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Kosovo awaits recognition, and Serb challenge

Reuters, Pristina

Kosovo looked forward on Monday to recognition by the Western powers who went to war to save its Albanian majority, but Russia served notice the new state will never be forced on its Serb allies in the territory.

Fireworks brought to a close a day of celebration in the Kosovo capital Pristina, where parliament adopted a declaration of independence from Serbia and proclaimed the new Republic of Kosovo a sovereign state.

Kosovo's 2 million Albanians were left guessing which country would be first to recognize the sixth state to be carved from Serb-dominated former Yugoslavia, closing a long chapter in its bloody demise.

European Union foreign ministers meet on Monday to discuss Kosovo's secession. Swift recognition is expected from Britain, Germany, France and Italy as well as the United States.

At an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council, Western powers resisted a Russian bid to block Kosovo's independence, and said NATO and the EU would take responsibility for the region's stability.

Proposing the independence declaration to parliament, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said Kosovo would be a country of "all its citizens," a gesture to the 120,000 Serbs still living here.

But Serbia and Russia swept that aside.

"We'll strongly warn against any attempts at repressive measures should Serbs in Kosovo decide not to comply with this unilateral proclamation of independence," Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said in New York. Serbs in Kosovo, led by the Serb-dominated north and with the full backing of Belgrade, reject the territory's secession, reinforcing an ethnic partition that NATO and the United Nations have failed to erase since the 1998-99 war.

Protests were called for midday on Monday (6 a.m. EST) in Serb towns in Kosovo. A U.N. car was torched overnight in the northern Serb town of Zubin Potok, witnesses said, following hand grenades lobbed at EU and U.N. buildings in the Serb stronghold of Mitrovica within hours of the declaration.

Most of the EU's 27 members will recognize Kosovo and will underwrite it with a 2,000-strong rule-of-law mission to take over supervision of the new state from the United Nations. But at least six EU members are reluctant.

"Today's events t represent the conclusion of a status process that has exhausted all avenues in pursuit of a negotiated outcome," seven Western states on the U.N. Security Council said in a statement.

They said the status quo had "become unsustainable."

Musharraf urges reconciliation as Pakistanis vote

Reuters, Rawalpindi

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf called for reconciliation on Monday after he voted in a general election that could return a parliament set on driving him from office.

The legislative elections were originally scheduled for January 8 but the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto after a rally in Rawalpindi on December 27 forced a delay.

Polls opened at 8 a.m. (10 p.m. Sunday EST) and will close at 5 p.m. (7 a.m. EST). Results are expected to start emerging by midnight and trends should be clear on Tuesday morning.

The death of Bhutto, the most progressive, Western-friendly politician in a Muslim nation rife with anti-American sentiment, raised concern about stability in the nuclear-armed state.

Well over 450 people have died in militant-related violence this year.

Fear of violence kept many Pakistanis away from the polls. Witnesses across the country reported a trickle of voters despite 80,000 troops backing up police to watch over the vote.

The Election Commission said turnout was about 15 percent three hours after polls opened. Monday is a holiday with banks and schools closed.

Former army chief Musharraf voted at a polling station set up in a school in the city of Rawalpindi.

"We must come out of this confrontationalist approach and get into a conciliatory mode. I myself will remain committed to a politics of reconciliation with everyone," Musharraf later told reporters.

"As a president in the centre, I would like to work amicably in a reconciliatory mode with whosoever becomes prime minister."

Heavy snowfall, ice wreak havoc in Greece, Turkey

Reuters, Athens

Heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures shut down schools, paralyzed traffic and grounded airplanes in Greece and Turkey on Monday.

Athens was covered in several centimeters of snow and the outskirts were cut off due to heavy snow and ice on the roads following two days of snowfall.

The Acropolis was also covered by a layer of snow, basking in the morning sunshine as temperatures hovered around freezing.

Officials said Athens International Airport struggled to stay open. Since midnight, only three flights managed to land and one to take off due to icy conditions while dozens of cancellations were expected throughout Monday. Many shops, offices and businesses remained closed for the day with only a handful of pedestrians walking the streets of the city centre as cars needed snow chains.

In Turkey, where snowfall and subzero temperatures forced the closure of schools and universities across much of the country, the Bosphorus strait in Istanbul was closed to transit shipping in the north-south direction since Sunday morning, the coast guard said.

The strait is the only navigable waterway between the oil-shipping ports on the Black Sea and the Aegean.

"Like Siberia," read the headline in Turkey's Takvim newspaper, above pictures of snow ploughs, heavily wrapped-up pedestrians and a grounded airplane at Istanbul airplane.

Hundreds of motorists were stranded around Turkey, some major roads were closed, thousands of villages were cut off and at least two people froze to death on Sunday and Monday, Turkish media reported.

The capital Ankara witnessed 355 traffic accidents over the past 24 hours and nearly 30 people were injured, private broadcaster NTV said. Temperatures in Ankara were expected to remain below zero until Wednesday.

God will protect nuclear programme, says Khamenei

AP, Tehran

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday that God would punish Iranians if they do not support the country's disputed nuclear program, state radio reported.

"The Iranian people openly announce that they will defend their rightst God will reprimand them if they do not do so," state radio quoted Khamenei as saying.

The 68-year-old ayatollah, who has final say on all state matters, said Washington's claim that Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon is false. The Iranian government has long insisted its nuclear activities are only for peaceful generation of fuel.

