The New Nation - Internet Edition

Pak opposition mulls PM, Musharraf's future uncertain

AFP, Islamabad

Pakistan's new government will likely name its choice for prime minister in early March, party officials said Saturday, as uncertainty surrounded the future of key US ally President Pervez Musharraf.

The two biggest parties to emerge after Monday's parliamentary election have been weighing their choice for premier after agreeing to form a coalition.

Officials from both parties said the frontrunner to be prime minister was Makhdoom Amin Fahim, the widely respected vice president of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

"There is an agreement that Fahim should be the parliamentary leader and candidate for PM but the announcement is unlikely to be made public before the parliament is convened into session, most probably in the first week of March," a senior PPP official, who did not want to be named, told AFP.

If the coalition can woo some smaller parties and muster a two-thirds majority, they could move to impeach Musharraf. Analysts say the retired general is in the most precarious position since he seized power in a 1999 coup.

Local media reported Saturday that Musharraf and the United States were pushing the PPP and their partner, the Pakistan Muslim League-N led by former premier Nawaz Sharif, to work with Musharraf rather than try to remove him. PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar told AFP that Bhutto's widower and party leader Asif Ali Zardari had met with the US envoy in Islamabad, but he denied there was any pressure coming from the West.

"Co-chairman Zardari has met the US envoy twice and I do not think there is any pressure on us," he told AFP. "They want to know what is going to be the shape of things."

A spokesman for Sharif's party told AFP that pressure from "certain quarters" -- which he did not name -- would not be helpful to democracy.

"There are a lot of conspiracies and a lot of pressure but such tactics are against Pakistan's interest and against the nation's verdict which it gave on February 18," Siddiqul Farooq said. Sharif and Zardari announced their parties would join forces after trouncing Musharraf's allies in the ballot. The two camps, once bitter rivals, have agreed that the PPP would designate the next prime minister. The senior PPP official said that although Fahim was most likely to be named, there was no rush to make a formal announcement since internal discussions were ongoing.

Musharraf was seen in Washington as a bulwark against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, but northwestern Pakistan has seen the worst of a wave of violence blamed on Al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels that has swept the country in recent months, worrying the president's Western allies.

Popular support for hardliners has fallen, however, with a secular ethnic Pashtun group deposing fundamentalists in the troubled North West Frontier Province in the elections.

A lull in the violence ended Friday when a roadside bomb struck cars carrying a wedding party in the northwestern Swat Valley, killing 14 people, police said.

Late Friday, three men were killed and two injured in a shooting in the southern port city of Karachi, police said.

A PPP spokesman said the victims were party supporters. One of those killed was a polling agent.

Questions also remain over whether the coalition will seek to restore Pakistan's deposed chief justice, a fierce opponent of Musharraf.

Sharif said on Thursday that they had overcome differences over his demands for the immediate restoration of chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who was sacked by Musharraf in November, and would work on it in parliament.

If Chaudhry, who remains under house arrest, gets his job back, he could overturn Musharraf's controversial presidential election victory and oust him.

24 rebels, 5 troops killed in northern Iraq offensive: Turkey

AP, Ankara

Turkey says five of its troops and 24 Kurdish rebels have been killed since a Turkish ground offensive into northern Iraq began late Thursday.

Turkish army tanks are seen near the Turkish-Iraqi border town of Silopi in the Sirnak province, southeastern Turkey, 22 Feb 2008

Turkish army tanks are seen near the Turkish-Iraqi border town of Silopi in the Sirnak province, southeastern Turkey, 22 Feb 2008 Ankara says the operation started following air and and artillery strikes against suspected positions of the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, in Iraq. Military officials say they also believe another 20 militants were killed by artillery fire and helicopter gunships.

Iraq's Foreign Ministry summoned the Turkish ambassador Friday to protest the military incursion into northern Iraq. U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack says Washington has urged Turkey to strictly limit military operations to target only rebels.

European Union officials urged Turkey to refrain from taking any "disproportionate military action."

In a statement, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealed for Turkey to show restraint, and called on the nation to respect its border with Iraq.

The office of Turkish President Abdullah Gul said he spoke with his Iraqi counterpart, Jalal Talabani, late Thursday to inform the Iraqis about the ground operation and its objectives.

It is not clear how many troops are involved in the operation, but Turkish television reports put the figure in the thousands.

In recent months, Turkey has carried out air strikes and small-scale cross-border operations against what Ankara says are PKK strongholds in the mountainous border region of northern Iraq.

