The New Nation - Internet Edition

Kosovo inches closer to independence

AFP, Pristina

Kosovo on Saturday inched closer to its historic declaration of independence, with a growing sense of excitement among its people and the European Union launching a police and judicial mission to smoothen the birth of the world's newest state.

The overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian province -- still officially a part of Serbia, despite being wrested from Belgrade's control by Western powers nine years ago -- is poised to break away on Sunday.

Without giving their sources, several newspapers in Pristina reported Saturday that the declaration would come around 3:00 pm (1400 GMT) on Sunday to the strains of "Ode to Joy," the anthem of the European Union.

Street parties and fireworks would follow, although Prime Minister Hashim Thaci's government -- wary of a backlash involving Kosovo's jittery Serb minority -- is appealing for independence to begin with "dignity".

"Everything is pointing to Sunday," a source close to Thaci's government told AFP, as Serbia all but gave up hope of hanging onto the province it regards as the cradle of its culture and Serbian Orthodox religion.

Expections are running high in Pristina that the United States and major European nations such as Britain and France will simultaneously recognise Kosovo's independence from Monday.

In Brussels, the European Union officially launched its so-called rule of law mission to help ease Kosovo's transition to independence -- even as the bloc's 27 members were divided on how to recognize the new state. In the days after independence is declared, the EULEX Kosovo mission will begin a 120-day countdown to taking over policing duties from a United Nations mission, which will up stakes and leave.

"We've had an office there (in Kosovo) for this express purpose since April 2006," one EU official said Friday. A "planning team" of more than 100 people has also been in place in Pristina for several weeks.

In the streets of Pristina, many shopkeepers Saturday festooned their windows with the Albanian flag -- a black eagle on a red background -- sometimes alongside banners boasting 50 percent off sales.

Colourful posters expressed thanks to the United States, Britain and the European Union for supporting independence, or hailed former US president Bill Clinton for launching the 1999 NATO war against Serbia. "There's going to be euphoria," said Flutra Limani, 24, who waits tables at a trendy Pristina bar. "Everyone is talking about this."

Thaci's government has reportedly ordered 80 tonnes of fireworks from Bulgaria for the occasion, while a chic bakery called Fellini's has garnered publicty with a jumbo Kosovo-shaped independence cake.

EU foreign ministers will meet in Brussels on Monday to try to draw up a "common platform" in response to Kosovo's expected independence, one which does not include the notion of the bloc as a whole recognising the new state.

EU leaders committed in December to help with a settlement on Kosovo's final status, including economic and political assistance and by offering Kosovo the possibility of EU membership some time in the distant future.

But some countries will refuse, at least in the short term, to recognise the new state, making it extremely difficult for the bloc to make any firm promises regarding membership. Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain are among them, while others like Malta and Portugal would prefer that Kosovo's future be decided in the UN Security Council where Russia has effectively vetoed independence.

Pakistani politicians wind up election campaign

Reuters, Islamabad

Pakistani politicians were winding up campaigns on Saturday for a general election that is meant to complete a transition to civilian rule but has been overshadowed by fear of violence and accusations of rigging.

The elections on Monday are for a new parliament and provincial assemblies and while President Pervez Musharraf is not taking part, the vote could have significant implications for the U.S. ally if voters elect a parliament hostile to him.

The vote comes after a surge in violence that included the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on Dec. 27, which has raised fears about the nuclear-armed country's stability.

But many Pakistanis are more concerned about rising prices and shortages of basic commodities such as wheat flour and ever more frequent power cuts.

Many are disillusioned with all politicians.

"It'll be very difficult to change this country," said Mohammad Abbas, who works in a rice shop in the town of Sabboki in Punjab province.

"Whatever the politicians do they do for themselves, not for change," said Abbas, who said he would not be voting.

8 Palestinians killed in Israeli Gaza raid

AP, Gaza City

A powerful blast went off in the house of a senior Islamic Jihad activist Friday, killing him, his wife, three sons and three neighbors, medics and an Islamic Jihad spokesman said.

Islamic Jihad claimed Israeli warplanes struck the home of Ayman Atallah Fayed. Israel denied it had launched any airstrike in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza where Fayed lived. Hamas police said the cause of the blast was not clear.

