The New Nation - Internet Edition

US invasion worsens humanitarian crisis in Iraq: Red Cross AFP, Geneva The humanitarian situation in post-war Iraq five years after the US-led invasion is one of t

Reuters, Beijing

Chinese troops moved to tackle more unrest in ethnic Tibetan enclaves on Monday, as a deadline loomed for "troublemakers" who took part in protests against Chinese rule in Lhasa that some say killed up to 80 people.

Lhasa, capital of the remote, mountainous region, was under tight police watch, but reports and officials said demonstrations by ethnic Tibetans flared in at least two Chinese provinces at the weekend, piling pressure on the Communist authorities.

"We are completely capable of protecting the security of the Tibet people. Right now the overall situation in Tibet is very good," the mayor of Lhasa, Doje Cezhug, said from Beijing, in remarks posted on the Tibet government's Web site. But protests hit ethnic Tibetan areas in the Chinese provinces of Sichuan and Gansu on Sunday, reducing the chances of an early end to the instability that is a major challenge to China's leaders just months before it hosts the Olympic Games.

In the Sichuan region of Aba, two ethnic Tibetans said hundreds of People's Liberation Army vehicles moved in overnight, after unrest in which police said a crowd of Tibetans hurled petrol bombs and set a police station and a market on fire. "They've been driving through all night. It's just tailing off now," the man said, adding that word had spread of protests in other parts of the region as well.

In Gansu's Machu town, a crowd of 300-400 carried pictures of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and shouted slogans as they marched on government buildings, breaking windows and doors and setting fire to Chinese shops and businesses, the Free Tibet Campaign said.

The London-based group said 100 Tibetan students staged a sit-in at Northwest Minority University in Gansu's capital, Lanzhou, a worry for a country with a history of student unrest, notably the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 that ended in a bloody military crackdown.

Israel test-fires missile

AFP, Jerusalem

Israel last week test-fired a missile capable of intercepting short-range rockets like those fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip, Channel 10 television reported Sunday.

"This weapons system will be operational in 2010," said General Dany Gotlib, who is in charge of research at the Israeli defence ministry.

Television showed pictures of the test-firing which it said took place in southern Israel.

In December the Israeli government earmarked more than 200 million dollars (140 million euros) for the development of an advanced defence system dubbed "Iron Dome" aimed at countering rocket fire from Gaza and Lebanon.

Israel's Rafael Advanced Defence Systems arms firm is developing the system which is capable of knocking down rockets with a range from 4-70 kilometres (2.5-43.4 miles), such as the homemade Qassam used by Palestinian militants.

Iron Dome is part of a multi-layered defence system aimed at protecting Israel from short-range missiles and rockets fired by militants in Gaza or Lebanon, and longer-range missiles in the arsenals of regional foes Iran and Syria.

The Israeli army has had little success in ending the nearly daily rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, which has killed 14 people in southern Israel since the start of the second Palestinian uprising in September 2000.

Suicide attack kills 7 including four NATO soldiers

AFP, Kandahar

A Taliban suicide car bomb ripped into a NATO military convoy in southern Afghanistan on Monday, killing four soldiers and three civilians, the alliance and police said.

The bomb in the southern province of Helmand struck a convoy near the town of Girishk on the main road linking the southern city of Kandahar with Herat in the west, a witness said.

Four soldiers with NATO's International Security Assistance Force were killed and four more were wounded in the attack, the ISAF media office in Kabul told AFP.

ISAF, which draws troops from nearly 40 countries, does not release the nationalities of its casualties. Most of the alliance's soldiers in Helmand are British.

"Three civilians were killed and seven were wounded in the blast," Helmand province police chief Mohammad Hussain Andiwal said.

"It was a busy hour of the day when everyone was going to their work," Andiwal said, adding that all of the dead were men.

One of the Taliban's main spokesmen, Yousuf Ahmadi, confirmed the attack was carried out by a fighter from the extremist militia, which was in government between 1996 and 2001.