The PKK has been fighting for autonomy in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast since 1984. That violence has killed more than 30,000 people.

14 killed by Pakistan wedding party bomb

AFP, Peshawar

A roadside bomb ripped through cars carrying wedding guests in northwestern Pakistan Friday, killing at least 14 people including the bride and wounding a dozen others, police said.

Children and women were also among the dead from the blast in the insurgency-hit Swat Valley, the first bomb attack in Pakistan since the country held largely peaceful parliamentary elections on Monday.

"There was a remote-controlled bomb explosion which targeted a wedding party. Two cars were destroyed including the car in which the bride was travelling. She died," local police officer Haroon Khan told AFP. He said a total of 14 people were killed and more than a dozen wounded.

Several children, four women and the bride's father were also among the dead, he said, while five children were among the wounded.

"Almost everyone in the family had injuries. Many had shrapnel in the head and face," said Javed Khan, a doctor at the hospital in Saidu Sharif, the main town in the Swat Valley. Interior ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema confirmed that the bomb near the town of Matta targeted the wedding party. He earlier said that eight people were killed.

The Swat Valley was a famed tourist spot until the middle of last year when it became a flashpoint for violence between the military and followers of a hardline pro-Taliban cleric who tried to establish Islamic sharia law.

The military launched an offensive in the Swat valley in November against the cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, killing and arresting hundreds of militants but failing to capture Fazlullah.

But militant activity has continued in the area.

A suicide car bombing outside an army media centre in Swat killed two civilians and wounded eight other people on Saturday, while a roadside bomb targeting an election candidate on February 13 killed two people.

Pakistan has been hit by a string of suicide attacks and other bomb blasts in recent months, the most notable of which killed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto at a political rally in December.

Bhutto's assassination and most of the other attacks have been blamed on followers of a militant commander with links to Al-Qaeda who is based in Pakistan's troubled tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.

About 160 people have died in attacks this year, along with scores of militants killed in army operations in northwestern Pakistan and in the troubled tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

Last year was Pakistan's deadliest ever in terms of militant violence, with more than 800 people killed in bombings and suicide attacks.

Global warming threatens fish stocks: UN

AP, Paris

Major world commercial fish stocks could collapse within decades as global warming compounds damage from pollution and overfishing, U.N. officials said Friday.

A U.N. Environment Program report details new research on how rising ocean surface temperature and other climate changes are affecting the fishing industry. It says that more than 2.6 billion people get most of their protein from fish.

"You overlay all of this and you are potentially putting a death nail in the coffin of the world fisheries," Achim Steiner, head of the program, said in a telephone news conference from Monaco. The research sheds new light on an undersea flushing mechanism that helps renew fish stocks in three-quarters of the world's primary commercial fishing grounds. Report author Christian Nellemann said global warming is disrupting this circulation.

"If this mechanism stops, we may risk a collapse in major fishing grounds" in the coming decades, he said.

Although threats to fish supplies from pollution and overfishing have been well-documented, Nellemann said this was the first time the combined effect of those problems and changing temperatures has been closely studied.

"We are seeing shifts in marine life that we have never observed before," he said.

He said deep sea shrimp in the western Mediterranean were among species under threat. The report says some shellfish that once thrived in once warmer water in the Atlantic have moved as much as 600 miles north in recent decades.

Still, the report says, fisheries could recover if countries reduced global carbon emissions and shipping pollution and stopped overfishing and damaging fishing practices such as bottom trawling.

The Worldfish Center has also warned global warming could undermine fisheries, but has been more cautious in its estimates. It said in a recent report that global warming could create opportunities, such as allowing farmers to use flooded areas no longer suitable for crops to cultivate fish.

Nellemann also said more than 50 percent of the world's coral reefs could die by 2050 because of bleaching caused by higher ocean surface temperatures, based on climate projections by international scientists.

Series of rockets hit Baghdad Green Zone

AP, Baghdad

A series of rockets or mortars were fired toward the U.S.-protected Green Zone early Saturday, a day after radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his Mahdi Army militia fighters to cease attacks for another six months.

Nearly 10 blasts were heard in the sprawling area in central Baghdad starting about 6:15 a.m., and the U.S. public address system there warned people to "duck and cover" and to stay away from windows.

Maj. Brad Leighton, a U.S. military spokesman, confirmed the Green Zone was hit by indirect fire, the military's term for a rocket or mortar attack, but could not immediately provide more details.

