India's development and the protection of the global environment." Sarkozy added that the agreement was subject to India working out a "special regime" with the 45-country Nuclear Suppliers Group, which governs global nuclear trade, as well as safeguards with the UN's atomic energy watchdog. India, which has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, needs to clear hurdles with the two bodies as part of a landmark nuclear cooperation deal with the United States first announced in 2005. Such an agreement, however, is expected to take months to negotiate.

Pakistan may plunge into Kenya-type violence: Imran Khan

AFP, Washington

Pakistan's cricket hero-turned-politician Imran Khan called on the United States Thursday to pressure President Pervez Musharraf to reinstate sacked top judges or face the prospect of Kenya-type post-election violence. Khan, speaking in Washington, said that if Musharraf, a key US "war on terror" ally, rigged February 18 parliamentary elections as speculated, "it is, in fact, going to exacerbate everything. "The chances are that we would have a Kenya-type situation, where people are not going to accept their election results" and "the country will sink into a deeper crisis," warned Khan, leader of the marginal Tehrik-e-Insaaf (Movement for Justice) party, which is boycotting the polls. Kenya's disputed December 27 elections followed weeks of violence in which close to 800 people have died and a quarter of a million displaced. Khan regretted that President George W. Bush's administration had not pushed Musharraf for the reinstatement of the deposed chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad, who is under house arrest.

Prodi resigns after losing Senate vote

AFP, Rome

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigned on Thursday following 20 rocky months in office after the centre-left leader lost a vote of confidence in the Senate. President Giorgio Napolitano asked Prodi to continue in office as the head of state holds consultations with political leaders, beginning Friday afternoon with the speakers of the Senate and the lower house Chamber of Deputies, the president's office said in a statement.

Prodi, 68, crippled by the defection this week of the centrist Catholic UDEUR party, had decided to go ahead with the Senate showdown despite appeals from top leaders, including Napolitano, to resign instead. The mild-mannered former economics professor appeared resigned to the near certainty that he would lose the vote but determined to carry through with it on principle. "I am here because you cannot hide from the judgement of those who represent the people, and our people are watching us," he said beforehand.

US willing to fight with Pakistanis against Al-Qaeda: Gates

AFP, Washington

The United States is "ready, willing and able" to conduct joint combat operations with Pakistani troops against insurgents in Pakistan if Islamabad agrees, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said. Gates, speaking at a Pentagon press conference with Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he was unaware of any Pakistani request for additional US military assistance but said it was part of an ongoing dialogue. "First of all, we remain ready, willing and able to assist the Pakistanis and to partner with them to provide additional training, to conduct joint operations, should they desire to do so," he said. Asked whether joint operations meant US combat troops fighting with Pakistani troops against Al-Qaeda in the tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan, Gates said, "If the Pakistanis wanted to do that, I think we would."

World's first oil paintings in Afghan caves

AFP, Tokyo

Forget Renaissance Europe. The world's first oil paintings go back nearly 14 centuries to murals in Afghanistan's Bamiyan caves, a Japanese researcher says. Buddhist images painted in the central Afghan region, dated to around 650 AD, are the earliest examples of oil used in art history, says Yoko Taniguchi, an expert at Japan's National Research Institute for Cultural Properties. A group of Japanese, European and US scientists are collaborating to restore damaged murals in caves in the Bamiyan Valley, famous for its two gigantic statues of the Buddha which were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. In the murals, thousands of Buddhas in vermilion robes sit cross-legged, sporting exquisitely knotted hair.