Baghdad rocked as McCain, Cheney visit

AP, Baghdad

Explosions rocked Iraq's capital on Monday as Vice President Dick Cheney and Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain visited ahead of the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion. Helicopter gunships circled over central Baghdad and the heavily fortified Green Zone, but no details were immediately available on the cause of the explosions. McCain, the Republican party's likely presidential nominee who has linked his political future to U.S. military success in Iraq, met Monday with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki shortly before the Iraqi leader began talks with Cheney. The Arizona senator stressed the importance of a U.S. commitment to Iraq and warned a U.S.-Iraqi military operation to clear al-Qaida from its last urban stronghold of Mosul will be "very difficult and very important." McCain, who arrived in Iraq on Sunday, told reporters that he also discussed with the Shiite leader the need for progress on political reforms, including laws on holding provincial elections and the equitable distribution of Iraq's oil riches.

Brown promises full inquiry into the invasion of Iraq

AFP, London

Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised an inquiry into the invasion of Iraq and its aftermath to "learn all possible lessons" in a letter to a think-tank chief, The Independent reported Monday. Brown, who has previously acknowledged that "mistakes" were made in the planning of post-war Iraq, reportedly insisted, however, that it was not the right time to hold such an inquiry as the situation there remained "fragile". In his letter to Sunder Katwala, the general secretary of the left-wing Fabian Society, which is affiliated to the Labour Party, Brown wrote: "There is a need to learn all possible lessons from the military action in Iraq and its aftermath." He also wrote in the letter, seen by The Independent: "There will come a time when it is appropriate to hold an inquiry." "But whilst the whole effort of the government and the armed forces is directed towards supporting the people and government of Iraq as they forge a future based on reconciliation, democracy, prosperity and security, we believe that is not now."

Sarkozy suffers defeat in local polls

AFP, Paris

Nicolas Sarkozy's right-wing party suffered losses in French local elections Sunday, poll projections showed, in what the opposition Socialists called a "punishment vote" for the reforming president. The vote, the first major test of Sarkozy's popularity since he defeated the Socialist Segelone Royal last May, was seen as a referendum on the achievements of a president whose opinion poll ratings have plummeted. The Socialists won cities across the country including Strasbourg, Toulouse and the right-wing bastions of Amiens, Caen and Reims after the final round of the vote, projections by Ipsos-Dell and TNS Sofres said. The left was already guaranteed Paris and the third biggest city Lyon after last weekend's first round. But projections showed that the right would hang on to the symbolic prize of the second city of Marseille in the south. Segolene Royal said the results were a "punishment vote" and called on the government to change its policies.

UN police retake UN court in Kosovo

AP, Kosovska Mitrovica

UN special police backed by NATO troops stormed a U.N. courthouse in northern Kosovo on Monday, evicting Serb demonstrators who have occupied the building since last week to protest Kosovo's declaration of independence. Thousands of stone-hurling Serbs later surrounded near the courthouse in Serb-dominated Kosovska Mitrovica and clashed with riot police backed up by NATO troops, who used tear gas and stun grenades, or "flash bangs." The Kosovo Serbs took over the U.N. court last Friday amid anger over Kosovo's Feb. 17 independence declaration. Dozens of Serb demonstrators were arrested in the early Monday morning action by about 100 U.N. policemen and NATO troops. At least one U.N. vehicle and one NATO truck were set on fire during the riots. Several demonstrators and policemen were injured, witnesses at the scene said. NATO helicopters hovered above Kosovska Mitrovica, a town divided by the Ibar River between Kosovo Albanians and Serbs.

New immigration points could hit software trade: India

AFP, London

A new points-based immigration system in Britain may make it harder for developing countries to export software systems to the country, India's trade minister said in an interview published Monday. Speaking to the Financial Times, Kamal Nath added that new restrictions on migration were not in keeping with Britain's claims to be behind free international trade in services. "We are not asking for more permanent immigration," he told the business daily, noting that India was still studying the new system. "We are talking about people coming in for a month or so to integrate software systems." Nath, who said that the change to the new system ran the risk of becoming a "retrograde step", added that the restrictions may prevent Indian software companies from servicing existing warranties, or selling new systems that required on-site maintenance in future. "In the liberalisation of services, the temporary movement of people is an important thing," he said.