The U.S. military blamed what it calls Iranian-backed Shiite militias for a series of deadly rocket attacks in Baghdad earlier this week, including one against U.S. outposts in Baghdad that wounded three American soldiers.

Another struck Camp Victory, the main U.S. military headquarters, and an Iraqi housing complex on the capital's southwestern outskirts on Monday, killing at least five people and wounding 16, including two U.S. soldiers.

The military said the extremists were among factions that have broken with al-Sadr and refused to follow his cease-fire order. Iran denies allegations that it's stoking the violence.

Al-Sadr announced Friday that he has extended the six-month order through mid-August and the U.S. military welcomed the announcement.

The cease-fire, along with an increase in U.S. troop levels and a move by American-backed Sunni fighters to turn against their former al-Qaida in Iraq allies, has been credited with reducing war deaths among Iraqis by nearly 70 percent in six months, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press.

The 4-square-mile area on the west bank of the Tigris River houses the U.S. and British embassies, the Iraqi government headquarters and thousands of American troops on the west bank of the Tigris River.

It has been frequently struck by rockets and mortar rounds, though the attacks have tapered off amid stepped up security measures and a lull of violence in the capital and surrounding areas.

46 killed in Venezuela plane crash

AP, Merida

A Venezuelan passenger plane slammed into a steep mountainside in the Andes, killing all 46 people on board, officials said.

The twin-engine plane was shattered to bits upon impact, leaving only its tail largely intact and a swath of charred ground amid scrub brush at an altitude of 13,500 feet.

Search teams reached the remote spot by helicopter and rappelled down with ropes to reach the rugged crash site, Gen. Ramon Vinas, head of the civil aviation authority, said Friday. "By the way it crashed we can determine there are no survivors," he said.President Hugo Chavez declared that "Venezuela is in mourning" and called for a full investigation.

The French-made ATR 42-300 carrying 43 passengers and three crew members crashed Thursday shortly after takeoff from the Andean city of Merida, a popular tourist destination wedged between soaring mountain peaks.

The victims, mostly Venezuelans, also included three Colombians, identified as Hugo Juan Farfan, Juan Pablo Ruiz and Luis Vargas, and a U.S. citizen, Vivian Guarch, officials said.

Guarch, 53, was an employee of a Miami branch of Stanford Bank who was on a business trip to Merida, the company said.

Marley Gil mourned the loss of her sister, Giobeli, as she and other relatives and friends of the victims embraced at Merida's airport after learning that no one had survived the crash.

"It's a tough blow, not only for her family, but for the population," Gil said between sobs.

The Santa Barbara Airlines flight crashed in an area known as Los Conejos plateau within the Sierra La Culata National Park.

"The impact was direct. The aircraft is practically pulverized," firefighter Sgt. Jhonny Paz told the Venezuelan television channel Globovision.

The plane went down just 6 miles from the Merida airport, en route to Caracas.

"There wasn't even bad weather and they tell me the pilot was among the pilots who know that route the best," Chavez said during a televised speech in Caracas. "We hope these cases aren't repeated. The causes must be investigated well."

Chavez noted that the pilot didn't report any problems to air traffic controllers before the crash. "He was going on the route, but the governor (of Merida) tells me that apparently he had to make a turn to go toward Los Conejos plateau," Chavez said.

Once the plane took off, the control tower received no further communication from the pilot, said Jorge Alvarez, president of Santa Barbara, a small airline that covers domestic routes in Venezuela.

The weather was normal for Merida on Thursday, with some areas sunny and fog at higher elevations, said Lt. Luis Uzcategui of the Merida fire department.

"In that mountainous area there always tends to be more fog due to the altitude," Uzcategui said.

Bomb destroys bus near Sri Lankan capital, 18 hurt

Reuters, Mount Lavinia

A suspected Tamil Tiger bomb blast destroyed a passenger bus on the outskirts of the Sri Lankan capital on Saturday, wounding 18 people, but no-one was killed.

The military said deaths were averted after a female passenger spotted a suspect parcel on the bus and informed the driver and conductor, who then evacuated the bus in the town of Mount Lavinia, just south of Colombo. It was the latest in a series of bombings in recent months blamed on the rebels, who want a separate state in the Indian Ocean island's north and east.

A Reuters witness saw the charred, mangled wreckage of the bus, its rear blown completely apart. "One lady has seen a suspicious parcel and informed the driver and conductor. They got everyone off the bus, and then the driver moved the bus 10-15 meters away from the bus stop," said military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara. "They should be commended. No-one was killed," he added, saying the wounded included an 8-month-old child. "It was definitely the Tigers."