"They know that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapon, and they are just trying to block the Iranian nation from achieving advanced technology," Khamenei was quoted as saying in Tehran.

The U.S. has led the push for a third round of U.N. sanctions against Iran for refusing to halt uranium enrichment, a technology that can be used to produce nuclear fuel or material for an atomic bomb.

Last month, the five permanent Security Council members - the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France - agreed on a draft resolution for new sanctions.

Iran insisted it would continue enriching uranium because it needed to provide fuel to a 300-megawatt light-water reactor it was building in the southwestern town of Darkhovin.

Fresh battles kill 51 in Sri Lanka

AFP, Colombo

Heavy fighting raged in northern Sri Lanka on Monday, the defence ministry said, reporting that 49 Tamil Tiger rebels and two soldiers were killed in weekend battles.

Fresh clashes erupted along the frontlines in the north of the country on Monday, the ministry said, after a surge of violence on Saturday.

"Forty nine LTTE terrorists were killed while 20 others were injured during the (weekend) clashes," the ministry said. "Two army soldiers made their supreme sacrifice while 16 others received injuries."

Government forces backed by war planes and artillery have been pounding the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for weeks, but appear to have made little progress in their effort to advance into rebel-held territory.

There was no immediate comment from the Tigers, whose fight for independence has left tens of thousands dead over three decades.

According to defence ministry figures, at least 1,297 rebels have been killed by security forces so far this year. The military has put its own losses during the same period at 72 soldiers and police killed.

Casualty figures provided by both sides differ wildly and cannot be independently verified. Journalists and human rights workers are barred from frontline and rebel-held areas.

Death toll in Afghan blast rises to 100

AP, Kandahar

A provincial governor said Monday he had warned an anti-Taliban militia leader targeted in Afghanistan's deadliest suicide attack since the 2001 invasion that militants were trying to kill him. The death toll rose to more than 100.Afghans buried relatives and friends in the southern city of Kandahar on Monday, a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of men and boys watching a dog fighting competition. Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid told The Associated Press the death toll had risen to more than 100, up from 80. Most victims were killed immediately, though some of the scores of Afghans critically wounded had died, Khalid said. He did not give a precise toll. The bombing was the deadliest in Afghanistan since the Taliban's ouster from power in 2001 and follows a year of record violence and predictions the conflict could turn even deadlier in 2008. Officials said the suicide attacker targeted a militia leader, Abdul Hakim Jan, who died in the attack, along with 35 of his men. Khalid told mourners at a mosque he had warned Jan about three weeks ago that militant suicide bombers were trying to target him.

Hillary fights to stem Obama momentum

AFP, Washington

White House Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton fought to stave off a wave of momentum for rival Barack Obama before a primary contest in Wisconsin that will hinge on a large working class vote. Obama, on a roll after eight consecutive victories in the nomination race, hopes to extend his winning streak in the Midwestern state as well as in caucuses in Hawaii on Tuesday. Polls showed a tight race in Wisconsin with the Illinois senator enjoying a narrow five-point lead over the former first lady, according to a new survey by Research 2000, US media reported. The poll was conducted Wednesday and Thursday and showed 11 percent of voters remained undecided. The candidates faced freezing temperatures as they tried to woo working class voters in Wisconsin, which has 74 delegates at stake and has played a historic role in past nomination races.

Protests greet US war games in the Philippines

Reuters, Manila

Thousands of people protested against U.S. soldiers involved in humanitarian missions in Muslim areas of the southern Philippines on Monday, saying the troops' presence could be provocative.

About 6,000 U.S. troops are taking part in annual training exercises with Philippine troops over two weeks but they will only hold humanitarian missions in the south of the archipelago, where Muslim communities are suspicious of their activities. Zainab Ampatuan, head of the Suara Bangsamoro (Voice of the Moro People) political party, said about 20,000 people gathered in the southern cities of Davao, General Santos, Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato and Pikit to protest the presence of U.S. soldiers in Muslim villages. Ampatuan said the troops might provoke members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country's largest Muslim separatist group, which is angered that long-running peace talks with Manila have stalled.

US envoy on North Korea in Beijing for talks

Reuters, Beijing

The chief U.S. envoy to talks on North Korea's nuclear program arrived in Beijing on Monday, the first leg of a northeast Asia tour aimed at forging progress on disarming the isolated state. Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper said in its evening edition that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill was likely to meet his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan, in Beijing, but Hill himself suggested otherwise. "Not that I'm aware of," he told reporters on arrival in Beijing, when asked if he would hold talks with Kim. He made no other comment. Hill will visit Seoul and Tokyo later in the week, ahead of a trip through the region by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The visits come amid stalled efforts to persuade North Korea, which defied international pressure and conducted a nuclear test in October 2006, to give up its atomic ambitions.

Cyprus president ousted in vote for change

AFP, Nicosia

Hardline Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos was ousted on Sunday in the first round of Greek Cypriot elections, a result seen as renewing hopes for efforts to end the island's three-decade division. Former foreign minister Ioannis Kasoulides, backed by the right-wing, and communist party chief Demetris Christofias will battle it out in a presidential runoff on February 24, after the Greek Cypriots voted for change. The result proved a major upset for Papadopoulos, who was a favourite for re-election in the opinion polls and who campaigned on a hardline stance on the Cyprus problem. In the final results after a cliffhanger contest, Papadopoulos came in third behind Kasoulides and then Christofias, who were separated by less than 1,000 votes. The outgoing president was about 7,000 votes behind the frontrunners.