Witnesses reported seeing fragments of what looked like locally produced rockets at the scene, suggesting the house may have been used to store arms.

Islamic Jihad said Fayed was among the dead, and that the group would carry out reprisal attacks against Israel.

Fayed was a senior member of the Islamic Jihad military wing. Israel routinely targets top militants in airstrikes but Israel denied any such strike on Friday.

The three-story house was flattened by the blast and six nearby homes were badly damaged, witnesses said. At least 40 people were hurt. One of Fayed's daughters and 11 others were in critical condition. The Israeli aircraft targeted the home of top Islamic Jihad militant Ayman al-Fayed in the Bureij Palestinian refugee camp south of Gaza City, killing him and two of his children, a boy and a girl, they said.

A woman was among the other four dead, the medics said, adding that the fate of Fayed's wife and three other children was not known. A military spokeswoman denied Israeli forces had attacked the house.

Around 50 people, including around 20 children, were wounded when the building was hit by a missile, the Palestinian medics added. Most were family members.

US lawmakers warn Pakistan of 'consequences' if vote unfair

AFP, Washington

A US Congressional team travelling to Pakistan to observe its parliamentary election warned President Pervez Musharraf's administration of "consequences' if the polls were not free, fair and transparent.

"Let's focus on free, fair, transparent elections and then if we don't see that, then we'll deal with the consequences of that," Republican Senator Chuck Hagel told reporters ahead of Monday's elections.

He did not say what the consequences would be.

Democratic Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph Biden, who will lead the bipartisan Congressional election observer team, called for a shift in US-Pakistan relations policy which he said just hinged on Musharraf. "I've been arguing for some time that we need to move from a policy based on personalities -- Musharraf -- to one based on the entire country and its people -- Pakistan," he said. "We need a new approach to Pakistan, including a significant increase in non-military assistance coupled with real transparency and accountability in the military aid we continue to provide," Biden said.

Musharraf pledged on Thursday that the elections would be free, fair and transparent, but warned opposition groups not to protest against the result if they did not accept it.

Opposition figures have accused Musharraf's government of trying to rig the elections in favour of his allies, in a bid to avoid possible impeachment by a hostile parliament.

14 killed by Maoist rebels in India

AP, Bhubaneswar

Hundreds of Maoist militants stormed six police compounds in eastern India in carefully coordinated attacks Friday night, killing 13 police personnel and one civilian, a top police official said. Eleven more policemen were injured.

The attacks - on four police stations, one training academy and an armory - were scattered across the Nayagarh district, about 60 miles from Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa state, said Gopal Chandra Nanda, director general of the state police. The area is about 1,100 miles southeast of capital New Delhi.

Nanda said about 400 of the militants, known as Naxalites, were involved in the attacks, and that security forces were combing the area in search of them.

Nanda said the attackers seized about 1,000 stolen pistols. Press Trust of India news agency reported that the rebels fled with the arms in a bus that they had hijacked earlier, but Nanda said he was unable to confirm the report.

The rebels, who say they are inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, have been fighting for more than three decades in several Indian states, demanding land and jobs for agricultural laborers and the poor.

They are called Naxalites after Naxalbari, a village in West Bengal state where the movement was born in 1967.

1,000 dead from cold snap in Afghanistan

AFP, Kabul

Nearly 1,000 people have died in heavy snowstorms and severe cold during the harshest winter to hit Afghanistan in 30 years, the disaster authority said Saturday.

More 130,000 livestock have also died and hundreds of homes destroyed or damaged by the heavy snowfalls, an official at the National Disaster Management Authorities said.

"Now we know that 926 people have been killed. Over 200 other people have been wounded in cold and other related incidents such as avalanches and snowstorms," said Ahmad Shkeb Hamraz.

Authorities last week reported 760 people had died from the cold and Hamraz said dozens had their hands or toes amputated due to frostbite.

More than half of the casualties were reported from the hard-hit western province of Herat and surrounding regions, he added.

Authorities said earlier that nearly half the villages in western Afghanistan had been cut off from major cities due to heavy snowfalls, which were two metres deep in some areas.