The Tigers were not immediately available for comment on the blast, but routinely deny involvement in attacks increasingly focused on civilians as a 25-year civil war enters a new phase.

The attack came a day after the Tigers, notorious for tit-for-tat attacks, said Sri Lankan government fighter jets killed eight civilians, including three young children, in an air raid on their northern stronghold.

Fighting between the military and Tigers has intensified since the government formally pulled out of a six-year-old ceasefire pact in January, though a renewed war has been raging since 2006.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government argues the Tigers used the truce to re-arm and were not sincere about talking peace. It has vowed to crush them militarily, and has captured large swathes of rebel-held territory in the east.

But analysts say neither side is winning, with the Tigers regularly hitting back with suicide attacks and roadside bombs.

Winter storms leave 129 dead in China

AP, Beijing

The freakish winter storms that coated much of central and southern China in snow and ice have left 129 people dead so far this year, a senior Chinese official said Saturday.

Aside from the death toll, which was higher than previously reported, Civil Affairs Vice Minister Li Liguo said in remarks carried by the official Xinhua News Agency that four others remain missing.

The storms, which started in early January, have continued to lash areas of China accustomed to milder weather, leaving communities without electricity and clogging railways and roadways. The disasters showed up weaknesses in the government's emergency planning, with Beijing forced to mobilize the military to aid in recovery.

Economic losses so far have reached $210 million, Li said.

Fidel Castro calls for change in the United States

AFP, Havana

In his first comments since announcing he would step down as Cuba's president after almost 50 years, Fidel Castro lashed out Friday at US presidential hopefuls' calls for change here, saying the only change needed is in the United States. In his column "Reflections of Comrade Fidel" in the Communist Party newspaper Granma, the ailing Castro, 81, zeroed in on the international reaction, particularly by his US "adversary," to his announcement Tuesday of his official departure from Cuba's helm. Castro was sidelined 19 months ago after major intestinal surgery, and handed power temporarily to his brother, interim president Raul Castro, 76. US President George W. Bush "said my message was the beginning of the road to freedom in Cuba, in other words, to annexation" by the United States, Castro wrote. The United States occupied Cuba in the early 20th century and refuses to abandon its controversial base at Guantanamo, on Cuba's southeastern tip. That gives Havana plenty of political currency with which to warn almost daily that a US occupation or annexation effort could come at any time.

Fidel Castro said he had been watching on television "the embarrassing situation of all the US presidential candidates" whom he said were "forced, one by one, to make their immediate demands of Cuba, so that they would not risk losing a single voter."

"Half a century of economic embargo seemed like not much to these favorites. Change, Change, Change!" they shouted in a chorus. "Well I agree, but in the United States," Castro added.

"The end of one era is not the same thing as the beginning of an unsustainable system," Castro stressed.

"Cuba changed some time ago, and will continue on its dialectical path," added Castro, who leaves the presidency of the Americas' only one-party communist state.

Castro however has not left the party leadership.

In Austin, Texas, late Thursday, Democratic pace-setter Barack Obama said Thursday that as president, he would be prepared to meet without preconditions with Cuba's next leader, during a debate with White House rival Hillary Clinton.

Rice has no plan to run for vice president

Reuters, Washington

Having long played down the idea that she might someday run for president, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday said she had no plans to serve as a vice president either. There has been speculation that Republican presidential front-runner Sen. John McCain of Arizona might tap Rice as his running mate. "I have always said that the one thing that I have not seen myself doing is running for elected office," Rice said at a news conference. "I didn't even run for high school president. It's sort of not in my genes." While her comments were not a categorical refusal to run, Rice also said she had no expectation of playing a role in the campaign by speaking out for McCain or other candidates. "We all take life a day at a time in terms of trying to get the job done," she said, saying she planned to concentrate on her work as secretary of state. "I don't expect in any way to be involved in this campaign." Another report adds: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on the eve of an Asia tour, pressed Friday for North Korea to disclose not only its nuclear weapons programs but also its alleged proliferation activities.

Rice said she would meet officials from South Korea, China and Japan to boost North Korea's disarmament but appeared to rule out any breakthrough when she said it would not be "useful" for her to talk to North Korean officials.

The countries involved in the issue "have the right set of incentives and disincentives to address not just denuclearization, which obviously is extremely important, but also proliferation," Rice said.

