The New Nation - Internet Edition

Iran threatens to retaliate if attacked

AP, Cairo

Iran's top military commander said Saturday that his forces would retaliate against American military bases in the Persian Gulf if they are involved in any possible future attack on Iran.

General Mohammad Ali Jaafari, commander of the Iran's Revolutionary Guards, told Al-Jazeera television that it is Iran's "natural right to respond" if attacked by land or air.

But he assured Arab Gulf countries - some of whom are home to U.S. military bases - that only American forces would come under counterattack.

"We realize that there is worry among neighboring countries - Muslim countries whose lands host U.S. military stations," Jaafari said. He spoke in Farsi, which the network dubbed over in Arabic.

"However, if the U.S. launches a war against us, and if it uses these stations to attack Iran with missiles, then through the strength and precision of our own missiles, we are capable of targeting only the U.S. military forces who attack us," he told the station.

On a recent visit to the Gulf countries, President Bush branded Iran the leading state sponsor of terror, and said "all options" against Tehran remain on the table.

Many of the Gulf's Sunni Arab states want Washington to keep Shiite Iran's ambitions in check, but are nervous about the impact of any military confrontation.

The U.S. military has several bases in Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Yemen. Many Gulf Arabs have expressed concern that those bases make them vulnerable to attack.

Another report adds: Iran's foreign minister said on Saturday he could envisage the Islamic Republic resuming diplomatic ties with the United States one day but that many hurdles remained to normal relations.

Manouchehr Mottaki said Tehran was not committed to "cutting relations with the United States forever", despite tensions with Washington over its nuclear programme and U.S. accusations that Iran has fomented violence in neighbouring Iraq.

Iran regularly calls for a change in behaviour from the United States, which cut diplomatic ties in 1980 after radical students seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took diplomats hostage during the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"How and when this relationship can take place again, it depends on so many factors," Mottaki told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss alpine town of Davos..

Asked if this year's U.S. presidential election could mark a turning point in relations, he said: "We are trying not to look at the individuals, to the parties, but lookingtat the policies."

Key events in Suharto's life

AFP, Jakarta

Lauded by some as a pro-market Cold Warrior who brought stability to Indonesia, shunned by others as a corrupt autocrat, Suharto-who died Sunday aged 86 -- dominated his country's politics for 32 years.

Key events in his life and career:

June 8, 1921: Born to a farming family on the main Indonesian island of Java, then part of the Netherlands Indies.

1940-1943: Joins the Royal Netherlands Indies Army, rising to the rank of sergeant. Following Japanese occupation in 1942 he joins Japanese-backed independence militia Pembela.

1945-49: Joins newly formed national army following declaration of independence. Distinguishes himself in the fight against returning Dutch colonialists until sovereignty is finally transferred in December 1949.

1963: Becomes commander of the Army's Strategic Reserve (Kostrad) in Jakarta.

March 11, 1966: Forces Sukarno to sign an executive order granting him power to restore order in the wake of a September 1965 coup attempt blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). The order, which effectively transfers power to Suharto, gives legitimacy to a crackdown on suspected PKI members that kills more than half a million.

March 12, 1967: Suharto is appointed acting president by the provisional people's consultative assembly, which had rejected Sukarno's accountability speech.

August 8, 1967: Along with foreign leaders, helps establish the new regional grouping the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

March 21, 1968: Suharto is confirmed as president by the People's Consultative Assembly, the nation's legislature. He is elected unopposed again in 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993 and 1998.

December 7, 1975: Begins large-scale military operations in newly independent neighbour East Timor, eventually leading to its annexation as an Indonesian province. Around 200,000 Timorese are either killed in the invasion or die from preventable causes during the occupation.

1985: Indonesia becomes self-sufficient in rice, its staple food, after decades of being one of the world's largest importers.

1990: Establishes the Association of Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI) in an apparent move to cultivate orthodox Muslim support to counter fading enthusiasm for his rule among senior military officials concerned with the questionable business practices of his children.

More than 200 commit suicide in Russian army in 2007

AFP, Moscow

More than half of the 442 Russian soldiers who died last year committed suicide, Russia's defense ministry announced on its website Saturday.

A total of 224 soldiers took their lives in 2007 in a military regularly denounced for its abuses, according to official statistics.

Another 126 soldiers died in accidents, not including 41 who died in road accidents. Some 15 were victims of hazing, the government said-although Russian nongovernmental organisations put the figure in the hundreds.