Bush starts five-nation Africa trip in Benin

Reuters, Cotonou

President George W. Bush arrived in Benin on Saturday to start a five-nation tour of Africa aimed at highlighting U.S. support for health, education and democracy in the world's poorest continent. Air Force One, carrying Bush and his wife Laura, touched down at Benin's Cadjehoun international airport where the U.S. leader was due to meet President Thomas Boni Yayi in a brief stopover before flying on to Tanzania. Bush is also due to visit Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia during his six-day trip to Africa, his second to the continent. Bush's African tour in the final year of his presidency takes him to five countries carefully chosen to try to show a different face from the poverty-plagued and conflict-stricken continent normally portrayed by the world's media. Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia are now relatively stable states whose presidents are viewed by Washington as a new generation of leaders, with democratic credentials, who can show the positive potential of Africa.

Pakistan, India agree to increase air links

Reuters, Islamabad

Old rivals Pakistan and India agreed on Friday to increase the number of flights and routes between their countries and allow more airlines to operate them, they said. The agreement was the latest sign of steadily improving ties between the nuclear-armed neighbours, four years after they launched a tentative peace process. "Both sides expressed satisfaction that the new arrangement would further the objective of facilitating people to people contact, business and trade activities," the two countries said in a statement. Transport links, as well as other interactions including trade, have for years been limited between the countries, which have fought three wars since 1947 and nearly went to war a fourth time in 2002. At the moment, only one airline from each country operates between the Pakistani cities of Lahore and Karachi and the Indian cities of Mumbai and New Delhi.

NKorea marks Kim Jong Il's 66th birthday

AP, Seoul

North Korea marked the 66th birthday of leader Kim Jong Il on Saturday with an appeal for its impoverished people to unite around the strongman amid a deadlock in negotiations over the country's nuclear weapons programs. The main Rodong Sinmun newspaper ran a lengthy editorial full of praises for Kim for strengthening the North's "political and military force" - an apparent reference to the country's first nuclear test in 2006. "We have to unite and unite again around the leadership, upholding the slogan 'Let's safeguard the revolutionary leadership led by Comrade Kim Jong Il with our lives!'" the paper said, according to the North's Korean Central News Agency. Kim's birthday is one of the most celebrated holidays in North Korea, along with the birthday of his late father and national founder Kim Il Sung. The North's newspaper made no mention of the nuclear standoff. The United States accuses the North of refusing to give a full list of its nuclear programs under a disarmament agreement reached last year.

Kenya deal 'very close', says Annan

AFP, Nairobi

Former UN chief Kofi Annan hopes Kenya's bitterly divided leaders will sign a deal next week after taking the "last difficult and frightening step" toward a power-sharing government. Annan said Friday at the end of a third week of tough negotiations that a deal was "very close" to end weeks of turmoil that have left more than 1,000 people dead since the disputed December 27 presidential election. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives Monday in Nairobi to shore up Annan's effort to negotiate a deal between President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga on the makeup of a new government. In meetings with the two leaders, Rice has been asked by US President George W. Bush to deliver a message that "there must be a full return to democracy" in Kenya. Bush arrived in Benin on Saturday, his first stop on his Africa tour, before traveling to Tanzania, Kenya's neighbour which currently holds the presidency of the African Union. He then goes to Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia.

British, US team propose moon mission

AP, London

British and US scientists said Friday they were exploring plans for a joint lunar mission that would use an orbiter to fire missile-like penetrators into the moon's surface. The Moon Lightweight Interior and Telecoms Experiment, or MoonLITE, would put a satellite into orbit around the moon. Three or four projectiles packed with scientific instruments would then be fired and embed just below the lunar surface, the British National Space Center and NASA said in a statement. The scientists said MoonLITE could deliver important information about the moon's structure, such as the size of the lunar core and the source of lunar seismic activity. The mission would also provide an opportunity to test the space communications network needed for future robotic or human explorers. NASA and the British space center said more study and a definitive cost estimate were needed before making a decision on whether to proceed with the proposed mission. The statement came a day after the government's space minister, Ian Pearson, said officials were reconsidering a 1986 decision for Britain not to pursue its own manned space flights. Britain doesn't want to be left out of an "international wave of new space exploration in the next 10 to 20 years," Pearson said while announcing plans for a new space research center to be built near Oxford.