It was not clear if Rice -- speaking to reporters before visiting Seoul on Monday and then Beijing and Tokyo in the following days -- was referring to exports of just conventional weapons or also nuclear-related materiel.

The United States has accused North Korea of being a leading global proliferator of missiles, but the cash-strapped country has refused to stop the exports, a major source of hard currency earnings.

Iran says IAEA report shows nuclear programme peaceful

Xinhua, United Nations

The latest International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report has proved the "peaceful nature " of Iran's nuclear program, said a statement released Friday by Iran's UN mission. The report showed that all outstanding issues have been resolved through Iran's "robust cooperation with the IAEA far beyond its treaty obligations," the statement said. It proved that the "allegations made against Iran's peaceful nuclear program by a few countries have been totally flawed and baseless and, accordingly, the actions taken by the Security Council in this regard lack any shred of logic and legality," the statement said. As a result, "the allegations made by certain countries, under the pretext of the so-called 'proliferation concerns,' have been, from the outset, totally baseless," it stressed. The statement said the resolution of the outstanding issues has eliminated the "most basic pretexts and allegations" that Iran's nuclear program should be referred to the Security Council.

Therefore, the sanctions taken by the Security Council have been "unfair, unwarranted and unlawful," it said, adding that Iran 's nuclear program should be dealt with "solely by the IAEA as a regular item."

The UN nuclear watchdog said on Friday Iran had clarified the majority of open issues in its nuclear programs but the agency was still uncertain of its peaceful nature.

France, Britain and Germany formally introduced to the UN Security Council Thursday a draft resolution that calls for further sanctions against Iran. The council has already adopted two resolutions calling on Iran to suspend its nuclear enrichment activities.

Japan's oldest person dies at 113

AP, Tokyo

Japan's oldest person has died at a hospital in southwestern Japan, her nursing home said Saturday. She was 113. Tsuneyo Toyonaga, who became the country's oldest person last August, died Friday, days after she was transferred to a nearby hospital because she lost her appetite, said Masuko Yamamoto, deputy director of the Yume-no-Sato nursing home in the southern city of Nangoku.

Born on May 21, 1894, Toyonaga had been in the nursing home the last 12 years. She was a darling among caretakers and fellow residents, Yamamo "She was dozing off most of the day recently but when she was awake she used to enjoy singing children's songs. Once she started singing she wouldn't stop until we all got tired and had to stop her," she said. Toyonaga is survived by five children and 10 grandchildren, Kyodo News agency said. Kaku Yamanaka, born on Dec. 11, 1894, is now Japan's oldest person, according to the Health and Welfare Ministry. She lives in a nursing home in Aichi, central Japan.

The number of Japanese living beyond 100 has almost quadrupled in the past 10 years and is soon expected to surpass 28,000.

Japan has one of the world's longest average life spans - a factor often attributed to a healthy diet rich in fish and rice. In 2006, Japanese women set a new record for life expectancy at 85.81 years, while men live an average of about 79 years.

Edna Parker of Shelbyville, Ind., is recognized as the world's oldest person at age 114, according to The Guinness Book of Records. She was born on April 20, 1893.

British govt admits CIA rendition flights

AFP, London

Britain was forced to admit Thursday to the use of its territory by two US planes carrying terror suspects on "rendition" flights and the White House said "mistakes" were made in the official record. Britain has always denied any involvement in so-called "extraordinary rendition" operations run by the CIA, but Foreign Secretary David Miliband apologised to parliament after a US "record error" came to light. Miliband said new information showed that two flights, each with one suspect on board, refuelled at the US air base on the British Indian Ocean territory of Diego Garcia in 2002. His apology prompted some lawmakers to accuse Washington of lying to its closest ally in the "war on terror," while legal and civil liberties groups called for a full-scale inquiry. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was disappointed by the US error.

"It is obviously a very serious issue," Brown told a news conference on a visit to the EU headquarters in Brussels.

"The United States has expressed regret about us not knowing about these issues. We share the disappointment that everybody has about what actually happened.

"I think the important thing is now that we put in place the best possible procedures to ensure that this could not happen again," he said.

The United States acknowledged its fault, but the White House stressed there would be no impact on counter-terrorism cooperation with Britain.

"Our government had told the British that there had been no rendition flights involving their soil or airspace since 9/11," Central Intelligence Agency Director Michael Hayden said, referring to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

"That information, supplied in good faith, turned out to be wrong," Hayden added in a statement on the CIA website.

Hayden denied that the CIA had a holding facility on Diego Garcia.