The New Nation - Internet Edition

Obama sweeps three states, McCain faces opposition

Reuters, Washington

Barack Obama easily swept Democratic presidential contests in three states on Saturday, striking the latest blows in a bruising back-and-forth battle with Hillary Clinton for the party's nomination.

Among Republicans, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won contests in Louisiana and Kansas over front-runner John McCain, highlighting conservative discontent with the Arizona senator two days after he essentially sewed up the nomination.

Obama scored decisive wins in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington to gain a small dose of momentum in a deadlocked, state-by-state fight with Clinton for Democratic convention delegates who will choose the party's presidential nominee.

"Today, the voters from the West Coast to the Gulf Coast to the heart of America stood up to say yes, we can," Obama said at a party dinner in Richmond, Virginia, a state that votes on Tuesday.

"We won in Louisiana, we won in Nebraska, we won in Washington state, we won North, we won South, we won in between, and I believe that we can win Virginia on Tuesday if you're ready to stand for change," the Illinois senator said.

The wins by Huckabee, a Baptist minister whose campaign has been fueled by support from religious conservatives, came in states with big conservative voting blocs and did not change McCain's daunting advantage in the Republican race. McCain has more than 700 of the 1,191 delegates needed to capture the Republican nomination at this summer's convention. He virtually clinched the race on Thursday with the withdrawal of his chief rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

But Huckabee said he would not give up, telling a conference of conservative activists in Washington he would continue his shoestring campaign until McCain mathematically won the nomination. McCain still faces widespread opposition from conservatives unhappy with his views on immigration, tax cuts and other issues.

"I did not major in math, but I majored in miracles, and I still believe in them," Huckabee said at a rally at the University of Maryland in College Park.

McCain held a slim lead on Huckabee in Washington state with nearly 90 percent of the vote counted late Saturday. Huckabee won about 60 percent of the vote in Kansas, more than double McCain's total. He narrowly beat McCain in Louisiana.

Obama cruised to easy wins in Nebraska and Washington, doubling Clinton's tally by capturing more than 60 percent of the vote. He comfortably beat Clinton in Louisiana, winning more than half of the vote. Obama also won easily in the U.S. territory of the Virgin Islands.

Clinton, a New York senator, and Obama are about even in pledged delegates after contests in more than half of the U.S. states, but both are well short of the 2,025 needed to win the nomination.

Democratic rules allocate delegates on a proportional basis statewide and in congressional districts, meaning even the loser in each state can win big blocks of delegates. There also are another 796 "super-delegates," elected officials and party insiders, who can switch their support at any time.

Suicide attack heightens fears for Pakistan polls: Election rally death toll rises to 25

Reuters, Islamabad

Pakistani police said on Sunday they suspected Islamist militants based in the tribal areas on the Afghan border were behind a suicide attack that killed up to 25 people at an election rally in the northwest a day earlier.

The lone bomber blew himself up in the midst of a rally of the opposition Awami National Party (ANP) in Charsadda town in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

Provincial police chief Sharif Virk told Reuters that the severed head of the bomber had been found, and militants from the nearby Mohmand tribal region could have been responsible.

Pakistan votes for a new National Assembly and four provincial assemblies on Feb. 18, and while it isn't a presidential election President Pervez Musharraf's future could be at stake if the polls result in a hostile parliament.

ANP is a secular, ethnic Pashtun party competing with Musharraf's allies who were in charge of the central government and religious parties who have held power in NWFP.

A party spokesman said ANP believed the attack was part of a plot to spoil or delay elections that the parties in power were likely to lose. "This attack is carried out by the forces who want to subvert elections," Zahid Khan, ANP's top spokesman, said.

The attack took place inside a house where ANP leaders were addressing around 200 supporters. "The bomber appears to be standing in a corner and all of a sudden pushed his way to the middle and blew himself up," Farman Ali, deputy mayor of Charsadda, said.

Sympathy vote for Benazir seen key to determine result of Pak poll

Reuters, Multan

The strength of a sympathy vote for assassinated Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in the country's biggest province is likely to determine the result of a general election on Feb. 18.

The vote could seal the fate of President Pervez Musharraf, even though it is not a presidential election, with opponents calling for the increasingly unpopular leader to step down.

"Certainly there's a sympathy vote," said Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, a vice chairman of Bhutto's party standing in Punjab province, where half the country's 160 million people live and half of its members of parliament will be elected.

"If there's a free, fair and transparent election the PPP will be number one," Gilani said at his house in the city of Multan, while aides bustled about in the gloom of a power cut. Months of political turmoil and militant violence have raised worries about the stability for the nuclear-armed U.S. ally.

Fear of violence has stifled election campaigning, especially after Bhutto was killed on Dec. 27 in an attack the government blamed on militants, and is also expected to hurt turnout in the election for a National Assembly and four provincial assemblies.

A suicide bomb attack on Saturday at a rally by an ethnic Pashtun nationalist party opposed to Musharraf killed at least 16 people.