In addition, 23 soldiers were victims of "accidental murder" and 13 died after mishandling their weapons, the ministry said.

Egypt closed to Gaza students despite open border

AFP, Rafah

Egyptian universities remain closed to Palestinian students from the Israeli- blockaded Gaza Strip no matter how many holes have been punched in the Gaza-Egypt border. Tamara, 18, rushed across the open border to resume her studies on Thursday after hearing the news that Palestinian militants had forcibly opened the frontier t but to no avail. "Your situation is illegal," said the university authorities in El-Arish, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the divided border town of Rafah.

She joined the university in September after passing her school finals. "But the university said I needed a stamp in my passport, something that's impossible since there's no border post here any more," she explained.

The angry young woman was walking down Salaheddin Street on the Egyptian side of Rafah, flooded with fellow Gazans and their vehicles.

Hundreds of thousands of Gazans have been allowed to pour into Egypt since Wednesday to stock up on goods which have been denied them by a week-long Israeli blockade aimed at halting cross-border rocket fire on Israel.

But even with Cairo's acquiescence, after initial reluctance, their status inside Egypt is illegal. In the absence of any functioning customs post, a few members of the Egyptian security forces and armed militants of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas have been left to direct traffic on the roads.

Pakistan spurns broader US combat presence

AFP, New York

Pakistan has rejected a bid by the top two US intelligence officials to win more access for the CIA in tribal areas where Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other militants are active, The New York Times reported Saturday.

Citing unnamed officials briefed on the secret visit January 9 by Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, and General Michael Hayden, the CIA director, the Times said Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf "rebuffed proposals to expand any American combat presence in Pakistan, either through unilateral covert CIA missions or by joint operations with Pakistani security forces."

"Instead, Pakistan and the United States are discussing a series of other joint efforts, including increasing the number and scope of missions by armed Predator surveillance aircraft over the tribal areas, and identifying ways that the United States can speed information about people suspected of being militants to Pakistani security forces," the report said.

US and Pakistani officials have questioned each other in recent months about the quality and time lines of information the United States gave Pakistan to zero in on militants.

100 killed in Kenya as Annan slams 'systematic' rights abuses

AFP, Nairobi

Kofi Annan was to push Sunday for peace and talks in Kenya as mediation efforts hit further hurdles after a surge in the death toll from ethnic clashes in the country's west to nearly 100. On Saturday, the former UN chief said unrest sparked by President Mwai Kibaki's disputed reelection had led to "gross and systematic" human rights abuses, after visiting the violence-wracked Rift Valley and calling for a probe. As bodies covered in arrow and machete wounds filled up morgues and hospitals in the provincial capital Nakuru, police said another 17 people had been killed overnight in Nakuru and nearby Tomboroa trading post, taking the death toll since Thursday to nearly 100, including the neighbouring town of Molo. At least 850 people have been killed, according to an AFP tally of police and hospital figures, and some 260,000 displaced across the country since the disputed December 27 election touched off a wave of deadly rioting and ethnic killings.

Olmert, Abbas try to limit Hamas control over border

Reuters, Jerusalem

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will hold crisis talks on Sunday on how to limit Hamas control over Gaza's breached border with Egypt. Abbas wants to take over Gaza's border crossings, including the one with Egypt that Hamas blasted open on Wednesday. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans have since poured across the border into Egypt to stock up on goods in short supply because of an Israeli-led blockade of the Hamas-controlled territory. Israel has so far resisted the idea of giving Abbas and his West Bank-based government control of the Gaza crossings, citing concerns about security. Even if Olmert were to agree, it is unclear how the Fatah leader would take over the crossings without Hamas's consent.

Florida governor endorses McCain

AP, St Petersburg

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist endorsed a beaming Sen. John McCain on Saturday night, delivering a boost three days before the state's pivotal primary. Crist praised McCain as a "true American hero." At a county GOP dinner in St. Petersburg, Crist added, "After thinking about it as much as I have, I don't think anybody would do better than the man who stands next to me, Sen. John McCain." It was the second high-profile endorsement in as many days for McCain, who is locked in a tight primary race with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Crist stepped to the podium a little more than 24 hours after Sen. Mel Martinez announced he was backing his colleague in the Senate. Officials said Martinez, who campaigned Saturday with McCain, had prodded the governor to follow his lead. Crist said he would campaign for McCain in the coming days. "I just feel in my heart he's the right man for the job at the right time," he told reporters afterward.