Opposition parties have also complained of rigging in favour of Musharraf's allies.

The main challengers to the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League (PML) are Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the party of Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister Musharraf ousted in a coup in 1999. Punjab is their main battleground.

"She was very brave and gave Musharraf a tough time, which nobody else has dared to do. People should vote for her party," Punjab labourer Jumma Khan said of Bhutto.

Musharraf, who stepped down as army chief in November, has lost popularity over his efforts to cling to power, which included the purging of the judiciary and gagging of the media after he imposed a six-week stint of emergency rule on Nov. 3.

His security ties with the United States are also unpopular.

But it is inflation, power cuts and shortages of the staple flour and natural gas that could scupper the election hopes of the PML, which has been ruling under Musharraf.

Musharraf won re-election for another five-year term as president in an October vote by legislators. But critics say he has held on to power unconstitutionally and he could face efforts to unseat him in an opposition-dominated parliament.

Bhutto's party is expected to sweep rural areas of her home province of Sindh and split the vote in its capital, Karachi, with a pro-Musharraf party.

It also looks set to make gains in Punjab, which has the country's most independent voters, unattached to a party and free from caste or tribal voting compulsions, said political analyst and academic Rasul Bakhsh Rais.

"The People's Party has a much brighter chance now than it probably could have had with Bhutto on the scene," Rais said of the sympathy vote. "Punjab is key and I see some change in Punjab in their favour."

Iran to hold talks with US on Iraq next week

AFP, Tehran

Iran and the United States are to launch a new round of talks on the future of war-ravaged Iraq next week in Baghdad, an Iranian official told student news agency ISNA on Saturday.

"These discussions will take place by the end of next week," said the official who requested anonymity.

"The structure of these discussions has been finalised but the level of participation has not yet been agreed," he said.

Iran wants the meeting to be held between ambassadors but the US prefers it to be a meeting of experts, the official added.

On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said new talks between the two countries would be held after February 11, the anniversary of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

Snow storms destroy one tenth of China's forests

AFP, Beijing

China has lost about one tenth of its forest resources to recent snow storms regarded as the most severe in half a century, state media reported Sunday.

A total of 17.3 million hectares (43 million acres) of forest have been damaged across China as the result of three weeks of savage winter weather, the China Daily website said, citing the State Forestry Administration.

More than half the country's provinces have been affected, and in the worst-hit regions, nearly 90 percent of forests have been destroyed, according to the paper.

As of the end of last month, disastrous winter weather had levied a toll of 16.2 billion yuan (2.2 billion dollars) on China's forestry sector, the report said, citing the most recent data available.

More misery could be in store, as the State Forest Administration has warned trees killed by winter frost could boost the amount of inflammable materials, raising the risk of forest fires.

In response to the dire situation, the government has urged areas unaffected by the snow storms to expand seedling supply to secure spring reforestation efforts, expected to begin in early April, according to the report.

The destruction of large swathes of forest comes as China is spending large sums on reforestation.

In January, state media said China planned to plant 2.5 billion trees this year.

Indonesia concert rush kills 10

AP, Jakarta

A stampede at an Indonesian punk rock concert left 10 people dead and dozens injured, most of them teenagers, police said Sunday.

The deadly crush happened Saturday night as hundreds of people tried to leave a concert by local band, Beside, in Bandung the provincial capital of West Java. Hundreds of people tried to leave the venue at the same time, causing a panic, said local police chief Col. Bambang Suparsono.

Ten people were trampled to death and scores of others were treated for breathing difficulties, said Noorman, a doctor, who like many Indonesian goes by a single name.

Turkish lawmakers lift headscarf ban

AFP, Ankara

Turkey's parliament voted Saturday to lift a ban on Islamic headscarves at universities, handing victory to the Islamist-rooted ruling party as tens of thousands protested the deeply controversial move.

The constitutional reform package tabled by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) received 411 'yes' votes in the 550-seat house, parliament speaker Koksal Toptan said.

The new legislation, which was backed by the opposition Nationalist Action Party, needed 367 votes to pass.

As parliament was voting, tens of thousands of people waving Turkish flags and carrying pictures of modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, packed a square in downtown Ankara to voice their opposition.

Secularists -- among them the army, the judiciary and academics -- see the headscarf as a symbol of defiance against the strict separation of state and religion, a basic tenet of the mainly Muslim country.

"Turkey is secular and will remain secular," shouted the protestors, among them many women, including some wearing headscarves.

"What is being done today in parliament is to eliminate the republican regime and replace it with bigotry," Gokhan Gunaydin, from the organising committee, told the crowd to loud applause.

Myanmar announces referendum in May, polls in 2010

AFP, Yangon

Myanmar will hold a referendum on a new constitution in May, the ruling junta said Saturday, promising to then have multi-party elections in 2010.

The announcement on state television came amid mounting international pressure on Myanmar over its bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in September, when the United Nations estimates at least 31 people were killed.

It also came nearly two decades after democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party comfortably won a nationwide vote which was then rejected by the military.

Last autumn's protests, led by Buddhist monks, were the biggest challenge to military rule in nearly 20 years.

"The referendum on the new constitution will be held in May 2008," said the government statement, read over state television. No exact date was announced.

"Multi-party democratic elections will be held in 2010, according to the new constitution," it added.

"It is suitable to change the military administration to a democratic, civil administrative system, as good fundamentals have been established," it said.

"The country's basic infrastructure has been built, although there is still more to do in striving for the welfare of the nation," it added.

Sri Lanka army chief vows to defeat Tiger rebels

AFP, Colombo

Sri Lanka's army chief again vowed to defeat Tamil separatists but refused to set a deadline for the end of the decades-old conflict, saying the rebels remain a potent force, a report said Sunday.

Army general Sarath Fonseka said in an interview with the Lakbima weekly newspaper that a military campaign to capture the rebel-held Wanni region in the north begun in March last year was moving according to plan.

He however refused to give a timeframe for defeating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who have fought for more than three decades to establish an independent homeland for minority Tamils in the Sinhalese-majority island.

Pakistan nukes safe despite rising militancy: US general

AFP, Islamabad

The chief of the US military said that Pakistan's atomic weapons were secure despite rising Islamic militancy in the nuclear-armed South Asian country. Admiral Mike Mullen told reporters after talks with President Pervez Musharraf and army chief Ashfaq Kayani that his discussions focused on the security situation in the region. As the general spoke, a suspected suicide bombing killed at least 20 people and injured about two dozen others at an election rally in northwest Pakistan, a hotbed of Islamic militancy. "Certainly the threat is going up. We are both concerned about that. Certainly in my meetings today, all the leadership expressed concern about being able to eliminate that threat over time," Mullen said. But he added: "I am very comfortable that the nuclear weapons are secure and that proper procedures are in place. I am not concerned that they are going to fall into the hands of any terrorists."

Gates cautions on NATO's survival

AP, Munich

Survival of the NATO alliance, a cornerstone of American security policy for six decades, is at stake in the debate over how the United States and Europe should share the burden of fighting Islamic extremism in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday. "We must not - we cannot - become a two-tiered alliance of those willing to fight and those who are not," Gates told the Munich Conference on Security Policy, where Afghanistan was a central topic. "Such a development, with all its implications for collective security, would effectively destroy the alliance," he added. Washington has had innumerable disputes with its NATO allies in the 59 years since it was founded as a bulwark against the former Soviet Union. But today's debate over the importance of the mission in Afghanistan and how to accomplish it was portrayed by Gates as among the most difficult ever. A central theme of Gates' speech was his assertion that al-Qaida extremists, either in Afghanistan or elsewhere, pose a greater threat to Europe than many Europeans realize.

Sharia law in Britain unavoidable: archbishop

Reuters, London

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans, said on Thursday the introduction of some aspects of Islamic Sharia law in Britain was unavoidable. Other religions enjoyed tolerance of their laws in Britain, he said, and he called for a "constructive accommodation" with Muslim practice in areas such as marital disputes. Asked in a BBC interview if the adoption of Sharia law was necessary for community cohesion, Williams said: "It seems unavoidable. "Certain conditions of Sharia are already recognized in our society and under our law, so it is not as if we are bringing in an alien and rival system." The issue of integrating Britain's 1.8 million Muslims has been widely debated since July 2005 when four British Islamists carried out suicide bombings on London's transport network, killing 52 people.

Tensions worsening between Nepal peace partners

AFP, Kathmandu

Mounting tensions between the partners in Nepal's peace deal are posing a serious challenge to its stability two months ahead of polls meant to transform the country into a republic, analysts say. Former rebel Maoists faced heavy criticism this week after their supporters were accused of attacking and wounding 17 people, including a member of parliament, who were campaigning in the west for Nepal's biggest party, the Nepali Congress. Later the same day, hundreds of police raided the headquarters and offices of the controversial Maoist Young Communist League, with local media reporting that the raids were retaliation for the beatings. On Wednesday, a Maoist announcement that they will revive local-level Maoist organisations prompted accusations they are restarting the parallel government they ran in areas under their control during the bitter insurgency. "We are approaching a critical few weeks," said analyst Rhoderick Chalmers, Nepal's country director for the International Crisis Group, a conflict prevention think-tank.

Cold snap kills 760 in Afghanistan

AFP, Kabul

More than 750 people have died in the harshest winter to have hit Afghanistan in decades, the disaster authority said Saturday. More than 500 homes, mostly traditional mud brick houses, have been destroyed and tens of thousands damaged by the heaviest snowfalls in 30 years, said Ahmad Shkeb Hamraz, an official at the National Disaster Management Authority Nearly half the villages in the poverty-stricken country were still cut off from major cities, he told AFP. "According to the latest figures, about 760 people have died since the start of the winter across the country," Hamraz said. "The figures are likely to increase as more information and data are being collected," he added. Thousands of livestock have also died of the cold, Hamraz said, adding the western region bordering Iran was hardest hit.